NEW GUY

[wade-19]

Just wanted to introduce myself and ask for a few suggestions. I am new to the long range game and I need some input. My hunting rifle is a Weatherby MKV Accumark in .308 with a Leaupold VXII 3x9. I just picked up a Remington SPS Tactical in .308 to tinker with. I thought I'd join here and ask the experts what mods work well for this rifle. Thanks

 

[Mr Flannel]

Re: NEW GUY

Hey mate

Guess I'll be the first to say welcome. Very good forum here, with some very knowledgeable guys, plus the inevitable knobheads. Ignore the latter, especially ones who appear to equate their post count with experience or status.

Before you get blowtorched by some of those 'old salts' who will revel in calling you 'Newb', 'Newbie' or 'FNG' to shore up their internet status, two pieces of advice:

Don't refer to sniping or sniper rifles, particularly in relation to your own equipment, unless you're a duty-slotted sniper and if the latter, you'll probably realise that this is an open forum, there are plenty of ways to track an IP address and banging on about being one adds up to poor security and poor personal judgment.

If you want to find out more about a particular firearm, try searching. Ratbert, a member here has knocked up a great search engine for this site, at:

http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=010955838166721108978:qcbx5qqy10o&hl=en

Type in 'Remington SPS Tactical' and see what you get. Probably quite a bit. Good luck

Cheers

 

[wade-19]

Re: NEW GUY

Thanks for the welcome and the link.

 

[Oodin]

Re: NEW GUY

Being an "FNG" myself I'm sure the first thing specifically regarding your situation anyone will say is: shoot it. Establish a baseline and then figure out what, if anything you NEED to change.

Some guys complain a lot about factory triggers; some guys can't stand factory stocks; other guys say that a new barrel is the key to unlocking your accuracy potential. I wouldn't change a thing until you've put some rounds down range focusing on the type of shooting you now want to do and see for yourself where you're at. If the rifle outshoots you the way it is now, what difference do any mods make?

Follow Priest's advice and start reading. There's more knowledge on this forum than you could digest in a month.

 

[vman]

Re: NEW GUY

Hey Wade,

Welcome to the forums mate

And we arent all aussies here, its just the right time of the night for us here

Ummmm in my opinion, any everyone can agree with this one, the best thing to do that will get your rifle shooting better are the following

- Learn to reload. Not only is it a great hobby in itself (i love it more than shooting believe it or not), but once you have your reloading equipment you can shoot for much cheaper (save at least 50-60% on ammo) and the biggest bonus is that you tailer bullets to your rifle... to what you have... so that you can squeeze the most accuracy out of what you already have. Last week i shot 100 rounds of Lapua handloads for my .308. Pretty much all Lapua components (brass and projectiles). If you dont count the cost of the brass because Its an $80 investment that gets reused, I spent $55 on projectiles, $30 on powder and $5 on primers. That cost me $90 to reload 100 rounds. If i were to purchase that same Lapua ammo premade, it would cost me $295 Aussie dollars. So i saved $200. Plus the ammo i made, suits my rifle best as ive tinkered and found the best ammount of powder to use.

- Learn to shoot. Education. Its all in what you can learn. Believe it my friend because learning everything there is to know will make you one hell of shooter... If you know whats best and whats best to avoid, and how to do this and that, after some time you will become as best a marksman as you can possibly be. Be enthusiastic and show initiative, learn everything that you can. Sniperhide offers on-line training which is a great starting point

All the best dude, enjoy your time here, and make friends not enemies

Vincent

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: NEW GUY

Welcome, and relax; contrary to popular opinion, we don't dine upon noobs here.

I think the preceding advice has a lot of merit. I wouldn't go piling on the bucks until I'd identified an area where the expenditure is seriously needed. Optics, for now, for you, is about being able to resolve to smaller aiming points, to allow better precision. You can do this for a couple of hundred dollars or less, mounts included. I'd say a minimum of 16X at the upward end. Some of my workhorse scopes are 6-24X42 Trashco's and run under $100 each. Of course there's better, and of course it works a lot better, but for a start, they will get you up and running.

LR as about precision in the wind, at the deep end of long trajectories.

One very good way to simulate this without either the distance or the expense is to scale the whole process down.

Shooting .22LR out at and beyond 100yd begins to simulate the fullbore at the full distances. Get yourself a reliable, workmanlike .22LR bolt action repeater, some OK glass like those trashcos I spoke of earlier, and see how well you can hit smaller targets out a good ways, and don't hide from the wind while you're doing it; there's plenty to learn from that wind. While I've had a lot of fun at 250yd, it was on calm days, and for training purposes, things become unreliable beyond 150-200yd when the winds pick up substantially. The point here is to stretch the envelope and become familiar with adversity. My trainer is a basic secondhand Savage MKII F.

Everyone cuts their teeth around here with .308's and it's an excellent starter caliber for up to 1Kyd. If that distance isn't readily available, the .223 will git 'er done out to 600yd fershur, and can probably reach 1000yd, but not as satisfyingly as the .308.

Once the .308's mild shortcomings become a drag, other chamberings work. For your .308, simply re-barreling to .260 Rem ups the performance a coupla notches, but also makes you rather a bit more dependent on handloading to get the full benefit.

Two caveats.

There are a lot of folks here who believe that truly good performance can only be attained at significant expense. For some, that's true. For others, the money buys little, because the skill set isn't ready for the expenditure yet. Be honest with yourself. The way to tell is to borrow the use of something along the lines of what you have in mind. If it actually does make you a better shooter, then upgrades are justified, but again, don't mortgage the farm, do it in easy steps.

For example, those mods you mentioned. When is as important as what. Replacing a component simply for the sake of change may not be effective or efficient. Replacing a component whose service is nearing its useful end is better economy, and can lead to greater satisfaction with the improved replacement. Life is long, the trip's a big part of the fun, and we get to the peaks one step at a time. There is no substitute for training and practice, no magic shortcuts or gimmicks. Truth be told, modern firearms work very well just the way they arrive, and generally can outshhoot a large percentage of their owners. As I said, be honest with yourself. If you can't make yourself proud with that .22LR, sinking big bucks into a big bore isn't going to change the equation very much. If it isn't fun, maybe (probably) you're doing it wrong.

Second, use the right tool for the right job. Bores are like fossil fuels. They work great, but when they're gone, they're gone. Unless there's a match shoot, or something significant on the line, they are not the right tool for the right job. Preserve them for the right job. Practice, training, fun shooting, that's for something less valuable, most likely that .22LR trainer.

Search before asking, save the controversy for other sites, and please, please, pick our brains clean; it's why we're here. Make your first search be one for 'the basics'.

Greg

 

[vman]

Re: NEW GUY

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Greg Langelius *</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

There are a lot of folks here who believe that truly good performance can only be attained at significant expense. For some, that's true. For others, the money buys little, because the skill set isn't ready for the expenditure yet. Be honest with yourself. The way to tell is to borrow the use of something along the lines of what you have in mind. If it actually does make you a better shooter, then upgrades are justified, but again, don't mortgage the farm, do it in easy steps.

For example, those mods you mentioned. When is as important as what. Replacing a component simply for the sake of change may not be effective or efficient. Replacing a component whose service is nearing its useful end is better economy, and can lead to greater satisfaction with the improved replacement. Life is long, the trip's a big part of the fun, and we get to the peaks one step at a time. There is no substitute for training and practice, no magic shortcuts or gimmicks. Truth be told, modern firearms work very well just the way they arrive, and generally can outshhoot a large percentage of their owners. As I said, be honest with yourself. If you can't make yourself proud with that .22LR, sinking big bucks into a big bore isn't going to change the equation very much. If it isn't fun, maybe (probably) you're doing it wrong.

Second, use the right tool for the right job. Bores are like fossil fuels. They work great, but when they're gone, they're gone. Unless there's a match shoot, or something significant on the line, they are not the right tool for the right job. Preserve them for the right job. Practice, training, fun shooting, that's for something less valuable, most likely that .22LR trainer.

Search before asking, save the controversy for other sites, and please, please, pick our brains clean; it's why we're here. Make your first search be one for 'the basics'.

Greg </div></div>

Greg speaks words of wisdom

You dont need to blow all of your pay on this to get a high level of consistant accuracy... you can if you want, if you simply must have that pretty looking scope if it makes you sleep better.

 

[treetop00]

Re: NEW GUY

Welcome, and happy shooting! I just recently picked up the rem tactical 308 as well and have been very impressed with it in stock form. Push yourself to the limits first, makes it alot funner when you do begin to upgrade, plus alot of people will buy better guaranteed moa guns and realized they can't shoot them any better. If you're constantly getting what the rifle manufacturer claims or better than you might think about upgrading!