Complete Rifles & Custom Builds

I recently spent a couple of months behind Accuracy International's new AXSR rifle chambered in 300 Norma Mag, firing almost 500 rounds. I used to cinch a top 5 finish in a flagship, national-level ELR match, but it wasn't all rosey! This is my 100% honest, full disclosure, hands-on review of the AI AXSR rifle platform, with all the details you could ever want to know!

A couple of years ago, I wrote about a custom 6XC precision rifle I had built that I used in PRS-style matches. Since that time more precision rifle products have been released than the previous 10 years combined! So last year I started from scratch and built two twin match rifles. I’ve been running this rifle setup for a year now, making small tweaks along the way, and I love how I have it configured. While I don’t believe in any one rifle being the “best” for all shooters and applications, this setup seems completely ideal for my use. I’m ...

This is the last post in a series highlighting the major challenges related to extreme long range (ELR) shooting. Along the way I’ve shared a few tips and products to help you overcome those challenges. I grouped topics into a few categories, and here is what we’ve covered so far: Optics & Mounts – Accounting for an extreme amount of bullet drop Spotting Shots & Ranging – Seeing your bullet impact and getting an accurate range Ballistics & Time of Flight – Advanced/unique things that happen when a bullet stays in the air for a long time In this post, ...

I’m sharing a series of posts on ELR shooting, but I didn’t want to jump from the long-range rifles in mid-size 6mm and 6.5mm cartridges that I normally talk about straight into the extreme, super-high-performance 375+ caliber rifles used to engage targets at 2+ miles. Instead of just presenting the extremes, I thought it’d be helpful to first share a rifle setup that is somewhere in between. Then in later posts I’ll get into the more specialized setups used to push the boundaries of what is possible with shoulder-fired rifles. In this post, I’ll share the details of a rifle ...

I’d never paid for a hunt in my life, at least up until a few months ago. I’ve been a die-hard hunter since I was big enough to carry a firearm, but I’ve only hunted small parcels of land owned by family. Over the past 20 years, I’ve spent countless days in the field and have taken a couple nice mule deer and whitetail that were big for my area, but I’d never hunted outside of West Texas. A friend sold me on the idea of an African safari, and it turned out to be one of the greatest experiences ...

Why don’t more people use gas guns in the precision rifle world? I get asked that question a lot. Many military snipers use semi-automatic rifles for long-range work, but there isn’t a single shooter among the top 100 competitors in the Precision Rifle Series (PRS) using a semi-automatic rifle. Why not? Even though speed, maneuverability, and recoil management are huge parts to that game, the best shooters are all running bolt-action rifles. Some believe that is because AR’s can’t achieve the same precision as bolt guns, so the goal of this test was to quantify the precision difference between a couple of high-end ...

Very few rifles have received the hype and fanfare like the Ruger Precision Rifle. With an MSRP of $1399, we all want to believe in a budget precision rifle that is match-ready out of the box… but does it deliver? This post tries to give you an honest and straight-forward review of what we experienced out of the box. Guest Author & the Best Christmas Gift Ever Recently a close friend asked me to help surprise her husband with a rifle for Christmas. She had heard him mention one rifle in particular, and asked if I recognized what kind it ...

Over the past couple months, I’ve had an opportunity to put 500 rounds down a Remington MSR (Modular Sniper Rifle). This is the same rifle that was awarded the illustrious Precision Sniper Rifle (PSR) contract, and now is being used by our elite special ops snipers. And for the first time, Remington Defense is making weapons like this available to civilians! Update: 10/7/2015: EuroOptic.com already sold out of their first batch of Remington PSR Rifle Kits, but they have another 50 on order and those are scheduled to arrive this month. The PSR Contract The Precision Sniper Rifle (PSR) program launched in 2009 ...

With the release of Clint Eastwood’s movie, American Sniper, this weekend, I thought it might be fitting to look at the favorite rifles of the American hero, Chris Kyle. In his autobiography, Kyle said people ask a lot about the weapons he used as a sniper, so he talked some in the book about the specific rifles he used. Kyle described the wide range of weapons and rifle systems he used in different situations, but I wanted to focus on the few he said were his favorite sniper rifles. So, I went back and re-read his book, and scoured the ...

I recently had custom precision rifle built by Surgeon Rifles to use for tactical/practical rifle competitions. Those competitions typically include shots from 300 to 1,000 yards. As I walked through SHOT Show this year, I was on a hunt to find the best components for each part in a quest for the ultimate precision rifle build (or at least try out the latest and greatest to see how it stacked up to the hype). I’ve already put 600+ rounds through it, and ran it in 2 competitions. One of those was the 2014 Steel Safari, which is a grueling 3 ...