I saw couple Tikkas at the LGS yesterday that had factory brakes. Looked them up... yes some models can be had with brakes. That being said, I have had multiple X-Bolts and still have two that will go to the grave with me. All shot sub MOA easily. The two I have are 1/2" shooters consistently and have taken multiple game beyond 600 yds. Both are 6.5 lb rifles naked.
“Long range” non custom rifle advice
- Thread starter huntin24/7
- Start date
huntin24/7
Well-known member
Yes, I started at 1 grain increments to get an idea of what was working best. I was thinking about trying a 4 shot group with 63 grains and 4 at 63.5. Shooting those Berger vld’s, I’m not as concerned about speed since they don’t need as much as some others to open up, so if the faster ones don’t work out, I’m not terribly concerned. All else being equal though, a little extra speed is always nice. Been working too much. Will update Thursday if the wind stays down enough to shoot again.
Don Fischer
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2017
- Messages
- 3,016
I have never had a desire to be a long range hunter other than vermin. I've never even been much on shooting paper at much over 200yds. My rifles have been zero'd for MPBR for years and with that a direct hold just a bit high give's me a good hit at 300yds. I have only ever taken a shot much past 200yds once in my life, 330 measured yds just to say I did it. So about the rifle choice, my opinion is just that, an opinion. I believe most competitive shooter's use actions that are round. The brand vary's from commercial to custom but I think it's that way for a couple reason's. Round is a lot easier to bed and round actions are stiffer. Were I the OP I'd be looking only at rifles with round actions. I don't think brand is all that important. I like Remington 700's and find them easy to bed. And I pretty much have always bedded my round action rifles. I have a Mod 70 and haven't a clue what to do with it but it is a 1" shooter so I'm good with that. I would not get a Mod 70 for a long rang rifle for no other reason than I'm not sure how to bed it as well as a round action. I think most action's today are round. But, what ever you get I'd plan on bedding the action and barrel Those machined metal block's may be very good but nothing machined will conform to an action like something like JB Weld will.
huntin24/7
Well-known member
Well, I’m done testing Loads as of today. The faster load that was a 3 shot 3/4” 100 yard group last time I tried shot really well again. 4 shots, 3 were in 1/4” and 1 was 1/2” beyond that, but that one was from a cold barrel and I accidentally loaded it .010 shorter than the others, but still 4 within 3-4”. Time to load them up, sight in, and start developing a drop chart.
