I am looking into purchasing a Howa Talon. At this time, I cannot decide between the .308, .300 Win Mag and the .338 Win Mag. My criteria are as follows.. Ability to shoot accurately out to 1,000 yards(possibly up to 1,500), cost of ammo and amount of recoil produced. Most likely the gun will be used for coyote/varmint hunting and as a SHTF sniping gun. Also, I need a good long range scope for whatever I buy. Nothing outrageously expensive, but I'd like it to be of good quality and something that can take a beating. Trying not to spend over $1400 on the weapon, optics, 10rd magazine upgrade, ect. Any advice at all would be a big help!
after looking up the models, get the 308 heavy barrel. the pencil barrels are garbage for trying to go yard more than once in 10mins. 308 175/8 match bullets will touch 1000 no problem. if the mags were heavy barreled i would go for those. i see it mentioned about heavy barreled short mags but dont see them listed anywhere else. if insisting on a light barrel, go with the 6.5 swede. better SD than the 7.62 bullets.
as for optics. vortex viper pst is about the minimum i would recommend. if trying to shoot anything at distance you will see a huge difference between a $100 and a $700 optic. animals even more so. yotes can be hard to spot up close much less at 700 yds.
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The right to bear arms is WAY less ludicrous than the right to arm bears!