Looking to get my first precision rifle. Budget, including glass, is $2000. They just opened a 1000 yard range 40 mins up the road from here and I'm planning at some point in the next 6 months to take a PR class.
Anyway, seems like I can pick up a DPMS gas gun with a cheap float tube and decent glass for about $2000, or a savage 10FP/ cheaper rem 700 and get even better glass for less and have money for ammo. Will get 308 just cause it's easy and seems like the standard, at least for beginners.
Slightly inclined toward the semi auto as I'd like to also be able to use the gun for hogs, was thinking an 18" barrel. But I have other guns I can use for hogs as well, both 5.56 m4geries and bolt action sporter rifles.
I've read a lot of posts on here saying that gas guns are much harder to master for PR shooting--the recoil impulse on gas guns is different, the lock time is longer, or something--basically that they're much harder to shoot than bolt guns are.
I've done some reloading in the past, but to be honest I am probably not going to be able to spend a lot of time in load development, I'd rather just blow the money on factory ammo and spend my limited time shooting. Hope that's not sacrilege.
In terms of where I'm at as a shooter, I've shot a handful of service rifle matches in the past (with borrowed guns) so I've got a few basic skills, busted plenty of steel targets with iron sighted m4geries at 300-400 yards, have basic grasp of NPA, etc, but that's about it. Pistol I'm a little more experienced with, usually score a bit above 250 on Hackathorn standards tests. Basically most people on this forum are way above my knowledge level. Don't know how much of that is really going to relate to PR type shooting, just trying to establish a baseline for where I'm starting from.
Sorry this is a long post.
Anyway, seems like I can pick up a DPMS gas gun with a cheap float tube and decent glass for about $2000, or a savage 10FP/ cheaper rem 700 and get even better glass for less and have money for ammo. Will get 308 just cause it's easy and seems like the standard, at least for beginners.
Slightly inclined toward the semi auto as I'd like to also be able to use the gun for hogs, was thinking an 18" barrel. But I have other guns I can use for hogs as well, both 5.56 m4geries and bolt action sporter rifles.
I've read a lot of posts on here saying that gas guns are much harder to master for PR shooting--the recoil impulse on gas guns is different, the lock time is longer, or something--basically that they're much harder to shoot than bolt guns are.
I've done some reloading in the past, but to be honest I am probably not going to be able to spend a lot of time in load development, I'd rather just blow the money on factory ammo and spend my limited time shooting. Hope that's not sacrilege.
In terms of where I'm at as a shooter, I've shot a handful of service rifle matches in the past (with borrowed guns) so I've got a few basic skills, busted plenty of steel targets with iron sighted m4geries at 300-400 yards, have basic grasp of NPA, etc, but that's about it. Pistol I'm a little more experienced with, usually score a bit above 250 on Hackathorn standards tests. Basically most people on this forum are way above my knowledge level. Don't know how much of that is really going to relate to PR type shooting, just trying to establish a baseline for where I'm starting from.
Sorry this is a long post.