I am a long time shooter, but that does not mean I know it all.
I know a lot, but.......there is still a LOT to learn!!!!!!!
Out local gun club has a 600 yard range, and they are hoping to extend it to 1000 yards. I want to be able to play at these ranges......effectively.
I have shot 600 yards with iron sighted military rifles like the 1903 Springfield and the M1 Garand. I can hit and score fair at best. My 53 year old eyes and older, hard used body can't do the job as well as they used to be.
I want to purchase a bolt action rifle in a caliber suited for these 600 and 1000 yard ranges.
My wants are as follows..........
1. I am NOT going to purchase or build a custom gun. I will NOT be spending $1000 on a gun. I want an off-the-rack gun like a Remington 700 or a Tikka, Winchester, Savage, etc. I am looking for suggestions, and the lower the cost, the better.
2. I want a fairly easy caliber to work with. I can handle the recoil of a 300 Winchester Magnum, but much prefer milder recoiling calibers.
.308 and 30-06 are no problem. I don't want to spend large amounts of money
on near impossible to get brass.
New calibers like 6.5 Grendel and 26 Nosler intrigue me.
The old 300 H&H also intrigues me.
I want something somewhat affordable.
I do NOT want to spend a lot of time fussing over every aspect of loading ammo.
I can trim, I can weight, I can measure powder, etc.
In short.......I want something easy to work with, but maybe more modern than
the 30-06 or .308..............or an older caliber like the 300 H&H.
(I love older guns and calibers too)
I welcome all comment........even the critical ones.....and I expect some from
all I wrote here. That is OK.
First off, WELCOME TO LRH! I am not sure where, exactly, you are doing your shooting. I have shot 600 yard F-Class at ENGC in Louisville, NE. I hope to attend another match or two while I am home this spring. Based on your post, I am not sure if you intend to simply shoot out to 1000 yards or if you intend to shoot F-Class or some other rifle discipline. I will share with you some of my observations from the little bit of F-Class experience I have gained so far.
Where rifle choice is concerned, go with whatever flavor suits your fancy and your budget. A friend of mine dominated F-T/R matches at ENGC last year with a Remington SPS varmint rifle that he had bedded in a competition type laminated stock. I don't recall if he had any trigger work done or not. Mostly, he spent his time developing a consistent load for his rifle and practiced a bit in the off season. He doesn't do anything special with his handloads, just basic loading technique.
If you stay in F-T/R class, you can be competitive with an off-the-shelf rifle. F-T/R limits you to .223 or .308, however. Remington and Savage both make rifles that are popular for this sort of thing. In the past, the Savage rifles performed well and had a significant price advantage. In the last couple of years, though, Savage prices have gone up a lot, making things pretty even from a price standpoint.
Where caliber choice is concerned, if you plan to shoot in competition, your caliber choice will be dictated by the rules constraints of your chosen discipline. In F-Class, for example, if you want to shoot something besides .223 or .308, that will put you in F-Open class, where you will be shooting against more highly skilled shooters with high dollar everything. An off-the-shelf rifle isn't going to cut it in F-Open.
Whether your rifle will be used for competition or not, a 6.5mm or 7mm will provide the optimum combination of velocity, bc, recoil, and barrel life for 1000 yards. The rub, though, is that most off-the-shelf rifles chambered for a 6.5 or 7mm tend to be set up for hunting and chambered for cartridges that are likewise primarily hunting cartridges. The best options in the 6.5/7mm class tend to be cartridges generally not found in production rifles and/or not easily found in heavy barrel production rifles.
I strongly recommend that you consider buying and re-barreling an off-the-shelf rifle if you do not intend to shoot F-T/R class. This will give you more choices and increase the likelihood that you will come up with something that gives you the performance you want.
If you insist on an out-of-the-box rifle, your choices of suitable cartridges (other than .308 and .223) will mostly consist of .260 Remington, 6.5 Creedmoor, or 6.5-284. The best long range offerings from Savage, Ruger, and Remington are normally in the $1000 to $1200 range. You may be able to find what you are looking for in lower priced models from Remington and Savage, depending on what specific features you are after. It looks like the new Remington 700 Long Range may expand your options considerably over the chamberings I have mentioned. For an off-the-shelf rifle, the best advice I can offer is to go look at what is out there, decide on the models, chamberings, and budget that you would consider, then keep an eye out for a good deal on what you are looking for.
