My club has benchrest and cast bullet benchrest matches at 200 yards that I would like to become involved in. It is off-season now so I can't really go to a match and see what everybody is using yet, so I thought I'd throw it out here for opinions.
The benchrest guys are a serious bunch with all kinds of fancy rifles and techniques. The cast bullet guys are more laid back and seem to have a little more fun with the process. I will likely gravitate to the cast bullet group for the most part, but would like the opportunity to shoot with the serious benchrest group in the factory stock class occasionally. I wonder if one can use the same rifle for cast bullets and the high-end bullets used by the serious guys?
Either way I don't have a lot of money to spend on customized rifles and would like to just get a solid factory stock rifle to use for the next couple of years and see if I stay with the sport.
First I need to decide on caliber. I will most likely reload for whatever caliber I choose. I already shoot .06 in military rifles and have been making a concentrated effort to keep my calibers constrained to minimize cost and complexity (for example I only shoot 38/.357, no 44). Having said that, I don't see near as many options for bullets and the like for .06 advertised as I do for 308. From my few discussions with the guys it seems just about everybody shoots 308. Comments like, "you will end up shooting 308 eventually" makes me wonder if I should just bite the bullet and go with that caliber out of the shoots?
How about a rifle? Savage seems to be mentioned fairly frequently. Which model would be good for this discipline?
The only modern bolt-action rifle I have now is a ruger m77 in 6mm rem. But it is more of a short, light weight hunting rifle, and don't know whether it is worth messing with benchrest or not. Not even sure I've seen cast bullets in 6mm?
Thanks
The benchrest guys are a serious bunch with all kinds of fancy rifles and techniques. The cast bullet guys are more laid back and seem to have a little more fun with the process. I will likely gravitate to the cast bullet group for the most part, but would like the opportunity to shoot with the serious benchrest group in the factory stock class occasionally. I wonder if one can use the same rifle for cast bullets and the high-end bullets used by the serious guys?
Either way I don't have a lot of money to spend on customized rifles and would like to just get a solid factory stock rifle to use for the next couple of years and see if I stay with the sport.
First I need to decide on caliber. I will most likely reload for whatever caliber I choose. I already shoot .06 in military rifles and have been making a concentrated effort to keep my calibers constrained to minimize cost and complexity (for example I only shoot 38/.357, no 44). Having said that, I don't see near as many options for bullets and the like for .06 advertised as I do for 308. From my few discussions with the guys it seems just about everybody shoots 308. Comments like, "you will end up shooting 308 eventually" makes me wonder if I should just bite the bullet and go with that caliber out of the shoots?
How about a rifle? Savage seems to be mentioned fairly frequently. Which model would be good for this discipline?
The only modern bolt-action rifle I have now is a ruger m77 in 6mm rem. But it is more of a short, light weight hunting rifle, and don't know whether it is worth messing with benchrest or not. Not even sure I've seen cast bullets in 6mm?
Thanks