600 yd rifle for Elk & Deer

[roninflag]

three average rifles. sell them . get a sendero and a 500$ leup 6.5-20 used.

 

[roninflag]

three average rifles. sell them . get a sendero and a 500$ leup 6.5-20 used.

wait don't do that. get a 100 to 120 worh dollars of factory ammo for each the three rifle/scopes you have take them to a 600 yard range and shoot them first. you prabably already have a 600 deer elk rilfe .

 

[cohunter14]

For a scope, I would highly recommend the Vortex Viper PST. Cameraland has a deal for the 4-16x50 for $499, down from $699: Vortex - Camera Land NY

 

[benchracer]

Please pardon my blunt response, but if you just want to buy new gear and have money burning a hole in your pocket, OK, buy a new rifle and whatever else you have on your Xmas wish list. That can be fun in and of itself and there is nothing wrong with having some new toys. But, if you are serious about hunting out to 600 yards, I submit that your entire approach is bass ackwards.

I see people on this site on a regular basis who want to buy all kinds of gear to help them hunt at long range, but are bound and determined to use factory ammo. That's like building an expensive performance car and insisting on feeding it 87 octane gas. I see a guy willing to plop down $2k for a custom rifle and who knows how much for a scope, but is balking at the cost of decent bullets and doesn't want to handload. Again, completely backwards.

It looks to me like you already have some decent candidates among your rifles. If you are serious about your stated goals, the place to start is with a basic loading setup. You can get all of it for less than what you would pay for a moderately priced scope. Pick a rifle and baseline it with factory match ammo or a book accuracy load to see what kind of accuracy potential it has. Tweak the rifle and scope combination from there, if needed. Then, spend your time and energy loading good ammo and working on your wind and mirage reading skills, range estimation, and shooting technique. When your equipment becomes the limiting factor, THEN it may be time to commission your custom rifle.

 

[Deleted member 46119]

Vortex is good value for money.
Sightron is better glass.
Leupold is better yet but short on features in the lower ($500) end.
Nightforce rules but you will never get to you budget.

 

[skyfish25]

I'm sure you have 600 yard rifle in your invetory. I lean toward the 7mm. But, really pick your favorite that you are most comfortable with. ( if you are most comfortable, you will shoot it the best. No matter if better BC bullets or slower Muzzle velocity etc.) If you practice and feel good when pulling trigger( not doubting yourself) it usually works out well.

The above scope ideas are good. If not the PST, maybe the HR as well. Sightron does have good glass in that price range. Just check on the eye relief. Don't be scared of Bushnell Elite either. If your not a turret dialer, maybe a demo Ziess? There are others I'm sure. But I have used all above and some other junk too(entry point scopes).

 

[HarryN]

If you plug the numbers for almost any of the better calibers into the ballistic calculators, some things becomes clear very quickly.

- Up to 200 - 250 yards, they are all pretty flat shooting

- At 300 yards, the drop is still in hold-over territory, so no playing with turrets is really that essential for what you are talking about. Many scopes have sufficient tick marks for 5 - 10 inches of drop at 300 yards. For me personally, 300 yards is the outer limit of a reasonably accurate hand held rifle shot. Many people though are much better.

- At 500 - 600 yards, there is enough drop in nearly all scope + ammo combinations that accurate range finding and playing with turret adjustments will be needed. There probably is an exception, but I have not seen it. We are talking about bullet drop in feet now, not inches.

If you don't have time to reload yourself right now, consider to use one of the custom load services. You send them your rifle, and they will create a setup exactly to your needs. Usually it includes some loaded ammo to shoot as well as the detailed specs for producing it yourself.

 

[etisll40]

HarryN, I like what you are saying and alluding too. Is there a specific place I could send my rifle to conplete a perfect load for a planned hunt. A place credible, so I don't burn my barrel out and the rifle and load are then sent back, maybe a couple details on how they did it in an efficient manner. The rifle I am referring to is a 338 Lapua and I don't an efficient way of building a load of Sierra smk 300's for it right now. It was throated for them. I haven't done much of anything since I got it.

Thanks

 

[MudRunner2005]

HarryN, I like what you are saying and alluding too. Is there a specific place I could send my rifle to conplete a perfect load for a planned hunt. A place credible, so I don't burn my barrel out and the rifle and load are then sent back, maybe a couple details on how they did it in an efficient manner. The rifle I am referring to is a 338 Lapua and I don't an efficient way of building a load of Sierra smk 300's for it right now. It was throated for them. I haven't done much of anything since I got it.

Thanks

Ladder testing and working up a load is very simple.

 

[HarryN]

Ladder testing and working up a load is very simple.

You are exactly correct, but not everyone has the time or range access. I have had jobs that put me on the road 3 weeks / month in the past, and that week home didn't leave much time for anything but family obligations. Finding 300 yard ranges locally is actually not so simple, and a 600 probably would be an all day round trip.

Etisll40 - I have seen their web sites using the same internet searches that everyone does. I have not used their services yet so I am not qualified to make a suggestion on any particular ones. I think some tend to use particular bullet brands - not sure.

I think I found some by following distributor links for bullets makers like GS Custom and Cutting Edge Bullets.

 

[264WM]

Here is one I worked up with the Woodleigh 160gr PPSN.

 

[Jud96]

Here is one I worked up with the Woodleigh 160gr PPSN.

Man that chart doesn't match any ballistics calculator I have looked over.

 

[longrangehunterII]

Please pardon my blunt response, but if you just want to buy new gear and have money burning a hole in your pocket, OK, buy a new rifle and whatever else you have on your Xmas wish list. That can be fun in and of itself and there is nothing wrong with having some new toys. But, if you are serious about hunting out to 600 yards, I submit that your entire approach is bass backwards.

I see people on this site on a regular basis who want to buy all kinds of gear to help them hunt at long range, but are bound and determined to use factory ammo. That's like building an expensive performance car and insisting on feeding it 87 octane gas. I see a guy willing to plop down $2k for a custom rifle and who knows how much for a scope, but is balking at the cost of decent bullets and doesn't want to handload. Again, completely backwards.

It looks to me like you already have some decent candidates among your rifles. If you are serious about your stated goals, the place to start is with a basic loading setup. You can get all of it for less than what you would pay for a moderately priced scope. Pick a rifle and baseline it with factory match ammo or a book accuracy load to see what kind of accuracy potential it has. Tweak the rifle and scope combination from there, if needed. Then, spend your time and energy loading good ammo and working on your wind and mirage reading skills, range estimation, and shooting technique. When your equipment becomes the limiting factor, THEN it may be time to commission your custom rifle.

+1 to this answer..... lets say you test factory ammo in either gun you have now? Neither of which will produce ammo that "could" produce better ammo then what can be tailored by handloading! You will spend a lot of money testing box after box looking for what might work best in either rifle.

Why waste those funds in the first place and just start reading up on handloading and get started doing it? If not find someone that will do the work for you and/or either help you get started?

Once I started handloading to a specific rifle and tune the load, I never looked back at buying factory ammo ever again. I used to waste my time and money trying every factory box ammo in the guns I had and used the best one I found, but they never produced the kind of accuracy I can put together through handloading.

Your Wby. Vanguard is a great action, I used one over a decade ago as a 7mm-08 Remington build that made 600 yard shots look easy with my handloads, and took a lot of game. The question is which stock it has? I was lucky enough that mine had the Fibermark stock which was a all fiberglass stock made by H&S Precision for Weatherby. If it's a cheap plastic stock you'd be better served to find something better and have it bedded properly.

Same thing for the 700 ADL, something needs to be addressed about the magazine box? As well as the barrel length issue? The 7mm Remington Magnum is a great round, but having a 22"-24" bbl. is not going to produce the kind of velocities the cartridge is designed for, some thing that just helps increase velocity without pushing the case design to the max with a given bullet weight. This gun should have the trigger either worked on or replaced and a bedding job if you chose to go this route?

I'd look at how much to want to spend and spend it on one rifle first and reloading equipment. Either rifle has to be looked over as to which would make a better platform to begin with and what needs to be done with it first?

In the end depending on how good either gun will shoot with handloads it will take some funds and time to get the best results. If you decide to spend some more money have a good barrel installed by an experienced gunsmith or one of the barrel manufactures, Hart Rifle Barrels, Shilen, or Krieger.

The handloading will take care of what goes down range tailored to the gun. The scope just needs to any good 3.5-10 that wont fail with abuse from field use and during recoil. What you have in your hand as far as name or caliber doesn't matter as long as you can put them down range where they belong accurately 90% of the time.

 

[HarryN]

Hi, just responding again about people and companies that do custom load development work. I typed "custom load development for ammunition" into Bing and a lot of listings show up.

There is real value in re-loading your own. At the same time, it never hurts to get professional help. We hire gunsmiths to help make our rifles shoot better, why not an ammo smith?