Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting No foolin' best factory rifle/scope combo for 500 yd. mountain game

Basically, single loading for sighting in and practicing. Being able to thumb in a couple rounds if a wounded animal is getting away, instead of dropping out the mag, finding the spare and clicking into place, then finding the empty, especially in bad weather or poor light. It is not really a problem, as I use blind magazines, detachable mags, and detach. floorplates. I like Tikkas, but it is one more thing to have to buy.

forepaw

get a savage in .243 wearing a burris FF2 ballistic plex scope. put 95 grain NBT's over Varget. practice with it, and go forth and kill stuff.

Only 22 pics of targets shot at 100 yds?

I'm disappointed....

You'll get 4,294 opinions on which combo is the best. In truth, many set ups will get the job done.

Buy a rifle that fits you and is comfortable, don't get a jaw busting caliber - it's not necessary, depending on what game your after, common sense will suffice.

A reputable scope in 3-9x42 or 2.5-10 in most any flavor with an elevation dial or ballistic reticle will allow you to kill animals at distance if you put a lot of time in practicing from actual field positions - (Benches with rests don't count)

Killing game at distance has more to do with the shooter's ability than the rifle/scope combo he's using, as long as it's reliable.

A fella could do worse than one of Melvin's new guns and grab a 3-9x40 vxll(they been goin cheap)then add a m1.

Simply the best? If weight is the primary concern the absolute best would be a Blaser K95 probably in 6.5x65R, and for a scope i would chose one of the 1" Swarovskis.

If i wanted a repeater, i'd be looking at the Sakos - either an A7 or an 85 synthetic, probably in 270 WSM. If you could find a Shultz and Larsen Classic, i'd put it in there too. I think you would find the T3 just as accurate as the Sakos though. I have always thought in hunting-weight rifles accuracy potential (once bedding etc is taken out of the equation) is all about the barrel, and from what i have seen i think the Sako/Tikka barrels are currently the best factory barrels. I regularly see them keeping up with fancy boutique-brand offerings.

It sucked donkey balls before it was rebarreled, didn't it?

500 yards is a long way, but I can't see that any factory sporter weight offering is going to be whole bunch better than anything else, provided you practice with it and load for it properly.

There really is no "best" and I'd grab a new SC M70,a Rem 700,or most anything.Work up a good load and mount a good scope,practice.An extreme Weather in 300 WSM or 7mm WSM would be excellent....I have had the 300 WSM and know this first hand.

A 270 or 30/06,anything in that range will work just fine with a 6X Leupold and LR reticle.

I picked up a Ruger Hawkeye 7 Rem Mag about 5 years ago,mounted a 2-7 Leupold on it...it threw strikes from the get go at 500 with no tuning and 150 gr Federal Fusions.

Yep. I've posted before that these days it's tough to find a factory rifle that ISN'T accurate. For the purposes of the original poster, I'd look to any of today's factory rifles with free-floated barrels, any cartridge from the .243 Winchester on up that doesn't kick too much for him, and any scope from 6x on up with a multi-point reticle or consistent tracking. Consistent 500-yard shooting really doesn't require special equipment.

That's not a real sexy pick, but it's a pretty damn smart one.

This is my mountain rifle 257 WBY ultralight



Shoots 110 Accubonds at 3500+ fps at .6" groups

That's a fine looking rig there. It sure turns my bolt.

That makes it respectable shooting for just about everybody on here......



Casey

Casey and others,

That really is an overlooked item. Accuracy when you're rested can be much different than when you are near-exhausted, dehydrated, trying to figure out cross-canyon breezes, and hold on the vital zone of something moving, or laying at a strange angle in the shade, maybe with a bush in front of it that you can't see with your scope, all from a makeshift rest.

My interest in this post involves planning a rifle for Coues Whitetail hunting, but the conditions are often similar to desert sheep (and probably california and rocky as well) in terms of the physical effort required, use of high-powered optics, and long stalks.

That said, I thought there were some first rate replies from very experienced folks, most of whom more or less echoed something jack O'Connor wrote years ago . . . essentially that the closest thing he ever owned to a perfect mountain rifle was a lightweight .270 with a 22" barrel, good optics, and sling. But he was an awesome rifleman, much cooler and more experienced than most of his counterparts, and with a fair amount of high-power target shooting under his belt - which gave him an edge in understanding wind and bullet behavior.

forepaw