accuracy for the money

Question
Good day sir, i am 20 years old and going into the marines and i want to become a sniper for force recon. I have a tight budget at the moment and i want to get started on getting my accuracy down and I am looking into buying a Remington 700 with a .338 cal. my question is do you believe this is a good start for a gun?
And if so what type of scope should a purchase to match the range that the rifle can shot. thank you and have a good day sir.


I live in the United States of America and New York .

Answer
Charles,

First of all, let me thank you for your service to our country.  It's generations of fine young men who have helped to keep this country free and safe.

I assume that the caliber was a typo (.338), and you meant .308, or 7.62 NATO, which is still the most commonly used military sniper cartridge.

Tight budgets and precision rifles seldom go together.  But you can work on your accuracy with just about anything - you just need to make the target sufficiently small.

For example, I will often shoot a precision .22 rifle with scope at 1/4" circles @ 50 yards - one shot per circle.  Hitting consistently translates theoretically into being able to put shots into 1/2" @ 100 yds, 1" 200 yds, 5" @ 1000 yds with a larger caliber rifle.  You build skill in the fundamentals of marksmanship without the high cost for equipment or ammuntion.

What this will NOT do for you is give you a change to practice bullet-drop calculations, or windage calculations for the .308.

When it comes to precision rifles, you get what you pay for.  The Remingon 700 is an excellent rifle, with a long history of military service.  It comes in different set-ups, though, and I would buy the best you could afford.

My choice would be the LTR or HTR model with heavy fluted and free-floated barrel mounted on an aluminum bedding block in a composite stock.

Before you can worry about a scope, you need to think about rings.  The best of the best (for strength and precision) are the custom made rings by Norm Chandler.  He makes most of the rings for the Marine Snipers, but they are not cheap.  If you need to go less, Leupolds will work, but are not as robust.

Rule of thumb for scopes is that, to get out of the rifle what it's capable of, you should figure on spending as much for the scope as you do for the rifle.  Leupolds are very good - probably among the toughest out there, with very good, but not the brightest, optics.  Zies, Kahles, and Nikon will likely give you more brightness, though are not as tough as the Leupolds.

If you want to practice for the set up you'll have in the Corps, you'll want to get a scope with mil dots, although this SIGNIFICANTLY adds to the price (unfortunately, companies have figured out that these days, if you call something "tactical" you can raise the price by at least 50%).

Depending on what you get, a good set up with a Remington 700 is going to run you somewhere between $1400-2000, which can make the .22 very attractive.

I wish you the very best in the Corps.  The Sniper program is demanding, requiring a lot of mental math and calculation under grueling physical conditions.  It's a program for the best of the best, and I am honored that you consulted me for my opinion.

The best to you.