Reality check needed for my .308 idea.

[savage1756]

What I'm looking for is advice or direction for my .308 set up. Right now I have a Savage Model 10 .308 24" HB factory rifle w/accutrigger. I would like to accurately (Whistlepig accurate) shoot 500 yards minimum and would like to try 1000 yards in the future. No plans of doing competitions just pleasure. What in your opinion would I need to do to the rifle, other than good optics and fine tuning a load, to accomplish the task?

In the past I would just glass bed a rifle and work up a good load and did fairly well with that but I know that will only get me so far. Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I would also take direction on a good gunsmith if it comes to that. Thanks!

[Tomcat088]

What I'm looking for is advice or direction for my .308 set up. Right now I have a Savage Model 10 .308 24" HB factory rifle w/accutrigger. I would like to accurately (Whistlepig accurate) shoot 500 yards minimum and would like to try 1000 yards in the future. No plans of doing competitions just pleasure. What in your opinion would I need to do to the rifle, other than good optics and fine tuning a load, to accomplish the task?

In the past I would just glass bed a rifle and work up a good load and did fairly well with that but I know that will only get me so far. Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I would also take direction on a good gunsmith if it comes to that. Thanks!

I would say that one of the first things that you'd want to look at is the stock. I don't know what factory stock you have on it, because I don't know how new the rifle is. If the stock isn't already very rigid, and at least pillar bedded, I'd probably replace it. I don't think you'd have to go any further than buying something like a Bell & Carlson Medalist, or the Choate Tactical stock. Do NOT go with something like the Choate ultimate vamint, or ultimate sniper stock. I prefer the Bell & Carlson medalist, and believe it has a nicer finish, but that's just my opinion. Both of those stocks have a full length bedding block, so then you'd just need to skim bed it and make sure the stock is free floated. In terms of modifying the rifle, I know Savage rifles pretty well, and I honestly don't think you need to do much else to it. You need to tune up your trigger and make sure it's breaking clean, and make sure the crown on the barrel is ok, but other than that, you'll be alright.

Since you're going to be shooting long range at a reasonable small target, I'd recommend a good scope. I don't know what your budget is, if 500 yards at groundhogs is the main distance, then even in the $600 range should be sufficient if you choose the right scope. Obviously going up to something like a good Mark 4 or Nightforce wouldn't be bad, but we're talking serious money. I believe that in the $600 optics will do you fine, and even out past 500 yards, depending on the condition. Even with very good optics, if you have too much mirage, you're not going to be able to see them all that well anyway. The optics need to be repeatable, and I'd even venture to say relatively higher powered. I believe 16x could work, but something around 25x for the longer ranges might work better; this depends though on how comfortable you are with smaller targets.

I think one of the most important aspects of the entire setup will be your reload and your familiarity with it. We don't have prairie dogs around here, but I'm guessing average size is 3" wide or so? That would mean at 500 yards, you're talking about near 1/2 moa accuracy. You're going to need to pay close attention to your reload, particuarly the velocity spread. Single digit spreads are best, but 15 fps could be acceptable. Shooting that these kinds of distances with a .308 (slower velocities), I'd also recommend spending the extra money to going to some VLD bullets. On the unknown distances, and the very small margin for wind error that you'll have on narrower targets, they'll be worth it. I would probably be shooting 155 Berger VLD's, 168 Berger VLD's or 155 Lapua Scenars. This will turn into a preference thing and what shoots best in your rifle. You can push the 155's faster, which will cut down on their drift, and help when taking the long shots. You can shoot the 168's and they may have just a tad less wind drift, depending on your reload, it might be the same; but you'd have more drop to account for. If you plan on going to 1,000 yards, most guys are having more luck pushing the 155's fast; they're moving fast enough that they have the same or less wind drift as the 168's, still stay supersonic, and have less drop.

Either way, I would try to get a reload that is putting 5 shot groups near .25" or so at 100 yards. Really you don't have to mess with the 100 yard mark too much, but I'd go out to 300 and try to hold 1" 5 shot groups or better. Since you want the single digit deviations if possible, you'll probably debur flash holes, maybe neck turn brass, and trickle every single load. Because of the time it takes, some people would recommend you go with something like a RCBS chargemaster just because you can do so many more reloads faster, on such an accurate level. Like I said, I don't know what your budget it for this project, but since you planned on possibly spending money on a gunsmith, this might be a good place to spend the money; that or better dies. If you're consistent in these things, you should be able to do it.

The last thing is you, you gotta really learn your dope and how to read the wind. You're talking about small targets when you get to 500 yards, so you won't be able to miss your wind call by much more than 1-2 mph. This means you're gonna have to shoot a lot to get the consistency down. Something else that may help you is a laser range finder, if you don't already have one. If you know how to mil and have the correct reticle in your scope, you can probably mil them reasonably accurate. Either way, you're gonna need to know the range reasonably close for your targets, and really know your wind. Shoot a LOT, practice right, and keep logs of it all, without your logs and dope, you won't get your hits.

If you bed the rifle and work up the load, the rifle should be capable of doing it. I have a full custom rifle I just finished building, and you don't need a full custom rig to do what you're asking. You have a good rig that just needs to be tuned a little. The other day I hit 2 prairie DOGS (not ground hogs, so they're much smaller) at 362 yards, in gusting 10-15 mph wind. I'm shooting a .300 WSM though so I get a little break on wind, but it's all about the reload and your ability to read the wind. Not much else you can do to a savage besides throw a new barrel on one, and I don't think you need to. Work on those things and see what you can do, but I think you have pretty good expectations for what you want to do out to 500 yards. If you want to try for prairie dogs out to 1,000 yards, lol, it ain't gonna happen cold bore; I'll tell you that already. You might do it every once in a while on a lucky shot, but not consistently. If you're talking about walking rounds into them and getting lucky sometimes, sure, you can do that with what we've already talked about, but cold bore is not even close to a realistic expecation. Hope that helps, and let us know how it goes.