Re: Best long distance rifle?
I enjoy reading these types of topics. Everybody gets a chance to promote their favorite shootin' stick. In some ways there's no real answer, and in truth, there's no one good answer, but many good answers.
The rifle needs to be an asset, and not a liability. If it's heavy to lug around, or the sights are not compatible with quick target acquisition and good shot resolution, or the recoil is daunting, or the ammo is only something you can find on a handloaders' bench, you have to ask youself if the overall peformance outweighs the negatives.
I believe in the KISS principle.
I like a standard factory rifle. Easy to sell, and easy to find replacement parts.
I like a standard factory cartridge, easy to find, and generally well suited to specific tasks. if I want to save money by handloading, fine; but I try to duplicate the performance of something I can pick up on local shelves in a pinch, so nothing odd happens when I squeeze that trigger.
My favorite walkaround rifle is my M70 .30-'06 Featherwieght. 6 1/2lb with scope, without ammo. Has a relatively cheap and easily replaceable Tasco 6-24x42 varmint/target scope with a MilDot reticle, 1/4MOA elevation, 1/8MOA windage adjustments, an A/O that adjusts down to 15yd, and covered target knobs that can be reset to a derived zero.
It thrives on Federal 168gr Gold Medal, and on Winchester 165gr CXP hunting rounds. I also have a 168gr SMK handload that works very nicely. Despite the lightweight, it wears an older model B&C Realtree Camo stock that delivers recoil in a straightline manner not unlike the AR stocks, and for some indeterminate reason, the perceived recoil is just nowhere near as bad as I had initially expected.
It's probably gonna make its nut at 1Kyd, but also probably not much further beyond that.
For the longer distances, I use a Savage 10FP that's tricked out with a Sharpshooter Supply trigger and recoil lug, McMillan A3 Tactical stock, pillar bedded by McM, a Lothar-Walther 28" 1:8" SAAMI Chambered .260 Remington stainless BR grade barrel in a Savage Varmint contour (L-W contour #5171). It's chambered and threaded from the L-W factory for very simple no gunsmithing home installation. The scope base is a 20MOA sloped Ken Farrel item, and the Weaver low rings hold another of those Tascos I mentioned in connection with my M70. I own four of the scopes, so if a replacement is ever needed, they are right handy. This rifle makes 1Kyd with plenty to spare, and is proabably going to remain supersonic out to 1300-1400yd, given the right conditions. A cold day at sea level is a lot tougher to get the gun to work out there than a hot day at 6-7000ft.
But the most important factor in what's the best rifle is the shooter themselves. Even the finest, most meticulously designed and crafted rifle isn't gonna do squat if the shooter expects the rifle to do all the work for them. Since you mention some considerable experience with the M40A3, I am assuming you are already familiar with this issue.
I would gladly trade a BR gun capable of neutering gnats at 100yd for a solid, reliable rifle that delivers 1/2MOA shot after shot after shot. Taking such a rifle and wringing it out at vastly varying distances, under vastly varying conditions, is probably going to be the key event that convinces the shooter which rifle is the best rifle <span style="font-style: italic">for that shooter</span>. You make it the best rifle by making yourself the best implementer of that rifle. There may be better rifles around, but in the right hands yours can be the better, and in the wrong hands, theirs can be the inferior.
Greg