Long range rifles

Im a new PLR shooter. Grew up bird hunting, shot lots of 20ga, and shooting 270 and 22l rifles for plinking and deer hunting. I want to both elk hunt and PLR plink, so I settled on a 300wm rifle. Stupidly bought a pile of ammo and shot until my shoulder was blue...several times... now I flinch. I bought a recoil pad, took time to adjust my position with respect to the rifle, so no more pain... still flinch ever so slightly - just enough to have a couple flyers in a five shot group (flyers are ~2moa). I'm doing a lot of dry firing and working on not breaking focus and pulling through the trigger. Its working, because after a I do this until my body relaxes, I can get a sub 1moa 5 round group, but then the flyers come back shortly there after. I'm working on getting my cheek weld reproducible, I ordered foam tape to mark my optimal cheek position, and I'm going to intersperse more dry firing with live rounds to continue to dissociate pulling the trigger with pain, thus reducing flinch. This whole story occurred over the last two months.

In response to this, I have been told to buy more guns in lower calibers, a thong, and a fur hat. And I got teased for asking about meditation (which is just breathing techniques to calm the body and reduce distraction, derrrr)..... its clearly a bunch of ol' leathery military men in here getting a kick outa torturing me. All in good fun though.

 

stupid military guys... *kicks rock*

 

I'm not leathery, more soft and squishy, so I'll give it my best shot.

How heavy is your rifle, how well balanced, what are you using for a cheek weld, do you have a muzzle brake, can, etc? Firing prone, bench, standing? Rear bag, rear monopod, good old fashioned fist, old sock filled with gravel? Hell, what rifle are you shooting?

not ragging on ya, just trying to hone in my old-timer advice for ya.

 

Since we're talking long range... This is my most recent hunting rifle build.

 

recommend you add a scope...

 

This Is my 12lrp in .260rem, pretty much stock, but setting up for cool guy PRS shooting.



And my old LR stick that was parted out in 2011, but still have the barrel waiting for me to stop buying other shit and do a build on the old pipe. Currently looking at a Bighorn TL3. 28” Schelin stainless select match, 6.5x55, 11* crown, 1:9, throated for 139gn scenar, sending back to the factory for threading for brake/can. Was single shot and got really boring to shoot under 500yrd.

 

Running a NF NXS 5.5-22x50 MIL/MIL for load development. Once that's done, it will probably have a 4-14x NF SHV F1.

 

You son.. of... a...

 

• I'm shooting at a bench from a rest. This rest:
  $91 Caldwell Stinger Adjustable Ambidextrous Rifle Shooting Rest with Lightweight Design for Rifle Shooting, Stability, Outdoors and Range
  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N1W0X31/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
• My set up is a savage 110 ba stealth in 300wm ~10lbs. Scope rings are Nikon black single piece precision, and the scope is a vortex viper pst gen II.
  
• My cheek weld technique is basically smashing my face on the stock until the scope shadow goes away (moving to foam tape this weekend), which is probably my most obvious technique flaw. I'll be honest, I don't know how to approach determining the ideal position. There are a lot of variations of smooshing my face against the stock that result in no scope shadow and an in-focus reticle in the middle of my field of view. The stock does have an adjustable height for the cheek piece, which is nice. I have to drop it all the way down every time I remove the bolt though... something to fuss with, maybe a piece of tape to indicate the ideal position?

You aren't ragging on me - you will have to try harder than that. I was ragging on the other guys who keep telling me to buy more guns instead of learning to shoot the very nice rifle I already own.

 

Guys, in response to your feedback on buying another PLR rifle, my wife smiled excitedly and said not only would she kill me but she would be able to do it from 1500 yards away if I bought another PLR rifle...

Its kinda hard to learn to shoot if my wife kills me, just sayn. Also, is it weird that I think it's kinda hot that my wife is confident she could pull of a 1500 yard kill shot?

 

1. You don’t need a new rifle in smaller caliber. Just get yourself a barrel swap kit and spin on a new tube. LA has a WORLD of great calibers. He’ll you can run a short action caliber with a baffled bolt head. $500 all in and you can change to a lighter caliber on your action swapped on your work bench in about 30min... for a match grade barrel with all the fixings. I loved swapping my 6.5x55 barrel at the range bench on my old 10fp in .308. Got lots of deeply concerned looks. Lol.

2. Cheek weld is a fun situation. Get yourself a nice stock pack. The soft touch on your face will help night and day with your flinching. Something about riding that hard ass plastic with your cheekbone is not comfortable. I just got this one and wonder where the fuck it’s been all my life. I’ll never run kydex again. This is the one I got after numerous “buy this one” comments on the hide.

https://triadtactical.com/triad-stock-pack/

On edit: just noticed you have a chassis. Get some stick on foam pad for your cheek. Also 10lbs looks nice on the sales brochure, and humping in the mountains, but the lighter the rifle, the more you’ll feel that recoil. Take a look at a new brake. My old PWS FSC30 gives enough forward thrust to drop recoil on my M14 to the point where I don’t come off target. Sucks for anyone in that 45 degree back blast area though.

3. Don’t bother with the sled. Great for free recoiling, but too cumbersome to get your proper body mechanics behind your rifle. Get some bags, or make them. You need to get the mass of your body behind that brute. Shoot from prone with your back kinda tweaked up to get the stock in the pocket tighter.

4. Look for some reduced recoil hunting ammo, shoot that and get to the point that you are not bruising anymore, then step back up. Shoot like 20-50rds per session with the brutis to get accustomed slower. Spend the rest of the day behind your .22lr on the 200yrd range to get reading wind to a fine art.

 

In this group? Not at all. My wife has her own plate carrier, helmet, AR, night vision and pistol. Even run her through drills.

 

I have bags, and I'll need to start using them. I don't think that pad will work on my rifle. My rifle is one of those tactical "precision" chassis systems. The stock is an ar15 stock so its an atypical weird shape. I think the foam will help a bit. If not, I'll get a new stock and a proper pad per your suggestion (my wife is looking, I cant agree to spending more money until tomorrow). Any advice on the proper cheek position I should be aiming for?

 

Then you really don't want to see my PRS guns...

 

Did an edit above. Check it.


As for proper cheek weld. You should be in a position where your cheek falls naturally behind the scope. I have some plates in my face thanks to a Navy surgeon, so I keep my jaw the eff away from the stock. I basically hang my cheek bone on the comb and rest my head down. This is super comfortable for me, which translates to more consistent and confident shots. Basically your cheek weld comes first, then maneuver your scope’s eye box to you... not you to the eye box. Find that sweet spot for your shooting posture and practice it. Zoom your scope in all the way to minimize the eye box’s variation to find that perfect place. Remember that your LOP will feel different between bench, prone, standing, kneeling, etc. Get used to getting your body into a comfortable shooting position around that cheek weld you found. Too many folks focus more on moving to get a sight picture, then actually setting the rifle up right in the first place. It’ll take a while, no “nose to charging handle” with .300wm. Bring your tools to the firing line and play around with it.

The more comfortable you are before you fire, the better you will be. It’s almost like you are building in a stable position and good sight picture.

 

Let me guess 6x47lap or 6.5cm something something in a MPA chassis?

 

I just had a roll arrive today! I'm feeling confident about this.\

This stuff:

$16 MAGZO Weather Stripping Door Seal,1" Wide X 3/8" Thick Adhesive Foam Tape Soundproof Weatherstripping for Windows, 2 Rolls Total 13FT Black

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0747695TZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

If you don't like how that turns out, these are a pretty decent option.

https://matthewsfabrication.com/product/adjustable-kydex-cheek-rest/

 

Thats basically what my rifle came with. I found a pic of my rifle online, this is it:


Here is a better pic of some guy, but it shows the cheek rest a bit better: