gunny_r

I know this post is almost a year old but this question comes up alot so I thought I'd throw my 2 cents. Precision rifle isn't something a new shooter should get into unless they have a superhuman tolerance for frustration. They might spend a lot of money on gear that would be better spent on ammo and shooting. Any beginner can take a precision rifle, shoot it at a hundred yards, and get good groups. But that rifle at a hundred yards could be masking bad habits that won't show up until you try shooting at 300 to 500 yards. Those are the distances where you can have zero hits on target and maybe no visual feedback. If you have a big enough bank account, you can eventually figure out what you are doing wrong but you will be shooting expensive ammo while doing that. My advice is to get good glass, get a good rifle chambered in 22lr, feed it good ammo and learn to shoot it out to 100 (or more) yards. If you can read the wind well enough to hit your targets at this distance with such a small bullet you'll be well on your way Good is going to vary from person to person so you'll have to do your own research. Personally, I would buy my rifle optic first and mate that to a 22lr rig. It won't be overkill and you'll need to become intimately familiar with the reticle and turrets anyway. The gear is only part of the equation. Learning how maintain natural point of aim, knowledge of ballistics (external and internal), trigger squeeze, breath control, and follow through are basic skills that have to be developed first to some level of proficiency. That will only happen with time actually shooting. checko, I'd love to hear what your friend decided on and how he's coming along shooting-wise.

I know you're looking for something powerful but you also mentioned about distance so I wanted to throw this option out there for you to mull over. A .22 makes a great trainer rifle for a .308. Your windage dope adjustments for the .22 are what you would use for the .308 at twice the distance (e.g if your .22 rifle is zeroed at 50yds, the dope you use to shoot it at 100yds is the dope you would use for the .308 at 200yds). If you go to the middle of this article there's a table that compares windage of the .22 compared to the .308 (based on a 175 SMK load). http://www.6mmbr.com/rimfiretactical.html Also, this is for windage only. You'd still need to factor in bullet drop for your caliber at distance. Since you already have a .308 AR, that's probably the only caliber you need to reach out and touch someone if you learn to dope for wind. The recoil will be sharper in a bolt action because of the lack of buffering but proper usage of a sling can go a long way towards managing it. Best of luck on your decision. I'd be curious to know what you end up getting.