Mastering the Art of Long-Range Shooting: Cartridges, Scopes, and Essential Gear Tips

Ever wondered what bullet to pick for that perfect shot or how a tweak in your scope settings could mean the difference between a hit or miss? Tune in as we break down the essentials of long-range shooting, from the nitty-gritty of cartridge selection to the critical choice of scopes and accessories. Whether you're stalking game in the wild or eyeing the bullseye at a competition, this episode guides you through setting up your arsenal without breaking the bank, with a special focus on the beloved 6.5 Creedmoor for its exceptional balance of recoil and precision.

I'll walk you through my personal experiences with various scopes - discussing the pros and cons of each - and share insights on how the right reticle, like the Vortex EBR 7 Delta, can simplify your long-range shots. This chat isn't just about what's in your rifle; it's about how to enhance your practice and why sometimes spending more on ammunition is smarter than splurging on fancy bipods. We'll also get into the gritty details of rifle maintenance, because let's face it, a clean rifle is a happy rifle, and a happy rifle means better shots downrange.

And for those who want to up their game, I've got recommendations on training aids and essential gear, including why high-quality bipods and rangefinders with ballistic features can be game-changers. Remember, it's not just about being able to hit a target; it's about ethical hunting and making sure you're prepared for whatever the field throws at you. So, whether you're new to long-range shooting or looking to refine your skills, this is your ammunition for success. Let's get ready to send those bullets downrange with confidence!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey guys, welcome back to the PXP podcast. Very much appreciate you guys listening in. In today's episode I'm going to be covering pretty much a gear guide for long range shooting enthusiasts and this is pretty much kind of for novice shooters. I'm going to be explaining understanding the essentials, different scopes, exploring different types of rifles, choosing the right scope, accessories and necessities and all sorts of stuff. So, um, enjoy the show and, uh, please subscribe. I would very much appreciate it If you guys would subscribe to the channel. That very much helps the uh, the algorithm and everything. And, uh, appreciate it. Hope you guys enjoy the show. Welcome, welcome, welcome, appreciate you guys listening in. God, I got some stuff to cover today. I'm looking here at my notes and get into it. I'm excited about this one. This one is going to be really good. It's just the basics. I think I want my podcast to go kind of from the fundamentals all the way up to advanced stuff, just kind of incrementally. Each episode I go through and then I'll sprinkle in some match debriefs and stuff like that.

Speaker 1: 1:42

With my buddies, one of my good buddies just went to the Montana. It was the Montana pro 406 championship and he won it. I couldn't make the, I couldn't make it. I had a, I had a, an appointment with a client for an individual session on Saturday, and that's when it was. So I I couldn't be there, unfortunately. So sorry about that, guys, but um, all right, let's jump into this.

Speaker 1: 2:13

So, uh, gear guide for long range shooting enthusiasts. Um, okay, so we're gonna be covering all sorts of stuff here. I want to talk about cartridge. What, what kind of cartridge you guys want? If you guys are getting into long range shooting, what you need, I'm going to kind of guide you through that a little bit, or at least poke around in my brain, and maybe, hopefully, it'll spark something and it'll motivate you guys either for, like, hunting or competition or hobby. We're going to talk about rifles. We're going to talk about, uh, scopes, accessories, uh, training aids, um, seeking, uh, some expert advice, maintenance and care tips, upgrading, all that sort of stuff.

Speaker 1: 2:57

Okay, so you guys are wanting to get into long range shooting and you don't want to break the bank. Nobody wants to break the bank. So that's the tough thing. We all have to start at ground level. I did, everybody does, nobody really just jumps into it not knowing what to do. I mean, if you're just jumping in and buying a $5,000, $6,000, $7,000 rifle and you don't know how to shoot it. That's kind of ridiculous. Let's start at the bottom here. Okay.

Speaker 1: 3:27

So cartridge you guys need to. The first thing that you need to do is you need to figure out what you want to use this, this rifle, for. Are you going to be using it for hunting? Are you going to be using it for competition? Is it just a hobby that you're going to do once in a while? Is it a combination of these things? Okay, and the reason that I'm asking that question is because that is going to facilitate what your cartridge needs to be.

Speaker 1: 3:53

Okay. So if this is purely a target rifle, okay that you're going to pull out once every few months and you want to take your wife and your kids or somebody that's maybe recoil sensitive, or you're recoil sensitive, or you want something that the ammunition is abundant that you could just pick up off the shelf absolutely anywhere you might want to go with, like a you know a 308 or a 223 or, uh, you know a caliber that's, uh, the the recoil is not as, not as bad. You do your research, figure out what you want there. Um, if, uh, you know, for me personally. Um, if I'm gonna use a rifle uh for hunting and competition and hobby and it's pretty decent on recoil I'm probably gonna go with the six five creedmoor. Um, the six five creedmoor has a little bit less recoil than a .308, and the ballistics are fantastic and you can hunt with it, you can shoot competition with it and you can find the ammunition freaking anywhere. So the 6.5 Creedmoor is a phenomenal caliber to get shooters into the sport, kids, wives, recoil sensitive. You can use it for like competition there's guys that use it for competition all the time. You can use it for like PRS style competition. It definitely keeps up with those smaller calibers, with those smaller, more kind of overboard calibers like the 6 Creedmoor or the 6 GT, 6 PRA, all those calibers um. But those smaller, more uh kind of overboard calibers like the six Creedmoor or the six GT, six BRA, all those, all those calibers there. Um, so six five uh Creedmoor is

Speaker 1: 5:32

great. I actually uh once had a competition um got a couple of months ago and there was a dude there that had a six five PRC, so a little bit more recoil than a three oh eight Uh was rocking it. It was pretty much a frick. It was a custom hunting rifle and this dude was just rock. He had like a it was an internal magazine that would only hold four and, of course, like you know, each stage is anywhere between 10 and 15 rounds. And he was hand loading this thing and he was making time. This dude was fast as hell and it was great. Uh, it was like a nine pound rifle and this dude was hitting steels man, I mean it was. It was cool. So, uh, it's all about the nut behind the bolt, right? So, yeah, do your research on the, on the cartridge

Speaker 1: 6:16

pick. The first question you need to ask yourself is is what am I going to be using this rifle for? And I want you guys to uh, want you guys to write this stuff down so you don't forget, so you don't forget what your priorities are with this. So you don't want to buy a rifle or a cartridge and have been like shit. I wish I would have went with a 6.5 Creedmoor and I got a .223, but I'd like to take this fucking thing hunting too, for elk or whatever. I mean I wouldn't take a .223. Hunting for elk, that whatever. And yeah, yeah, I mean I wouldn't take a two, two, three hunting for elk. That's just me, but all right. So the next

Speaker 1: 6:56

one, okay, rifle. Okay, so, after you figure out what you're going to be using this rifle for, um, you need to figure out what rifle like a company or, uh, what model rifle you want to use, okay, um, so it all depends on your budget, guys. Okay, so there's these factory off-the-shelf rifles. Now they could shoot damn good. Okay, the only thing that you're buying with a, you know, a super custom rifle is, just like, it's very consistent and reliable. Right, these off-the-shelf rifles are now becoming very consistent and reliable. Right, these off the shelf rifles are now becoming very

Speaker 1: 7:26

consistent and reliable. All right, um, if I'm going up against the best shooter in the world, right, and he has an off the shelf Bagara B14. And I have my custom made rifle that I built and owned my I'm going to get my ass kicked 110%. This guy does this stuff. It's the nut behind the bolt, guys. Okay, so let's don't get too down into the weeds on buying the like, getting the absolute most perfect custom Like. Don't, don't do that, just buy. Buy a good factory rifle off the shelf. It's the nut behind the bolt, right, so you got a Tikka T3X, the Be the bagara b14. You got a savage 110 precision. Uh, hawa makes an oryx. Uh, I'm gonna put a link in the description. Um, it's the top 15 affordable precision rifles. Okay, and these rifles all are around about a thousand dollars. So that's, that's pretty good. That's,

Speaker 1: 8:24

that's really good. I, I would. If I were to start all over again, um, in this day and age I'd definitely buy a. I'd probably go with a bagara b14r. So my experience with uh, or not a r bagara b14 the r is for rimfire, excuse me um and uh, my experience with bagara is when they first came out, they were really, really good. Okay, quality control was good, like everything seemed really good about them. I actually got one as a sniper for my police department and the rifle wasn't shooting very good. And come to find out, I did a ton of research, the quality control, the stocks, kind of went down. Um, what happened is, um, I took the rifle apart and I I looked and I I saw that the little mini chassis in the, in the stock itself, had been covered with like textured paint that the stock was painted with and when I would shoot it would heat up and it would shift. So, um, I don't think that's an issue anymore. Uh, do your research before you buy them. But from what I understand now they shoot great. So I see more people saying that they they shoot great then when they don't. So I haven't seen a ton of bad reviews on most of them

Speaker 1: 9:37

are all good. Savage, the 110 precision. Let me see here. I actually got my computer right in front of me. Let me look up average 110 precision and see what the price is. Let

Speaker 1: 9:54

me see here. Savage 110 precision, both actual rifle from Cabela's. Okay, so that's 1449 to 1519. That's a little bit expensive, but it looks like it comes with an MDT chassis. We'll get into chassis here. Yeah, it comes with an MDT stock. That's a chassis. That's a chassis, it's not a stock. Yeah, so we'll get to that component here shortly. But for just a little bit more money you can get it with the MDT chassis, which honestly is a really good deal. Yeah, savage

Speaker 1: 10:35

110 bolt-action rifle. What do they have it in here? .308, obviously. .65. Creedmoor, .300. Win Mag, .338, lapua, .300, prc, 308, obviously. 65. Creedmoor 300, winmag, 338, lapua, 300, piercy. There we go. 6.5 PRC is going to be in pretty much all the manufacturers now. All right, okay,

Speaker 1: 11:01

so I'll leave that rifle link in there. For you, guys, the big thing with the rifle is just do your research. The main thing you want to research on are the barrels. You want one that has a good quality barrel with lots of good reviews. I'm sure all of these are going to have really good reviews. Um, I would shoot any one of these. I'd pick up any

Speaker 1: 11:19

one of these rifles, okay, uh, all right. So now we're going to dive down into the scopes a little bit. Guys, get caught up with the scopes. Uh, the old saying was is that you need to buy a, a scope. That's twice, twice the cost of your rifle, and that's just. That's just not the the deal anymore. These scope manufacturers are coming out with good quality scopes, uh, that they have good features on them and good glass for a reasonable price. Okay, like back 15, 20 years ago, that really wasn't the case. Um, you had to worry about tracking and all sorts of stuff. So there's a ton of YouTube videos and stuff on there, guys, about

Speaker 1: 12:02

tracking tests with a lot of these scopes. Uh, but this also, um, the scope comes down to what you're going to be using this rifle for as well. Okay, if you're going to be using it for hunting as well. You need to do your research and find a scope that, uh, that's light enough for hunting and competition and hobby stuff, or, if this is something that you just want to do with just competition or just hunting, go down that route. I'll tell you what. I have a 6.5 PRC that I use for hunting and I have a specific scope that I put on that rifle and it's a Vortexht okay, awesome scope. You know, cool thing is is that if I wanted to use that scope for competition, I could, um, but I have that set aside specifically for for hunting, um, so you don't want to put, like, a vortex razor, hd gen 3 on a, on a ultra light, you know six pound hunting rifle because it's going to be super top heavy and it's going to weigh down your rifle and all. You don't want your, you don't want your, uh, your, your gen 3 banging around on a backpack while you hike, you know, four or five miles in and I, I just wouldn't. That's just me personally. I want something that's a little smaller, um, a little bit lighter, and it makes the weight of the rifle kind of balanced. It's not top heavy or anything. So you need to figure out. That's what it comes down to. Again, guys, is like what is this rifle for? Okay, there's plenty of good scopes out

Speaker 1: 13:35

there that could be good for for both. Okay, vortex, uh, so, uh, one of them that I would use for hunting and competition is the Vortex Strike Eagle. Um, that one is really good. Okay, um, I, uh, I ran that one for a while on my um hunting in for competition. Um, so that one was really good. What else do you got?

Speaker 1: 13:56

I'm sure Leopold makes a good one here. Let me see here Six best of four bulb. I'm going to put this link in here to you guys. I copy and paste this in here. Let me see here Vortex has theirs like a Strike Eagle or a Viper PST. Those are great. I've had both of those. Those are both great optics. Both I would use for hunting and competition. Um, you got Arkin optics. Okay, arkin makes. Uh, I've heard just really good things about Arkin. Um, they're, they're really cheap, like around 500 bucks. Uh, you can get like the EP five, five to 25 by 56 for like 530 bucks. Um, they're pretty good.

Speaker 1: 14:34

Uh, I, I don't have any personal experience. But one other thing that you guys want to that you want to think about when you're buying a scope is, uh, the reticle. Okay, um, you need to make sure you look at that reticle and know what the values of each hash mark are and if it makes sense in your own head. Um, good case in point, um, I went to go look at some, um, the leopold mark, five scopes and man, I think that their, their, uh, um, their hash values were like in two point or it was 0.25 tenths of a mil, and I was, I just couldn't, it just didn't make sense in my head. I I just something about it just did not, it just wasn't working in my own head. So I was like, no, I'm not. I I was like, no, this isn't working. I'm not going to buy

Speaker 1: 15:24

this scope solely based on the reticle format. Um, the one that I really like is the. It's the vortex, uh, ebr7 delta, that one's in two tenths. It's the Vortex EBR 7 Delta, that one's in two tenths. It goes. You got your one tenth right outside of the center and then you got two tenths, four tenths, and those hash marks are on top of the horizontal line, and then, after the four tenths, you have one fifth tenth on the bottom. So it's easy to see where five tenths is. And then it goes back to the top of the horizontal line, six, eight and then one mil. So, uh, that to me made made perfect sense. There's, there's no thinking about it, it was very easy to see. So that's another reason why I like uh Vortex, uh scopes is their. Their

Speaker 1: 16:07

reticle format is really really easy to see. Um, all right, uh, quality ammo. So, guys, I uh, that's that's hard for me to kind of talk about. I reload all my ammunition. So it's it's really hard for me to give you some experience. The the only real experience that I have is hornady match ammo. Um, I know horny match ammo is really good. Um, I've used it in

Speaker 1: 16:35

competitions before and I've done absolutely just fine. Um, for work, I shoot, uh federal, um federal, what is it called? Uh, tack rifle? Federal tack rifle ammunition is really good. That stuff shoots phenomenal out of my 308,. Uh, federal gold, uh, gold medal match. That stuff works really well as

Speaker 1: 16:55

well. I use that for work too sometimes. So, um, yeah, guys, sorry I can't really help you a whole lot there as far as a factory ammunition, um, here later on the podcast I will be diving a little bit deeper down into reloading. Um, I'll let you guys know what I do to reload. I finally, after about God, 15 years, a few years ago, I finally got to the point where I felt really, really confident about my reloads. I felt like that they were very, very high quality. I could see an absolute, huge difference in between factory ammo and my reloads. So, yeah, um, yeah, I uh, uh, later in the near future I will dive deep down into that and kind of show you guys what I do, um, and then, uh, you guys could throw whatever you want that I tell you in your, in your toolbox and do some more research and, uh, figure it out from there. This is all kind of

Speaker 1: 17:49

self self-discovery learning. So, all right, moving on. Uh, so you got ammo okay, I'm not gonna stress this enough like a quality rear fucking bag. Okay, do not skimp out and get some piece of shit fucking $30 rear shooting bag. Okay, don't, don't do it. I see you guys come, come to the class and they have these, these tiny little rear bags, and I'm like that's just not. I cause I did the same shit. I did it. I was like, oh, I got. You know, I don't need a super nice rear bag? Yes, you fucking do. And asked me how I know? Is because I went from a shitty rear bag and I'm like, and I finally had an opportunity to shoot with a high

Speaker 1: 18:34

quality rear bag in my shooting exponentially improved. So, get a good rear bag, guys. Um, you could, you could have a, uh, you know, a POS rifle, and as long as you have a really good rear bag, you could shoot. You could shoot that rifle pretty damn good, okay, cause most rifles can out shoot the person. All right. So, uh, the quality rear bag. So I recommend Armageddon gear or a wee bag.

Speaker 1: 19:04

Okay, those are the two that I recommend. Armageddon gear bags Uh, I'd get. Well, like I said, guys I'm circling back to this it depends on what you're doing. Okay, if you're hunting, you're going to want to get the light fill. Armageddon gear bag, rear shooting bag. If it's for competition, get the heavy fill and get the biggest one that you can get. Okay, you'll thank me later. And same with the wee bag. If you're hunting, get the light fill. That's totally fine. But the heavier the bag and the finer the sand you're, you're going to shoot better. Okay, trust me on that one, all right. And then, uh, the next thing that you're going to

Speaker 1: 19:44

need to get is a good cleaning kit. Okay, this is what I did, um, so, before I just got an ammo box and just threw all my shit in there and my solvents would spill and I couldn't find certain things and I'd have to take a bunch of shit out to find the one. Um, the one thing that I needed, and brushes would just like scatter it, like. No, just, I just bought a $16 tackle box, okay, and I put my solvents that I wanted to use and I'll touch I'll, I'll, I'll touch on those here in just a minute what they are. But I put my solvents that I wanted to use and I'll touch up, I'll touch on those here in just a minute what they are. But I put my solvents in a little spray bottle that I got off of amazon I got like four of them for like three bucks and I'd put my solvents in there and that's what I would spray my patches with, and then the you know the caps go on. The little plastic caps go over the spray nozzle and they won't spill anywhere in your, in your tackle box, okay, and then you could separate your brush, brushes and patches and all sorts. It just makes it way easier. You just pop the fucking thing right open and everything is there. And the cool thing is, if you get one that has like three different uh steps on it like a normal, like a normal tackle box, you can have three different calibers. So you have one cleaning kit for three different rifles. If you want three different calibers, okay, I take that thing every time I go to the range, every time I go to a competition, if I go hunting, it comes with me like that's that's what I do, and it works very, very, very well. Uh, just a simple tackle box. I get made

Speaker 1: 21:11

fun of but I don't give a shit. I already talked about rifles a little bit. I got ahead of myself. I thought I'd do that. So my next section here was talking about factory rifles. Okay, we already covered Tika, we already covered Savage, we already covered the Vortex Strike Eagle and the Viper. I just recommend those. The warranty on those is great. The glass is decent on them. Like you could, we can make those work. I made it work for many years on on the Strike Eagle and the Viper and the big thing is is look at the reticle to make sure it makes sense to you and don't just go to the store

Speaker 1: 21:53

and just look through and see the reticle. Pull the reticle up on the internet. And just go to the store and just look through and see the reticle, pull the reticle up on the internet and go to their website and look at it and make sure it. You'll know when it makes sense, when you don't need to sit there and think about what each hash mark is. Okay and you want to understand those because in a hunting or in a competition environment you want to be able to make those precise holds without thinking subconsciously. So it needs to be easy, guys. I can't stress that portion enough. I would buy a low-end scope with a reticle that made complete sense to me than a high-end scope with a reticle that I just couldn't understand,

Speaker 1: 22:37

because some reticles out there are really confusing. Guys, I like the more simple reticles the simple vertical and horizontal line and a nice clean Christmas tree, meaning like holdovers. The dots that come underneath are the like. You'll see hash marks that go underneath the horizontal line. It's kind of it kind of looks like a Christmas tree and that's for making, that's for doing holdovers. So you're not dialing. If you want one with the holdovers.

Speaker 1: 23:05

The Vortex Strike Eagle has the holdovers, okay. Another thing to look at too is if you're shooting in low light conditions using holdovers, make sure that your illuminated reticle the Christmas tree also lights up. You want that as well, because you can't make holdovers in low light if it's just the horizontal and vertical line that light up. So that's something that you want to look into as well. It might not benefit you and it might. So take a look at that and that might help look into as well. It might, it might not, uh, benefit you, it might and it might. So take a look at, uh, take a look at that and then,

Speaker 1: 23:38

uh, that might help you out as well. Okay, so now we're going to get into, okay, bolt action or semi-auto. Okay, guys, so I'm a big bolt gun guy. I'm not a I'm not a huge semi-auto guy. Um, we do have guys in competitions that run semi-autos, which is totally fine. I mean that's cool, those I that run semi-autos, which is totally fine. I mean that's cool. I mean the semi-autos

Speaker 1: 23:57

nowadays, man, they could shoot very, very well. I will say that pretty much the only pro between the two is that bolt action there's less moving parts, it's just going to be more consistent. You don't need to worry about a bunch of dirt and grease and all sorts of stuff getting in there tuning your gas system If you're reloading um from a semi-auto I know that semi-autos are kind of hard on brass Um, you gotta, you gotta really fine tune that gas system to make sure you're not destroying your brass. Um, yeah, guys, I mean and that's pretty much it really they both shoot good, especially for, like prs style, uh type of shooting. Um, I mean, a semi auto is definitely gonna shoot plenty well, for two to three moa targets at distance, for sure. I mean, if we're shooting one moa targets, you know, at distance, I might definitely go with the bolt gun, just more consistent. Left, less moving parts. Everything is, uh, you know, less moving parts means more consistent. It's pretty simple. So, um, but I, I I mean, yeah, totally fine, totally fine to go with a semi-auto if you want, unless you're, unless you're, uh, uh, crazy about bolt actions like me, about both actions like me, okay, and uh,

Speaker 1: 25:22

okay. So the next one here is okay. So let's talk about scope stuff just a little bit, um, okay. So we're going back to scopes. My, my notes are out of order. I apologize. So, okay, when you're looking at a scope, you want to make sure that, um, the features that you

Speaker 1: 25:33

want on it are there. Okay, make sure. When you're, when you're holding that scope and you're testing it or you're doing your research online, you're, you're looking at reviews on how the clicks feel. If, if the reviewer says that they're really mushy, if you can't hear them, if they're having issues with a really really stiff parallax, how does how, how does the zoom look? Is the parallax changing when you zoom in All these sort of things? I have noticed that when I zoom in on my Vortex Gen 3 that the parallax changes a little bit. So if I'm at 8 or 9 power trying to find a target and then I zoom into 15 power, my parallax is going to change a bit and I need to be aware of that. I try to leave my scope at 15 power through the entire match if possible, but sometimes I do get lost. Trying to find terrain features and stuff. I get a little bit ahead of myself. My body moves faster than my brain and I need to slow down, zoom out the scope and find my terrain feature and then find the target, then zoom back in. So yeah, so make sure that you're okay with how the parallax feels, how the zoom feels, how the turrets feel, how the reticle looks, what the weight of it

Speaker 1: 26:56

is, what the glass looks like to you. The reason that I got away from the Vortex Strike Eagle was purely because I was shooting very, very small steels and the background was dirt and there was a little bit of grass behind it as well, and I was unable to actually see the steel in my Vortex Strike Eagle. That was my time to be like, okay, yeah, glass quality can matter. That's only happened one time to me, so it wasn't a make or break. It was just one steel. It was a really tiny steel. It was at the very end of a KYL. It's called a Know your a series of steels and it's basically a hanger with five or six steels and they go from big to small and you have to shoot the big one once all the way down to the small one and if you miss you got to go back to the big one and restart the whole thing and I was unable to even see the small steel. Um, with better glass quality, I'm a hundred percent able to see that steel, the exact same steel and I've I haven't had any issues since. But I mean, this steel was four inches wide by like six or eight inches tall, and it was like at 580 yards and um, yeah, so most people aren't shooting um that tiny of targets for the most part.

Speaker 1: 28:17

So, um yeah, just cover all those things. Guys, make sure you're writing this stuff down. Okay, all right and okay. So now we're going to break, break down um, your setup that you have Okay. Um, your setup that you have Okay. Um, and you need to set yourself up for success in the future, meaning, um, you want to buy a rifle. That other factory, that other factories are going to make components for, for barrels I think I already touched on that, maybe I did. I'm just going to repeat it Get, get a rifle like a Tika Bagara Savage, um, all these big ones. That other factories, they're going to make other pre-fit barrels, they're going to make drop-in chassis and all this sort of stuff. So that way in the future, when you want to upgrade the chassis, you can and it's not a problem. You just buy the chassis and you just bolt it right in and then you're fucking done

Speaker 1: 29:09

and cool. Now you got a badass chassis. Or, you know, get a scope that you can use for a while. Chassis or, um, you know, get a scope that you can use for a while. Don't don't buy a two or three hundred dollar scope. Okay, I'm not saying that these low-end ones are are phenomenal and great, but once you get up into that seven, eight hundred, nine hundred dollar range, that that scope's gonna keep up, that's gonna keep up with you for a while. Um, you're, you're not gonna have a need to replace that

Speaker 1: 29:32

thing anytime soon. Okay, so all right here. And bipods Okay, I'm kind of a bipod whore. I have a ton of them. I got Harris, I got the MDT Skypods, I got AccuTac. I got. What else do I got? I got a bunch of them, okay. So, gosh, okay, uh, what else I got? I got a

Speaker 1: 29:56

bunch of them, okay, um, so gosh, okay. Four guys don't don't go and buy a seven, eight, nine hundred dollar fucking um bipod like an mdt skypod. Right off the bat you're like that's, you can use that money for other things. Use it for ammo, try, try to get it, try to get this budget down to where you have, you know, five, six hundred dollars left to go fucking buy ammo or reload ammo if you're already reloading, um, and put some freaking rounds down range, okay, that's, that's what you want. You want leftover money to go and

Speaker 1: 30:28

shoot? Okay, um, yep, okay. So by I. Um, atlas is really good. I love my Atlas because that thing is absolutely indestructible. So, looking to Atlas, they run anywhere between 300 and 450 bucks. Uh, you can get a really good quality Atlas by pod that you're going to have forever. So that's a good, a good investment. I've already broke my mdt skypod and I've had it for four months, so, um, they're really good for competition shooting. But, uh, I beat the, I use the shit out of my equipment and I break it, so I gotta send it in to get fixed. All right, uh, let me see here um, accessories, okay, range finder, okay, guys. So, um, yeah, just get a good, decent quality range finder, spend about three or four hundred bucks, get like

Speaker 1: 31:27

a leopold one I started out with now. Now I'm using the vortex uh range finder with applied ballistics in it. I use that one for hunting. It's really nice because, um, I can uh know range whatever I'm shooting at, and it gives me my dope and I can put wind in it and it accounts for the temperature, humidity, all that sort of stuff. So it gives me an accurate enough firing solution for hunting. Okay, and I say that because I've always found myself about a 10th or two off, out to about 600 yards, but I'm not shooting at anything or

Speaker 1: 32:03

hunting in distances really any farther than that. I try to get it as absolute close as I can. I'm an archery hunter, so getting close is not an issue. If you can't get close, then you need to move on. You need to have that little thought, need to have that uh, that little, that little uh thought in your head. This is now that's too far. If you can't 100 make the shot, then don't, then don't take it. But really, all these rangefinders nowadays guys are really good, even those low, lower end vortex ones like I. I still use one for work,

Speaker 1: 32:35

okay, um, they're, they're great, they're totally fine. Another thing you need to look into is toolkits. Uh, you want to be able to work on your rifle. You want to be able to take it apart, um, diagnose if there's an issue, clean it. Maybe it got super fucking dirty. I went to a competition in Utah, uh, about, uh I don't know, a month ago, and there was. It was like fucking moon dust everywhere and I had to completely disassemble my rifle, wipe it off, because there was dirt and cleaning solvents that were mixed together underneath the action and that could possibly or potentially cause an issue. So I went

Speaker 1: 33:12

ahead and took it apart and cleaned it. But I recommend Fix-It Sticks. You can get them online for about $60 to a little bit more than that. I think it was like $80 100 bucks just the basic kit. I haven't gotten anything more than the basic, because all the basic does is it comes with more bits and shit and I'm like, fuck it, I'll just pull bits out of my existing toolkit, and

Speaker 1: 33:32

that's what I did. So that's totally fine. Just uh, find the bits that uh you want to use for your and you know it comes with a decent amount of bits too. So, but if you need extra bits, just pull them out of your other tools, and that's for about a hundred bucks. Or you can get a fat wrench. That's just like a super cheap one too. It's totally fine, it works. There's nothing wrong with just a normal as a weaver fat wrench or whatever. Whatever, um, just a little bit bigger. I like the uh, the smaller fix it stick because I could throw it in my hunting pack or my competition bag and

Speaker 1: 34:03

it doesn't take up a bunch of room. All right, okay, this is for, like, your competition shooters and, um, not so much your hunters, because your hunters are going to be using a, uh, like a like a hunting pack. Um, I use like an XO mountain gear for for my stuff. Uh, but get a quality bag that's going to hold your gear, Okay, so for competition, I use the Eberly stock. Oh shit, I forgot what it's called. Um, I really stock packs. Let me see here Okay, it's called the Eberly stock upranger. Okay, and it's really cool because the back of the pack has like a really thick plastic bottom to it, to where, if you lay it down in the dirt or mud, it's not going to like soak into your pack or anything. And on the inside it's like felt and it has dividers in it and stuff like that. A lot of photographers use this pack to put lenses and cameras and stuff in, because it really protects your gear. So I use that for competition. It's it's it's a $300 pack. It's really cool, um, but for your, your competition shooters, I recommend this one, um, and just just get a decent pack that doesn't just have like one huge um space to it where all your gear

Speaker 1: 35:19

and it's just kind of jumbled in there. You want to be able to like somewhat organize your gear into certain areas to where you know where everything's at. I started out with it's a it was a separate eberly stock bag. I forgot what the hell it was. Oh no, it was my mystery ranch metcalf pack is what I started with. I was able to put my large items and like jackets and stuff in the main um, the main compartment and then the other compartments that I have, especially on top. I was able to put like extra ammo, um, range finder, all that sort of shit. So it was kind of separated out and they

Speaker 1: 35:54

weren't just like just thrown into the pack. You want to take care of your gears as much as possible, all right, okay, so let's talk about training aids. Um, with the training aids guys, um. So there's nothing better than dry firing. It's free, like when I go to the range, especially with my overboard six Creedmoor um, you know, and I want to shoot 50 rounds. I mean that's, that's a chunk of my barrel life, right. So what I typically do is I'll create a stage or a course of fire and I'll dry fire that at least two to three times and then I'll live fire it. Um, so that's one way to practice, okay, and you could do this at your house too, if you're not into the positional shooting

Speaker 1: 36:39

and stuff yet, and eventually we'll get there. Um, just lay in the prone position, or, uh, throw your nice shooting bag that you got from Armageddon gear over your couch and shoot from the kneeling position. Um, you know, go into your garage and find something that's, or I, uh, I got like a step ladder and that's like four and a half feet tall and I would use the steps as different um, heights, and that's how I started practicing at my house, and it was like 30 bucks. I can use it around the house. Um, throw it in the bed of my truck when I go to the shooting range. If there's no props there, I would just use that, that, uh, that

Speaker 1: 37:19

ladder, and it was great Works, totally fine. Um, but um, yeah, if ammo is a big deal, which ammo is a big deal to me too? I'm not, I'm not exempt to uh the ammo problem, especially the primer problem. I'm starting to get pissed at shields. Um, but uh, I don't want to just be burning ammo like crazy, right? So, um, definitely, dry fire, run through several dry fires and then, uh, and then shoot a couple live fire rounds and then keep doing that cycle, change up the targets, change up the positions, all sorts of stuff, okay, so another thing that you can get, that's just the next step up from dry firing is called the DFAT system, the DFAT

Speaker 1: 38:01

dry fire system, and you could Google that. It's DFAT system and what that does, and it's specific to your scope. You screw it on to the end of your scope, okay, okay, and what that does is it is it narrows the aperture of the scope or the objective of the scope, so you can parallax down or focus down your scope all the way to like eight feet, and what that allows you to do is it allows you to shoot at targets like a like on a poster. So, or, uh, cause the DFAS system, you have the option to order poster targets and you can put them up on your wall in your living room, in your basement, and then obviously, make sure your weapon's unloaded and rendered safe and you could dry fire practice at the targets on your wall. But what I like to do is I pull up targets on my computer screen, because what I've noticed with the DFAT system is that it makes the objective so small that not a whole lot of light gets in Right. So but if I use my computer screen, okay, and I turn up the brightness all the way, it's not a problem. And I just open the shades in my basement, that way there's more light coming in and I have no issues. And then I just take that ladder and I put it in my basement and I practice positional shooting for 45 minutes to an hour, an hour, you know, and if you're feeling really crazy, like I do, I put myself on time. So, yeah, super good way to practice guys. D fat, dry fire system. It's like 140 bucks or

Speaker 1: 39:38

something for the whole thing. Okay, all right. And once, once you guys are to a point where you feel like that you want you hit a plateau in your training and you want a little bit more um, you need to seek expert advice. Okay, that means getting a hold of um, your local instructor. Okay, uh, I'm in, uh, I'm in Montana. I travel all over the state and I do, I do instruction all over the state. I I'll go down to why I haven't been to Wyoming yet. But I can go down to Wyoming and go to North Dakota, south Dakota, idaho, washington, whatever, as long as there's a good range there that can facilitate ranges out to about a thousand yards. Um, oh, you got any questions about that. Feel free to email me or get ahold

Speaker 1: 40:25

of me on the podcast, here and um. But that can also mean guys, just, uh, you know one of your buddies that's into it. All right, seeking out on some forums and or I don't know if I recommend that a whole lot. But just get ahold of someone local that that does it, you know, and go train with them, ask them questions. Feel free to ask me questions. That's why I'm here. I want you guys to ask questions. I want to. I want you guys engaged. So feel free to reach out to me, ask questions, if you're, if you have questions on scope rings, if you have questions on what sort of base that you need and all sorts of stuff. We're not going to cover that today. This is just like the meat and potatoes of what you guys need to do to get into the long range stuff. Ok, but feel free to contact me at PrecisionXProductionscom. You could find me on Facebook. You can get a hold of me here and yeah, yeah, do not be afraid to reach out. Okay, all right. So maintenance,

Speaker 1: 41:25

uh, care and tips, all right, uh, okay. So how do I clean my gun? This is very simple. This is, uh. This might be opening up a can of worms, okay, so people not might like the way that I do it, but this is how I found Uh works the absolute best for me. Okay, um, so, in my cleaning regime, um, I it's, it's very simple, guys. I don't go super down into the weeds. I don't clean my barrel all the way down to bare steel. I don't do any of that shit. Okay, I don't

Speaker 1: 41:58

do any of that shit. Okay, I don't. I have a bore scope. I have a bore scope in case I feel like that there's an issue with my rifle, not to see if it's fucking cleaned all the way. Like, do not, just don't, don't even go down that rabbit hole, do not buy a bore scope and shove your, shove your bore scope down your, down your barrel, and you continue to clean your barrel for two freaking days. It takes 30 minutes to clean your gun, okay, so what I do is, after a cleaning session, after about 80 to 100 rounds somewhere in there I'll clean my gun. If it's any less than that on a training day, I won't clean it. If it's 100 rounds or more on a competition day or whatever, then I'll clean it. Right, when I'm done. Between 80 and a hundred rounds is when I

Speaker 1: 42:43

clean my gun, and I keep that consistent. Do not, do not, do not, not clean your gun, because what's going to end up happening is you're going to get a carbon ring in there and then you're going to start getting pressure spikes, okay. Then you're going to start blowing primers and ask me how I know. Just ask me how I fucking know that, because I've done it All right. I've heard of guys not cleaning their guns at all. I've heard of guys cleaning a ridiculous amount. I've heard them like it's yeah, so just find what suits you. But what I do is I use Bortech Eliminator. The reason that I use that it doesn't smell and I have found that it takes, that it's really good

Speaker 1: 43:22

about breaking down copper and breaking down carbon. Okay, I'll run one wet patch down the bore, okay, and obviously using a bore guide and a bore rod. Make sure you have a bore guide and a bore rod. You'd like you definitely want those two things, okay. So spend a little bit of money. Get a $30 bore guide, that'll fit. You can get universal ones Um, I have a universal one that I use, but, um, preferably, um, I would get one that has an O ring at the very end of it to keep the solvents down the barrel, because you just don't want your solvents coming out of the bore and seeping down into your action and into your action screws and making a mess. It just saves you a little bit of a mess, is all. It's not the end-all, be-all, but it saves you a little bit of a mess. If you could find one that has like an O-ring on the end to keep the solvents down, that's great, okay. And then get like a, uh, a coated cleaning rod, all right, um, just a one piece cleaning rod, not that big of a deal. You can get them from like 40 bucks at Shields

Speaker 1: 44:27

or Cabela's or whatever, and they're great, okay. And so I throw one wet patch down my barrel. Then I get a nylon brush and I soak my nylon brush in my Bortec Eliminator and I do 40 strokes down the barrel. So one or down and back is one, down and back is two. I do it 40 times. After I do it 40 times, I put the nylon brush right near where the chamber is, where the carbon ring would be, and I just spin it for a minute. I spin, spin, spin, spin for about 30 times or so and your hands cramp up a little bit. But that's totally fine. You just do not want that carbon ring built up, okay? Then I take three dry patches, push it through till I'm getting nothing out, and I do this same sequence three to four times, once I stop seeing copper come out, um, and my patches are coming out pretty much clean. They might be just a little bit dirty.

Speaker 1: 45:26

Then I'm done. After that, I'm completely done. I don't do anything else. I don't. I don't, um, get down in the weeds and try to scrape everything down to to bare metal. I like that's it so, and I've had, uh like, really good success with that. So, um, and uh, yeah, uh, do your research, find out what works for you. That's what I do, guys. You don't need to do that, um, if you don't want to, but that's that's what works for me. All right, okay, and I already talked about upgrading and advancing your rifle. So, yeah, just like I said earlier, set yourself up for the future. Get a rifle that you can upgrade. I know for a fact that a ton of barrel companies make pre-fits for Tikkas. They make drop-in chassis chassis same with bagara, same with savage. Um, yeah, and you're not going to have an issue with these actions. These actions are going to last you guys for a while. From my experience, I like the tica actions. Tica actions seem to be really good. Um,

Speaker 1: 46:34

yeah, uh, and that's pretty much it, guys. I just kind of wanted to go over the meat and potatoes of how to get into precision shooting or how to even start researching or what to look for. I hope this helped you guys out just a little bit. If you only took one thing away from this, that would make me happy. Please subscribe to the channel, would very much appreciate it. Please check me out on precisionxproductionscom. Drop in, say hi, ask some questions. Uh, find me on facebook precision x productions. Um, get a hold of me with some fan questions. If, uh, if you guys are listening to this on spotify. There's a section there where it says you can contact me. It sends an email to me directly. I can get your questions answered for you. But, yeah, hope you guys have a great one. Get out on the range and shoot and keep training. Have a good one. We'll see you next time you.