Long range rifle project...no idea what I'm doing...

[surfj9009]

Nice looking gun.
There is no substitute for adequate trigger time. Do what ever you have to do to get it. Recoil pad, comfortable shooting mat, place to shoot with cover from snow and rain, etc.
Reload so you can shoot more for the same amount of money you would spend now. Learn to load your bipod or sling.

[scrappy]

TJR, can you post a pic of the stock of your rifle? Side pic is good, a quartering angle to if possible. Also what is the length of pull? (distance from trigger to butt of the stock.)

Length of pull is 14". Why do you ask?

The design of the stock has a huge impact on how recoil is transferred to your shoulder. Yours is a typical straight comb design which are nice, but are not the best shape for hard kicking rifles. Now given that statement everyone has a different level of tolerance for recoil and only you can determine your comfort level. The biggest factors I have found in stock shape and its relationship to felt recoil have been, first, the width of the butt of the stock. Wider is better. More Sq Inches of contact area mean a wider area to disperse recoil forces over your shoulder. This helps a lot.
Second, the angle of the comb of the stock, combined with the axis of the bore in relation to the comb. If the axis of the bore is where it should be, low in relationship to the comb of the stock, the recoil of the gun will be mainly straight back into your shoulder, with minimal muzzle rise. This is ideal as it keeps the comb from coming up into your cheek. Muzzle rise is only really a concern if the comb of the stock gets driven up into your cheek upon firing, and stock shape influences this a lot. Some rifles are worse about this than others. I used to have a 1903 Springfield that had a terribly shaped stock and when shot from prone it would beat my cheek to death, often I ended up bleeding when my cheek would be driven into my teeth. A different stock transformed it into a pussycat. If recoil becomes an issue for you try switching to a stock with a monte carlo cheek piece that slopes a little downward towards the front. As the rifle comes back in recoil and begins to rise up, that downward slope results in the cheek piece maintaining a constant contact point on your cheek.
Third is another aspect to the shape of the comb and its width or the radius of the curve over the top of it. Wider is better, again for the reason that any upward force will be transferred to your cheek over a wider area.
Lastly is the length of pull. You stated yours is 14". I would suggest this is too long. An overly long stock makes it more difficult to assume a proper shooting position. It also necessitates mounting your scope too far back to allow you to see clearly at higher magnifications. Remember that the clothing worn will increase the length of pull, as thicker clothing worn in cold weather mean your rifle is essentially set even further forward, right? Most hunting is done in cooler weather months is it not? No less an authority than Jeff Cooper maintained that the average man was best off with a length of pull of 12.75". He trained thousands of people of all shapes and sizes to shoot better than they ever thought they could, and establishing a correct stock fit was a part of the equation. He had forgotten more about rifle marksmanship than most of us will ever learn and I am inclined to follow his teachings. Just as an exercise try removing your recoil pad and just try shouldering the weapon. How does it fit with the length reduced by that much? I am willing to bet that you will end up shooting the rifle better, and more comfortably, if you have this stock shortened by 1".

Most recreational shooters just think a stock is a stock and really give it little thought beyond sticking a big recoil pad on it. Yes the thicker pad often absorbs more recoil, but it also increases the length of the stock making a proper fit more difficult to achieve. Too short is always preferable to too long, and wider is always more comfortable than narrower, and if the rifle tends to have a pronounced muzzle rise then a little slope downward and away from your cheek is always better than straight.

[TJR]

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[scrappy]

A muzzle brake will certainly keep felt recoil down, but as you observed the downside is a large increase in blast, and that has a factor in shooting comfort as well. The original Mag-na-Porting system reduces recoil some, and keeps muzzle rise down noticeably and because of the design does not do as much to make life hard on your ears. It also does not require removal of your barrel (I don't think) and without anything threaded on your barrel it will not alter barrel harmonics. You might look into it.
I am not sure if anything you do will allow you to spot your own shots with a 300 mag, but Mag-Na-Porting will come as close as anything.
Glad you see what I was talking about with the LOP issue. It makes a big difference and most people just never think of it. I explain it this way, an adult can shoot a small sized childs 22 just fine, but the child cannot shoot the adult sized gun because the stock is too long.
Keep at it, you are on the right path! Good shooting!

[ron]

The PAST strap-on shoulder pads are made of sorbathane and it's only about a half inch thick but it spreads the recoil over a larger area than a stock-mounted recoil pad. It does not significantly effect length of pull.

Once you've dialed in your rifle and you're in the field shooting at game most likely you're going to be so exited about getting that big Bull in your sights that you won't remember feeling any recoil after you squeeze off the shot.

[TJR]

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[scrappy]

Once you've dialed in your rifle and you're in the field shooting at game most likely you're going to be so exited about getting that big Bull in your sights that you won't remember feeling any recoil after you squeeze off the shot.

That's definitely true. I just need to be sure I'm not jerking when I light off a belted magnum bark toward that one-in-a-lifetime bull. Ha ha.

Have someone else watch you shoot. They need to closely watch YOU, not the target. Perhaps you can set up a video recorder to do this. You ideally want an angle that will show your face. What you are looking for is any signs of flinching. Small muscle contractions, a small twitch, closing eyes, jerking the trigger, etc. Often our flinch is more apparent to others that to ourselves.

[TJR]

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[hi-mark]

+1 hand load also when you are ready to start shooting i don't agree with trying out on coyotes find a friend and some open country with some rocks on a day with a little wind you will learn alot more about ballistics than coyote hunting taking only acouple of shots a day.

1 more thing i would recommend is a good range finder. I started off with a cheaper one it worked now I have a Leica and it is way more accurate than the other one at longer range. I find my shots more consistant with my dope charts. Also ballistic programs will only get you close make sure you proof your data. Q

I started out kind of where you are i built a 7 rem mag and was trying to learn on it eventually you realized you can not learn with the recoil and just the cost per reload gets experience. I built a 243 and it is now on the 4th barrel the 7 would have worked in the end but the 243 helps speed up the process due to the amount of rounds you can comfortably send down range.

[TJR]

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