What is the best way to get a super accurate rifle? Buy a high dollar rifle, or buy a Rem 700 ADL and build from it? What is the best caliber for accuracy? What is the best caliber for accuracy in long distance shooting? I'm thinking around $1000 for the rifle.

With $1000 as your budget, you might want to look at a factory rifle. Does that budget include the scope?

Not necessarily. It all depends on what brand gun it is. Really I should say $800-$1000. I want something that I can handload for and get great groups out past 300 yards. It's going to turn into a long range hunting rifle.

How far are you considering to be long range?

600 yards? Not saying I will be hunting at 600 yards anytime soon but I do want to be able to reach out that far if needed.

Well There are a lot out there that will do long range. My Savage 111 7mm mag with a rifle basix comp trigger will keep very tight groups out to 600yurds with my Nikon Buckmaster 4.5-14x40mm BDC scope. 600yrds is as far as I have shot it. So that is why the 600yrds being said. I have about $1100 into this rifle. I took a Mule Deer at 580yrds dead where it was hit.

Is that Savage the trophy hunter? We have those at Academy. I work there so I would rather buy a rifle we carry.

No it is a standard Model 111 with detachable mag. I bought it at cabelas 5yrs ago for like $550.

I wonder what the difference is in the trophy hunter 111 and the standard. I'm gonna do some digging...

Really any of the Savage in my opinion are great rifles. I have a Weatherby 280rem up for sale that is a tack driver but I dont use it do to I like my Savage.

Ok just did some looking. The Trophy hunter is the newer one of mine.

Good to know.

Anyone know what a Tikka T3 is capable of?

I had a T3 hunter in a 338 they are very nice rifle. But like I said had and still own my savage.

That's crazy. Why does savage get such a bad rap then? I always hear people talking bad about savage. Then again I always here people talking about how accurate they are...

They talk crap because of the price. But out of the box they are one of the most accurate out of the box. Plus nice thing about savage is you can replace the barrel by yourself. With a go no go gauge.

You're opening a can of worms here. There's gonna be more opinions than a chinese phone book has Chins.

Your first question about the rifle; yes I think the way to get most bang for your buck is to buy a Rem 700 or Savage 10 or 110 as a "donor rifle" since all you'll use is the action and maybe the bottom metal if you don't want to switch to custom bottom metal. You'll also have to get a barrel. www.bugholes.com is a good place to get one. Then you have to pay a gunsmith to thread it. You'll probably want a custom stock or at he very least have yours bedded. This will all, most likely, exceed the $1000 mark.

Your second question regarding chambering will produce a miriad of answers as well as questions. Do you want short action, long action or magnum action?

For short action (.308 bolt face) my votes go to .260 (not so common in factory rifles) .243 (common in factory rifles) 6.5 creedmore (lots of factory ammo for it)

Long action; the best shooting ones I've seen are in .280 (.30-06 necked down to 7mm)

Magnum action; 7 mm Rem Mag or .300 Win Mag, but it'll probably be not nearly as much fun to shoot as one from the short action category and certainly more expensive to shoot.

So, essentially what you are saying is that you need to start with a .308 and then get a barrel chambered in .260? Or get a .243 and get a barrel chambered in 6.5 creedmor?

I am really intrigued by the 6.5 creedmor.

Long action; the best shooting ones I've seen are in .280 (.30-06 necked down to 7mm) This is what I have for sale. They are very good round. Mine is a Weatherby Mark V action which is very good.

If you want to read more on a 280rem look under 7mm express that is the other name it use to have. They are a great round that you can shoot all day long. My 120# wife shoots that round.

Dick's has the heavy long barrel Remington 700 Varmint in many calibers. The 243 would be a fine 600y gun and Texas game gun. The 700 varmints are a bit on the heavy side. The 308 would be a fine choice too as the 7mm Mag if they have it and you don't mind some recoil.

That's $449 and then you have $550 for glass and mounts, and you should get a picatiny rail with a single piece mount and a Zeiss conquest for right around that money.

never mind, I now see $1000 was rifle only

The .308 Win, .260 Rem, .243 Win, 6.5 Creedmore are all the same action. The .308 bolt face action (a.k.a. short action, but not to be confused by a .223 bolt face) will make a list of cartridges so long I don't know em all.

If you want a .243 buy a 6mm barrel, if you want a .260 buy a 6.5mm barrel, if you want a 6.5 Creedmore buy a 6.5mm barrel. The gunsmith will chamber it with a reemer that is cartridge specific.

Be careful to match the appropriate twist rate with the bullet it'll be shooting.

I polled a list of competitive shooters as to what they're using in "tactical competition" and those 3 were the most popular. I put over 1000 rounds through a .308 Win before having it rebarreled for .260. I can say that I have been very impressed with the .260, its a far better shooter than the .308 especially when it comes to cheating the wind.

I have yet to see one that isn't a shooter. It has a much slicker/smoother bolt "throw" also.

Only bad thing about Tikka's is there are not many accessory's available for them.

Thanks FiremanJG. That helps tremendously. I don't know any of this stuff so it's all new information. Is there a forum somewhere that I can learn more about this type of stuff?

www.longrangehunting.com.