Frank Galli Interview

[Buzznrose]

I’ve not spent much time on the Snipers Hide forum but I listened to Ryan Gresham’s interview with Frank Galli (the founder?) and his background and the discussion was very interesting to me.

I thought I’d share for folks into long range shooting. It’s not really technical, it’s more kinda background and past history.

Makes me want to get back on the itch to go learn to shoot beyond 300 yards…maybe this summer is the time…

Precision Beyond Belief Pt. 1 | Gun Talk Nation

Podcast Episode · Gun Talk · 02/13/2025 · 33m

podcasts.apple.com

 

[Walkalong]

Makes me want to get back on the itch to go learn to shoot beyond 300 yards…maybe this summer is the time…

It’s fun.

 

[Varminterror]

 

[horsemen61]

Yeah I love it

 

[Buzznrose]

LOL! Yeah, I didn’t expect any nay sayers…LOL!

Galli made a few great points on the interview regarding getting into this game…my favorite being his opinion that anyone could get into this game at the “bowling league” level (in it to have fun, learn something, and enjoy the competition and challenge) for the price of a decent bolt gun and scope.

 

[taliv]

These days that’s mostly true. 15 yrs ago it was expensive to get good equipment because everything was custom. Now you’ve got a dozen manufacturers of sub moa bolt guns in adjustable chassis with detachable box mags that work ok out of the box and cheap scopes are way way better than they used to be.

But at the same time awful lot of dudes are spending $800 on a bipod.

But don’t forget the price of ammo, and driving to a place to practice, and match fees and travel, and if you want to work on practical capability you are gonna need a LRF etc.

 

[Buzznrose]

These days that’s mostly true. 15 yrs ago it was expensive to get good equipment because everything was custom. Now you’ve got a dozen manufacturers of sub moa bolt guns in adjustable chassis with detachable box mags that work ok out of the box and cheap scopes are way way better than they used to be.

But at the same time awful lot of dudes are spending $800 on a bipod.

But don’t forget the price of ammo, and driving to a place to practice, and match fees and travel, and if you want to work on practical capability you are gonna need a LRF etc.

Maybe, but if I even considered getting into this, I’d be the guy with the Tikka or Ruger American in 6.5CM or 6 ARC, $500 optic, and an $80 bipod probably shooting Hornady ELD or Federal GMM ammo, at least for the first few times.

If I can’t have fun with that at first, I’d probably give it up and go back to shooting pistol and AR matches

 

[coloradokevin]

These days that’s mostly true. 15 yrs ago it was expensive to get good equipment because everything was custom. Now you’ve got a dozen manufacturers of sub moa bolt guns in adjustable chassis with detachable box mags that work ok out of the box and cheap scopes are way way better than they used to be.

But at the same time awful lot of dudes are spending $800 on a bipod.

But don’t forget the price of ammo, and driving to a place to practice, and match fees and travel, and if you want to work on practical capability you are gonna need a LRF etc.

There's no doubt you can spend a fortune on good equipment, and goodness knows I've spent a fortune on some of my precision rifle equipment.

But, I'll also say that my first real precision rifle was a Tikka Scout CTR (.308 Win) that I bought 15 years ago for $829, which I topped with a $300 Weaver Grand Slam Tactical 3-10x40mm MIL dot scope. That rifle has served me so well that I'll never sell it, despite having an Accuracy International and some other nicer toys that I like to use for competition/range use on a lot of trips out these days. Plus, I'll admit that I do have one tripod that's worth more than my Tikka. LOL.

That Tikka is my talking point with any new precision shooters because I think it gets people into an excellent starting position, and the price goes up 3-5x or more for some real diminishing returns as you start to move into the more fancy/custom type rifles. That Tikka has also shot some of my tightest groups over the years. At a range I used to shoot at the landowner asked us to deal with his prairie dog problems when we could, and I have hit prairie dogs at some ridiculous distances with that fairly basic setup, too. I just flipped through my logbook for that rifle and found one entry for a P-dog I hit at 695 yards, and I'm also pretty sure I have a successful 717 yard and 777 yard shot on P-dogs with that rifle logged as well - though without finding those specific entries in the log it could have been with the other rifle, too.

(NOTE: Picture here might not be a fair representation of how that rifle is setup - it was wearing my Schmidt and Bender scope in this photo, but that scope now lives on my Accuracy International, and the Tikka is back to using the 3-10x Weaver described above)

 

[Varminterror]

I’d be the guy with the Tikka or Ruger American in 6.5CM or 6 ARC, $500 optic, and an $80 bipod probably shooting Hornady ELD or Federal GMM ammo, at least for the first few times.

If I can’t have fun with that at first, I’d probably give it up

I met a guy through some mutual friends about a year and a half ago - helped him rebuild a Ruger American Predator in 6.5 Creed with a Vortex Strike Eagle on top to start shooting PRS matches. I did help him through component selection and load dev, instead of factory ammo, but the intent is the same. He’s regularly shooting 1,000 yards now and having the time of his life.

 

[hunt127588]

Frank is definitely one of the original guys out there. Precision shooting has changed a lot over the years.

 

[Buzznrose]

I met a guy through some mutual friends about a year and a half ago - helped him rebuild a Ruger American Predator in 6.5 Creed with a Vortex Strike Eagle on top to start shooting PRS matches. I did help him through component selection and load dev, instead of factory ammo, but the intent is the same. He’s regularly shooting 1,000 yards now and having the time of his life.

When you guys rebuilt the rifle, did you keep it a 6.5 CM?

 

[Varminterror]

When you guys rebuilt the rifle, did you keep it a 6.5 CM?

Yes. The first aspects we modified were the weight and balance. He is on a shoe string budget, trying to get started last season into an expensive sport AND start reloading, so a LOT of our conversations were spent talking him out of going too big too fast and blowing his budget on stuff like a new chassis or immediate rebarrel (even though they would be productive upgrades). He kept the factory barrel through last season, and just upgraded to a heavier X-caliber barrel this winter, again, in 6.5 Creed. He’ll eventually convert to something else, likely a 6 GT, but he’s saving up towards that cost of conversion while he shoots at least one more barrel life through 6.5 creed.

 

[MarshallDodge]

Maybe, but if I even considered getting into this, I’d be the guy with the Tikka or Ruger American in 6.5CM or 6 ARC, $500 optic, and an $80 bipod probably shooting Hornady ELD or Federal GMM ammo, at least for the first few times.

If I can’t have fun with that at first, I’d probably give it up and go back to shooting pistol and AR matches

You don't need fancy equipment to hit targets at long range. Add in some competition and that's where things get interesting. A good stock for a solid foundation, better glass to be able to do more than just aiming, triggers that are lighter AND consistent, cartridge choice for the best balance of range, recoil, and accuracy. Those all come into play when playing games.

 

[5whiskey]

These days that’s mostly true. 15 yrs ago it was expensive to get good equipment because everything was custom. Now you’ve got a dozen manufacturers of sub moa bolt guns in adjustable chassis with detachable box mags that work ok out of the box and cheap scopes are way way better than they used to be.

But at the same time awful lot of dudes are spending $800 on a bipod.

But don’t forget the price of ammo, and driving to a place to practice, and match fees and travel, and if you want to work on practical capability you are gonna need a LRF etc.

Being an Easterner with little open land, finding a place to shoot at distance is the toughest part for me. There are a few 500 yard ranges within a couple hours drive, one 1000 yard range (requires a quite expensive membership of 500 a year, plus it's a 2 hour drive). I used to be able to get range time at Butner on occasion, but I don't have those connections anymore. It's an expensive hobby by nature of time and logistics for me, not equipment, that I played out a few years ago. The 500 yard line is achieavable for most, even casual shooters. The 1000 yard line shakes out casual shooters... but hits at 1000 isn't the supernatural feat it was made out to be once upon a time.

These days I find that iron sights on 100 year old rifles are as much (or more) of a challenge at 300 yards, especially from actual field shooting positions.

 

[Buzznrose]

So I really liked part one of this interview but listened to part two and wow…I really don’t know diddley squat about modern long range shooting. This part 2 is quite technical and over my head…but also sparking a “I need to look into this deeper”. His discussion on MilDot vs MOA was really interesting.

Precision Beyond Belief Pt. 2 | Gun Talk Nation

Podcast Episode · Gun Talk · 02/19/2025 · 41m

podcasts.apple.com

 

[taliv]

Modern long range shooting is weird in that you can know almost nothing about it technically, and excel just with practice and young eyes. Or you can study it every day for a decade and still feel like you’ve scratched the surface and feel marginally capable

 

[Varminterror]

His discussion on MilDot vs MOA was really interesting.

Don’t get too axle wrapped by what Frank described about memorizing elevation scaling numbers or gun numbers for wind. That familiarity comes pretty easy in time, but starting out, all you need is a way to measure wind (he mentioned the Calypso and recommended a Kestrel before a chronograph), a way to measure range (everyone has an LRF), and a ballistic calculator (he mentioned applied ballistics “AB” being everywhere in everything). You’ll punch in your environmentals and your bullet data, then adjust your wind and range as you shoot and everything you need comes straight out of the solver. Yes, we can do calcs by hand, but the time spent just isn’t fruitful for new shooters, and that familiarity comes quickly.

 

[JmacD]

I met a guy through some mutual friends about a year and a half ago - helped him rebuild a Ruger American Predator in 6.5 Creed with a Vortex Strike Eagle on top to start shooting PRS matches. I did help him through component selection and load dev, instead of factory ammo, but the intent is the same. He’s regularly shooting 1,000 yards now and having the time of his life.

Nothing fancy about them and much of the design feels awkward and clunky in some ways(especially if you’re used to a custom of some sort!!) but those cheap buggers do seem to shoot pretty decent for the price point! Working at a customers house a couple years ago, and he comes in acting disgruntled. He’d been shooting out back, so of course I asked him what etc. He had a predator in 6.5 creed, and a vortex strike eagle or maybe the venom…. Anyway, his gripe? “See this?” (Pulls very pretty and highly customized model 70 from safe) I spent about $8k on this set up back in the 90s to get it to shoot like this less than $800 pile of….” You get the picture.

 

[Varminterror]

Ford Tempos got folks to work on time, but Cadillacs have nicer seats.