Hi everyone, i am new to this site, and new to the gun world i guess you could say. I am very interested in getting into long range target shooting and have been searching for a rifle to start with. From the information i have read it seems like remington and tikka are at the top. but...on the website snipercentral.com they have an entry level package that seems like a pretty good deal.
Howa 1500 Heavy Barreled Action, 24" barrel length
.308 (1:12"), .243 (1:10"), .22-250(1:14"), .223(1:12")
Bell & Carlson Tactical/Varmint Medalist Synthetic Stock (Mk1), full aluminum bedding block, free floating barrel
New B&C Vertical Grip Tactical Stock (Mk2), full aluminum bedding block, free floating barrel (No charge option)
Legacy International 1 Piece Picatinny Rail
Burris XTR Tactical Rings
Bushnell 3200 10x Tactical Scope with mildots
Harris Bipod, solid mount, 9-13" or Versa-pod 9-13"
Plastic double rifle hard gun case
$950 + $25 shipping total cost for standard colors ($975 non-member price)
8-9 week wait, mainly for the custom ordered stock

these are the specs, i would like to get your guys' opinion on what would be a better route for a beginner like me. I would like to go with the .308 in any gun.
Also i am going to a gun show at the end of the month (my first one) and i am going to hold off on buying anything until i go to that. do gun shows most likely have pretty good deals on a package rifle? the tikka t3 or remington 700 to be specific?
sorry for the long winded thread, any input will be appreciated, thanks

The howa action has a solid rep for accuracy mate, I own a howa 22-250 and it does very well indeed as a pretty long range varmint gun. Long range in these parts are 300m.

I agree w/ a Howa being a good place to start. My .308 heavy barrel is a tack driver. She sports a 3x12 44mm AO Sightron S2 scope now. I have about $850.00 into her. Good luck, Jim

Re. the Howa chambered in .308---- Will the 1:12 twist adequately stabilize the 190's and up that are used for the longer ranges ??

Seems to me that a 1:10 would be better for the larger(longer) bullets. -----pruhdlr

howa's are great rifles. as for getting a deal at a gun show, well thats anybodys guess. i've been going to gun shows for 20+ yrs and have really only gotten one "deal" if you have cash in hand and are willing to walk away from a table empty handed you might do ok. don't get me wrong, i love to go to gun shows but it is mainly just to browse and look for unique used guns. your best bet is to find a local dealer and deal thru him.

I think you could certainly do worse than to have a rifle built on a Howa action. According to this article the Weatherby Vangaurd is built on a Howa action and touts the Howa 1500 as having long been the secret "best buy" in the rifle world:

http://www.gunhuntermag.com/features/040826Max.htm

You also have to consider that the Sniper Central website is all about long range accuracy - they want the people who use their site to want to do well with long range marksmanship so they aren't going to offer up a rifle to people that can't get the job done. That package, out of the box, appears to be set up for accuracy.

Regarding the twist rate of 1:12, I wouldn't worry about that too much. Sniper Central shows a Tac Ops tune up package and the twist rate for that is 1:12. If Tac Ops accepts the rifle for the tune up (it's at their discretion) they'll guarantee it to .25 MOA when they are done if you allow them to restock it with one of the stocks they use. Since Tac Ops appears to know their way around highly accurate rifles, I would tend to think that the 1:12 twist rate is going to be fine.

Here's the page on the Tac Ops tune up:

http://www.snipercentral.com/tacops700p.htm

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Patrick G.

I figured I'd bump this thread back up - doesn't anyone else have an idea about whether or not the Sniper Central package would be a good deal?

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Patrick G.

Ok - I'm going to bump this thread again by posting the Sniper Central review of the Howa Supreme Varminter:

http://www.snipercentral.com/howa.htm

The author said this rifle (with the 1:12 twist - he reviewed the .308) gave him nearly .5 MOA and even shot a .27 MOA group with it on the day of testing. This rifle is not even done up quite as well as the SC package rifle - it costs less than the SC rifle package too though. I think that the SC rifle would certainly be a step in the right direction. For me, the rifle is probably more accurate than I am.

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Patrick G.

thanks for all of your replies guy, i really appreciate it. I am thinking much more seriously about the sc rifle package. where else can i get a rifle, bipod, case, and scope for $1000? granted the scope isn't the best, but im just starting out and don't need "the best" scope.
again, thank you for the replies and i am anxious to hear what the rest of you think. keep the opinions comin'.

Hey - I found an interesting discussion on barrel twist rate that I figured I'd share:

http://www.snipercountry.com/hottips/TwistRate.htm

It seems there is some debate as to whether the 1:10 or 1:12 is better for the .308, and much of it depends on the bullet you intend to use the most and how fast you want to drive it.

Man, I LOVE this forum! It brings up so much interesting stuff and I've learned a ton in the short time I've been a member here.

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Patrick G.

The web address for the JBM site is out of date in the article you linked to in the post above.
This is the current address:

http://www.eskimo.com/~jbm/calculati...culations.html

Bye
Jack

Any movement on this? I'm thinking of having one of these rifles built too - the price seems pretty good, although the price for the one I'd have built would be a little higher because I'd have some different optics installed, but I still don't know if I'd go with .308 and have a true tactical rifle, or if I should go with .223 and have a tack driver varminting rifle.

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Patrick G.