re: Beginner Long Range Comp. Style Rifle.

Been toying with the idea of getting a 6.5 creedmoor rifle for some long range target shooting. Been looking at some rifles such as the Aero Solus or the Bergara Premier Comp. Wondering if anyone on the board has any experience in these types of platforms.

Will additionally need to start looking at optics. The guns aren’t cheap, so I’ll likely start out with a budget option.



I would suggest spending more $ on decent (repeatable w/decent glass) optics and ammo (training if you dont mind spending the coin) as the rifles themselves really wont matter (decent rifles in similar price groups) until you get much more experienced and if you get into re-loading then maybe not really..lol

The Bergara Premium comp is a good rifle, msrp runs @$2500, dont know what the street price is ..that being said, a Tikka supervarmint will shoot at least as well and save you a decent amount of $$ ..to add on to the Tikka sv, the barred action as it comes from the factory in a good stock(manners or McM) or chassis is far and away more than you'll ever need.. You can find a supervarmint and slap nice glass on it and get some expericence and later down the road you can always upgrade the stock if you want to.. as it sits its a phenominal rifle right out of the box..

SWFA has the 10x42 in stock right now. That's absolutely the glass id put on it.

I missed that.

The NX8 is a piece of shite. I'll buy an SWFA and swap you even for it, because I'm that kind of guy. It'll save you money in the long run in ammo.

108 grain ELDM's with Varget. Speeds are low. Around 2700 fps right now. SD's were ~7fps. Worked up from just above min load and didn't get but 1 grain above that in .2 grain increments. Was pressed for time yesterday but am loaded up to Hodgdon's max load for later this week. Just happy to see these results with virgin brass that I did nothing to. This first firing was to fire from. Using an arbor press from a friend with in line seating dies and the neck tension variance is huge between rounds right now and still seeing good consistency. Hoping it stays as I get to ~2900+ fps.

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you not using a mandrel to size the neck?

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Don't have a true precision one yet. It's on the list. Using a Forrester full size die with a standard ball expander right now. Didn't even bump the shoulders, but did run the ball through. Will be bumping the necks back without the ball expander installed and using a neck expander mandrel from 21st century when it comes in. But for this first load, I didn't care to wait. Knew things would change as the barrel breaks in and wanted to work with fire formed brass anyway. Hoping it only gets better.

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Will you be looking to get an annealer

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Guy I know has an AMP annealer. I just have to get the holder for 6gt and I can use it. Actually using his K+M arbor press because he's got the AMP seating press. He's got all the expensive toys I get to play with to get this right.

I'm using the Wilson micrometer seater die. Don't think I'll buy any new bullet seaters that aren't Wilson. So much easier to get precise and repeatable results. Granted my repeatability was off quite a bit on these. Neck tension leads to deeper ring indention in the bullet jacket. Deeper indention meant less seating depth, so larger COAL. Smooth seating meant no ring from the seating stem and consistent depth. It's what made me pull the trigger on a good neck mandrel expander system. All this to say I wasn't expecting much out of this first batch, but pleasantly surprised for what it's worth.