I like to shoot, mostly for competition. That said I am looking for ideas for my next rifle. Currently I have a Remington 700 and a Remington .22(Long). I like both but I am now looking for something that can be reliable to 750+ meters - hopefully I can keep up with it! Please keep in mind this has to be CA legal, which I am aware rules out some REALLY good models

Any of you distance shooters have any good suggestions for me?

 

I haven't shot really long range in a while, but my suggestion is a quality bolt action rifle with a medium heavy or heavy barrel and the best quality glass you can afford. For calibers, if you're not recoil sensitive, the 300 Mag is really hard to beat. Many folks dislike the short neck on this round, but shoot one with 190 gr handloads, and you'll be quite impressed. Other plausible rounds are the 30-06, 280 Rem and 7mm Mag. The army shoots 1000 yards at Camp Perry with .308s, so really caliber choice is broad. Do some minor work to you rifle ( I love Remington 700s and Ruger #1s) like polishing the action, installing a better adjustable trigger, glass bedding your action and relieving barrel pressure on the stock. If you handload, work up some test rounds to see what you rifle likes best (here high b.c.s are important, as well as bullet mfg quality) .Once done, you'll have a rifle capable of shooting as good as you, and probably better.

 

might want to look into the weatherby 30-.378 seems the military did alot of long range testing on it and seems to be a good flat shooter. hopefully i will find out befor the snow flies if not have to wait till spring.

 

If it's flat trajectory you're looking for, consider the Remington .244. Nix it tho for anything much above 90 gr, and windy conditions. But it does shoot flat!

 

Ditto what GreenSubmarine said.

The .308 has been the top of the heap in Long Range for a looooonnnnng time.
The .300 Win Mag is right up there, too, now.
Some like the Winchester mdl 70. Something about it that drives people ga-ga.
Me, I'm a Remington man.
There's a lot to be said about the shorter cartridges with high loading density (like the .308).
I've never owned a .308, but, I do have the Remington 700 BDL in .30-'06 and put a Leuopold 3x9 scope on it that is darned accurate out to 600 yds.
(EDIT: It used to be. Since I broke my neck, I've not done too much shooting of high power rifle.)

Working up the load is half the fun. My rifle is fond of Sierra's 168 gr. BTHP and Win 748 powder, in Federal cases and primers. The same bullet and IMR 4064 is real good, too.

For a consistent, accurate rifle, I'd suggest the 700 PSS or Varmint rifle in .308 and some good 'glass' up top.

 

what kind of price range are you looking at? one the most accurate rifles "out of the box" is a Sako 75, each rifle must shoot a 5 round group at under 1 MOA at 100 yrds or its scraped (around $1000.00)

 

You might want to look at a used Remington 40X. I have several and they all are shooters. It is a factory bench gun. For the yardage your talking about, a 30 caliber is going to hold up best. The 300 Win. Mag is popular. I don't especially care for it though mine shoots as good as any. The short neck (less than one caliber in length) is not especially lending itself to accuracy. The 308 Norma mag is another good caliber. It has shot some fantastic groups at 1000 yards. The favorite of mine which is a factory chambering for the 40X is the 30-338 mag. It is the 338 mag necked down to 30 caliber. It will stay with the 300 Win mag and the Norma but requires less powder to achieve the same results. It is also a favorite of Bob Pease who is world renown for his expertise in long range shooting. My 40X is from his shop. Bob is dead but if you can find one of his rifles- they are tops. If you don't want an exotic caliber or just don't want to handload, the simple 308 Winchester has brought home more gold than most. At one time it was the favorite caliber of bench shooters. You might also want to get involved at Benchrest Central. Here is the link:
http://www.benchrest.com/forums/

Just remember, when shooting long range benchrest, the name of the game is the same. Meaning, if you do the exact same thing every shot, good groups will be the result.

 

I guess I should have asked, is this for pleasure, or will you be competing seriously? How much do you want to spend? Again, my thoughts are to spend less on a quality rifle and more on precision optics, but that's just me talking.

 

Check out the Browning falling block, single shot, several calibers. Very nice, accurate rifle.

 

This will start out as pleasure but if I can shoot at 500 meters like I can at 300 than I may try and compete. The Remington 700 is great at 300 but at longer distances I am not sure if it's me or the rifle. Of course my natural instinct is to blame the rifle I won't know until I get something that suits me better than the 700. As for what I want to spend - I'd like to keep it under $1200 or so. I will need to spend a bit more on a reloading kit as I currently buy rounds from the store and some really good optics will run me more $$$.

That reminds me - what optics do you guys use?

 

We shot Remington 700's very similar to the 700 SPS DM's 30-06 with Unertl 8x scopes in the Marine Corps for Designated Marksman school. We shot up to 800 yards with the 700's, and they were very accurate. I could usually place 7-9 rounds out of 10 in the black from that distance. That kind of shooting takes a lot of discipline and the fundamentals of marksmanship have to really be practiced and become second nature. The 700 you have is more than capable of delivering the shot, it's up to you to place it. Good luck with it, I know I had a helluva lot of fun when I used to go out to the range.

 

I would say that if your gun shoots well at 300m and has problems beyond, it is most likely shooter error. Minor mistakes are magnified tremendously at longer distances. Other possible contributors are poor bullet design/incompatible loads, and minor elements of the rifle that could use some attention (usually the trigger). As for optics, very often you get what you pay for. For serious glass, plan on spending serious money. Zeiss, Swarovski and Kahles are top of the line in no particular order. Leupold (I'm a huge fan - almost all my glass has a gold ring) makes some high quality optics at a lower price, but I feel the quality is not the same as the above either. Everyone has their own preferences, but my experience has been that it's best to avoid Bushnell, Burris, Nikon, Simmons and Tasco for the kind of work you're looking for. Premium glass will blow your budget listed above, but you can't hit what you can't see.

 

Hmmm, good info. Maybe I should look into a few things first. I don't load my own ammo, I buy off the shelf. And my current optics are actually Bushnell. Perhaps based on Basstardo's experience with the 700 I should spend on a reload kit and better optics before changing rifles. I DO like the way the 700 "feels", I've become accustomed to it.

As for minor corrections, what can I have done to the trigger assembly? How about the barrel, should I consider switching it out for longer ranges?

 

Haha - because your avatar is R. Lee Ermey and your response was so technical I thought for a minute I was watchign the show "Mail Call"!

 

another thought, the rem model 700 is one of the most common actions that percision rifles are built on. you may want to look at having it rebarreled with a good bull barrel,have it free floated, have the action tuned, trigger job or a new trigger, and a nice aluminium bedded tactical stock and you should be good to go.
what cal. is your current rifle (not the .22)