New to Long Range looking for advice.

[Gun4Fun90]

Hi, I grew up around shotguns and bird hunting but never really got into it, But in more recent years have really have really enjoyed going to the range to shoot my 1911 and Ruger AR-15.

I now am considering getting into long range rifles and am looking at advice. I am looking for a bolt action rifle and am leaning towards something in 308.

I like to go to the range for 8-12 hrs at a time and go thought quite a bit of ammo, however I am also thinking I may at some point in the future like to try and go deer hunting. (I just don't live in a great area for it at the moment.)

So I am looking for something that would make both a good range gun and be good for hunting. I am also not trying to spend a fortune as I will probably need to also invest in a good optic for it and good glass tends to be expensive, also every dollar saved on the gun is a dollar spent on ammo.

I have read good things about the Ruger American being one of the best values but it seems very basic and like something I would be replacing in a few years for something with more features.

The Savage 110 Tactical caught my eye as something with many features I would want. I am particularly fond of the fact it takes stranded magazines, the big rubbery bolt handle and the threaded barrel for the muzzle device. However when I was researching it some people were saying it is not a gun you would take hunting, and I was wondering why that was.

Thank you for the advice in advance.

 

[Demi-human]

Welcome to the Forum!

In the first mile one understands why hunting rifles are built light weight.
Unless you get to the Deer Stand before that!

An eighteen pound Benchrest rifle is just fine for stand hunting, where you haul it out and sit with coffee and wait and have an excellent rest to steady everything on. The 110 is seven pounds without a scope. Not the lightest thing ever, but not out of line by any means.

Stalking and being quiet with a heavy rifle will drain you fast. Long barrels snag on branches and need more room to turn when lining a shot. This model 110 has a reasonable barrel length, not like the long tube Precision models. Big, bottom hanging magazines snag too, but shorter ones can be substituted while hunting. And it sounds like you would enjoy these features while practicing at the range.

None of these are really an issue with the 110 Tactical. The only drawback to that rifle is the name. I don’t know why it throws some hunters off, but hunting was the very first “tactical” game in town. Everything that makes a good hunting rifle is tactical. Lightweight, large easy to use controls, matte finish.

That’s a long way to say I have no idea why anyone would say that’s not a good hunting rifle. Maybe they just don’t like Savages.

“You know, if it isn’t blue and walnut, blah, blah Model pre-64, blah, blah, .270, blah, mumble, mumble...”

There’s nothing wrong with the American either. It may be a good idea to get an inexpensive Ruger and flog it to death with cases of ammunition with the money you saved.


I have never known firearm aficionados to be opinionated and judgmental...

#Savageforthewin

What ranges do you have to shoot? Why .308?

 

[Robert]

How far is long range?

 

[wiscoaster]

I think your idea of choosing your caliber first and then picking the best rifle to shoot it is the best way to start. So you might define what your desired target range is, as Robert asked above, and then investigate the ballistic properties of the various calibers you're considering at that distance. Play around with a bullet ballistic calculator - there are a number of them online you can use for free - and plot the results graphically or in a table. Here's one I like to use. Most ammo manufacturers publish the inputs.

https://lrbc.vortexoptics.com/#!/

 

[Gun4Fun90]

“You know, if it isn’t blue and walnut, blah, blah Model pre-64, blah, blah, .270, blah, mumble, mumble...”

can’t blame them walnut is sexy!

What ranges do you have to shoot? Why .308?

range has no restrictions they even allow 50bmg and fully automatic rifles if you are lucky enough to have one. As long as your safe and respectful of course.

I was leaning towards 308 simply because I know myself and I’m gonna want to spend hours at the range really having some fun and with the cost per round difference between 308 and 270 I figure we are talking at least a $140-$200 difference in ammo cost over the course of a single day.

Otherwise my ideal would just be a 30-06, love going out with my buddy and shooting his 30-06. But I figured 308 would be a good compromise between a round that is affordable to go shoot tons of at the range and something that if I decided I did want to get into deer hunting would be acceptable.

Although after last month where I shot.... a little (lot) more than I could really afford I have come to,the conclusion that I need to start repacking my own ammo. Problem is I live (and work) in the city at the moment and space is a problem.

 

[Gun4Fun90]

https://lrbc.vortexoptics.com/#!/

huge fan of Vortex Optics

 

[Demi-human]

But I figured 308 would be a good compromise between a round that is affordable to go shoot tons of at the range and something that if I decided I did want to get into deer hunting would be acceptable.

Where .22 caliber is legal for deer I find .223 acceptable. Great hunting bullets and loads abound.
And is ever so much more inexpensive to send down range. If you really want to shoot as much as you say, more can be had for the same money with the other most ubiquitous cartridge in America.

Even the Creedmoor is becoming less expensive than the .308 to feed.

And learning to read wind at reasonable distances carries over to any cartridge.

In fact, a new PTG bolt head and barrel can change the cartridge of your well loved Savage after a good long run.

I highly recommend handloading!
Just because I like it so much.


If you are not like me and do not have the Pokémon Firearms Disease (gotta have em all) consider a nicer rifle upfront. One nice rifle, well understood bests a safe full of under a hundred wonder guns.
I see little utility in micro-upgrades along the way.
A waste of the time at the range with a lesser rifle component. Like, why struggle with an ill fitting stock from the get go, just to replace it with the one you wanted in the first place.


I love my Savage.