Extremely newbie ?'s

[tropicmaster]

I have a good bit of interest in LRH/shooting and zero experience. I am currently very active in competition sporting clays which is a very expensive hobby. That being said I dont want to dump a huge amount of money into LRH until I am firmly hooked and wanting to get serious. Opinions on the following questions would be helpful in getting me started.

I currently own a S&W mod 1500 in 7mm rem mag. It has an old scope, and I dont have any idea of it's mechanical accuracy. It is a deer/hog/coyote killing machine out to 250 yards. It is currently point blank zeroed at 305 yards. If I mounted something like the Bushnell 3200 elite on this rifle,found some good accurate loads, and did a lot of practicing would it get me started? Would it get me to very basic F class competition? I do not reload so are there factory loadings available with enough accuracy?

I spent the morning in a really good gun shop here in Charlotte and saw perhaps another option. They had a Savage 112? F class gun in .308 This gun was a little over 1k with a 20 moa rail already installed. Going this route would not leave me a lot of $ for range finder,bino's,rests,bipods, etc.

I have also seen a lot of used rifles for sale on the classifieds of this site.

So... put some bucks into what I have and give it a try,buy low end new, or take a chance on something used, and possibly shot out?

Thanks in advance for your opinions!

 

[winmagman]

How accurate is the 7 mag? Killing critter accurate is not the same as F class accurate. It would get you started, however, with factory ammo I would be suprised if you were very competative, and its tough to get hooked on anything if your not, could happen though.

The Savage you are talking about is currently being used by some folks, and they are being competative with it. A better option in my personal opinion.

The classifieds here are also a good choice, I can't think of anyone here that will give you a bum steer, find something you're interested in and start asking questions.

Chris

 

[MontanaRifleman]

I have a good bit of interest in LRH/shooting and zero experience. I am currently very active in competition sporting clays which is a very expensive hobby. That being said I dont want to dump a huge amount of money into LRH until I am firmly hooked and wanting to get serious. Opinions on the following questions would be helpful in getting me started.

I currently own a S&W mod 1500 in 7mm rem mag. It has an old scope, and I dont have any idea of it's mechanical accuracy. It is a deer/hog/coyote killing machine out to 250 yards. It is currently point blank zeroed at 305 yards. If I mounted something like the Bushnell 3200 elite on this rifle,found some good accurate loads, and did a lot of practicing would it get me started? Would it get me to very basic F class competition? I do not reload so are there factory loadings available with enough accuracy?

I spent the morning in a really good gun shop here in Charlotte and saw perhaps another option. They had a Savage 112? F class gun in .308 This gun was a little over 1k with a 20 moa rail already installed. Going this route would not leave me a lot of $ for range finder,bino's,rests,bipods, etc.

I have also seen a lot of used rifles for sale on the classifieds of this site.

So... put some bucks into what I have and give it a try,buy low end new, or take a chance on something used, and possibly shot out?

Thanks in advance for your opinions!

I have the very same rifle and have shot some sub MOA groups out of it. Haven't really wrung it out yet. It's a Howa built rifle and Howa makes good rifles. There's a good chance you have a good shooter. If you want to do LRH, as in 600 yds plus, you will need to start reloading. If you buy that F-class rifle you wont get max performance with factory lods. You might find a good factory load for your rifle, but not likely 1/2 MOA or less. So if you find a good factory load for your M1500 you might have a 500 yd plus outfit, which might be enough to decide if you like LR.

I would say wring out your M1500 first. It might be a tack driver, but dont expect much less then sub MOA with factory ammo. A Bushnell 4200 should be a good scope for it as well as some others mentioned, but you can get the 4200 with target turrets for a good price.

Hope this helps and good shooting,

-MR

 

[esshup]

If you're spending a lot of time shooting those flyin' clays, you might have a hard time getting acclimated to precision rifle shooting. The trigger control is totally different. If you have that part down already, then it'll depend on the equipment and how much time you spend practicing.

I don't think LRH is THAT expensive, but then again, I was shooting somewhere between 500 and 1,000 rounds of 12 ga a week, depending on what ranges had what games to play that weekend. I'd hate to figure out what it'd cost me today to do that. I was getting 291 shells per 25# bag of shot and 186 shells per pound of powder for the loads to play the games.

Shooting clays was hard for me at first, because I migrated from shooting competition 3 position small bore. Once I got the "you don't NEED to look at the sights to hit something as long as the gun is fitted to you" figured out, it seemed like magic!

 

[justgoto]

I would go with the 7mm. Test your existing scope to see if it is up to the task. If not, I use the Elite 3200 10x40 and it is a good scope but the adjustments don' seem to be 1/4 moa. The adjustments are repeatable though.

Here is an article that I found helpful.
Setting Up Your Long Range Scope
By Jerry Teo

And reloading is a must if you want to be competitive.

Here is a post worth a look at.
Ladder testing at 1k- Detailed article and video

I can't stress how much reloading has made me a more accurate shooter.

 

[tropicmaster]

Hey guys thanks for your replies! A little more background; 15 years ago I did a lot of rifle shooting and a lot of it was at 2-300 yards. If I remember correctly at that time this 7mm was hovering around an inch at 100, and sometimes a little better. When I got out of the military I no longer had a place to just shoot, so the gun has been used only for hunting since then. When I was target shooting I was buying reloads from a guy outside the base. The load was a nosler ballistic tip HP 140 grns. I don't remember the charge or the brass, but the guy claimed it was 3250 fps, and the loads shot really well. I still shoot a lot with 22lr and 357mag, so I think I have the trigger control and basic marksmanship covered.

The scope is a 3x9 tasco, and it has no easy way to dial in elevation changes. It has the standard screwdriver turrets for zeroing.

Esshup I hear you on the looking at the sights thing! I finally took the beads off my Beretta and had a stock fitted and made by Bob James at Montana Long Guns. That was when I turned the corner and got competitive.

Justgoto I am glad to hear real life experience from someone who shoots the 3200! I picked up the idea from an article by Ian Mcmurchy on the LRH home page, but you know how articles can be.

I think I will go out today and buy a couple of different loads and a 3200 scope. A friend has a lead sled and tomorrow I will take it all down to my hunting property and see just what this rifle has in it at 100. If I can get it to moa or very close with factory ammo, I think I have something to build on. I can move into reloading a little further down the road. Like MontanaRifleman said this would get me to 500 yards at which time I will know if I want to spend more bucks.

I am liking this route because it will leave me plenty of $ for now to buy rangefinders,a new scope, and all the other stuff I don't have.

Thanks again guys!

 

[Michael Bent]

hey guys i don't shoot alot but i have been able to read a nice amount on this site and have now began to improve my set up.

i am shooting 168 berger bullets out of my 7mm rem mag and am geting pretty acurate rounds, right around a minute of angle at 300 yards (3 inch group)

i'm also using a Supersniper scope which is a $300 scope that appears so far to be a repeatable and dependable scope. there are also alot of the forums on this site that support this scope. it has elevation and windage turrets that are in 1/4 moa increments.

the 7mm is a pretty good caliber and i've heard of a nice amount of people that are acurately shooting this round out to 1000 yards with good guns and ammo.

if you are new to reloading you will need some help learning how to tune the berger bullets for your gun. but i believe they would be a good option for f-class shooting.

 

[roninflag]

the 3200 and 6400 are good. a true f-class will shoot 1/2 minute ALL the way out. a remington 40x or sendero or the savage 6.5-284. if your howa wll shoot good enough then use it. the 7mm is a good calibeer choice.