I am looking to get into bolt action precision shooting soon. Been shooting handguns and carbines for a few years, but unfortunately, I am almost clueless when it comes to bolt action precision rifles.
Can someone point me in the right direction to get started? I’d love to obviously get good enough and have the funds to acquire one of those nice custom rifles with high end glass one day, but I’d like to start it slow. Any suggestions as to how to get started (Remington 700 variant of some type?) and what pitfalls to avoid?
I apologize if this has been discussed before. I couldn’t find too many general noob posts in my quick search of the forum. Thanks in advance!
Buy rem700 AAC edition
Throw the stock away or sell it
Buy a good fiberglass stock or chassis system
buy a seekins 20moa rail
buy badger rings
buy vortex PST 4-16 mil/mil/ffp from Liberty Optics
Clamp it all together.
Then buy the best ammo you can afford, or buy reloading gear.
I’ll definitely be following this thread closely. I ordered my first bolt gun recently with the desire to get into precision shooting. I ordered the Remington 700 AAC-SD (as mentioned above and in a few other threads) and should be here any day now. Next will be a scope and bases/rings and then shoot it while I evaluate (actually save for) what I need to change out after that.
I almost went with a 700 SPS Tactical, which was a little less than the 700 AAC. But I like that the barrel is a 1:10 and comes threaded. I also looked into a Savage 10 FCP, but they weren’t readily available locally.
For scopes, I’ll looking anywhere from Leupold VX-II to Mark 4, Nikon Monarch and Nightforce. I think Nightforce is out of my price range for the time being, but one can always hope.
If I were you I wouldn’t rule out buying “used”. You can usually find a 700 of some variety that is ready to rock & roll w/ a good base, stock, sometimes even a bipod. They generally go for less than the seller has into it. Check the equip exchange here, other sites, or even an auction site. People are dumping things pretty cheap lately. Just a thought.
Why isn’t vortex in the list? You can get a vortex 4-16 PST mil/mil/ffp from liberty optics for under $800. It has a great illuminated reticle, exposed turrets with great clicks, zero stop, excellent glass, great warranty, and tracks good. What more could you want for an entry level scope?
I have to agree with orkan. I just jumped in and bought a 700 sps tactical. Not too bad. I had one precision classs under my belt but didn’t have my own rifle. replaced the stock and trigger.
We’ve worked ourselves out to 1000 yards over the last few months.
The sky is the limit on how much you can spend on precision gun stuff. But the Rem 700 is a solid starting point.
HS Precision is about the only solid performer you’ll find in that price point. Unless you can pick up a used manners or mcmillan off classifieds somewhere. Remember you’ll have to get it bedded too, so set aside about $150 for that.
The vortex pst is on the short list for my next scope. It’s available at price point that is reasonable with features that are hard to touch, without being well past 1k.
I am still considering the Vortex Viper PST scopes. Initially, I was looking at the 6-24x models and they were going for $750-$900. The question in my mind was at what price point do I just bite the bullet at just save for the Nightforce and I had arbitrarily set that at around $600, or about 1/3 the cost of the Nightforce, so that limited the scope options to the Nikon Buckmaster & Monarch series and Leupold VX-II. The thought was to go for the less expensive scope for now, learn on it and see what I like and don’t like and have more money to spend on ammo. That would get me up and running quicker. Yeah, I would likely end up buying another scope later on, but I would have something to base my future purchase on. If I went with the Nightforce straight away, I’d be waiting for a while longer to save for the scope and ammo and MAYBE it wouldn’t be what I find that I really wanted/liked. While I am pretty sure it will be MUCH MORE than good enough for me, the Nightforce scopes carry a big price tag.
Now I am looking at going with something in the 4-16x range and the Vortex Viper PST is going for around $700. The FFP version is going for $849. I haven’t decided yet, but I’m thinking of just going with the base SFP version for now. That is unless you guys have strong advice otherwise.
I checked out a Konuspro M30 scope at a local shop over the weekend and at around $350, and honestly I am sort of thinking of giving it a shot. It got an ok review on one of the sniper forums. Not as good a review as the Vortex Viper PST, but it is 1/3 the price. While they didn’t give it a full thumbs up, they didn’t trash it either.
Yeah, the more I look at the Vortex scopes and comes with a lot of features that I like. 75 MOA adjustment, illuminated reticle, MOA/MRAD reticle similar to the NP-R1, etc.
They are both SPS Tacticals, except one is the ACC edition more fully known as the SPS Tactical AAC-SD. The ACC edition is the way to go, between the 2, IMO.
I did order the 700 SPS Tactical AAC-SD. Should be here any day now. I was getting lazy and figured just cut it off to 700 AAC and you guys would know what I meant.
I like that the AAC-SD version is 1:10 and could handle the heavier bullets. The 700 SPS Tactical with the 1:12 probably would’ve probably been just fine though.
I could be wrong, but I believe most, if not all, of the Remington 700 308s are 1:12 except for the AAC-SD, which, as has already been stated, is 1:10, and models with the 5R barrel, which are 1:11.25.
Savage 308 bolts, on the other hand, are mostly, if not all, 1:10.
I was getting ready to buy a AAC-SD when I ran into a sweet deal on a 700P cut to 20" and threaded in an adjustable McMillan stock, so I ended up ith a 1:12. It is a great shooter (better than me) but I sometimes wonder if I should have gone the AAC-SD route.
