Theoretical long-range rifle on a tight budget. Difficulty: Left-hand. Hunting use irrelevant.

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Shooting a right handed rifle lefty from a bench isn't a handicap, and only a minor handicap otherwise. In fact there have been a few rifles made for right handed shooter over the years with the bolt handle on the left side and ejection port on the right side because it is easier to operate that way from a bench.

Here is a link discussing the concept.

https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/right-handed-shooter-left-bolt.55466/

For what you want to do I'd buy a right handed rifle and learn how to use it.
Cool. Again, I'm not shooting from a bench.
 
+1 on the rental if they have one available. Either right or left hand.

If not: People have gotten good results with a Mossberg Predator or Savage model 10 fcp-sr. Since your budget is tight I would go with .308. ($400-$625)

Nothing wrong with an SWFA SS10x42 ($269 used on their SampleList) for your purposes. Secondarily Primary Arms has some affordable scopes which would work.

I've used SWFA rings on a hunting rifle with good results ($38).

Harris Swivel Bipod ($108)

Federal Gold Medal Match .308 ($26 box)

Gun (Mossberg). $450
Scope & rings $307
Bipod. $108
8 bx Ammo. $208

Total. $1073.
 
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In this instance I might rent than spend money on something that is subpar that you won’t use much if you really end up getting into the sport.

That being said I AM a buy once cry once guy, but I think you have a misconception at what price accuracy may be had for today. You do not have to spend 3k on a rifle to achieve that. Many factory rifles have MOA guarantees today. I understand your desire to put nice glass on a rifle, but you don’t NEED a Schmidt bender, Steiner, or nightforce. I’ve owned Steiners, they’re great. I’ve also just put almost 4K into a rifle build, also great!

But, you don’t ‘NEED’ it. My factory Winchester 70 extreme, I would even feel comfortable taking to a PRS course because I have lots of time behind it, and it does shoot sub MOA. Another gun is the tikka CTR. That gun is fantastic.

Toss on a $300 primary arms scope and call it a day! It’s a PRS class, you know what you’re shooting at. You don’t need glass quality good enough to identify targets at 800m
 
Cool. Again, I'm not shooting from a bench.

While I don’t expect the LRSU LR intro course to be focused on PRS type positional shooting, I can say with certainty, you’ll be exceptionally hindered in positional shooting to run a “wrong side” bolt, especially on the clock in competition.

We put the bolt on our firing hand side for a reason - lots of lefties get by with wrong side bolts, but when challenged by time and position, it’s often about as smooth as watching old people get amorous...

(Personally, I’d consider a wrong side bolt to be a substantial disadvantage even when firing on the bench or prone) without a hard rear bag and mechanical rest. Firing left handed, the right hand is on the bag with the stock cradled in the web of the thumb and index finger, controlling elevation and clamping the stock to your shoulder. The left firing hand can run the trigger and the bolt without breaking the shoulder-to-rifle connection and without letting the crosshairs bobble from the target. No shift to NPoA, no break in cheek weld, no break in position. Running a right bolt left handed means I’m breaking position to cycle - one way or the other. All bad).

ETA: That is all to say - don’t buy a RH bolt gun for this. If the rental is only available RH, use it, but don’t commit to a life of wrong side.
 
While I don’t expect the LRSU LR intro course to be focused on PRS type positional shooting, I can say with certainty, you’ll be exceptionally hindered in positional shooting to run a “wrong side” bolt, especially on the clock in competition.

We put the bolt on our firing hand side for a reason - lots of lefties get by with wrong side bolts, but when challenged by time and position, it’s often about as smooth as watching old people get amorous...

(Personally, I’d consider a wrong side bolt to be a substantial disadvantage even when firing on the bench or prone) without a hard rear bag and mechanical rest. Firing left handed, the right hand is on the bag with the stock cradled in the web of the thumb and index finger, controlling elevation and clamping the stock to your shoulder. The left firing hand can run the trigger and the bolt without breaking the shoulder-to-rifle connection and without letting the crosshairs bobble from the target. No shift to NPoA, no break in cheek weld, no break in position. Running a right bolt left handed means I’m breaking position to cycle - one way or the other. All bad).
That’s what made sense to me. Thanks for the confirmation. :cool:
 
...
They offer rental rifles for $250 that include " $250 Rental Package includes a rifle, optics, bubble level, sidewinder, bipod, rear bag, shooting mat, and 100 rounds of match-grade factory ammunition. Additional ammo is available for $30 per box of 20."
...

RENT. With the ammo included, the rental is costing you $100. Go to the class, learn all you can, decide if this is something you want to do or not. It may save you hundreds or thousands of dollars to go learn some things without the commitment of buying into a rifle setup before you know what you're doing with it.
 
I own two howa 1500, one in .223 and one in .308, both heavy barrel. Both are way sub moa but i took me a while to find ammo that performs well enough. You just dont buy 10 boxes of different ammo, and "test" it with two or three 5-shoot-groups. Doing so, you just figure out which anmo is "bad" and which is worth a try.

On the .308 three ammotypes looked "good" after these 5-round-groups. So i cleaned the barrel on the range, shoot all the ammo which looked best and zeroed the scope. One week later i came back to the range with a new box of the selected ammo, and dumped the rounds on only one target. After 5 shots i waited 10 min for the gun to cool down. I had my mini 14 with me as pass time so waiting was no problem. After 50 well aimed bullets the result just looked like any hunting rifle i own. Great for hunting but not good enough for real precision shooting. As i said, it took me a while to find ammo that matches my rifle.

That said: RENT.
 
Personally.....while I just love to buy new toys, I would rent.....that doubles down in this world.

Unless you are 100% sure your total family income will not change during this stupid **** that is going on now, rent.
Unless you are 100% sure you are going to enjoy this new hobby....rent.
Me sees child in avatar.......kids end up needing things....be it a trip to band camp, or braces for their teeth....back to cash flow, if in question rent.

That all said, RPR from everything I have read seems to punch well above its weight, you would have roughly a month to sort it....provided everything stays open and you can lay hands on everything you need to outfit said new toy. When it is all over you can sell it, keep the optic (always buy a good optic) and move down the road for not much cash lost.
 
Without seeming overly personal, do you have any friends that have rifles that would suit your needs? Personally I hate the thought of paying for things I don't get to keep. I have a couple rifles that will consistently shoot 5 rounds under MOA with good factory ammo. If a buddy needed to use one, I'd tell him to come get it. He'd have to buy his own ammo and save all the empties for me though.
 
Not to put anyone else on the spot, but you might look up a local PRS club, talk to the MD’s and see if there are any lefties which might loan a rifle. For $340 (your cost into the rental + 60 extra rounds), you’re almost buying a blank, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you could find a shooter who will loan you a rifle for the class.
 
Do yourself a giant favor and use the rental. The gun will already be set up and dialed in so you can simply concentrate on the skills the classe is teaching. Otherwise you will be spending valuable time on equipment adjustments. Plus instructors have experience with the specific setup of the gun so they will be better able to see things which are your mistakes rather than trying to figure out if something is off in the gun you brought in.

Once you have been taught the basics on their gun, you will have a much better idea of what you may want for yourself. For example if the optics work well or stock fits off, these are simple items you can judge when buying your equipment in the future which would otherwise be unknowns prior to taking the class.
 
Do ya'll see plenty of right handed precision shooters preferring left handed actions as well?

Seems to be plenty over here. As simple as the bolt action is, it's amazing that they haven't figured out how to make the rifle swappable.
 
Without seeming overly personal, do you have any friends that have rifles that would suit your needs? Personally I hate the thought of paying for things I don't get to keep. I have a couple rifles that will consistently shoot 5 rounds under MOA with good factory ammo. If a buddy needed to use one, I'd tell him to come get it. He'd have to buy his own ammo and save all the empties for me though.
I also don’t generally like to spend money on things I don’t get to keep. However all of the friends that I have that have suitable rifles I could borrow are coming to the class with me :D
 
Do ya'll see plenty of right handed precision shooters preferring left handed actions as well?

Not in positional competition, we don’t.

When firing from a bench with a machine rest and rear bag, I can easily get on board with a left bolt, dual port action. Run the rest, bolt, and reload with the left hand, eject to the right, never come off of the trigger. But that’s a fully independently supported rifle.

In any other position or with any other support (or none), having the bolt on the wrong side is a considerable disadvantage.
 
Not in positional competition, we don’t.

When firing from a bench with a machine rest and rear bag, I can easily get on board with a left bolt, dual port action. Run the rest, bolt, and reload with the left hand, eject to the right, never come off of the trigger. But that’s a fully independently supported rifle.

In any other position or with any other support (or none), having the bolt on the wrong side is a considerable disadvantage.

I have to agree. That is why all of my right handed bolt actions have been replaced with left hand rifles. Now if I am in a situation that calls for more of an ambidextrous use, I'll grab one of my ARs
 
rent.

if you figure $1.50 for ammo * 100 rounds, that's $150 out of the $250, leaving $100 for the cost of the rental. but if you also figure $700 for a new barrel and you get 2000 rounds out of a barrel, that's 35 cents per round in wear, and if you shoot 200 rounds in the class, you're costing them $70 in barrel wear. so from a value perspective, that rental is only $30. it's a bargain.

as far as left or right hand, renting a RH rifle for a day is no big deal. but holy crap, definitely do not buy a wrong handed rifle. if you're left hand, left eye, get a friggin bolt on the left side of your rifle. as varmint said, wrong handed, even on a bench, without a mechanical rest, is a distinct disadvantage.
 
I also like shooting your gun. Talk to the instructors about it, esp since I bet you aren't gonna get new-gun+glass budget soon. But you have a SCAR and I know people who have successfully used them with the 13" barrel to 800 yds so they can shoot. It should work esp if you can borrow/rent glass to fill the range gap. Then, sink your money into that slowly when you get home now you know what you like/need.

If they are mostly there, but since you can't guarantee how your SCAR works: have them bring a bolt gun to borrow and pay them only if it's a problem after what is presumably zeroing / proofing time. They will know if YOU are safe then, and they know their gun is zeroed, so it'll be little/no time esp if it's in relays and they put you up first, you can hop on the last one with the rental gun to pop off a few to get familiar and re-confirm you can shoot /that/ gun.
 
Howdy,
I hesitate to ask this because I imagine I'm going to get a LOT of recommendations to "buy once, cry once" and spend $5K+ on a PRS competition rig. Here's the deal:

I signed up for an intro to long range shooting class in July. The requirement is that my rig have a good bipod and be capable of a 5-shot 1-MOA or less group at 100 yards, and I have to send a pic of the target before the class.

I was planning to take my SCAR-17 and AccuPower 1-8 (don't snicker) since that's what I have and I have no idea how to shoot it at any sort of range, and I figure the class will help in that regard whether or not I can go out to 1000+ with it. It has a Timney trigger in it, or I could swap out the Geissele from my 16.

They offer rental rifles for $250 that include " $250 Rental Package includes a rifle, optics, bubble level, sidewinder, bipod, rear bag, shooting mat, and 100 rounds of match-grade factory ammunition. Additional ammo is available for $30 per box of 20."

I'm leaning toward renting now, since I have no idea whether I'll like or be acceptably good at LR rifle shooting, though I'm sure I'll enjoy the class regardless, and the instructor emailed everyone and was pretty adamant about having a solid rig with solid optics.

After reading through some of Walkalong's pinned PRS rifle thread I flirted briefly with getting a Havak or Tikka T3 Tact A1 or Bergara or something, but that plus an optic would be at least 3 grand and I simply don't have the budget, and IMO it would be silly at this point to spend that much for a setup with zero knowledge of long range type shooting, or whether I'll even enjoy that particular hobby.

So here's what I'm thinking, and I'd appreciate your thoughts. Keep in mind that buying a $2000+ setup is NOT AN OPTION right now.

Option 1: run what I brung (SCAR-17+AccuPower) and learn as much as I can, and hopefully get capable of hitting out to 600+ with it.

Option 2: Rental rifle, and take SCAR along for fun/after hours and hopefully see what it'll do (this is where I'm leaning right now)

Option 3: Buy a cheap bolt gun that is hopefully capable of MOA 5-shot groups and try to find a 15X-20X optic for cheap before the class. Could use opinions on Savage or any other "budget" LH options that may be usable. No idea the differences between the 110, 11, 111, and Axis: https://www.savagearms.com/content?...ary=off&fsingle=off&ftop=off&ftube=off&fsamt=

In the case that I try to buy, I could use opinions on the available calibers. I assume OF THE ONES OFFERED 6.5 Creed would be the most appropriate? I kinda like the idea of .243 because I have a lot of .308 brass, but I'm sure that's false economy. From what I've absorbed from Varmintterror's posts and others, the 6mms are the way to go if you are really serious about PRS. I was thinking 6mm creed would be probably best for a newbie (but it isn't available at least from Savage in the budget I need) but maybe .308 or .243 would be adequate IF I BUY a rifle.

Option 4: Dad's RH .270 Winchester deer rifle on a Springfield 1903 action, and spend some dough on a nicer scope and bipod. Not sure whether it's MOA capable for more than 3 shots; barrel is not free floated, sling swivel attached through the stock to the barrel, etc.

Option 5: I have access to a loaner Savage Edge .308 RH, and I could maybe buy some goodish glass and a 20MOA rail and get it set up in time for the class. No idea if it's MOA capable. Trigger is not the accu-trigger and feels like about 7 lbs and creepy.

Thanks for listening and for any advice.
I have a T/C Compass 2 in 6.5 Creed and it is a tack driver with good ammo. I think with some trigger tuning and a better scope I bet I could meet your requirements. I got my rifle for $320 out the door. I threw a cheap scope I had laying around on it and shot a 1.25 inch group at 100yds without really trying.
 
I would bring what I had, maybe even bring both your rifles. You could probably talk to the instructors about them when you get there and get their recommendations. If it's not suitable, just rent something. After all, it is a class. You are going there to learn what you want/need to shoot distance. You may get there and realize it isn't for you at all. Maybe you see someone else's setup that would be perfect for you too.
 
... all of the friends that I have that have suitable rifles I could borrow are coming to the class with me :D
Hmmm. Can you share equipment? At the LRR course I attended, we were always set up in shooter/spotter configuration, one guy on the rifle and the other on the spotting scope. If that's the plan for your class, you might be able to get away with sharing a rifle.
 
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Like everyone else said, you should rent for this class. You don't know whether you'll really like this kind of shooting, you don't know what your gear preferences will be if you do like it, and you don't know what you don't know.

A lot of folks go through an expensive gear evolution/progression when getting into LR shooting. You're not paying rental money for nothing, you're paying for the opportunity to more efficiently spend big money later on with a better idea of what works for you, if you decide to buy in.
 
You are going there to learn what you want/need to shoot distance.

Most LR classes like this are structured to teach HOW to shoot long range, and the “what you need” part is minimal. They almost always have class time talking about how to set up the gun, how to use some recommended tools, but largely, it’s how to shoot. Most rifles can put bullets into the air, and no instructor wants to imply students without an appropriate rifle aren’t welcome, but they generally have an idea of what set up they prefer the students to be using.
 
Given your situation...rent seems to make sense, especially if a bolt rifle is what you are interested in trying before buying.

That said, and with no additional info on what this precision shooting class is about, and if your budget really is tight....you may want to consider forgoing the class all together. You are about to sink $800+ into an event. That is not a small amount when on a tight budget.

I recommend showing up to a local precision rifle event first. Bring your scar if you want. Or bring that loaner savage you have access to. You will learn how to shoot from fellow competitors. Plenty of competitors are willing to give you pointers on how to shoot from position properly. You will also get a chance to see what equipment they use and how they use it. And after attending the event, and you have decided to pursue long range shooting, then you can plan ahead and save for a rifle and for additional classes if you need. And if you don't like it, then you are just out entry fee and ammo cost, which I'm going to guess is well south of the $800+ that you're about to spend.
 
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