New to this, need help.

[Weldstar68]

I am new to long range shooting and need all the help I can get. Any and all advice and help will be greatly appreciated. So far I have purchased a savage LE 110 FCP .338 lapua mag and a nightforce NXS 8-32x56 zerostop .1mil MLR illuminated. I'm not looking for a bunch of negativity on what I bought as its what I have. First should I get a Ken Farrell 30moa or 40moa base and what height rings should I get in order to properly mount my scope? What would be the best bipod to put on this rifle? Now for the question that is sure to get me some s*#t talking, are there any books or videos that can help me to understand more about moa and how to setup my scope? Serious help and advice only please, I'm looking to the pros on here. Thanks, Clayton

 

[Idaho Savage]

I'm not a pro but I think you're in for a big surprise, dude. Most of the posters on here are not only extremely knowledgeable but also really friendly. Doubt you'll hear much smack being talked. Good luck.

 

[ShtrRdy]

There are some videos online that discuss "mils" and "moa". Take a look at Ryan's videos at this link:

Ryan Cleckner Shooting Videos - YouTube

Now, if you need to work on your prone position, I recommend the first DVD from Rifles Only. You have to be able to execute an accurate shot in order to make use of all the other long range knowledge.

 

[kraigWY]

Looks like over kill on the rifle department for someone just starting out, but hey, go for it.

I think ShtrRdy gave some pretty good information regarding the DVD from Rifle's Only, but I would go farther and recommend Disk ONE and Disk TWO. And like me, keep an eye out for Disk THREE.

JACOB BYNUM THAT'S A HINT.

 

[Sniper Uncle]

For your question on the base and rings for the scope, I would think seriously about the base and what you want to do with the rifle. For starters, you will probably be shooting under 1000 yards until you gain proficiency, and can reliably hit 1000 yds. I have a NightForce 8-36x56, and I believe that the internal adjustment is a total of 65 MOA. What this means is that if you were to put a 40 MOA base on it, you would probably not be able to zero even at 300 yds. (65/2+ 32.5MOA, and you would have 40 on the base.) I got a 25 MOA base made, and that will take me out to 2000yds okay. If I need more, I can put a mid base in to add. I would not go more than 30 MOA on the base, unless someone else can explain why you should, not why it is okay, but why you should. You can always get a 40MOA base later if you really start shooting at 3000 yds or what ever.

Height of rings, you need to figure the thickness of your base, and then get the shortest rings that will give sufficient clearance between the objective lense and the barrel of the rifle.

 

[Weldstar68]

Thanks for all the advice so far. I watched a few of the YouTube videos and they are detailed and helpful. I will be getting the DVD's. as for the lapua being overkill, I'm new to long distance shooting not rifle shooting in general and I typically hunt with a .270win or my .308 so I figured the lapua was the next step. Thanks for the tips on the scope base. The rifle comes with a 20moa base so I'm thinking with my scope I should just leave the base alone??

 

[Sniper Uncle]

Can't hurt to leave the 20MOA base on for now. You can always upgrade later as your range improves, but if you bottom out the scope and still can't zero for say, 200 yds, then you have a problem. I personally have Zeroed at 300yds on mine.


Cheers,
Tim
The Right to Keep and Bear Arms Shall NOT be Infringed

 

[sandwarrior]

I am new to long range shooting and need all the help I can get. Any and all advice and help will be greatly appreciated. So far I have purchased a savage LE 110 FCP .338 lapua mag and a nightforce NXS 8-32x56 zerostop .1mil MLR illuminated. I'm not looking for a bunch of negativity on what I bought as its what I have. First should I get a Ken Farrell 30moa or 40moa base and what height rings should I get in order to properly mount my scope? What would be the best bipod to put on this rifle? Now for the question that is sure to get me some s*#t talking, are there any books or videos that can help me to understand more about moa and how to setup my scope? Serious help and advice only please, I'm looking to the pros on here. Thanks, Clayton

Weldstar,

First, you got a good rifle to start with. It will not only take you through this learning curve, but, well into the next. The scope you got was a little over what you need for going super long. The problem is not magnification (a trap I fell into, so don't feel alone), but rather travel. As noted it has 65 moa of travel. Divide that by 2 to get you int the center of your scope and you now have 32.5 moa up travel, and 32.5 moa of down travel. You don't need any kind of base adjustment to get you to 1k with that rifle (cartridge). Keep in mind for the future, high quality scopes of lesser, but sufficient magnification, will have more necessary travel.

To start figuring what you need, you need to have an idea of what your trajectories are going to be for the ranges you shoot. Here is an excellent site to get you started:

JBM - Calculations - Trajectory

It's a free ballistic calculator that will get you pretty close. That is as long as the inputs you give it are correct. Assume you start in a big way, but not whole hog just yet. Say you acquire some Berger 250 gr. VLD's. Load them up to a respectable 2850 fps. With a 300 yd. zero, you will have about a 24.5 moa drop to 1k. so you have travel room to spare. 1200 yds. is where you hit the end of your travel. But, you needn't worry too much if you don't shoot too far beyond that. The reticle also will also allow you to hold over. Depending on the scope and type that can be quite a bit. Up to 60 moa. Most of the scopes today only go up 40 moa though. So, that is a total of 72.5 moa you can hold over.

Going from moa to mil isn't too hard. Both are different ways of angular measurement. In the end they both do the same thing. Your scope, by what I've read, sees and adjusts in mils. Simply put a mil is 1/1000th of the distance of the radius of a circle. Consider the distance between you and the target as the radius. A mil is 1/1000th of that distance flipped up on end. When you know a given height or width of something on the target you can compare the mil, or fraction of a mil, to it to determine it's height in mils. Use the chart given by the website I gave you, or any suitable ballistic calculator, and find the drop using your zero. Shoot and confirm your drops that way, i.e. est. 6 mil of drop and it takes 6.3. Keep a notebook for that load in that rifle. Estimate drops out as far as you can shoot. Know that when colder temps come around the air will thicken and bullets drop more at equal distances to summer shooting.