Recently I had the pleasure of shooting a 'sniper rifle' for the first time.
My background involves plinking of all kinds, and I am an avid appleseed enthusiast. I've shot two KD appleseed's, stretching out to 500 yards with my AR (shooting .223). Mostly I shoot .233/5.56 & .22. I've shot some .308, & 22/250, but really don't have much experience with larger calibers.
I'd recently been talking Long Distance shooting with an old school chum back home. Quite honestly, the math makes my head spin. But it's been very cold, and I've spent a lot of time indoors, so it was fun to discuss and research. During these discussions, I came across OneBadV8's 300 win mag rifle found in the Sniper Rifle Show n Tell thread.
I immediately PM'd OneBadV8 asking if he still had that rifle, mentioning how much I would like to try shooting it sometime.
He responded with "Of course. I'm shooting out at LoveMyWood's this weekend if you want to come along and try it out"
I jumped at the chance!
The rifle is a Savage 110BA in 300 WinMag, in pretty much straight from the factory condition. They had done a write-up on this rifle in the past, which can be found here: https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...s-new-savage-110ba-300-win-mag-pics-vids.html
OneBadV8 had recently acquired and mounted a Vortex Viper front focal plane scope, and needed to sight it in. This was the original purpose for the trip, until I decided to tag along
Weather was great! 46 degrees, with little wind. occasionally it would gust up a tailwind. After all of the cold weather we've had, I was pretty happy with the conditions.
OneBadV8 immediately went to work sighting the rifle in at 50 yards. Within a few rounds he had it zero'd, and knew we could get on paper at 200.
Wow. This thing is loud. I was spotting off to the side, and it had me (and my thin frame/build) a little concerned.
Once he began shooting at 200, I had a chance to step back off the spotting scope for a moment and then realized how little recoil the rifle had, as well as just how much concussion was being spewed from the muzzle brake. I was now completely at ease with trying to shoot it.
LoveMyWoods & I headed down to post some paper targets. We had a little difficulty due to the wet melting snow. This is the first time I've ridden on an atv, and it was a blast.
Once OnebadV8 was done sighting in at 200 yards, he asked if I wanted to give it a whirl. I happily obliged.
The first thing I asked, was if it was ok to dry fire (to get an idea of the trigger break). He was fine with this, and I dry fired it twice.
Holy cow. I have never fired a trigger like this. I couldn't even tell you what the weight was. As soon as my brain sent any sort of signal to press the trigger, it broke.
And this is a 'from the factory' rifle with no mods (except bipod and glass). I was thoroughly impressed.
I asked if I could play with the zoom on the scope, as I had never looked down a front focal plan scope before. Again, I was impressed. The glass seemed really clear. The focus might've been off a hair for my taste, but it was difficult to tell because we had a bit of mirage going on with the snow & ice melting off the pond. I've never had magnification so high & glass so clear to see this before. The eye relief was pretty tight. I typically shoot with both eyes open, but played a bit with squinting to see if that improved my struggle with the mirage at all.
I've also rarely shot off a bench or from a bipod. I've plinked some, but this was a different animal all together. Using my support hand, I made a fist under the stock to elevate the rear. My pulse would jitter the sight picture, which was a bit unnerving at this magnification.
The way I figured it, OneBadV8 had already done all the hard work. And at a measly 200 yards, the 25% USPA target should be a breeze. I took aim, attempted to slow my breathing and pulse to no avail, and fired away. No problem whacking that little guy.
I decided to try a sighter group on paper to see just how tight I might be able to get with this rifle.
Now I could really see the jitter with my pulse... I took my time, and let the first round fly. It was about a 1/2 min high & left from my POA. With everything going on in my head I felt this was off, but chalked it up to my nervousness.
My second shot sucked hard. The trigger is so light it went off before I had anticipated, but I was only about 1/2" low & right from my first shot.
My 3rd, I again tried to be patient, focus on the same spot, and it went off like a dream. I ragged my first shot making a slightly elongated hole.
I wound up with a 1/4 moa grouping on my first 3 shot sighter group with this rifle in what I would guess to be ideal shooting conditions, on a stock rifle setup for another shooter. For some reason i was really nervous about adjusting anything. I've never gotten behind the trigger of a rifle this costly. The case he stores it in is probably close to the same price as any of my rifles lol. I would be very excited to see what I could do with some more time & fiddling with the cheekweld & scope.
But this was just a first taste in this kind of platform, style of shooting, and caliber. perhaps another day I will delve into it further. I have to admit, the pocketbook is going to keep me from doing this anytime soon, but wow what a rush. If I had Long Distance range options that were closer, the expense would be much easier to swallow.
I had an amazing time, and couldn't have asked for a better intro to sniper rifle or 300 win mag shooting.
Thanks to LoveMyWoods for his generous hospitality, insight & pictures.
Thanks to OnebadV8 for his generosity and driving the other ATV so I didn't have to.
We did mess with some other firearms. And that put the day over the top. But for me, this 300 winmag was the cat's meow.
My background involves plinking of all kinds, and I am an avid appleseed enthusiast. I've shot two KD appleseed's, stretching out to 500 yards with my AR (shooting .223). Mostly I shoot .233/5.56 & .22. I've shot some .308, & 22/250, but really don't have much experience with larger calibers.
I'd recently been talking Long Distance shooting with an old school chum back home. Quite honestly, the math makes my head spin. But it's been very cold, and I've spent a lot of time indoors, so it was fun to discuss and research. During these discussions, I came across OneBadV8's 300 win mag rifle found in the Sniper Rifle Show n Tell thread.
I immediately PM'd OneBadV8 asking if he still had that rifle, mentioning how much I would like to try shooting it sometime.
He responded with "Of course. I'm shooting out at LoveMyWood's this weekend if you want to come along and try it out"
I jumped at the chance!
The rifle is a Savage 110BA in 300 WinMag, in pretty much straight from the factory condition. They had done a write-up on this rifle in the past, which can be found here: https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...s-new-savage-110ba-300-win-mag-pics-vids.html
OneBadV8 had recently acquired and mounted a Vortex Viper front focal plane scope, and needed to sight it in. This was the original purpose for the trip, until I decided to tag along
Weather was great! 46 degrees, with little wind. occasionally it would gust up a tailwind. After all of the cold weather we've had, I was pretty happy with the conditions.
OneBadV8 immediately went to work sighting the rifle in at 50 yards. Within a few rounds he had it zero'd, and knew we could get on paper at 200.
Wow. This thing is loud. I was spotting off to the side, and it had me (and my thin frame/build) a little concerned.
Once he began shooting at 200, I had a chance to step back off the spotting scope for a moment and then realized how little recoil the rifle had, as well as just how much concussion was being spewed from the muzzle brake. I was now completely at ease with trying to shoot it.
LoveMyWoods & I headed down to post some paper targets. We had a little difficulty due to the wet melting snow. This is the first time I've ridden on an atv, and it was a blast.
Once OnebadV8 was done sighting in at 200 yards, he asked if I wanted to give it a whirl. I happily obliged.
The first thing I asked, was if it was ok to dry fire (to get an idea of the trigger break). He was fine with this, and I dry fired it twice.
Holy cow. I have never fired a trigger like this. I couldn't even tell you what the weight was. As soon as my brain sent any sort of signal to press the trigger, it broke.
And this is a 'from the factory' rifle with no mods (except bipod and glass). I was thoroughly impressed.
I asked if I could play with the zoom on the scope, as I had never looked down a front focal plan scope before. Again, I was impressed. The glass seemed really clear. The focus might've been off a hair for my taste, but it was difficult to tell because we had a bit of mirage going on with the snow & ice melting off the pond. I've never had magnification so high & glass so clear to see this before. The eye relief was pretty tight. I typically shoot with both eyes open, but played a bit with squinting to see if that improved my struggle with the mirage at all.
I've also rarely shot off a bench or from a bipod. I've plinked some, but this was a different animal all together. Using my support hand, I made a fist under the stock to elevate the rear. My pulse would jitter the sight picture, which was a bit unnerving at this magnification.
The way I figured it, OneBadV8 had already done all the hard work. And at a measly 200 yards, the 25% USPA target should be a breeze. I took aim, attempted to slow my breathing and pulse to no avail, and fired away. No problem whacking that little guy.
I decided to try a sighter group on paper to see just how tight I might be able to get with this rifle.
Now I could really see the jitter with my pulse... I took my time, and let the first round fly. It was about a 1/2 min high & left from my POA. With everything going on in my head I felt this was off, but chalked it up to my nervousness.
My second shot sucked hard. The trigger is so light it went off before I had anticipated, but I was only about 1/2" low & right from my first shot.
My 3rd, I again tried to be patient, focus on the same spot, and it went off like a dream. I ragged my first shot making a slightly elongated hole.
I wound up with a 1/4 moa grouping on my first 3 shot sighter group with this rifle in what I would guess to be ideal shooting conditions, on a stock rifle setup for another shooter. For some reason i was really nervous about adjusting anything. I've never gotten behind the trigger of a rifle this costly. The case he stores it in is probably close to the same price as any of my rifles lol. I would be very excited to see what I could do with some more time & fiddling with the cheekweld & scope.
But this was just a first taste in this kind of platform, style of shooting, and caliber. perhaps another day I will delve into it further. I have to admit, the pocketbook is going to keep me from doing this anytime soon, but wow what a rush. If I had Long Distance range options that were closer, the expense would be much easier to swallow.
I had an amazing time, and couldn't have asked for a better intro to sniper rifle or 300 win mag shooting.
Thanks to LoveMyWoods for his generous hospitality, insight & pictures.
Thanks to OnebadV8 for his generosity and driving the other ATV so I didn't have to.
We did mess with some other firearms. And that put the day over the top. But for me, this 300 winmag was the cat's meow.
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