What Would Be Your Choice For a Sniper Rifle and Scope?

I prefer a Daisy rifle myself.

That'll get em!

My Choice

The only problem with the Remington is that the .338 RUM is not offered with a fluted match barrel.

Thick forest here. No long shots. 17HMR

BMG .50

a question to ask yourself when selecting a rifle:

"if i was in a total survival situation, complete collapse of society and in major desperation mode, what is the most likely type of cartridge that i would find whilst raiding the existing infrastructure and human corpses?"

22LR
.223
5.56mm
7.62 x 39 (AK)
7.62 x 63 (3006 SPRG)

Remington 700 in .308. A 4-10x is plenty. Monarch or whatever is decent and stable.

Ammunition may be hard to get, so pick something that's a high volume standard.

Ammunition won't be hard to get!

HUBBLE

1st choice Accuracy International, 2nd choice HS Precision, 3rd choice Heckler & Koch PSG-1

All depends on who is meeting the sniper's logistic needs. .338 Lapua, Edge, Ultra-mag, .338-378 are all great longrange ctdgs; but they burn barrels very quickly. Buy a half-dozen replacement barrels from Accuracy Intl and you will have the ONLY advantage of an AI rifle. Foolish not to buy spare barrels, unless you own a lathe and are match precision competent to thread and chamber a contoured blank.

Sako TRG-42 offers greater opportunity for versatility. Buy it in .300win mag and get longer barrel life and more options. The Sako M995 is a better action than the AI, and the stock offers more flexibility, plus weighs about half what the AI does.

Probably best all-around shtf precision rifle is the FNH patrol or police model with chrome-lined barrel. Likely will never see another barrel blank once SHTF. A chrome-lined precision barrel offers you much greater barrel life. That alone is enough reason to validate choosing the .308win over other ctgs. The .308win is really an 800yd ctg but can be stretched to 1000yds if loaded to Palma standards and built with a 30" barrel. 175gr or maybe the 185 Berger offers 1000yd ballistics for the handloader. Many LR guys like the 178 Hornady A-Max VLD bullets. All is a compromise once get beyond 800yds.

A .338win mag offers everything but ultra velocity of the super-magnums. Can shoot the 300gr bullets very ably, but to less velocity. If your scope has 60moa of elevation, you are in the same ballpark as the monster magnums, just more bullet arc and windage drift. Lots more barrel life though in the shorter win mag case and more bullet seating flexibility in magazine length loading.

Figure to be shooting a mile? Might look hard at a 6.5x284 with the highest BC rated bullets, like the 142gr Sierra matchking. Easier to shoot than the big .338s due to less recoil, not great barrel life, but does give you the velocity and BC to beat conditions.

Another option is a .223 or .22-250 shooting 90gr match bullets. With a 6.5 twist barrel, an AR-15 can single-load 90gr handloads and be in the game at 1000yds. Bolt rifle can be loaded hotter and is very viable at that distance. Likewise the 6.5 Grendel, 6mm AR Turbo, and 6mm XC are all 1000yd ctgs.

Not like you need a "sniper" rifle to snipe. Not much point in owning some 18lb behemoth that cost $8500 to build, if you won't carry it. A Win 70 in a McMillan HTG stock, pillar bedded and built with a light varmint barrel of 22 to 26 inches can do about all you need. Go Remington 700 or Savage as you prefer. An AR-15 with float tube upper will also serve to deliver precision.

Shoot handloads crafted with precision as your aim and be sure of your scope and mount system and you should be in business...

Happy 4th of July and don't fail to exercise your Constitutional Guaranteed Freedoms often.

I disagree about barrel life in the .338's compared to the .300 Win Mag. Both the pressure and corresponding velocities are comparable between both calibers. While barrel life is indeed shorter for "hotter" loads, the way you shoot has much to do with how long the barrel will last.

Shooting for long periods without giving the barrel time to cool and shooting without proper cleaning every 20 or 30 rounds will burn out a barrel quickly.

Maintaining your rifle will extend its ability to shoot accurately buy hundreds, if not thousands, of rounds. I have heard from people that shoot the .338 Lapua and .300 Remington Ultra Magnum who have put 3000 rounds through their rifles before accuracy began to suffer. That is comparable to the life of other more popular calibers such as the 7mm Remington Magnum and the .300 Win Mag.

Aren't the 50. cal barrets supposed to be the best sniper rifle on the market?

Not really. There are accuracy problems with the 50 cal at long range. The big 50 still makes an excellent anti material weapon but for pin point accuracy out to 2700 yard (1.5 miles) the .338 Lapua Mag reigns supreme.

[link to bulletin.accurateshooter.com]


Edit to add:

The big 50 weighs in at around 30 pounds depending on the rifle. The AI-AW 338 Lapua is under 20.

Last Edited by SecretSquirrel on 07/04/2011 09:25 PM