Most of you are like me and definitely not a “Beginner” when it comes to shooting a rifle. You’ve been shooting and hunting most of your life. You were probably given your first deer rifle by a parent, uncle or grand-parent and thought it to be a precision piece of equipment due to the age and beauty it beheld. It was zeroed at 100 yards and rarely ever fired at a target further than twice that distance.

Today you are considering long range hunting, shooting or could even be considering shooting a PRS type match. You want a rifle that will keep up with you. You’re a pretty good shot and the old “smoke-pole” ain’t as good as you would like past about 400 yards!

I will start by telling you it’s not a cheap endeavor but maybe I can give you a few suggestions that can save you time and money.

Parts of the Rifle-

You may also be like me and had always bought an over-the-counter name brand gun and really didn’t know the difference. I had to research my first build to even find out what parts I could customize or did it matter if I did customize them. We’ve got a lot to go over so let’s get started!!

Parts we will cover-

• Trigger
• Optics
• Stocks/Chassis
• Action
• Barrel

There are a lot of rifles that will shoot long distance but it takes a little work to get a rifle to do it consistently in succession. I recently saw a video of a guy shooting a .6 MOA group at 100 yards and ringing steel past 500 yards with a gun he bought at a garage sale. Anything is possible. Some guns are just built cheap with less tolerances from the factory. It doesn’t take many Google searches to find a rifle that has a good starting foundation. Ruger, Remington Howa and Savage get a lot of props for being accurate off of the shelf. For a few hundred dollars more, you can buy a Tikka which has a very smooth action and better tolerances. These are great rifles but if I could make one suggestion, stick to the Remington 700 type action. You will have a lot more options and can customize easier. This does not necessarily mean it has to be built by Remington.

Most competitive long range shooters use a Remington 700 action clone. Some of the top manufacturers of custom actions are Defiance, Curtis Custom or Impact Precision. You can find over-the-counter guns like Bergara and Springfield Armory are using Remington 700 clone actions as well. We will cover actions and barrels a little later but right now let’s start on the parts that will make the biggest impact on your current rifle.

Trigger– A trigger upgrade can turn a good rifle into a great rifle. A lot of the other suggestions on my list will hit your pocketbook but even the most expensive after-market triggers are less than $300.00. Whether you are shooting a Remington 700, Savage or AR platform, manufacturers have flooded the market with great triggers. Triggertech, Bix’n Andy, Timney and Jewel are a few of the favorites. Factory triggers are set at 4-5 lbs. of pull weight. Most competitive shooters want theirs set under 1 lb. A day at the range with a trigger around 2 lbs. will make you feel like a much better marksman.

Safety should be the utmost importance so I recommend a new trigger rather than adjusting your old one if it is not specifically designed for the lighter pull. I highly discourage filing down or changing springs on any trigger to make it lighter. There are too many fully contained drop in triggers that can accomplish what you will need, safely.

Optics– Well I jumped from the most economical to the most expensive. I do believe that good optics take the guesswork out of long distance shooting.

I can remember my first scope. It was a Tasco 3x9x32 and was great for hitting a target the size of a 30gal trash can at 100 yards. When I upgraded to the Simmons Whitetail with adjustable objective I thought I had just mounted a telescope to my rifle! Compared to those, we are about to break the bank.

The old saying is “Spend twice as much on the scope as you do the rifle or whatever you can afford.” We DO NOT need to do that right now but I do recommend a few things when you buy a scope.

• Adjustable Elevation
• A respectable magnification (15x or better)
• A 50mm+ objective lens
• Adjustable Parallax

Adjustable Elevation- The days of zeroing your rifle at 100 yards with a coin, screwing the caps back on and forgetting about it until next year are over. In most cases, you will be dialing elevation on every shot. I did not mention adjustable windage here because I usually hold over my windage since it is constantly changing. Most long range shooters/hunters use a ballistics app or some sort of ballistics chart to assist with yardage and how to set your scope’s reticle. We will discuss MOA or MIL later but to dial your D.O.P.E (Data on Previous Engagement) you will need to know what your bullet is doing at a given distance and how to dial that data.

Magnification– A respectable magnification will be needed to shoot out to distances past a few hundred yards. I can remember that Tasco scope, 100 yards was a long shot and I couldn’t imagine taking one past 200 yards. I was on a hunt last year and my client shot a Mule Deer at 400 yards and had enough rifle, scope and bullet to do twice that.

I own scopes up to 42x magnification. I typically do not dial past about 20x and in most cases keep my scope set at 10-15x magnification. The problem with high magnification is exactly that, Magnification! Everything is magnified. Your movements, the amount of time it takes to find your target in your scope and the mirage, halos and glares are all magnified.

Follow up shots are great when you can spot where you missed or vapor trail of the bullet in your scope. High magnification typically will not allow for this. It is better to have it and not use it than to need it and not have it. Try to keep it around 15-20x and you will be covered.

50mm+ Objective Lens– The objective lens helps with gathering light. I own a few 40mm scopes and like them but usually wish I had a bigger scope when I shoot those rifles. The larger objective will help you with low light situations (morning or evening hunts). You can also usually find the magnification you would like on scopes with larger objective lenses.

Adjustable Parallax- This is a focus knob for your scope. When you are viewing an object over a few hundred yards away your reticle will be out of focus. Most scopes meant for longer distances will have a parallax adjustment on the left side of the scope (opposite of the windage adjustment). This will allow you to focus your reticle to the magnification of the scope. This will reduce eye strain and will lead to more accurate shots.

Important Options- You probably noticed I did not mention a few important things you’ll need to know about buying a scope.

MOA or MIL- I am going to leave this to your Google search for an explanation of the difference. I will probably write a post about it at a later date and will drop a tag here. Let me make one suggestion. Use the same as your hunting or shooting buddies! I am that guy! I hear from them when I call out a distance and D.O.P.E. in MIL and they all shoot MOA. Most scopes are available in both and if you are dialing your D.O.P.E, and not holding over, one is not better than the other.

Reticle Type- There are a lot of options out there. If you are holding-over, you may want something like a Tremor 3 reticle that has a lot of info to assist with your hold-over. If you are hunting, you may want to look at your target a little longer and may need something with a cleaner (less cluttered) sight picture. In this case, you may want a more traditional reticle without all of the info in your site picture. I would recommend getting a reticle with MIL or MOA tick-marks so you can do a hold-over when needed. It also allows you to keep the target in prospective and easier to find your reticle in low light conditions. A single dot or small cross is typically not the best option. Also, I own a few scopes with a lighted reticle. I never use the light and when I do, I leave them on and run down the battery. It’s cool but don’t waste the money if you don’t have it.

First or Second Focal Plane- (FFP or SFP)– There is a debate here between me and my hunting buddies. I shoot a few FFP scopes and like the fact that the reticle is on the same plane as my objective. This allows the reticle to magnify as the target is magnified always being true to the target. A couple of the guys do not like that they can’t see the reticle when not magnified and like it better when the reticle is larger and doesn’t magnify with the target. Do a little research and ask the dealer if you can step outside so you can see the difference. I recommend looking through both before deciding on one. If you are dialing your shots, either should be fine. If you are holding over you will need the FFP so that your target is on the same plane as your reticle. And the debate shall go on…

When it comes to good optics you can always stick to the big names like Leupold, Swarovski/Kahles, Vortex and Nightforce. Each of these have their higher end and less expensive scopes. They all use great glass and price definitely dictates what you get. There are other manufacturers out there that have a little better price point and still have the options. Burris makes a pretty good scope with a lifetime warranty and tends to touch every price point as well. My recommendation is to look through as many as you can. Don’t get stuck on one because of the name. Find out if the application fits your need.

Stocks/Chassis– If I am going in the order of importance I would say the Action and Barrel are probably more important than the stock. I will tell you from trial and error and as far as comfort and liking a rifle, Stock is very important.

A lot of people do not understand the effect a bad stock can have on the rifle. Back in the day, I used to hear my dad and uncle talk about glass bedding a rifle and being able to slip a dollar bill between the stock and barrel down to the action. Aftermarket Stocks and Chassis are CNC milled to very tight specifications and glass bedding is usually not as needed due to the stock or chassis being designed for the specific action.. Look into the wide variety of aftermarket stocks and chassis. Some of the best manufacturers are Foundation, AG Composites, Manners, MDT, Masterpiece Arms, XLR and Accuracy International. There are a lot of options out there. If you want to spend the time and money you can always get that old stock sanded down and glass-bedded too.

Actions and Barrels– I am putting Actions and Barrels in the same group because if you are buying an aftermarket action you may want to get it already barreled. Also, with prefit and barrel-nut type barrels you can essentially build anything you want in your garage.

I watched a video about a year ago where a gunsmith was taking grandpa’s old rifle and re-machining the action, barrel, bolt etc. to make it more accurate. He was checking and setting the headspace and measuring the tolerances of everything. It was a way to make grandpa’s old rifle a “sharp shooter”. I am sure it was not cheap to do this but of course it is an option. With pre-fit barrels, you can send a few measurements to a barrel manufacturer or just grab a barrel with a barrel nut and do the work yourself. Barrel manufacturers make many options for over the counter type rifles and the options are limitless for custom actions. The barrel manufacturers I would look into are: Proof, Benchmark, Bartlein and Krueger.

A couple of things I did not previously mention are muzzle breaks, suppressors and the vast amount of accessories available to the long distance shooter. The muzzle break is hard on the ears but great for the shooter. There are breaks that can be adjusted to control the recoil so you can keep the target in your sight picture for your follow-up shot. I don’t think I need to explain the positive aspects of a suppressor. Last but not least are the accessories available for rifles. I would start with a bipod then move on to a couple of good sandbags. You can look at the Atlas and Accu-tac bipods and you will not be disappointed but you do not have to spend $400 on a bipod. As far a sandbags, WieBad and Armageddon Gear make great bags and have a lot of options.

I don’t think there is one place that gives you all of the answers to how to build a precision rifle. I do know that every rifle is a work in progress and there is always room for improvement. Take the time and do your research. Some of the companies are a good start. I will continue to add as much info to this site so maybe SnipersDOPE can be a great source for you too.