hogan said:
Factory gun? lots of rounds through it already? Like 500+?
May as well be shooting a smoothbore. Cheap barrels, long chambers, great expectations, and "looking for groups" make for poor results.
Like to blow $30-$50 every 20rds? Just stupid not to handload. Just as stupid to waste time with a shot-out cheapie barrel. But wait! There's More!!! Scope and mount systems of decent quality and mounted concentric to bore?
I have had scope bases, high quality that were off by 5moa or more per collimator grid on my boresighter.
Think it don't matter? It don't until you begin looking for accuracy at other distances besides your zero...
What ammo indeed! Even got a trigger that's worth a damn? Hard to tune most factory triggers down to crisp letoff w/no creep at 2lbs or less these days...
Sounds like from your "brother will be shooting a heavy barrel Savage" that he still has options.
Varminting and deer at 500yds is a skill worked up to.
Not going to make it with "cheap" factory ammo; maybe sniper rounds, but...
A Sierra Manual, their matchkings and their accuracy loads will solve his concerns.
Get a Lee Loader and a decent scale and Winchester quality brass and load the Sierra Accuracy Load to the letter. Be sure Scope base and rings are all setup concentric and of high quality, also a good scope with reliable repeat movements. You own a Collimator/Boresighter to do your own scope mounting and verify/diagnose problems. You never KNOW for sure until you Prove a problem.. Lots faster to Prove and find solution if you have the tools and knowledge.
.300win mag for varminting is overkill and will beat a shooter into flinching etc. Will blow through a barrel in one afternoon, because heavy barrels take longtime to cool down and varmint shooting can be fast & furious. Deer from a stand? No worries.
To get precision you have to load for your gun.
I must say that I find your rambling almost offensive......... Everybody before you was helpful. Before you lose sleep from stress created by your concern for me wasting my time trying to help my brother, let me relieve you of that by saying:
I have been precision reloading and shooting for more than a couple of years. I have several custom heavy barreled guns ranging from a 300WSM down to a 6mmBR and I load for them all.
Since I have been into precision shooting and reloading for years, my brother has recently become more interested. Instead of seeing him spend a lot of money on a custom rig, we took his factory gun, put it in a Choate stock, swapped the trigger for a rifle basix, added a muzzle break and added a Leupold 6.5 - 20 that I mounted in a Leupold base and rings.
The gun is older (15 years plus) but hasn't been shot too much. I would guess at less than 100 rounds. The bore and the rifling look like new.
"blowing" $30.00 - $50.00 for 20 rounds isn't as stupid as spending hundreds on loading equipment that you may lose interest in. Better to buy a few boxes of factory stuff for starters.
If you need a boresighter to mount a scope, you're a beginner, period. I haven't needed one yet and I can be in the bull at 100 yards in less than 3-4 shots with a freshly mounted scope. It's pretty basic.
"Varminting and deer at 500yds is a skill worked up to" No kidding Mr Obvious, what do you think he is trying to do?
Why on earth would anyone need a boresighter to prove a scope's repeatability????? Why not just do a simple box test on a target? The box test requires actual shooting, which provides practice.
As far as your opinion on a 300WM for varminting, I disagree. Dead is dead. You can't overkill an animal. I really like using my 300 WSM on groundhogs, especially when they are out at 800 - 1200 yards.
"To get precision you have to load for your gun." I disagree here as well...... a lot of matches have been won with FGMM.
You can rest easy, we're under control here.
