Up until a few weeks ago I was at the 300yd mark as well. I met some guys from here at Fireman JG's range and a one of them had me shoot his 308 to 800yds, a first for me. With my limited experience I will say the difference between his 308 and mine is 1)his scope was of higher quality and built for that type of shooting 2)his ammo was his own customs 3)various parts, barrel etc. were aftermarket and higher quality. I won't make any brand recommendations but a new scope, trigger, and a class with JG would probably be a great leap into a world that will consume a lot of your money.

Shhhh....he's here!

That would be great to take a class with JG but he is a loooong way from the Houston area.

Hmmm. In that case, here's a cheap recommendation for starters....First off, do you have a place in the country where you can shoot longer ranges? If so, first get a ballistics app, then go hang some large targets, (maybe 3'x3') at the ranges you want and shoot, make sure you are prone or have a very solid rest. You will have to drive/walk to your targets to see the results but with the large paper and app you should be on paper and adjust from there. Make notes of everything. At the same time, start researching better glass and loads for your dad to work up for you. P_102

There's hotels, and I've about got a bedroom built at the range.

Here's some facts about this whole thing, some boxes to check.

You can't hit what you can't see. A quality scope that lets you see clearly, and that has a serviceable reticle. I prefer Mils, and you can read why on my website, in the blog. Accurately tracking turrets makes distant hits easier. Big money is spent for clear glass, and good turrets.

Right chambering, right powder, right bullet. Your .308 and 7mm-08 are both good at distance. 7mm-08 is the ultimate do-it-all short action cartridges. I've got one, and about to have another one. It has to hold 1" at 100 yards for at least 3 consecutive shots. That's it. And now days that's easy to do.

The stock needs to be strong, and not allow the forearm to touch the barrel. The action HAS to be locked down to the stock. That's where many combinations need the stock bedded to achieve this.

I use one piece 20 MOA bases. They're strong and marry tightly to the action. I spend big bucks on top notch rings. Base and rings are the same as the attachment of the walls of your house to the foundation.

Then, what I tell everyone I have out for the day:

This is about eliminating factors. Think of it as a tripod. One leg of the tripod fails, and the whole thing falls over.

1.Rifle, base, rings, scope working well, in concert.

2. Ammunition that's tuned to the rifle, and shoots the same every time the trigger is squeezed.

3. Shooter skill. Eye relief, breathing control, trigger squeeze, follow-through, call the shot, witness impact.

Do all of that^^ right, and you've whittled it down to the one factor you have no control over, wind. All you can do is read it, decide, shoot, learn from what went well and what went wrong. There is no shortcut to getting good at dealing with wind. It takes lots of time on glass, making note of what heppened, and learning from it. 52 weeks a year, I study wind, and shoot in it. The old saying goes "distance is science, windage is art". And I don't claim to be an artist yet.

Three or four years ago all I had ever done is hunt, not shoot. Took my rifle/rifles before season openers and shot a few rounds each and if it was within a couple of inches of where I wanted it I called it ok. Thought I had it all figured out. Never spent more than $300 bucks on a rifle and never more than $200 on scope and rings. If a gun did not shoot and hold at least 2" at 100 yards I sold it, figure it had to be the gun. Like I said I thought I thought I had it all figured out. Fast forward till now. Got on this board and hooked up with a lot of good people on here and found out just how little I do know but have learned a lot since. And like a lot of other people starting out I discounted the advice on scopes, bases, rings, floating the barrel and reloading. Last but not least is trigger time. Now I get frustrated if a load in a particular gun does not print 1/4 to 1/2 MOA. Yes, sometimes it takes better equipment to make all that happen, listen to sound advice. I have a lot more fun now trying to figure things out and not just accepting something at face value. Longer range shooting is a lot of fun. I still hunt but have only taken shots 200 yards or less just because.

There is a wealth of information that you can gather form the guys on here, listen to them. Ask a lot of questions, you will get answers. I still don't know it all and never will but it has been a fun ride so far.

I have always been a big believer in reading and watching. There are a lot of articles and training videos available, and you might see if these are helpful to you. Some people do better with hands on training and only you know about yourself. Explore all the options available to you.
JMO and

Practice and more practice. Upgrade your gear. practice some more. start to reload or find someone that can help you and then practice some more. learn the drops practice wind and cross wind. get the best glass you can and practice some more. for 20 years I have watched people talk about shooting and long range. Triggers are a huge part. second is practice. Technology is a crutch. When in real life and you need to make a 600 yd shot is a 30 mph crosswind and you can place that bullet within an inch or two of where you wanted you will know all of the practice has paid off.

Honestly, any of the popular calibers (including hunting calibers) can be set up to reach well beyond 300 yards. I learned on a 270 Win, and can easily get out to 800 with it. The main thing is setting up your rifle with a scope you can dial elevation for and feed it quality ammo (quality, meaning not your cheap ammo from Wal Fart). Then go to the range and practice, practice, practice!

Having quality ammo will allow you to have tight tolerances on the extreme spreads (ES) on the velocity. This will keep good consistency from shot to shot, where you are not chasing your tail with bad/inconsistent ammo. (If someone tells me your Core-Lokt ammo is good enough beyond 300 yards, I'm inviting you out to an 800 yard range to show you it's not!!!) And just because the ammo is expensive, doesn't mean it's better. The Nosler Custom stuff and high end Weatherby ammo has some of the WORST powder charge consistencies I have ever seen.

I start with confirming my zero at 100 yards each time I shoot. Having a proper zero is KEY for shooting distance. After this, I start shooting at 300 yards, and will walk further out to 600 or 800 yards most of the time. I generally try to pick a distance of 500 yards or more and try for a first round hit on a 2 moa target (10" at 500, 12" at 600, etc). Every time I shoot, I am chronographing each shot with my Lab Radar, so I know the exact speeds and ES on my ammo. I build a dope chart with this good ammo in my rifle. Here lately I have been shooting A LOT of 308 Win with a 168 grain BTHP. It's very basic, but it works well and it shoots good. Each time I'm out I fine tune my drop data and can apply it in the field.

The main issue I see with hunting rifles is the thin barrels heat up after 3-4 shots and begin to walk around. It's just natural it does this with thinner steel. So, keep your shots to less than 5 rounds at a time, and let the barrel cool. If you have a thicker barrel, you can shoot more rounds. I put 20 rounds down range in my 308 in less than 2 minutes at the last THF match, and got 13 hits going 200, 400, 600, 400, 200, 400, 600, 400, 200, etc, one round at a time. But the barrel on that rifle is a truck axle, and built to be shot hard.

On the scope, all you need is about a 4-14, 3-15, or 4-20 power scope. Get something with a decent reticle that matches your turrets. A great intro scope is the SWFA 3-15 Super Sniper models in mil/mil, or a Vortex PST mil/mil. Then, plan to shoot 500+ rounds of the same ammo for practice. Save the brass to reload multiple times to reduce the cost.

Figured I would add this to this thread rather than starting a new one. Shot this group Saturday at 600 yards with my Tikka T3X Varmint in 223. First shot my dope had me about 6 inches high and slightly left. Adjusted down and put my next 4 shots into less than 2 inches. There was literally only 2 distinct impact marks on the steel. I really, really wish I had been shooting paper to see if I had actually shot a 4 shot 2 hole group. New personal best for me and that little factory rifle continues to impress the heck out of me.

^^^ That's some good shooting right there!

One more thing to add- Practice enough to know the personality of your rifle. Every rifle has one. But, if you switch ammo, you are starting over. Each ammo can act differently in your rifle and give you different groups, POI, and recoil feeling. Don't expect a thin barrel to remain consistent over more than 3-5 rounds. I know of many 2-3 shot hunting rifles before groups open up.

Great shooting TTID!

If you're going those ranges invest in a scope. 1.5-2x as much as the gun if not more.

Very impressive. Factory rifle makes it even more impressive. So many posts are about high dollar custom builds and super new wildcat calibers. What about the ammo that you used? Was this your ammo or some high dollar custom ammo with days of shooting and more loads to get that super accurate round for your rifle? Regular .223 caliber? Very impressive...

My handloads. Hornady 75 BTHP match, Hornady match brass (reloaded many times), 24.0 gr Varget and WSR primers. Yes on the standard .223 Rem round.

I broke in the barrel with about 30 rounds of factory Black Hills Match, which even with a new barrel shot about .8 MOA with only an occasional flyer opening up to about 1.25 MOA. Did a ladder load with the Varget using 0.5 gr increments and when I hit that 24.0 (my second hottest load), magic happened. It was good enough that I never tried to tweak it up or down any at all. As to the length, I started out with the bullets loaded out to magazine length, but much to my surprise, they were too long for the chamber. Pretty unusual and a nice change from the norm. I seated them back to where they were a couple of thousandth's off of the lands and called it good.

As to the rifle, I took the action out of the stock, wiped everything down, adjusted the trigger as light as it would go, then remounted the action and torqued the action screws. Added an EGW 20 MOA base and some TPS rings. I had never used the TPS rings before, but it was all I could find on short notice in a 34MM. They have a very odd mounting method, where you torque one side, then the other. I was skeptical, but I followed their instructions exactly as written and it seems to work. Overall, I'd say this was the easiest of my 3 long range setups to do. My 260 wasn't too bad, but my 308 was a PITA. They're all shooting good now, so I'm on to my next project, which will be my Rock River with the 18 inch bull barrel. It's slightly sub MOA with factory Hornady 75 gr match, so I'll start working up a load for it. Doubt the AR will ever hang with that Tikka, but if I can get it to hold under an MOA out to 600 or maybe a bit longer, I'll be happy. And once that's done, it will be my 7 mag's turn for a tune up. And I'm thinking about a fast twist 22-250. It just never ends...

TTID, Thanks, nice to know and have for a reference....