Ideal Western Hunting Rifle

[Shaverba]

First time posting and but I’ve been lurking the threads for a while and this year am going to be hunting for Elk in Idaho and am jumping in feet first.

I plan to attempt to buy once cry once on gear and invest in long range shooting courses. I’ve been shooting my whole life but never at long ranges and not with the proper equipment.

With that said and knowing that opinions will vary but are there typical rules of thumb surrounding overall recommendations on total gun weight, total gun length, minimum level of accuracy at 400 yards, etc.

I appreciate any feedback related to this search I’m on.

 

[mthayr]

Weight should (and does) vary by caliber. Read this.

Length is dependent on whether you favor velocity (longer) or "handiness" (shorter). Typically shorter is favored for suppressor use, or get a folding stock.

General accuracy standard is minute-of-angle or better, or roughly 1" at 100 yards from a decent sized (10-round) group. That translates out to 4" at 400 yards, but is much harder to achieve due to external forces (wind) over a greater distance.

 

[omicron1792]

First time posting and but I’ve been lurking the threads for a while and this year am going to be hunting for Elk in Idaho and am jumping in feet first.

I plan to attempt to buy once cry once on gear and invest in long range shooting courses. I’ve been shooting my whole life but never at long ranges and not with the proper equipment.

With that said and knowing that opinions will vary but are there typical rules of thumb surrounding overall recommendations on total gun weight, total gun length, minimum level of accuracy at 400 yards, etc.

I appreciate any feedback related to this search I’m on.

I would wait and get the new Montana rifle company rifle with rokstok. If you need it now the new Seekins ph3 looks nice.

 

[Shaverba]

Weight should (and does) vary by caliber. Read this.

Length is dependent on whether you favor velocity (longer) or "handiness" (shorter). Typically shorter is favored for suppressor use, or get a folding stock.

General accuracy standard is minute-of-angle or better, or roughly 1" at 100 yards from a decent sized (10-round) group. That translates out to 4" at 400 yards, but is much harder to achieve due to external forces (wind) over a greater distance.

I appreciate the response on this and will definitely read through your article as I continue to learn about these rifles.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[WyoWild]

First time posting and but I’ve been lurking the threads for a while and this year am going to be hunting for Elk in Idaho and am jumping in feet first.

I plan to attempt to buy once cry once on gear and invest in long range shooting courses. I’ve been shooting my whole life but never at long ranges and not with the proper equipment.

With that said and knowing that opinions will vary but are there typical rules of thumb surrounding overall recommendations on total gun weight, total gun length, minimum level of accuracy at 400 yards, etc.

I appreciate any feedback related to this search I’m on.

You don't need to spend a bunch of $$$ for a 400 yard rifle. In addition most guns that are reliably set up for "long range hunting" at 600+ yards are going to have longer barrels and heavier optics. Trade off if you want packability. For elk hunting in the mountains I want a rifle that is 8 pounds or less ready to hunt. Elk are more nomadic and sometimes you have to cover a lot of country to find them.

If unsuppressed a 24" barrel is fine, if adding a suppressor I would not go any longer than 20".

Cartridge selection will mostly depend on which bullet you want to use. If using a cup and core fragmenting bullet then find a cartridge that will maintain 2000fps to your maximum range. If considering bonded/solid copper then at least 2200fps on impact.