Long-Range Shooting Instructor Covers the Basics Components of Modern Precision Rifles

This is an entry video to our Brilliant at the Basics Series. We cover the essential components of a long-range precision rifle. We discuss the pros and cons of various rifle components and what you should look for when buying or building a precision rifle.

Understanding the components is essential in properly setting up and employing your rifle; which is our next video.

Andy Slade is the instructor in these videos. He was a Marine firearm instructor, Marine Corps PRS shooting team member, an MDT Team member, and now a professional long-range shooting instructor.

Muzzles - threaded muzzles and muzzle brakes vs suppressors
Barrels - Heavy barrels to increase the number of rounds you can fire
Actions - different action features that can be used for builds
Trigger - factory triggers vs adjustable triggers and trigger weight.
Chassis - Issues with factory stocks vs the benefits of solid aluminum chassis like the ORYX Sportsman Chassis
Accessories - Picatinny and ARCA rail mounting systems for bipods and tripods.

Muzzles - The typical, modern, long-range shooting rifle will have a heavy barrel with a threaded muzzle for use with suppressors or brakes. Having low recoil is less about the impact on your shoulder and more about being able to maintain your sight picture during firing. If you add a muzzle brake (or suppressors) you will have a better chance of spotting impacts to make corrections for follow-on shots.

Barrels - Heavy barrels (M40, Palma, etc) contours are typical for long-range shooting. They absorb more heat allowing you to shoot more before having to cool your barrel. As barrels heat up, they warp just a bit (as any metal does) which will change your bullets' point of impact. A light-weight barrel can be just as accurate as a heavy barrel but will warp more after fewer shots. Custom barrels can be placed on a factory rifle action or custom rifle actions. Modern pre-fit barrels can be installed at home on your rifle action. Choices for barrels include the chambering (cartridge you are shooting including caliber) and the twist rate. The twist rate is how many turns the rifling makes in the barrel. Different calibers and bullet weights require different twist rates.

Actions - A rifle action is a mechanism that picks up your rounds from a magazine and loads them (chambers) into the barrel. It locks in place using lugs to be secure when firing. Different actions (Remington 700, Howa 1500, Savage 110, Tikka T3x) will have different dimensions (length, width, height) and require your stock or chassis to fit these different dimensions. Modern aluminum chassis are machined to fit these directly without any gunsmithing required. Some actions have a 90-degree bolt lift, some have a 60-degree. The difference is in how high the bolt knob needs to be lifted before you can pull the bolt back. This is personal preference and all will fit into an Oryx Sportsman chassis in the right inlet. Custom actions (companies like Defiance, Terminus, Ultimatum, Bat Machine) will commonly use a Remington 700 footprint so they would fit into any chassis inlet that is machined to accept Remington 700.

Triggers - Modern precision shooting rifles use a lightweight trigger. This reduces the amount of force required to break your shot. A heavier trigger will be harder to pull and increases the chance you shift your rifle prior to the bullet leaving the barrel. A heavy trigger is still used for hunting and is safer when carrying a firearm in the field. Some factory rifles have adjustable triggers to adjust the pull weight. There are also single-stage and 2-stage triggers. A single stage has no pre-travel, it just brakes when you pull the required amount of force. A 2-stage has a bit of pre-travel before you get to a wall, then brakes when you reach the required amount of force. This is a personal preference. There are a number of aftermarket trigger manufacturers like Timney, Jewell and Triggertech.

Chassis - Traditionally, rifles came with wood stocks. Then plastics started to come on the market because they were less expensive to produce and were more durable. Both factory options typically have issues with accuracy and adjustability. Modern, full-aluminum chassis fix both of these problems. They allow your rifle to drop right in without any gunsmithing. The recoil from your rifle won’t cause the chassis to bent and twist or shift your action. They also feature an adjustable buttstock which is important in setting up your rifle to be as accurate as possible. The forend can also mount Picatinny or ARCA rails which are superior in adjustability to a fixed sling swivel stud. This allows you to change the position of your tripod or bipod based on the situation. The Aluminum ORYX Sportsman Chassis also free-floats your barrel for accuracy. It also adapts your rifle to use AICS magazines.

00:00 Introduction
00:11 Muzzle Devices
01:23 Barrels
02:03 Actions
02:44 Triggers
03:20 Chassis