I am in WAY over my head!

[anonymous308]

I have been going back and forth on whether or not to polish my turd (Savage Model 11), buy a Remington 700 5R, or what I really want to do is build my own rifle. I know whichever route I go I want to end up with an XLR Industries chassis, a great barrel, and I will have the gun accurized. The rifle is for long range precision. Here is the kicker. I am trying to do this all on a budget of about $2000-$2500. So my options are:

A) Stick with my Savage and buy a new prefit Criterion or Shilen Barrel. Drop it in the chassis I want.

My question with this option is is the action in the model 11 any good? Which barrel? Would a bull barrel be the best choice?

B) Buy the 5r and drop it in the XLR Chassis. Try and sell the HS Stock and recoup a little money, no barrel needed.

C) Build one from the ground up however I am not sure if this is possible on my budget. If so any suggestions for an action thats better than stock Rem or Savage and still within budget?

Sorry for a million questions. I could really use your help on this one!

[snowdog650]

You haven't mentioned glass.

Nor have you mentioned the stated use of the rifle.

If you are looking for long distance (800+ yards), glass alone will likely take up at least half of your budget.

[Experimentalist]

... The rifle is for long range precision... this all on a budget of about $2000-$2500. So my options are:

A) Stick with my Savage and buy a new prefit Criterion or Shilen Barrel. Drop it in the chassis I want.

My question with this option is is the action in the model 11 any good? Which barrel? Would a bull barrel be the best choice?

B) Buy the 5r and drop it in the XLR Chassis. Try and sell the HS Stock and recoup a little money, no barrel needed.

C) Build one from the ground up however I am not sure if this is possible on my budget. If so any suggestions for an action thats better than stock Rem or Savage and still within budget?

Sorry for a million questions. I could really use your help on this one!

A million questions, and only 2 million answers...

I suppose an important question is what you expect from the rifle. You say you want to get involved in long range shooting, do you currently have any experience in that? If not, you can probably do reasonably well with any of the above options as you learn.

As to the adequacy of your Savage action, it depends on the particulars of your gun. Every product has variations in manufacturing quality, so it's really impossible for anyone to intelligently opine on that.

Of course tighter groups will yield better performance in competition, but how tight a group will you really need? This is a very general statement but I would suggest that if you can hold better than 1 MOA, you probably have something with which you can get started in long range shooting. This gives you the chance to get out and shoot, which is by far the most beneficial thing. Talk to others you meet, you'll learn a *ton* from them.

[CK_32]

What makes it a turd?

Like above, what glass and ammo are you shooting? Mounts? Say it isn't the rifle?

[milotrain]

How much long range have you shot?

I think that you should just buy decent glass, piles of match ammo and don't buy anything else and go shoot some FTR. There is NOTHING more valuable than trigger time on windy ranges. ALL your money should be spent driving to ranges with wind and shooting on them. Later, when you know what is holding you back do something about the rifle.

[Packy14]

I have been going back and forth on whether or not to polish my turd (Savage Model 11), buy a Remington 700 5R, or what I really want to do is build my own rifle. I know whichever route I go I want to end up with an XLR Industries chassis, a great barrel, and I will have the gun accurized. The rifle is for long range precision. Here is the kicker. I am trying to do this all on a budget of about $2000-$2500. So my options are:

A) Stick with my Savage and buy a new prefit Criterion or Shilen Barrel. Drop it in the chassis I want.

My question with this option is is the action in the model 11 any good? Which barrel? Would a bull barrel be the best choice?

B) Buy the 5r and drop it in the XLR Chassis. Try and sell the HS Stock and recoup a little money, no barrel needed.

C) Build one from the ground up however I am not sure if this is possible on my budget. If so any suggestions for an action thats better than stock Rem or Savage and still within budget?

Sorry for a million questions. I could really use your help on this one!

What are you trying to do with this gun.. occasionally go to the range to hit some steel.. or compete in some level of long range shooting? Had a 5R... sold the stock, got a different stock, then realized it was nothing special and dumped it all. If I was doing it now, i'd just buy a new full AI rifle and call it a day.. but I have no need.

[Justintoxicated]

Well, you could build your own and just buy things as your budget allows. For example, buy a $1500 scope and an action, then later buy more stuff.

Or, Buy a 5r and glass then get the chassis later.

Or just buy a good glass for what you have now and then determine what you want to do later.

[Thorax]

Here's a simple analogy for you....

You CAN buff a turd, but you CAN'T make it shine.

A prefit style barrel will never be as solid, stable, or accurate as a standard thread in.
Yes you can convert to a thread in on your rifle, but there goes more money into something that won't yield all that much at the end.

Start with a better platform.

[BillyGoatCrawler]

Spend $1500 of that budget on a nice optic. It will stay with you if you want to keep in the game and you can transfer it to your newest rifle. If not, resale on optics is good.

Spend the rest on quality ammo and shoot a whole lot. I am willing to bet with quality ammo and a quality optics setup that savage will be able to get rounds on target. That will let you know if you like it and let you get experience. At that point, you'll know exactly what rifle you want.

If it really turns out the rifle is a total turd, you'll still have the nice optic that you'll need in building the better rifle. Most would agree the optic is much more important to a precision rifle than an XLR chassis. Priorities.

[eric n]

I have a bartlein on a savage and the same on a tricked out 700. They both shoot the same.
The 700 has a smoother bolt lift , better feel, and better trigger... and cost more with all the goodies and work.
The accuracy is in the barrel, your loads, and practice.
If I were to do it all over? I would have sold my savage before I bought a 700 and went custom to start. All depends on how far you are going to go with it.
Haha, this is the easy part! Have fun picking a scope...

[anonymous308]

Sorry guys guess I should have mentioned that budget is not including scope. After mulling it over for a few weeks I finally decided On the Sightron SIII 6-24x50 FFP scope. My goal is to get into competition shooting down the line. However, with the exception of Pala I can't really find anywhere in SoCal that has long distance shooting competitions. Most ranges I have found only go out to about 600 yards max.

[Jarhead]

Rifle is only as good as your Scope

[eric n]

What kind of competitive shooting are you looking at? It will make a difference in what you need to buy. 2500 is plenty to get you going
What caliber?
If you don't reload, just my opinion..... Keep the savage and start reloading, shoot a lot and you will know what you want.

Better yet. Go to a match you want to shoot and see what they are using. Don't be afraid to ask questions if they aren't busy fiddling with their gear. Many guys are willing to go out of their way to help in my experience.

[milotrain]

Start with midrange matches (600 yards). Yes. START there. Get a feel for what they are then shoot your practice at 100 yards making sure you can hold <1 MOA. When you get an expert classification with the NRA in midrange competition then you can buy a new rifle and move onto Palma distances.

[Wrangler John]

www.pac-nor.com

If you want to try a Kreiger barrel, many calibers, twists and contoured blanks are available at: www.brunoshooters.comhttp://www.sharpshootersupply.com/http://www.gretanrifles.com/http://northlandshooterssupply.com/

Performance parts for Savage and Remingtons, and blueprinted Remington actions, are available from: http://pacifictoolandgauge.com/

You are not in over your head, you just have so many choices it will be difficult to choose. What a country!