Thread: long range newbie starting out. gear wanted

I'll chime in with my experience, for what it's worth.
I've done a fair bit of long rang target shooting, and a little bit of hunting, but to me they are almost separate interests that happen to have an overlap of some skills. I know few people that actually shoot animals out to 800m plus and thankfully they are really, really good shots and they take responsibility where the animals welfare come in. I've hit 4 out of 5 shots on an IPSC gong at 1500m with the .338 I was using, but I wouldn't dream of taking a shot at an animal at more than a quarter of that distance unless I'd had a ton more practice. It sounds like you have a realistic view of things, and as others have said; you've got to be well practiced as well as understanding the science behind everything. Sadly marksmanship is like most skills and diminishes over time, so you've got keep practicing as much as possible (god knows I haven't done much recently myself).

In terms of gear, I've bought second hand Leupold and Nightforce scopes before and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again, that goes for any brand which has a lifetime transferable warranty. I've worked in hunting retail a bit and Leupold have always been good to deal with for warranty stuff, usually erring on the side of the consumer even in cases where the damage done ought to violate said warranty under the fine print. After 8 years selling riflescopes I've never seen a broken Nightforce, I've heard it can happen though =). Like others have said; target style turrets are good, most people adjust for elevation, some hold over if the reticle accommodates that. Personally I like to adjust for elevation but hold off for windage. Magnification is another matter of preference, I like to think if the target takes up the same angular size as it would with the naked eye at 100m, then that's suitable, so for 2000m 20x makes the target appear as large as it would 100m with irons or a red dot, and I figure if you're ringing gongs that's plenty. However for hunting you're not just putting the crosshairs on a target, but a vital area of the target, so I like double the above i.e. a deer at 700m through a scope on 14x looks like a deer at 50m. That being said you can't really have too much magnification, just be aware you'll pay more for it, and usually it comes at the expense of how low you go at the lower end of a vari-power.

Rangefinders, I used to have a Sig Sauer but my next one will be a Leupold. I tested a Leica 1600-something, Sig Kilo 2200, and Leupold RX-2800 on a building at 8 or 900m on a foggy day and the Leupold ranged it every time, the other two couldn't pick it up at all, even though it was well within the advertised range. On a fine day they all do the job, but to me that tells you about their reliability in crappy conditions, the Leupold was cheapest to boot. Leica had far better glass than the other two.

Ammo. Pretty much everyone reloads, and that's another can of worms in itself. I'd be asking myself what type of animal at what range the bullet in intended for. For example the Hornady SST should still expand fairly aggressively once it has travelled a wee way and lost some velocity, but anecdotally I've heard many times of people wounding an animal at less than 20m with SST's and having it make a good run, the recovered animals usually having a very wide but shallow wound channel and fragments of bullets throughout. I don't reload for long range hunting, but from a precision point of view:......... Berger. Berger, Berger, Berger. Lapua brass has a good reputation for case life, but so do others. In terms of powder there is an ADI equivalent for most other brands, hell ADI make a lot of powders for other companies which are then rebranded as their own. The only reason I say ADI is it is quicker to get if the importer runs out, and given the issues around shipping powder within NZ, and the state of the world in general; getting powder from Oz is going to be easier than Finland or the US.

Just my 2 cents, don't mean to be preachy. Cheers