Favorite long range rifle?

[TexasCowPoke]

Let's try to keep it under $2000 please for rifle and preferred mods. Not counting the glass.
(I'm playing with shooting in the 500 to 1000 yds range). Not including glass. 6.5 or 308.

 

[TexasCowPoke]

Here is one I'm looking at in the price range I'm considering. It's a Tikka T3x TAC A1 for around $1500 to $1800. This one at GB has the 20 inch barrel in 308.

here is one in 6.5 Creedmore with 24 inch barrel... very nice. This is actually my preference I think. Anyone hear anything good or bad about these Tikkas?

 

[Rulz]

Those look very nice, in the same ballpark as the Savage and Ruger rifles in similar configurations.

I will say this, myself and another gentleman were discussing this topic, and we came to the same conclusion, seems like Savage has been putting out some damned tack drivers lately in many of their offerings. He had just purchased the Savage model 10 Ashbury and was having a ball hammering 300 yard shots with ease. I have a few Savage guns and they seem to have always made damn good barrels. If I was going to be buying a gun like this, I would probably go with one of those, but that's just me.

 

[TexasCowPoke]

Those look very nice, in the same ballpark as the Savage and Ruger rifles in similar configurations.

I will say this, myself and another gentleman were discussing this topic, and we came to the same conclusion, seems like Savage has been putting out some damned tack drivers lately in many of their offerings. He had just purchased the Savage model 10 Ashbury and was having a ball hammering 300 yard shots with ease. I have a few Savage guns and they seem to have always made damn good barrels. If I was going to be buying a gun like this, I would probably go with one of those, but that's just me.

I've looked some at those, and they are getting very good reviews. I've read that Savage makes a great barrel, and actually sells many of them to other manufacturers.

The 308 I looked at yesterday (Cabelas Ft worth) had a 20 inch barrel. Apparently tikka doesn't make the longer barrel in this configuration. The Creedmoor however has a 24 inch barrel opiton. Is that just due to the cartridge/loading design?

 

[Rulz]

I've looked some at those, and they are getting very good reviews. I've read that Savage makes a great barrel, and actually sells many of them to other manufacturers.

The 308 I looked at yesterday (Cabelas Ft worth) had a 20 inch barrel. Apparently tikka doesn't make the longer barrel in this configuration. The Creedmoor however has a 24 inch barrel opiton. Is that just due to the cartridge/loading design?

Probably. I have been studying up on the Creed more and more, from what I have read guys get optimal results with 22 inch barrels. When you think about barrel harmonics, sometimes less is better since longer barrels will vibrate more after the shot.

Now, one thing I have read that I hadn't thought about was barrel life. The 6.5 is smaller, thus will spin faster, and therefore will allegedly wear out barrels faster than the tried and true .308. But, down range, the 6.5 offers more in terms of hit probability of a hit since it has less recoil (again, can of worms, have to take into account trigger, barrel length, bedding, glass used....etc.)

Lots of debate on these two. Me, I stick with .308. I don't need to reach out to 1000 yards. And if i did, I would be reaching for a .338 Lapua. A buddy of mine has a rifle in .338 Lapua, and that damn thing is awesome when we crank it up at my other friends 2000 acre farm.

 

[TexasCowPoke]

I don't hear of many people reloading for the 6.5 Creedmoor, but they do for the 260 Remington. Barrel burnout is much quicker, from what I read, with the creedmoor and the pressures are very high, 1 in 8 spin vs a 1 in 10 for the 308. There are a lot of guys who swear by the 308, including my nephew who is a Commander in the Navy. I was just wanting to play with the long range scenario for fun, plus I'd like it to double for my new varmint gun. I have two 30-06 rifles and buying a 308 feels redundant, although I need to realize it truly isn't. And I don't own a short action gun per se.

 

[86Poke]

Cadex in 300 winmag. Helps when using a Night Force single reflect optic

 

[Rulz]

Honestly, I love 30.06 just for the simple fact I reload for it and I have several guns in 30.06. Some of them are 100 years old (literally), but it’s just a good old round and if you get the right mix of magic, it can be a beautiful thing inside 300 yards. And typically, I don’t shoot much further than that.

My favorite two rifles with scopes that I shoot nowadays are a Ruger m77 mkII in 7.62x39 (yeah, it’s a rare bird lol) and damned old Parker Hale 30.06 JC Penney rifle that is still wearing the JC Penney 4 power scope it came with lol. I can literally “shoot a smiley face” at 100 yards with my old Ruger. The old JC Penney gun is fun to whack some 1/2 pound tannerite at 200 (which is pretty much the limit of that old scope). The Ruger has a “Swift” scope (its silver to match the stainless barrel and receiver, probably came with the gun back in 1992) and is 3-9x.

After those two, I have several old military rifles (Remington 1903 from May 1942), an Eddystone m1917 (like the 1903, still has its original barrel, 5 groove, dated September of 1918), and an M1 Garand that’s been reparked and re-barreled, Korean War era. The oldest of those, the Eddystone, is remarkable at 100-200 yards with its original barrel.

I also have like 500 rounds of WW2 and Korean War armor piercing 30.06 ammo with 280 rounds still in the original 30 caliber can, still inside their enbloc clips and cardboard. Most of that was given to me a buddy that didn’t want it anymore for some reason, and he knew I loved collecting old wartime guns and ammo.

Anyway, I know when it comes to ballistics that the 30.06 is a dinosaur, but it’s still fun to load those torpedoes into a chamber and crank them down range. My dream gun? A full auto BAR....but I just don’t have an extra $75,000 laying around to get one...

 

[TexasCowPoke]

I agree about the old but revered Ought Six. The 30-06 is perhaps still the most versatile cartridge out there, and as you know is the mother brass of many also great cartridges, (i.e. 25-06, etc.) Ballistically, standard ballistics are very similar and perhaps a bit better than the 6.5 Creedmoor, the 25 Remington, etc. and often equivalent or a bit better than the 308. I load my hunting loads up to right at 3000 fps with a 150 to 165 gr bullet. That is a lot of knockdown power, and you can load up to 220 gr rounds for elk and think skinned game or down to 125 for varmints (and lower with a sabot). I have some sabotted 85 gr rounds that fly out at about 3600pfs....not slow in anybody's book. (but some data shows you can load a 55 gr 22 cal up to 4900.- that is crazy) It has a few drawbacks, but has it's place in the middle of performance for rifle cartridges. The real reason I think it isn't used as widely in most military platforms is it is a long throw cartridge and all the AR and such are set up for short throw plus the recoil is a little heavier than most of those cartridges up until you get into big bore stuff.

 

[panhndlpoke]

If you want to shoot 1000 yards, the 6.5 will be much less difficult.

To show you the relative difficulty of shooting a 308 at 1000, go shoot a 22 LR at 100. It’s about the same difficulty. If you can keep it in a half dollar for 5 shots, you’ll be fine with a 308.

Ruger Precision rifle is a really good buy for the cash. Savage has great rifles as well. Both brands you can buy pre-fit Prrof Research barrels which are amazing. If you’re going to keep the rifle on a bench, the lighter barrel will hurt your shooting and there are very accurate and much less expensive options. If you think you might want to lug it around then the carbon fiber barrel really cuts some weight. Barrels from Proof both can be purchased from Stocky’s stocks.

https://www.stockysstocks.com/barre...ls-pre-fit-ruger-precision-rifle-barrels.html

If I were going to buy a rifle right now for 500-1000, I would check here a lot and see if you can find a nice rifle for a good price.

https://forum.snipershide.com/forums/firearms-buy-sell-trade/

 

[Rulz]

I agree about the old but revered Ought Six. The 30-06 is perhaps still the most versatile cartridge out there, and as you know is the mother brass of many also great cartridges, (i.e. 25-06, etc.) Ballistically, standard ballistics are very similar and perhaps a bit better than the 6.5 Creedmoor, the 25 Remington, etc. and often equivalent or a bit better than the 308. I load my hunting loads up to right at 3000 fps with a 150 to 165 gr bullet. That is a lot of knockdown power, and you can load up to 220 gr rounds for elk and think skinned game or down to 125 for varmints (and lower with a sabot). I have some sabotted 85 gr rounds that fly out at about 3600pfs....not slow in anybody's book. (but some data shows you can load a 55 gr 22 cal up to 4900.- that is crazy) It has a few drawbacks, but has it's place in the middle of performance for rifle cartridges. The real reason I think it isn't used as widely in most military platforms is it is a long throw cartridge and all the AR and such are set up for short throw plus the recoil is a little heavier than most of those cartridges up until you get into big bore stuff.

I just found a full box of the old Remington "Accelerator" 30.06 rounds, the sabot rounds for 30.06, at my local gun store the other day. They always come up with some old rounds every now and then that are unique. Yeah, 4000 fps is truckin.

 

[86Poke]

Bartlein Barrels

 

[TexasCowPoke]

I just found a full box of the old Remington "Accelerator" 30.06 rounds, the sabot rounds for 30.06, at my local gun store the other day. They always come up with some old rounds every now and then that are unique. Yeah, 4000 fps is truckin.

I blew up a turkey during the season (rifles were legal then, back around 1974) with those accellerators at about 180 yds. I had no idea how devastating those light rounds would be.