Correct choice for a start?

Status
Not open for further replies.
B

BAS402

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2009
Messages
22
Location
Windsor,Colorado
Hello,
I'm a newbie to the forum.
I am wanting to do some long range shooting and have done some reading on some things to start my adventure. I have purchased a Savage 10 BAS/T in .308 and mounted a 6.5-20x50mm Mark 4 LR/T M1 on it, I know it's heavy but it feels good and it looks nasty. I hope this will be a good rig to start with because a Sako in .338 Lapua is out of my price range and I figure be to expensive to shoot even reloading. I hope I made the right decision. I have also been looking into spotters and was thinking about a Swarovski, Lieca or Zeiss. I only want to buy once on the spotter so I figure I'll "cry once" and get it over with. I was just wondering if I'm headed in the right direction. Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks
 
welcome to THR!

good choice on the rifle and scope.

why do you want a spotter?

you don't need it when you're shooting, since you have glass on the gun to look through. the only real reason you'd need a spotting scope would be if you're going to shoot mid- or long-range competitions that require you to score for others (so you'll need a scope to see, but aren't allowed to handle your gun since you're behind the line). maybe there are other uses i'm unaware of.

but if you do wnat a good one, look at the kowa
 
My oldest son is a Marine Sniper who has pulled the ultimate duty "Guarding the Gates of Heaven". My 14 year old and I want to shoot from 400-1000 yards and he would like to spot for me, that is the only reason but good enough I think. I figure we should have some medium to good equipment to start with but I want to be sure on the spotter. We have had a chance to look at the Zeiss,Leica vs the Swarovski and we both like Swarovski. Kowa,Nikon and the Pentax are unavailable for me to view. Do you think my son will be able to see .308 impact @ 400 yards?
 
sorry for your loss :(

having someone else spot for you would be a good reason, of course. but if you spent the money on another scope instead of the spotter, you're 3/4 of the way towards having two rifle/scopes which will double your fun, since you can both shoot at the same time and have some friendly competition on things like dueling trees.

swaro makes NICE glass. i have 2 of their scopes and their laser guide rangefinder and HIGHLY recommend them, but i haven't owned their spotting scope. i would expect it to be quite nice.

zeiss is also famous for good glass, though i don't own any of it. i won't talk about leica. no experience with nikon or pentax. kowa is pretty well-known and loved by HP shooters, and it's what i use for NRA HP and CMP shooting.

read this http://www.allaboutbirds.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1039#top

and always check samplelist before you buy

as for bullet holes, they're going to be very difficult if not impossible to see the actual hole. your son will need better eyes than mine. however, if you shoot at painted steel plates, the bullet will knock paint off and make about a 2-3" diameter mark which you can see. or if the sun is behind the target and light shines through the hole, yo ucan see that. or if you use shoot-n-see type targets...
 
+1 Swarovski
I have their 80mm HD scope and it is great, the fine detail is awesome. They have recently changed to eyepiece from 20 to 60 power to 25 to 50. The new one has alot more eye relief (glass's) and is sharper on the edge's.
Good luck.
 
Taliv,
Thanks for the insight and the info, a very good read! We are in the process of schooling up with our mildot master program now and plan on going to the Pawnee Grasslands soon to dial everything in. Your statement on another rifle is a good idea. Maybe a twin to his Rem 700 22-250 B&C stock that we have set up for prarie dogs (he loves that rifle) only in .308 since we reload I can keep supplies the same, that way we could compare the Savage to the Rem There is also some good .308 surplus out there for plinking if you look close and stay in the northern hemisphere on suppliers.
Thanks again!
 
I agree with you as well federal farmer, I too am a Swarovski fan. I have their glass on my 270WSM A-bolt and dropped a 8 pt bull elk @ 225yd.
Thanks again for your input!
 
As talliv says, it is tough to spot bullet holes in paper any farther out than 200-300 yards with even a first class spotting scope. Friend of mine said he was seeing 6mm holes at 600 with a 55X March rifle scope he got to try at a big match, but that is exceptional for glass and probably good viewing conditions.

A HARD steel gong and sending Junior on a hike to repaint it every several shots will show up better; you can see the bullet splash pretty well to 600 yards with a medium grade spotting scope. If you hang it right, you can HEAR the hits that far.

Problem is, you don't know where you are missing to if you don't ring the gong. Maybe Junior needs an atv to go inspect a LARGE paper target every once in a while. That friend's home setup is an 18 inch gong at 600 yards with a 4 foot paper backer. If we don't ring the gong in a reasonable number of tries, we drive down and see where we are on the paper.

I have been thinking about a video camera near the target and an rf link back to the firing line, but am not competent to pick the equipment to be sure of doing the job.
 
Thanks Jim,
We are going to get an amour plate silloette as we go forward, Our goal is 1000 yards but it will all take time and allot of work but hey thats what both of want to do, I just want to be sure that I'm looking at the correct equipment.

By the way this forum is great!
Thanks
 
btw, there was a group of Marine snipers in WY offering instruction in long-range shooting to the public. They had a forum with pretty interesting content. it was longrangeinternational.com but the board says it's currently disabled now.

I believe most of them were members here too, but LittleLebowski is the only username i remember.
 
The Savage/Leupold combo should do well for you. Having a TRG in 338LM I can say it's a little more costly to shoot but a pretty big step up from the .308 and is a blast to shoot.
I use a couple of Swaro 80 Hd's and they work well for LR spotting. Seeing 30 cal bullet holes at 600 yards in tan or white targets isnt a problem when the mirage isnt ripping.

I would highly reccomend a spotter, while the 20X of your scope is ok, it wont do what a 40,50, 60 X spotter will do.
 
Thanks for all of the help and info guys!
dubbleA - I can only hope one day to experience your TRG!!! Thanks for the Swaro info as well
taliv-
I have read all of Zak Smith's articles (pretty smart guy). You are correct he does hail from CO almost in my back yard. I plan on getting in touch with him if I can. He seems to be a very busy guy and hard to track down but I am a very patient fellow. I heard about and also can't find any info on the Marines out of Wy.
I'm sure I will have several questions going forward so please be patient!!!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top