if i were to get a sniper type rifle what would you recomend? I would want it to be very accurate but not to much money, it would be used for target and SHTF situations. im thinking a bolt action style rifle but what cal. would be best with lots of power and accuracy. does remington,winchester,browning, or other manufacture have good selections to choose from. or would i be better off with an ar style rifle instead since i want to get one of them anyway one day so to kill 2 birds with one stone.
a savage axis is a very accurate rifle not sure about how far they can maintain a great group. but they come in .223 .308 for cheaper ammo the gun will run like 260 to 300 bucks. but like bestivehad said check out the mosin nagant. its all in how much your willin to spend. bolts are generally more accurate and can be way cheaper. if you could find a 7mm mag or a 300 mag for cheap they got the power and range but ammo is pricey. id stay with a .223,.308, .30-06, or a 7.62x54r for the cheaper ammo 30-06 is pushing it on the price for me.
You know, that depends on what you mean by "too much money." Milsurps is one way to go. That could be a gamble unless you can unless you can inspect it personally. Another factor if you are considering SHTF/WROL is ammo availability. Even if you stockpile 20 000 rounds, how do you take it with you? Ammo that you are more likely to find in abandoned houses etc. .223 Rem, 7.62X39, .308, .38Spl/.357Mag, 9X19, .40, .45ACP, 12Ga. More popular calibers. Another option could be a "combination" rifle. An over/under where 1 barrel is a centerfire rifle caliber, eg .223, and the other a shotgun barrel.
As far as semi-auto vs. bolt action is concerned, the rule of thumb is that the bolt rifle is going to be cheaper and require less maintenance, because it has fewer moving parts, and stripping, cleaning and reassembly is simpler.
On the other hand, in a SHTF situation, having a rifle that can lay down a volume of fire might be very handy. Sadly there is no one rifle that could fulfill all these requirements, therefore it is ultimately up to you to determine what your primary requirements are, and go from there.
If you can find a Enfield No 4 mk 1 in good shape, that wouldn't be a bad pick. Especially a Savage with the 5 groove barrel. 10 rounds, extremely rugged, inexpensive ammo.
__________________ "Yeah I'm playing with a full deck, all Jokers of course"
bolt guns will always out perform gassers of same quality. my advice is buy a rem 700, savage 10 or tikka t3 with a heavy barrel. they all will shoot 1 moa or less with good match ammo. better with handloads. more importantly invest in quality glass. the best rifle in the world wont do much if you cant see the target.
to better answer your question, what distance will you be shooting? is weight a concern? do you handload?
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The right to bear arms is WAY less ludicrous than the right to arm bears!
I'm really concerned (read offended) by this "talk" of "sniper rifle" . That is just the kind of thing that the anti gun crowd will jump on when trying to regulate firearms out of existance.
You can inquire about opinions on an accurate rifle without calling it a "sniper rifle".
I agree with Purdy wholeheartedly. I think we are witnessing a switch from "tactical" to "sniper" as the latest fad among some segments of the shooting brotherhood. There is another thread about all the tactical stuff running somewhere.
In that I opined that things tend to go in cycles. With all the video games and such out there and the shoot-em-up electronic heroes using mega firepower stuff, it has been cool to have a real gun like those electronic ones that hardly ever run out of ammo or malfunction. Now, snipers are becoming the new heroes of the ongoing war effort. Look at the past few issues of The American Rifleman and you'll find stories about snipers and how many lives they saved, etc.
Then talk to someone from WWII, like the guy who lived next to me when I was a kid. In that war, snipers were hated, viewed as basically murderers waiting for some poor sap to make himself visible for a minute. Yet, the snipers in the Revolution who took shots at the British officers on their ships sitting at anchor are also thought of as heroes. And so the pendulum of opinion swings.
Sniping combines great skill with a need for some very serious judgement calls. What scenario can you imagine short of war where trying hit a person from modern sniping distances is called for? Someone over a mile away, unless they are possessed of some very good weapons, is not an immediate threat. Isn't shooting them, even in SHTF, basically murder?
It's a tough moral dilemma. I can't say I would have the right mental attitude to be a sniper, yet I have no problem wanting a rifle that can take out a groundhog at a long distance. There is a fine line between varminting, paper punching, and thinking in terms of human targets. We really don't want to encourage people to cross it, do we?
There are some very good varmit/target bolt actions out there for not a great deal of money but also not cheap.
I would want a good bolt action with a longer, heavier style barrel for long range accuracy. My two favorite rounds are the 7mm/08 and the .243 Winchester.
What's your price point? For under $700 (without optics) you can get a Remington 700 SPS Tactical. However, precision shooting will cost you way more than just the price of the rifle in ammo. If you're serious about a precision rig, expect to pay at least $1 - $1.50 a round for a factory load.
A precision AR rig will cost you wayyy more than a bolt action, but is easily just as accurate. Both my 700 and my Colt accurized AR will shoot 0.4 to 0.5 MOA with match ammo and when I do my part.
All said and done though, a precision rifle is useless without practice. Each discipline of shooting requires the same fundamentals but totally different mindsets and focuses on different sides of those fundamentals. Money will buy mechanical accuracy, but it can't buy results.
If you're serious about a precision rig, expect to pay at least $1 - $1.50 a round for a factory load.
Really?
So a round that costs $1-1.50 will be more accurate for precision shooting?
I'll have to remember that the next time I go on an ammo buying spree. I'm sure my gun dealer won't mind the extra income but what the hey, I roll my own.
Sorry, but I find that statement to be ultimately ludicrous.
To the OP...a bolt gun will offer you better accuracy and better punch over a semi-auto as the semi needs to bleed off gases to activate the action...the bolt gun uses 99.9% of the powders burn and will provide more consistent shooting.
I would suggest a bolt gun with a heavier barrel than a regular hunting rifle to reduce barrel harmonics; however it is not totally necessary.
For a good power-pack with associated longer range I'd say .308 Win...easy to obtain nearly anywhere and loads vary largely for just about any target.
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the media allready calls every hunting rifle with a scope on it a "sniper" rifle.
this is what i use. AR-30
it's also what the real dude's use.
that price is the basic model without the bi-pod or scope or any other extra's.
if you wan't to real thing buy the real thing otherwise get a hunting rifle and settle for what it gives you.
if you want to shoot 1,000 yds for 500.00 get a taller rear sight and bang away.
Generally speaking, a bolt action rifle will be more accurate than a semi-auto rifle. Likewise, a heavy bull barrel will often be more accurate than a tapered "hunting" barrel. Especially for longer distances
If you want to be able to shoot out to 1000 yards, and get there with enough "oomph" to knock a critter down, then I would say a .30-06 would be the minimum, without costing "too much."
If you are staying within 700 to 800 yards, then a .308 should work well enough.
__________________ Gun control is NOT about controlling CRIMINALS.
Really?
So a round that costs $1-1.50 will be more accurate for precision shooting?
I'll have to remember that the next time I go on an ammo buying spree. I'm sure my gun dealer won't mind the extra income but what the hey, I roll my own.
Sorry, but I find that statement to be ultimately ludicrous.
Maybe it came off wrong, of course hand loads can surpass a factory load, but I was merely saying that you can't buy a precision rifle and expect to shoot a bulk loaded surplus round at sub MOA. The standard factory match loads, like Federal Gold Medal, Black Hills or Hornady Match all go for roughly $1 - $1.50 a round in .308. I have yet to find a factory load under $1 per round that will achieve less than .5 MOA.
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