I’m new to ranges past 100 yards and am happy with this. I’d like to keep tweeting it and see where it goes. The range has a turkey shoot every year and they give away a free membership on the 200 yard range. One shot for $20. I don’t want to buy a better rifle yet, but I know it would help.

I’d like a Tikka in .308

Do you reload? If you do, you can tune the round to the rifle. You don't need a more expensive setup. And besides. The more expensive setup has to be tuned too. That's where you get the precision.

I have not got into that yet. It is a rabbit hole I’m trying not to go down. I think it would be a lot of fun though.

No rabbit hole at all. You reload batches of five rounds. Different weight of powder, bullet, case, weight and style. Making sure everything is the exact same between rounds.


Go to the range. Get comfortable and light off every round in batch 1. Then do batch 2. 3-5batches. Write down the most accurate. Work on that specification of the most accurate round batch.

Extremely fun hobby.

Maybe if I take the step up to a .308 I might look into it. Would it make sense on 5.56? I don’t know, and welcome your opinion

I wanted to also experiment with my .22 at this range but got tired walking back and forth. Fall heat is the worst heat and man, it was hot today.

If you want to experience extreme accuracy. Don't have to reload it. It'll use all the scope you can put on it.


17 HMR.


It's not something you can use to harvest meat. The round turns to powder after smoking through it. It doesn't bounce like a 22 either.

Back in the 70s I got rid of all of my sporting rifles; I only hunted with handguns anyway. I still loaded for my .45s and for my .41 Magnums, and for some of the crazy calibers I had in my Contenders, but I went a lot of years without loading precision rifle ammo. Fast forward to 2002. My chief told me I was going to get certified as a sniper. The school said I had to have a half MOA rifle minimum to get through it. I got a scary accurate .308 and the chief had no problem with me shooting handloads in it. I picked up some precision dies and started tuning up a good handload for it. I'd forgotten just how obsessive that can be. You're always looking for another 1/10 MOA. If I was a benchrest shooter I'd go batshit crazy. Handloading is just about mandatory if you really want accuracy, but you have to be careful not to get totally consumed with the accuracy obsession. It's like a terminal disease......

Love shooting my 17 HMR. Killed coyotes and pigs at 100 yards with it.

When it was as first put out. They sold it up as being able to kill coyote among cattle. The round ended at the dog. Wouldn't bounce and harm the livestock.

Pretty solid! I just hope I can kill a mofo at 5 yards if the need ever arises.

I can see that happening. That is the rabbit hole I’m trying g not to get sucked into. But I kind of want to do it.

223 is not something I would want to to start reloading on. Brass stretches a lot and you are going to need a power trimmer. Plus the case mouth is so small doing on a single stage is a complete pita.... then u go to the range a d shoot up 3 hours of reloading in 30 mins.

At 200 yards, that's damn impressive. My 308 with a high power scope, when I was shooting a ton more, was close to that. With a .556 round you're on the money.

It’s been a lot of fun getting into it. I’m shooting a cheap rifle for what I want to do. The Ruger American is a fun little gun and I’m impressed with it but know I wish I had gone with a Tikka or Bergara. Maybe one day. If I upgrade, I will look long and hard for the right caliber. I didn’t show the bad groups and there were a few. It’s funny, I had one group of three that were all covered by the one inch sticker, then I would shoot [censored] groups. The heavier grain loads were absolutely the most consistent but my best group was with 55 grain. It was just six inches from the target.