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Precision rifle gear – The Rifle

Geoff Leave a comment

If you’ve read one of our earlier articles on getting started in PRS-style shooting, or you’ve attended a match or two, you might be considering what rifle you could compete with. I’m hoping to do a few posts on different gear considerations, but this first one will focus around the core of your system – the rifle.

Run what you brung

Don’t correct my grammar, I know “brung” isn’t a word. It just rhymes better. If you are not jumping into your local match because you don’t think you have the right gear, you may be missing an opportunity. If you have a rifle from a different shooting discipline, or even your mountain gun or bush-stalking rifle, bring it along and have a go. As long as your rifle meets the requirement of the shoot (i.e. within any calibre / speed restrictions) and is safe, there are a few reasons you should run it before investing in a new gun.

  1. You don’t know what you don’t know. Once you’ve experienced a few comps or handled and seen other competitors’ rifles, you’ll be able to make a much more informed decision on your first precision rifle purchase – this could save you thousands of dollars, or many hours of heartache and searching the internet for unavailable parts and conversion kits
  2. The sooner you start shooting this style of competition, the sooner you will learn and become more proficient
  3. If you somehow find out this sport isn’t for you (highly unlikely), you won’t have invested time and money in a rifle you won’t use again

So, get stuck in, get to your local match, and start sending rounds down range. Accept the fact that you won’t be as competitive with what you are running (or maybe you will be in a different class / division), and set yourself a goal to learn something from each stage.

Entry level – mid-range

An entry-level rifle is not only a time and money-saver when you get started, but with modern rifles and ammunition standards, might be all you need to be competitive for quite a few years. Climbing the ranks as a shooter is not a gear race (for the most part), and you will find that investment in training, quality ammunition / components, and time behind the trigger, will get you further much faster than buying a gun and scope combo that is more expensive than your car.

If you’re looking for a reasonably priced rifle, the common names in shooting are a good place to start. They have a lot of aftermarket support, which means you will be able to make changes and modifications as you go, such as buying a chassis or finding the right scope base. Generally speaking, you would be looking at Howa (Weatherby Vanguard), Tikka, Ruger, Remington, Bergara or Savage.

Rifles like the Winchester M70, Browning X-Bolt, Mossberg Patriot, Ruger M77 MkII, Ruger American or Savage Axis might all be great platforms to modify, but only to a point. If you have your heart set on one of these for whatever reason, do some research to see if there are sufficient aftermarket offerings to explore down the road. Primarily, this will be around the availability of suitable chassis systems or stocks, scope bases with a bit of cant built in (20 MOA rails, etc), and potentially the ease of changing barrels if you decide you want to rebarrel once you’ve worn out the factory barrel or want to make a change.

Whatever rifle and chassis / stock combo you go with, make sure to consider your magazine system. Having the ability to run 5 or 10 round AICS pattern magazines is almost a requirement for the sport, as you need reliability and (sometimes) a lot of rounds down range really fast. For long action chamberings, your AICS pattern mags will be limited to 3, 5 or 7 rounds in most instances. Generally speaking for practical or precision rifle sports, you want a short action cartridge based on a .308 case.

Back to the rifles we mentioned as good starters, here are some pros and cons:

The Howa 1500 is an absolute workhorse and makes a great practical match rifle with its heavy varmint barrel. Photo credit: Simon Gillice / Gillice Practical Rifle Events

Howa 1500 Short Action

Pros:

  • Can be purchased as a barreled action without stock, saving on cost of parts you don’t need
  • Match rifle variants come with a very suitable heavy barrel profile, threaded muzzle and threaded bolt handle with oversized bolt knob
  • Great aftermarket support from the likes of MDT, KRG, etc
  • Weight adjustable two-stage trigger
  • Reliable function in adverse shooting conditions
  • Best value for money by far

Cons:

  • AICS compatibility can be limited to certain mags (although this is easily remedied with notching out ahead of the feed ramp – best done by a gunsmith)
  • Aftermarket options are good, but not as universally supported as the likes of Tikka and Rem 700 actions (e.g. might be harder to find the trigger you want)

 

Tikka T3x / TAC A1 / CTR

Pros:

  • Extremely slick action due to tight tolerances, polished finish and unique bolt lug design
  • Universal action length means changing cartridges down the road is relatively easy, even from short action to long action, etc.
  • The action is an excellent basis for a semi-custom rifle
  • TAC A1 comes with a fairly good factory chassis
  • Excellent aftermarket support by most major brands
  • TAC A1 and CTR magazines are fantastic in function, reliability and have a short height for a 10 round mag
  • The T1x 22LR is somewhat compatible with T3x parts and stocks, so a trainer set up replicating your main gun can be achieved

Cons:

  • With the correct bolt stop, the Tikka is an excellent short or medium length action. If you want to change to a long action or magnum action cartridge in the future (e.g. 300 PRC), the action length can be limiting

    Tom S shooting as part of Team Gun Rack at the Tarata Teams Shoot 2022. The Tikka T3x is a slick action and a great basis for a semi-custom gun
  • TAC A1 and CTR mags are stupid expensive
  • T3x variants have very good barrels, but not usually of a profile sufficiently heavy for long strings of fire
  • Tikka barrels can be hard work to remove, but a good gunsmith will help with this
  • TAC A1 scope bases are supplied in 0 MOA and are high above the action, so you will want to change this if you change stocks. They are also somewhat difficult to remove (otherwise a good quality!)
  • A bit on the spendy side

Ruger Precision Rifle (RPR) Short Action

Pros:

  • An affordable package rifle ready to go (when you compare to adding a chassis to standard rifle)
  • Later generations keep modernising, e.g. replacing Keymod forends with M-LOK
  • Limited chamberings, but relevant options for our sport (6.5mm Creedmoor, 6mm Creedmoor, and 308 Win if you don’t like winning)
  • Accepts a wider variety of magazines than most
  • Similarly to the Tikka TAC A1, features a variety of AR15 style controls and components

Cons:

  • Not as refined as the Tikka TAC A1, which is probably the most directly comparable option, but reflective of the price point at 3/4 the street price of the Tikka
  • You will likely want to replace included items like the grip and muzzle brake

Remington 700 Short Action

Pros:

  • The “standard” action shape and footprint, due to its prolific nature and saturation of the US market – the best aftermarket options
  • Most custom actions utilise a Rem 700 footprint,  so accessories and stocks can generally be re-used as you upgrade
  • Training rifles in 22LR such as the Vudoo or Bergara B14R can be equipped with the same accessories and parts to create true trainer systems
  • System is so well known that there is an endless font of knowledge on trouble shooting or improvement
  • Lots of “off the shelf” options suitable for precision rifle shooting

Cons:

  • Varying degrees of quality control and materials / manufacturing over the years, as Remington has had several bankruptcies and new owners. The good ones are good, but it can be hard to know before you spend the money
Bergara is the newest manufacturer on this list, but taps into the existing market presence of the Remington 700 footprint

Bergara B14 HMR Short Action

Pros:

  • A clone of the Remington 700, but generally higher quality – all of the pros and none of the cons mentioned above
  • Factory stock is suitable for field style shooting and is a good compromise / cross-over option when considering precision shooting and hunting

Cons:

  • A bit more expensive – you’re spending Tikka money here

Savage 110 Short Action

Pros:

  • Very accurate rifles at a good price point
  • Good chassis options from the factory, made for Savage by MDT
  • Barrel nut design makes for easy barrel changes in the future – lots of pre-fit barrel options make this a good basis for a semi-custom gun

Cons:

  • Several variations in bolt release over the years – make sure your action is compatible with aftermarket stocks
  • Mag release, bolt release and trigger mechanisms can be a bit “fiddly” (might be personal taste, and my bias here)
  • Aftermarket support is good, but probably not as well supported in the precision rifle game compared to other options on this list

Custom guns

Guns NZ team shooter Graeme running his Curtis Custom Axiom in an MPA set up. Image credit: Dylan Ackley

If you’re looking at the high end of the precision rifle spectrum, you’re likely looking at a “custom” action. Either, you have been in the sport for a while and have a good idea of what you want, or potentially you’re new to the sport, but money is no object and you want the perfect rifle from the outset.

I don’t have much experience with these actions myself, but generally speaking you are buying a Rem 700 SA clone (or variation thereof) which is compatible with Rem 700 accessories and stocks.  The action is going to cost around the price of a whole gun from the previous section, and then you have a choice of barrels. Barrel selection in New Zealand is improving dramatically, but prices are still a bit painful, especially if you are shooting a “barrel burner” of a cartridge.

Typical actions in this category would be:

  • Impact Precision
  • Lone Peak Arms
  • Defiance
  • Big Horn
  • Curtis Custom
  • Surgeon
  • BAT
  • Barnard (NZ)
  • Hardy Rifle Engineering (NZ)

Pair your action with a barrel – it’s helpful for getting bullets down range. You’ll probably encounter these names in barrel manufacturers:

  • Proof Research
  • Krieger
  • Bartlein
  • Criterion
  • Hawk Hill Custom
  • Benchmark
  • True-Flite (NZ)
  • Hardy Rifle Engineering (NZ)
  • Vulcan Barrels (NZ)

Conclusion

For most of us shooting precision rifle sports in New Zealand, gear selection is a bit of a journey, and it kind of follows the sequence listed above; start with the whatever you have, then get a dedicated precision gun at an affordable price point, and eventually spend all the money. If you aren’t sure what is right for you, hop in a comment section on Facebook, it’s always full of helpful information. Kidding! Go to a match – see what there is, talk to people, and see what makes sense for you.

You can always contact us for advice on where to purchase gear. We stock some of the above brands ourselves, or can point you in the right direction.

Brass uniformity – how much of a difference is there?

Geoff 1 Comment

Brass uniformity affects a few things – but how much of a difference can you expect from brand to brand? If you have highly consistent brass you’ll notice similar life spans across your reloads, as they stretch at the same rate. You’ll have near identical case capacities, the result of uniform wall thicknesses. There’s a whole lot more to case uniformity, but what I want to focus on is the amazing difference from brand to brand.

Five lots of 10 brass - which came out tops?
Five lots of 10 brass – which came out tops?

Here’s a quote from an article on .233 brass at 6mmBR:

From a reloading standpoint, the important thing to note is the rather substantial variance in case capacity from one brand of brass to another–as much as 2.6 grains! So, you cannot assume that a particular “pet load” will work if you change brass brands–you’ll have to do new testing.

Two-point-six grains – that may not seem like much, but for the little .223 case, it’s a fair amount. Bear in mind, the brass compared in that article is mostly higher-end stuff.

Our brass uniformity test

I’ve just started loading for 7mm-08, and as I undertook loading for an OCW test, I thought I should start with the most uniform brass possible, so that the results of various powder charges are more meaningful.

I had 5 brands of once-fired brass, that I’d put through my Mossberg 100 ATR. I didn’t have a huge quantity of each, so I just took a random sample of 10 of each. The brands ranged from budget to middle of the road. We looked at Prvi Partizan (PPU), Highland, Remington, Winchester and Hornady.

Unlike the .223 test at 6mmBR, I noticed 17.44 gr difference in average weight from the highest to the lowest. This is probably a result of both looking at a larger case and also looking at wider variety of brass quality.

Results:

The heaviest brass was PPU, coming in at 181.79 gr on average. Highland (produced by PPU) interestingly came in quite different on average at 171.67 gr. The more middle-end manufacturers (we weren’t looking at the likes of Norma or Lapua here), came in more similar: Remington at 168.07 gr, Winchester at 164.35 gr, and; Hornady at 165.69 gr.

Winchester and then Hornady came in the lightest, which would hint at more internal case capacity, but you couldn’t say that for sure without testing H2O capacity, which I didn’t get into. I did the entire test using a digital scale and digital calipers, to identify overall uniformity.

Simple tools for a simple test.
Simple tools for a simple test.

Weight:

Winchester had the lowest standard deviation in weight (0.48 gr), and the least difference between highest and lowest (1.60 gr). The highest was surprisingly Hornady at 1.33 gr standard deviation and a difference of 4.90 gr between highest and lowest. The S.D. for Remington, PPU and Highland were as follows; 0.74 gr, and 1.07 gr and, 1.05 gr. Respectively, the differences between highest and lowest were; 2.40 gr, 3.40 gr and 3.30 gr.

Length:

After one firing, most brands didn’t have much of an increase in overall length. All eamsurements below in millimetres.

Brand  Standard Deviation Difference High-to-low
Remington 0.02 0.07
Highland 0.03 0.08
Winchester 0.03 0.12
Hornady 0.03 0.10
PPU 0.05 0.16

Neck diameters and wall thickness:

All brands except Hornady and PPU had extremely uniform outside diameters for their necks (0.00 mm S.D. and high-to-low differences of 0.01 and 0.02 mm). Hornady and PPU both had 0.01 mm S.D.s and high-to-low differences of 0.02 mm.

The inside diameter showed a bit more variation, as a product of both brass thickness and softness.

Brand  Standard Deviation Difference High-to-low
Winchester 0.01 0.02
Hornady 0.01 0.02
PPU 0.01 0.05
Remington 0.02 0.06
Highland 0.03 0.08

Which brass did I choose?

All of these brands had similar factory loads, with 139 gr or 140 gr projectiles. The differences in the once-fired brass was quite illuminating. Also interesting, but not deal breaking, was that Remington and Winchester both had a single silver primer out of a box of 20 cartridges, when the other 19 were brass-coloured. After this series of tests I decided to stick with Winchester brass for my 7mm-08, as it was the most uniform in every category except length, where it came middle of the pack.

One of these things is not like the others #Winchester #7mm-08 #factoryammo

A photo posted by The Gun Rack (@gunracknz) on

It’s important to note that these were small samples, and that brass in other calibres may vary quite differently from what we saw with the 7mm-08. There are also a whole bunch of brands we didn’t consider.

However, if you’re looking at lower priced ammo to generate good quality brass for reloading in 7mm-08, my money would be on Winchester – I even bought another pack of Super X today.

 

JW-15 in Boyds laminate stock.

Custom rifles vs Factory rifles – who wins?

Geoff Leave a comment

Let me preface this by saying… How long is a piece of string? If you’re looking for the definitive guide on the all-time showdown between factory and custom rifles, you’ve got a long wait ahead of you. There’s no way to say one is categorically better than the other, but depending on your needs, one will suit you more than another. Here’s a quick run down on the two options.

Custom vs “Custom”

Well, maybe there are three options. There are rifles that are custom built by fantastic gunsmiths, or even several different people (i.e. barrel manufacturer, suppressor builder, stock maker, etc), and they can run into the tens-of-thousands of dollars. Chances are you’re not comparing a $35,000 rifle built on a Surgeon action to a Weatherby. So, realistically, these types of custom rifles fall outside of the scope of this discussion.

There are even the customised Remington 700s, Sakos and others you can buy direct from a gun store, which have been assembled with a host of accessories and a non-factory stock, etc, which offer “custom” rifles at lower costs and with a lot less effort. This a kind of middle-ground which, again, falls outside of the debate of custom vs factory.

Factory rifles

There are a host of incredibly good choices out there when it comes to factory target or hunting rifles. And the fact of the matter is, with modern production techniques and better quality control standards, many of these rifles are incredibly accurate out of the box.

Sako guarantees the Tikka T3 line to produce an MOA 3-shot group out of the box, and they boldly make the same claim with their T3 varmint and tac and 5-shot group. That’s pretty impressive. However, that doesn’t mean your new Tikka T3 Lite in stainless/synthetic will do that with any ammo you feed it. Bear in mind, Sako tests rifles with ammunition they produce themselves.

So, you may need to find just the right brand of ammunition, or even reload your own to get that level of accuracy.

The great thing about factory rifles is that if you look after them and keep track of how many rounds you put through them, you’ll generally get a pretty good resale value if you decide to switch calibres or clean out the safe down the line. Selling firearms is just foreign to me – I want more, not less – so I couldn’t really relate personally. However, for some, it’s a major benefit.

Another aspect of factory rifles, and this is one that I can understand, is that you have warranties and guarantees form manufacturers and retailers. If something goes wrong with a stock-standard rifle, you’re usually okay. Again, this comes down to incredibly efficient modern materials and processes – a lot of manufacturers are so confident, they will give you a lifetime warranty, even with their base models.

Custom rifles

A lot of firearm owners like to try and get more for less. They’ll buy a rusty old milsurp and try restore it, or even convert a P14 action from .303 to a .338 Lapua long-distance shooter. It’s this undeniable urge to make something better and more accurate – but cheap.

Many people try, and many people fail. The old adage “cheap, accurate, reliable – pick two” still stands true. However, not all is lost. Many backyard tinkerers find that they learn more about gunsmithing, rifle maintenance and internal or external ballistics by working on their own firearms than if they bought an out-of-the-box MOA-shooter. It gives you a more holistic view and respect for firearms, and generally makes you a better shooter. The more you know about how your rifle works, the better you can work with it.

Modified Mauser bolt action.
This modified Mauser bolt action was a lot more work, but is a joy to shoot.

What I have found with my own projects, from JW-15s to Swedish Mausers, is you’ll probably spend enough money in the end to have bought a tack-driving factory rifle. So why would you do it?

  1. The initial outlay is low. Three or four hundred for an M38 in 6.5×55 which might need a lot of work to be great, but at least in the meantime, it’s still good.
  2. It’s a project. If you yearn to create your own sub-MOA rifle and constantly look up the latest Boyds’ rifle stocks or DPT muzzle devices, then this probably for you.
  3. It’s unique. Hey, it’s the gun you built, not the one Howa, Marlin or Remington made. There’s a certain amount of pride in this, and you can make it look and feel the way you want.
  4. Individual needs. Hey, if you need a bush gun – cut down a .303. If you want an odd-looking F-Class gun, try your hand at “improving” an old Mauser. The best part is never feeling bad about cutting into the steel – coz it only cost $250.

Who wins?

Well, if you want a reliable, dependable and accurate rifle to take hunting or to the range, you could go and get yourself a Tikka T3 Lite in stainless/synthetic for less than $1200. Chances are your home-improved P14 or Model 1896 is going to end up costing you more with a new/improved stock, bedding, barrel and chambering, suppressor, bases drilled and tapped, etc, etc.

floor metal
Floor metal from 1943 looking fresh and ready to go.

However, if you want something unique that you can enjoy working on for months – or even years – pick up a donor action to work with. Even an older (pre-1964) M70 or Remmy 700 is fun to use. And the best part is if you buy a complete milsurp, you can probably enjoy shooting it “as is” to start with for very little outlay.

I’ve heard many Tikka T3 owners say their rifle is “boringly accurate”. And that is high praise for any manufacturer. So, at the end of the day, if you want to drill tiny holes into paper or leave gaping exit wounds in deer at 400 yards – get the factory rifle. If you want to feel like you earned your way to shooting sub-MOA or making long-distance kills, a project might be on the cards.