You were going to build a dedicated long range, 1000 yard bench gun and had a budget for the rifle of $1000.00 what would you build and why? Please keep responses to items actually available. Weight not terribly important, nor are looks.

Ready? Go!

I don’t think you can build one for $1000. Just saw a Tikka action sell for nearly $600. If it were me looking for a 1000yd gun, I’d look for a used Ruger Precision, Savage Stealth, Tikka CTR or something along those lines.

I think you just narrowed it down to a salvage, which is what I shoot currently. It’s damn sure a budget accurate rock.

But the cheapest 10/110 and screw a good barrel on it.

The only other option is a Tikka CTR that I know of.

$1000 makes it pretty tough to do much. I haven’t checked prices lately but last I knew a good barrel is going to be $350ish and then add chambering and we’ll over half your budget is gone. The best route might be to fine tune a heavy barreled Tikka or even Ruger American and then concentrate on load work up.

Oops, repeat of above….need to type faster.

Savage precision Elite

DONE

Oh, you will need a $2000 scope though.

My Tikka CTR in 6.5 creed was $900 when I bought it. Burris XTRII 3-15x I bought used for prob $500. 6" average group at 1100 using Hornady American gunner 140. Smaller with my handloads. Can't imagine getting it done for much cheaper really.

$1000 for just the rifle?

Tikka CTR 6.5 Creedmoor

Bergara B14 HMR in a 6cm or 6.5 cm
I seen more 6cm on shelfs than 6.5 and the 6 will take half the elevation that the 6.5 will to get to distance.

Good rifle and legs to 1400 yards with hand loads!!

Still a roll of the dice for a 1000 yard gun

I am attempting this exact trick. I bought a used savage from here, sold off some parts from it so the action and stock was $400. Bought a Jard trigger and a mcgowen 260 barrel for a little less than $600 for both. So I'm coming right at $1000. Haven't had time to shoot it yet but ultimately the plan is to shoot at my local f class matches.

Thanks for all the great information. Another question: Would spending an extra $500 get a rifle 50% more accurate?

I’m going to say absolutely not. The CTR is hard to beat without going to a semi-custom and don’t think it can be done for $1500 unless you happen across cheap donor parts.

Someone above stated the CTR wouldn’t do well at 1000. I disagree. Sure you can spend significantly more money and get more performance, not $500 more though.

Sounds like the CTR is the way to go. Thanks for all the great information. 20 or 24 inch barrel?

That’s a maybe….you can get pre-chambered, custom barrels (Shilen, McGowan and probably more) for $500 but there’s no guarantee on how much they will improve on what you have. I’d think it would be best to start with something like the CTR, which should give you 1/2 MOA ( or better) then consider changing down the road.

20 or 24 is a good question. The shorter the barrel the less harmonics, the longer you get more velocity.


Two guys I shoot with from work have CTRs. One is a 20” .260 and the other a 24” Needmoor. The 24” is shooting factory ammo slower than the 20” handloads. Both shoot excellent.

I had both but ended up selling the 24” after I picked up a Bergara Premier HMR with a 24” barrel. For me the 20 was handier while hunting. Both the 20 and 24 were excellent shooters.

In the 1500 range you could also look at the Bergara Premier HMR. Nice adjustable stock, trigger tech trigger, uses ai mags, stainless action and barrel that’s ceracoated. Custom feel in a factory package.

Like others mentioned. Factory Tikka or Bergara.

How about a Remington 700 5R in 6.5 CM, out of the box they'll shoot. Today there $1000-1200 I think.
Wife and I each shoot one's with upgrades at the 500 yard steel matches and are contenders. I'd have no problem shooting out to 1K, but have a .338 Edge for the 1K stuff launching a 300 gr. SMK, better for the wind on the long stuff.

Buy what you like and will be happy with, don't settle. You'll have it for a long time.

Good luck,

Yeah a roll if I wanted a 95% chance of a 7 or 11 on each roll.

I'll take that bet every day.

I can hit 1000 routinely with a .223 Rem that's hand loaded. Give me that CTR and I have zero concern.

No.

To go from 1/2 MOA to 1/4 MOA often requires $3000 worth of rifle, and another <$1000 worth of load development and ammo.

It is an unforgiving curve on the pocketbook.

20" being shorter and stiffer shoots more powder charges well, but sacrifices 100 fps from the 24"

24" makes more speed, but is more picky on terrific powder charge from decent powder charge, from really bad powder charge.

Seen lots of bad Reminton 700's.

Seen zero bad Tikkas, especially Tikka CTRs.

I got two good ones I'm happy.
Had them bedded, trigger tec Triggers installed, breaks installed and Cheek pieces added.

Please explain what you've seen as bad 700's.

I will bite on this one-
A good friend had a M700 300 win mag, the long range model, it was purchased right before they folded up for a while. It had 300 or so rounds through it, and he kept complaining of his brass looking funny when it was extracted. I finally looked at it, and it was extremely hard to get the bolt open, and did in fact have some odd lines when extracted. I scoped it, and it had a .015" or so deep tool mark spiraling in the chamber. The bolt timing is not great on it either. I assisted him in putting a Mc Gowan remage barrel on it, and the extraction problem went away.

My 700 7mm Rem Mag-
This POS never would shoot under 2 MOA. I bought this in the late 90's. I put it up years ago and just last month took it apart and am using the action for a 300 PRC build. So, I decided to check this thing out and true it up. When I went to put the mandrel in to dial the action in on the lathe, the thing was twisted bad enough I couldn't run the mandrel through both bushings. I ended up reaming the bolt raceway, which then required sleeving the bolt (which I had not planned on doing), and cleaned up the lugs and face. It only had one lug making contact, and the face where the barrel meets the action was right at .003" from being square. I ended up cutting receiver threads .015" larger in order to get them right. Now, the thing is good to go, but there is $500.00 worth of work done to it in order to get it there. Sound like good value and quality?

My 700 VSSF 22-250
The rifle shoots great, and always has. The problem with this one was the poorly bedded stock that HS Precision provided Remington. I have a 300 Ultra with the same stock and it came with the same issue. I glassed both of them in, and they improved from a 1 MOA rifle to a .5 MOA rifle.

On the contrary, I have a 700 VLS in 7-08 and a 700 BDL in 25-06 that have been superb. Bottom line is, you have a 50/50 shot at getting a good one.

Pops will be getting a 20" CTR in the near future when his can comes in. The CTR is the way to go.

My brother was a well known bench rest competitor. He was also a barrel cutter for the BR crowd with a huge lathe in the garage. He bought only top of the line barrels. He told me that only about 60% of the barrel blanks were acceptable for competitive BR shooting.

Over the years I guess I've been lucky never had an issue with a Remington 700.

I have owned 30+ Remington 700’s from various years the old ones pre 90’s were really good, the 90’s slumped a bit and the regular sps line they had prior to bankruptcy were pretty sloppy.

The 5r series is a whole other story, I have never seen one not shoot exceptionally well. I have 2 of them one in 308 and one in 300 win mag and both of them will shoot one hole for 5 shots at 100 yards.

The things many people complain about Remington is things that truly don’t matter much like primary extraction being off, in my opinion thats just something to pry an extra 200 out of your wallet that the gun smiths made up.

Almost every custom action is based off a Remington 700.

I don’t care for the tika action only being a long action with a spacer block making it a short. I also don’t care for the tika trigger as much as say a Jewell or a trigger tech.

The Begara is an excellent rifle that gives room to build off of, the HMR is perfect for the hunter that wants to occasionally shoot long range.

You can ride in my SXS any day. Bought my first Rem 700 in 1969 and as you have had several over the years without issue.

Bone stock CTR in .260 with the 20 inch barrel and a Nightforce SHV. Shooting at 1000 yards with some handloads that I worked up for a different rifle. Had zero dope for this rifle and load. Started at 700, then went to 900, then to 1000 just guessing on adjustments. First round hit at 1000 was the one barely on and my second shot was just above it. I dialed over some and put those 3 just below the bull. Switched to the other .260 that the loads were developed for and put those 3 that are just right of the bull. Bull is about 3 inches for reference. So yes, I'd say that my CTR performs up to expectations.





A view of the target through the spotting scope.

Very nice.

That is a very persuasive argument for the CTR… Thanks for sharing.

CTR is 100% the answer to this question. Mine has shot lights out for over 1000 rounds. I've never seen one that wouldn't shoot.

Ok everybody. Tikka CTR it is. Thank you for all the advice and recommendations.

Now, how about optics? Not going to spend several grand on a scope. Let’s put the ceiling on this on at $1200.

SS 5-20X HD
Burris XTR II 4-20X
Night Force SHV F-1 4-20X

Find a used NXS.

Second focal plane.

Gotta be at maximum magnification for the reticle to be true.

Might have a Zeiss 6-24, NICE choice of rifles !!

https://www.zeiss.com/consumer-products/us/hunting/riflescopes/conquest-v4/conquest-v4-6-24x50.html