Sgt. Chuck Mawhinney has 103 confirmed kills using a Remington 700 with a 10-power scope and a bag of rice.
This write up is the start of a series that will focus on the long-range precision shooting. The series will cover equipment, training, fundamentals and overall concepts.
The first topic we would like to cover is rifle selection.
When choosing a rifle, you need to ask yourself what is my intended purpose for the equipment. Is it for bench rest shooting, hunting, competitive precision rifle shooting, is it for work or simply just banging steel at distance.
Competition and bench rest rifles could weigh as much as 19 lbs. with barrels up to 26 inches.
They are extremely accurate and the weight absorbs the recoil nicely. However imagine humping around that rifle up the side of a mountain at 12,000 feet elevation to stalk game and get close enough to take a shot.
For the most part you will be so gassed that taking aim and taking a shot would be extremely difficult, that is if you were even able to make it to your hunting location.
In contrast, a 7 lbs. 30-6 rifle with a fixed 10 power scope with covered elevation and windage turrets and basic duplex reticle would not be ideal for precision rifle shooting matches.
Recoil would be horrendous and you will lack the ability to adjust for varying distances quickly to be competitive.
I personally use a Ruger Precision Rifle in .308 with a Vortex Viper PST Gen2 scope in MOA.
Pick a rifle that will suit your purpose. Also understand that there are rifles that can fill multiple roles. Do your research and stay tuned to learn more.
Until next time…
– Yago
