If you spend any time on firearm forums you constantly come across comments such as "I'm looking to purchase a scope for "long range" shooting", or "what is a good caliber/rifle for long range shooting"? Reading further you find comments like "I want to shoot out to a 1,000 yards". What does all of this mean? They are willing to drop a considerable amount of cash on a rifle/scope combo to shoot "long range". Well, that's nice. My question is what do you want to shoot at? A two foot square piece of steel that makes a nice "dong" sound? No high end scope needed for that. I can hit that steel all day long with a $300 fixed 10X scope. Will you be competing where scores are mainly based on "hits" and time, or on tight groups and precision.
Recently I have had friends who want to come out and "shoot long range". When I ask them what they want to shoot they haven't a clue. I have both steel targets and stands for paper targets out to a 1,000. They spent a bunch of money on a "rig" as they call it. Recently two of us were shooting at paper targets at 300 yards. 10 shots in 15 minutes best score wins (bragging rights), X ring is 1.5 inches. One of the guys wanted to try his hand with his new rifle. Nice chassis, nice scope, nice bipod. Nice setup but not for what we were doing. Our rifles weighed close to 18 pounds or more and mine was a single shot. He got a few hits in the ten ring but the X ring was beyond his capability. He was a bit upset and I told him that he was doing very well but his rifle was not designed for precise accurate repeatable shooting at that level (10 shots consistently < 1 moa at 300 yards) We went back to hitting steel and after a few dozen rounds he was back to being himself to some degree. But I doubt he will be shooting paper with us anytime soon.
So, I guess my point is before you invest in a long range system take a minute and decide what you really want it to do. It may save you a bunch of money and frustration.
Recently I have had friends who want to come out and "shoot long range". When I ask them what they want to shoot they haven't a clue. I have both steel targets and stands for paper targets out to a 1,000. They spent a bunch of money on a "rig" as they call it. Recently two of us were shooting at paper targets at 300 yards. 10 shots in 15 minutes best score wins (bragging rights), X ring is 1.5 inches. One of the guys wanted to try his hand with his new rifle. Nice chassis, nice scope, nice bipod. Nice setup but not for what we were doing. Our rifles weighed close to 18 pounds or more and mine was a single shot. He got a few hits in the ten ring but the X ring was beyond his capability. He was a bit upset and I told him that he was doing very well but his rifle was not designed for precise accurate repeatable shooting at that level (10 shots consistently < 1 moa at 300 yards) We went back to hitting steel and after a few dozen rounds he was back to being himself to some degree. But I doubt he will be shooting paper with us anytime soon.
So, I guess my point is before you invest in a long range system take a minute and decide what you really want it to do. It may save you a bunch of money and frustration.
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