As firearm and ammunition costs have skyrocketed recently and once-common items have become… uncommon, accomplishing anything related to shooting is now extremely difficult. This is especially true for something that was already not particularly cheap. Case in point: precision rifle shooting, or long-range rifle shooting.
Of course, “long range” is a relative term. If you rarely shoot your AR-15 past 25 yards, then hitting something at 300 might seem like a daunting obstacle. At the other end of the spectrum, guys shooting .375 CheyTac practically need satellite imagery to hit targets at the extreme end of their maximum effective range.
For the purposes of this article, I’ll cover shooting out to 600 yards, which is enough of a challenge to keep seasoned shooters on their toes without being too difficult for a new shooter to consider. As I occasionally shoot at informal 600 yard shooting matches near my home, this is a topic with which I am somewhat familiar. You might not want to enter matches any time soon, but you might still be interested in “going the distance.” What follows are a few things I’ve learned along the way which might be helpful to those looking to start shooting farther than they’re used to.
1) You Might Have What You Need Already
While most matches are won with accurate rifles, they are more importantly won by skilled shooters.
Almost any rifle capable of propelling a bullet past supersonic speeds at your desired range is suitable for entry level practice or matches. At 600 yards, that means your dad’s old hunting rifle or even that M4 Carbine clone you paid too much for will do the job.
If you were looking to use long range shooting as an excuse to buy a cool new rifle, hey, don’t let me stop you. But if you take that money and invest it in range time, ammunition, and so on, it’s my personal opinion that you’ll be far better off – and you’ll have more experience with which to make purchasing decisions for the future.
2) Be Flexible
You might not have anything really suitable for long-range shooting right now. That’s okay. You have a lot of options! Of course, each one of these options has its proponents and detractors. Everyone loves to argue in favor of their pet rifle or cartridge.
As I said above, if the projectile fired by the rifle you’re looking at remains supersonic well past the distance at which you want to shoot, it’s at least capable of getting you started. Some are better than others, obviously, and it’s best to choose something that’s intended for maintaining accuracy and velocity at extreme ranges. For long range shooting, strongly consider getting a rifle with a fast rate of twist for a given caliber. That will enable you to use the largest range of projectiles. If you’re not sure what that means, see point 4.
However, some very suitable candidates may not be immediately obvious. Conversely, the most obvious choices may not be suitable for you – for example, due to ammunition availability issues.
I like my .260 Rem and 6.5 Creedmoor rifles because they’re eminently suited to the task, but it’s sure a lot easier to find ammo for my .30-06. When I’m really serious about a match, I’ll take the time and spend the money to prepare accordingly. But if I’m just looking to maintain proficiency and/or have fun, I won’t hesitate to use surplus or bulk-grade ammunition in less-than-ideal rifles.
Others might be overkill. You could use a .338 Lapua to snipe midgets on other continents, but many matches prohibit such beasts for reasons of muzzle blast and additional damage to targets – not to mention that you won’t be shooting nearly as much at $4 a round.
Some have a lot of data or good factory loads, but aren’t ideal from a ballistic sense. One of the most popular cartridges for 600 yard shooting is .308, and there are plenty of known good .308 handload “recipes,” as well as a number of super-accurate factory ammunition SKUs. But .308 drops a lot more than some of the 6.5s or the more powerful .30 cartridges like .300 Win Mag, and it’s one of the first cartridges to sell out when there’s a whiff of panic in the air.
What I’m getting at is that each and every one of these cartridges is capable of “getting it done.” Try to avoid making a hard decision to include or exclude certain rifles/cartridges until you look at what’s available and affordable for you.
On that note, keep your mind open when it comes to rifles, too. I’ve had excellent results with rifles from a variety of manufacturers, including Remington, Savage, Tikka, and Weatherby. And some of my most accurate out-of-the-box rifles have been very inexpensive, such as the Tikka T3s, Weatherby Vanguards, and Savage Trophy Hunters.
Another thing to consider is that some people might be looking to unload good bolt action rifles as they switch to semi autos for long range shooting or as they try to buy ARs before they think they’ll be banned. So keep an eye out for good used rifles.
3) If You Spend Too Much Money On Anything, Make It Ammunition
There are a number of ways to approach the purchase of ammunition for long range shooting. The competition-oriented stuff will shoot flatter, farther, and with less wind drift than Walmart-grade soft point hunting ammo or 5.56mm M855, but a rifle and ammo combination mechanically capable of maintaining 3 MOA is more than enough to stay entirely on the black, or center of the target, if you do your part.
Of course, if you can get your hands on match ammunition for your particular firearm, you would be well-advised to do so. A quality rifle will shoot much more consistently with good ammunition than it will with mass-produced bulk ammunition. Examples of what I use when I shoot factory ammo include Federal Gold Medal Match and Hornady Match, as well as HSM ammunition loaded with Berger bullets.
However, if you pay too much for match ammo, you won’t shoot as much – so you won’t be able to maintain proficiency. Chances are that a thrown shot on your part will drop your score more than a slightly higher variation in muzzle velocity.
To that end, buy a lot of ammo when it’s available at a price you can afford. I’ve made a lot of purchases I regret – none of them involve ammunition, with the exception of poor-quality surplus ammo from third-world countries that ended up being unsafe to shoot.
Of course, this article would not be complete without a mention of reloading/handloading. I wholeheartedly recommend getting in to handloading, but right now, components are in extremely short supply. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t piece together what you can to get started, but unlike years past, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to start handloading in a short period of time. In the meantime, make sure you save all of your factory brass.
4) Study Ballistics
Knowledge of a topic will help you make the right purchasing decisions. And since a lot of long range shooting involves a bullet flying through the air, you should learn about how bullets fly through the air.
There have been more recent books on the topic, but one of my favorites is The Bullet’s Flight From Powder To Target, which covers a lot of information about internal and external ballistics. The author conducted a lot of studies and experiments and then wrote a book about them. Although it was published over a century ago, physics hasn’t changed much since then.
Another great (and free!) resource is Fr. Frog’s page on external ballistics. Once you’ve learned a bit about the topic, you can use the JBM ballistic calculator to estimate the trajectory and wind drift of your chosen cartridge, provided you know things such as ballistic coefficient and muzzle velocity.
5) Shoot .22LR, But Do So Wisely
The most effective way to shoot smaller groups is to become more proficient at rifle shooting. If you have no formal or quality informal marksmanship training to use as a basis for skills development, see if there’s an Appleseed shoot in your area. Outside of the US or in areas where those shoots may not be frequent, try to find a range where precision rifle shoots are held and see if the range officers or competitors know someone willing to observe your shooting and offer tips for improvement.
A common method for new or old shooters to improve skills involves the use of .22LR. Although it’s hard to find at the moment, and I wouldn’t recommend paying exorbitant prices for it, this is the method I use when I can’t or don’t want to shoot centerfire. That said, I don’t blast through as much .22 as I can whenever I feel like it. My most effective shooting trips generally involve firing 50 to 100 rounds in a deliberate manner. Once round counts start to reach into the hundreds, I feel that I reach a point of diminishing returns.
If you’ve been thinking about getting in to long range shooting, don’t let current prices scare you. Give some thought to exactly what you want to accomplish, research the topic, and then go have fun.
The Isle of Midgets called. They are scared. 🙂
Great article Andrew. Thank you.
LOL. That .338 Lapua ballistics chart caption is fantastic. Thanks for the thoughts.
Great article, very good…from a 338lm/300winmag owner – I agree with your assessments, and the wow..that 338 Ballistics Chart..wow..good one.. Another topic…Scopes..ah yes..the MILL ion dollar question….
Yeah, I figured I’d leave that as a separate topic.
I’d like to see a bit about scopes too
You’re wrong. I read on the Internet that AR-15s can’t hit anything beyond 300 yards.
They can’t post anything that’s not true on the internet. Effective range of military grade ammunition is 550m.
…what?
You are mistaken. I have a DPMS ar15 and have taken coyote out to 550 yards
Shoot, and I was beginning to question myself for buying a bolt action .22 because I wanted to learn how to shoot more accurately.
What range do you use when you are doing your tune-up with the .22?
Anywhere from 50 feet to 100 yards, 200 on occasion.
Crazy may pop into your head, but hear me out. Buy a Mosin Nagant, get a bent bolt, float the barrel, scope mount, and presto a cheap precision rifle. Most are 1-2 moa capable, even with surplus spam can ammo. Winchester and Privi make excellent ammo for matches. The whole set up only costs 300-400$.
Except for $300-400 you can get a brand new Savage Axis, Marlin X-7, Mossberg ATR or, best choice, a Weatherby Vanguard… the last of which comes with a 1 MOA guarantee (and meets it, I know, I have one). And they all come in a wider variety of more versatile calibers with lots more ammo choices and greater availability.
Oh and they’ll all be ready to go right out of the box instead of having to mail-order in a bunch of obscure parts and do a bunch of handwork to get the Mosin in shape.
I wish more people would buy a .22 with some Wolf Match Extra instead of a .308/300 with a Bushnell Banner and some Federal Blue Box. 200 yards is WAAAY out there for some.
Worst are the tacticool hobby snipers with their “custom” Remington SPS tacticals covered in overpriced aftermarket gimmicks.
best purchase IMO is ballistic software, the shooting is the easy part, the hard part turning your rifle into a capability. You don’t need a $700 PDA with horus, you can get a basic app and save a lot of time and money doing things the old way…..shooting a ton getting D.O.P.E.
Nice blog, I’m glad you mentioned #5. I shoot long range and practicing between long range shots with my old Mossberg LS144 has been good for my routine. Plus it’s cheap (or at least use to be).
Wanted to add comment how important it is to do several practice dry fires on target before the real one. For me it settles me down and I get my trigger control.. under control. If you’re drifting off target when you break the trigger during a dry fire, guess what’s going to happen with the real thing.. Fix this problem (with practice) best you can before spending big money on a fancy rifle.
Andrew, get article as always. I also love the .338 graphic! I think optics should be covered as well. A lot of people buy expensive rifles and go cheap on glass. They then wonder why they’re not getting the results they “should” be getting.
andrew, what’s your thoughts on rifle optics? i know some folks recommend simple fixed power mil-dot with ao, while others go the variable route with reticles out of a star wars movie. bub
I do a fair amount of long range shooting and the best rifle for the job is… whatever rifle you have that can reach out there. I typically shoot at torso sized steel targets so I get instant feedback, and I practice with everything from iron sighted Garands to ARs to a .338 Win Mag. What matters most is that I know the dope of my rifles and that I practice. I’ve won more than a few lunches shooting my .223 Remington VTR with a 3×9 Leupold scope, from guys with $3500 rifles carrying $2500 optics because the owners don’t know where their rifles hit at distance.
I’m an IPSC pistolero but I’m starting to get attracted to the sweet .22lr. This was a very encouraging article and I’m getting closer to buying my first rifle!
Cheers,
TZH
Hey, I found this article to be a fun read. Really enjoyed the suggestion to shoot .22LR I happen to have a few thousand rounds of it currently going unused. IF anyone is interested in buying a Mossberg ATR .270 rifle, just give me a shout.
4USD/round is the price Brazilian shooters pay for .308 ammo.
I also suggest visiting shooterready.com. I think I saw it advertised on the blog..
Before I go purchase a long range setup,I’ll ask myself..”what is the max range that “I” am going to use this at? and get something that works good at that range..not something that is struggling to hit that range when I pull the trigger.
Maybe consider a laser rangefinder and a kestrel wind meter.
Something not mentioned were optics. That’s where the big piece of change should be spent if putting together a new rig. How good/much$ depends on how far out you intend to shoot. But remember also that WW-II and Viet Nam snipers were using 4x and 10x scopes.
Someone else mentioned a good ballistics calculator – and you can buy a very good one on-line through the App store called Ballistic AE – very full featured and easy to use, and if you have your iPhone with you, you’ll have a good ballistics calculator with you :).
And if you’re really serious about it all, look at picking up one of the MagnetoSpeed chronograph units – their “sporter” runs about $180, the fancier V3 runs right at $400. The thing is that you cannot get good ballistics tables without knowing the true muzzle velocity you’re getting with your rifle. For example, Hornady says the 140gr 6.5CM has MV of 2710 fps – after timing 4 boxes, I found that on average out of my rifle, the MV was higher than that by 56fps, and that does make a difference (about 15 inches of difference) at 1000 yards.
Andrew thank you for the article. I have put together many firearms for different individuals and its always good to listen to good ideas. Your 550 meters and 300 yards comments for this article, with respect, if you recieve that fact from military instructors that is what is called a baseline. 300 Yards is not meters and we shoot that as a baseline at the range. Marines shoot out to 600 meters at their ranges. My 249 SAW with optics were taking targets down at 800 meters. Andrew could you do an article on MOA? There are alot of people that run off the 1 inch at 100 yards rule but do not truely understand it. Thanks again for the article.
I never mentioned 550 meters in the article?
I was very interested in your book on ballistics. I shoot targets at 200 hundred yards with a 22LR..The most consistent round I have found with out buying match
amo is federal Lighting. You might want to try it.
How can I get into precision shooting matches? I have a lot of time on my hands to do so.
Great article.
Love the 6.5mm Creedmoor – just needs more support from more manufacturers. Talk about hard to find sometimes!
The advice on practicing technique with something inexpensive to shoot (.22LR for example) is spot on – I do exactly that with a CZ-455 that really likes Aguila Rifle Match 40 grain – at about a dime a pop. Much less expensive than the 6.5CM that run in the neighborhood of $1.25 each for good factory loads (Hornady’s 120 AMAX actually most consistent I’ve found so far – muzzle velocity within 8fps of published with a standard deviation of about 14fps).