Rifles

We highly recommend all students be trained using their own rifles, alternatively we do have a range of rifles available for hire on request during the course day if required.

 

Choosing Your Rifle

The rifle you chose for long range shooting must be able to shoot under 1 Minute of Angle (MOA), preferably around the ½ MOA mark.  Rifles are a personal thing so aesthetics and function are up to you.  All we can suggest is that the size and weight of the rifle should be compatible with the activity your are choosing.

A large heavy rifle is fine if you are going to carry it onto a range or a short distance from your vehicle so that you can just lay down behind it and shoot.  If there is any chance of you wanting to carry the rifle for distances longer than these then a lighter option should be used.  There are many fine rifles available for long range shooting and some of these brands appear below.

 

What Calibre?

For long range shooting and hunting we recommend a cartridge (not calibre) that will give you twice the down range energy of the most commonly used cartridge for the animal you wish to hunt at traditional distances. A .308WIN cartridge with the appropriate projectile will humanely deal with feral pigs out to 200m.  Humanely dispatching these animals at ranges exceeding 200m requires at least a 300WM or larger.  Using anything smaller is simply not ethical.  We understand that different animal species of the same size are more susceptible to hydrostatic shock than others so cartridge choice is not only a reflection on distance but animal species too.

 

What Brand?

For Precision Shooting we recommend using quality rifles.  While it isn't just about the accuracy of the firearm, having one capable of a 1 MOA (1" group at 100 yds approximately) accuracy is required.

 

Scopes and where To Buy?

In Australia we recommend contacting Beaton Firearms for all your firearm needs -  they deal in new firearms, optics and other accessories.  Plus, their expert gunsmiths can also build you a custom long range rifle - www.beatonfirearms.com.au

The telescopic sights we recommend are ones that we have not seen fail on any of our courses. The quality of the optics has to be high, but more importantly, the mechanics has to be high quality and fail safe.

 

Choosing the Right Scope

Scopes are same as rifles; you only get what you pay for. There is a saying in the shooting community: your glass should match your rifle. This means that whatever you pay for your rifle, the cost of your scope should not be far behind the cost of the rifle. New scopes under the $1000 AUD mark have no place in Precision Shooting. Two things to look for in a scope are glass quality and mechanics. You must be able to see what you are hunting and then the adjustments made to the elevation and windage turrets should hold true. After the turrets have been returned to the original “zero” mark that’s where the scope should be and not 5 or 10 clicks out.

 

Milliradian Clicks or MOA clicks?

Milliradian Clicks or MOA clicks. Well that is up to you. However we much prefer Milliradian as it is metric scales of 1's and 10's.  One thing that is too often overlooked is how the reticle pattern relates to the elevation and windage adjustment values. Does your scope with Mildot or Mil (Hash Marks) have 1/4 MOA Clicks or 1/10 Milrad Clicks.  If it has 1/10 Milrad clicks then 10 clicks equals to one mildot. If it has ¼ MOA Clicks then 10 clicks equals to 0.8595 Mildots.  A scope with MOA adjustments would be better off with and MOA reticle pattern. This enables the shooter to interpret click value straight onto the reticle pattern for adjustments or hold-offs.

 

What Brand?

We recommend the following scopes for our Long Range Shooting and Practical Rifle courses;

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• Nightforce NXS, ATAC-R and Beast

• Leupold Mark 5 and 6 HD

• Leupold VX-6

• Leupold VX-3i LRP

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Where to Buy?

Contact Beaton Firearms or visit their website - www.beatonfirearms.com.au