Long range rifles

Maybe leave off the rex for the new guy. I was on sniperhide and ended up on a thread just talking shit on this dude. So it got me curious, so I checked out a few videos...and most of the information is old and out dated. Some of it makes things seem more complicated then is. Granted I’ve only watched the videos people were talking shit about, but I couldn’t imagine the rest of the series being different.

 

Oh man, we almost had an ROTC cadet get plugged by VTPD once when I was a sophomore thanks to holding a "duck". After that, all our ducks got a liberal application of orange duct tape to the stocks and hand guards.

Back on topic; Geissele goodness is headed my way, a lothar walter barrel for the AR is just got its tracking, and a 3-18 Vortex Razor is about to get ordered for the 6.5. Thank god for sponsor coupons from the match and my yearly bonus coming in.

 

I disagree with that. There are newer ways to do stuff, but from a fundamental perspective, all of his methods apply. Its basically all from the army sniper field manual. You aren't gong to make density altitude tables any more, but having an understanding of what it is and why the number on your Kestrel changes is important. You won't make powder vs temperature charts, your Kestrel takes that into account, but having the knowledge of how your velocity changes with temperature is important. The same with bore condition, reading wind, etc., etc., etc.

I say, take in as much information as you can and use what you find applicable or useful and ditch the rest.

(Edit: I'm an engineer and over think things. When teaching my wife to shoot, she kept telling me I make it too complicated...she doesn't need to understand all the physics to shoot a rifle. So maybe you have a point. Who knows.)

 

That’s how it is with most programs these days. Transport to and from the training area only. People get crazy about anything “tactical” on a college campus.

 

After my AR carbine upper gets sorted, I'm planning to put a more long-range focused rifle together, but I'm really unsure whether I want to go with a 308 bolt action or a 20"+ AR upper. On the one hand, a Bergara HMR or rebuilding my Axis from the ground up seems like the perfect way to live out my M40A5 fantasies without the price tag, but a long-ass 20-24" AR could really be the shit, and it's something I've never tried before. Looking for input as this is the best place to ask about such an AR, and your LW barrel got me thinking about it again.

 

I forgot to mention, a good ballistics solver is as close as it gets to cheating as you can get right now. I use Strelok Pro, Precision Rifle Blog has a list of solvers used by the top PRS/NRL shooters in the country, and any moderately modern solver will be 10000x better than trying to go the hard way by using old-school drift and drop formulas/gathering DOPE 100 yards at a time.

 

I’m not here to offend, there were plenty of the butthurt on that thread I mentioned as well, my point being, I’ve seen it be a sensitive topic.

But the army field manual is a joke, and in sniper school you use another manual, that’s not that. It is also outdated information or just flat out incorrect.

what I will say is, things like the old military clock method is just not practical for real long range shooting. That whole wind video was useless. BC video was old, granted, but we know more about BC these days. I still make DA tables, and use DA on my kestrel, but important things to know about DA is Mach. DA change between 7000 and 8000 ft is .2 mils in the same temp.
Spin drift had no practical information and I’m sure there’s more, like I said, I never watched them, just watched enough to see what people were talking about, but I agree with them.

 

Nothing like swag

 

There's a reason I didn't list him, some of his stuff is good, but it seems tailored to people who want to be snipers, rather than long range marksmen. Real snipers fall into the latter group in my experience lol.

 

You are correct in the difference. Sniper school from my experience is about 15% shooting. You spend more time rucking and doing stupid shit then shooting. The dope and ballistics part last a wapping 3 days from class to shooting in the beginning. Later you do movers and end with a pass fail shot.

That being said, once you get to a team you end up getting sent to somewhere like accuracy first where you learn all the cool stuff. Then later level 1 or 2 course that goes more into the cool guy shooting tactics. The basic sniper schools are not a good reference and the average grunt sniper (non sof) shoot less than 400 rounds per year on a the long gun.

 

So this is my take after watching and hearing feedback from 100 shooters in this last match. If you jam a non-556 cartridge in a small block AR receiver, your risk of complications goes up. If you upgrade to a big block AR-10 receiver, your complications go WAY up. If you were dead set on a large cartridge AR platform, I would stick to .308. The SR-25 from Knights is the benchmark and it seems that the competition is light years behind. I saw one guy running an SR-25 (who admittedly worked for Knight's) and he was the only one that didn't have a malfunction of some sort with a homebrew franken-AR.

 

Sorry, I wasn't super clear. I meant going 308 bolt action, or 223 AR, just a real long upper more suited for longrange work. I'm not a fan of large-frame AR's nor am I planning to go with a non-standard cartridge. It would be a basic 223 Wylde chambering, just big, heavy, and high-velocity.

 

I work for the Fed... they suspended a guy for 21 days without pay for having a 1911 in the parking lot... that was a plea bargain to avoid the federal firearms felony.

 

I could see that. I also wouldn’t blame the school for charging someone for having it in their car on campus. I had guys that would do that coming on post with pow’s and would just think how stupid they are. Not sure the property distinction for the parking lot but I could see how that would be fed property.

 

Oh it’s fed property, clearly signed at all entrances. In addition we are notified every 6mo as to what is prohibited on the campus. We have an immigration court and jail on site, so they are tight with what can’t come on the property. Our threat level is such that the daycare center is at another govt facility near by.

Back OT...

MIL or MOA is up to you. Just make sure it’s MIL/MIL or MOA/MOA. Will make life far easier.

As others have stated, sniper school was some shooting, but mostly silly shit in between. The more difficult part, for me, was the fieldcraft, but it stuck with me over the years and helped me into some cool training opportunities and sweet jobs while down range. You all go to an active school, or are there some fellow Robinson alums?

 

venturing out from Nikon vortex, Leupold. any recommendations or brands I should avoid?

 

My SWFA has served me well, but it's definitely a really basic tactical-focused scope.

 

I built a AR10 frame as a 6.5 cmore, just because

so far it runs reliably, adjustable gas block is a must with that cal, mine has a 22” barrel and +3” over length gas system

 

I would avoid leupold unless you want to drop some serious money. Then again i personal bias towards them, but their lower line ups aren’t anything to write home about.

 

Seen a few AI AX’s a few pages back.

ive been shooting mine in matches since 2013. Love it.

here a pic of last year testing my friends .223 conversion. Shoots great! No hiccups ran it in last months club match.

he also has a magnum conversion as well.