Open for suggestions and advice on what to use for a practice rifle. The intent would be to build some skill with an economical rifle other than my actual competition rig to avoid burning out the barrel.

Currently running a Rem 700 with Jackson 2 stage for competition.

Any help much appreciated. Caliber choice is .223, practice limited to 200 yds.

I would look at Savage with the bedding block and trigger. I know you plan on using .223 caliber but another thought is using the .243 Winchester caliber for practice. You could use the .243 in a pinch if your main rifle broke on your.

An inexpensive Remington 700 SPS or Ruger American in .223 would fit the bill.
If you go with a .243 expect only 2500 to 2800 accurate shots with it if a carbon barrel. You could load lighter for less recoil and longer life, but most .243's deliver best accuracy loaded max. Add 800 - 1000 more shots with stainless. I burned up two in carbon in short order.

If you are stuck on 223 a Tikka would be my first choice. Or build a smallbore rifle and compete in that as practice for highpower.

I will just use my game rifle for practice and replace the barrel when needed. I believe, at least in my case, that the cost of replacement of the barrel will be less than the cost of a "practice" rifle as well as you will have the same thing happen to the practice gun - it wears out. My game gun also has a specific stock which is a lot more comfortable and fits me better than any commercially available rifle.

I am thinking that a "practice gun" is false economy.

YMMV and just my .02.....

A new bbl is cheaper than a new practice rifle.

dry fire is good practice and really cheap.

"dry fire is good practice and really cheap."

Hey Snake, I actually agree with you. A practice rifle is an off the wall idea.
Get one of those cork spotters, timer etc. Get on the line, start the timer and dry fire 5 shots. Put a tack on the cork after each shot. Run the match and add up your score. I didn't dry fire more than about 15 minutes without a break period.

Off the wall idea? I think not. I am one that does subscribe to the practice rifle idea. In a big way. Thirteen years ago I installed new match barrels on my two best match rifles. Today they have 5300 shots each on them and still are very accurate. They only get shot at bigger events like state, regional and national. I do not use them at our monthly club matches. For the club level matches I grab one of my practice guns. For practice I grab a handful of practice guns. Tomorrows match will be with the M70 if the predicted winds prevail, my walnut stocked long action ADL if calm. It shoots as good as my match guns.

I have ten practice rifles in 7-08, mostly M700's of 70's vintage. A Ruger 77, M70 and a M788, too. All with factory barrels. Collectively they have fired 23,068 rounds. They all are common hunting type rifles and fit me as well as my two similar match guns. I would rather have these guns at my disposal than to re barrel often and wait for delivery and 'smith fitting. Besides, who doesn't want more guns in his collection? I have taken a dozen game animals with them, too.

Cheaper to re barrel than buy another? You will spend plenty on a quality barrel and pay more to get it installed. It would be a wash with a new economy rifle.

Dry fire practice doesn't cost a thing. True, but practice with live ammo is better. And more fun. No bang no clang.

Life is too short, live a little. Open up your wallet.

In 7-08? I heard a rumor that you have abandon that caliber in favor for the 6.5 Creedmoor. .
..

Abandon the 7-08 in favor of a 6.5 ....NEVER. That was a .260 SPS I bought and scavenged the barrel from it. I screwed it on to a 70's 700 short action. I had it out this past Thursday along with four 7-08's for some practice. It is a nice shooter. I put 35 shots down range with it before the wind made me pack up.

Bob, nice to hear you have more rifles than I do. That puts me on the "less crazy list" according to my wife. I would agree that if you are going to put rounds downrange to hear metal clang, you don't want to do it with your best rifle but on the other hand, I would never go to any kind of match and not use my best shooter. 10 rifles, that's a lot of brass and a ton of work. Also, shooting live rounds is a painful way to work on trigger squeeze and trigger squeeze is everything when it comes to shooting.

Decades ago..We were coached by a national Pistol champion who advised us to shoot two guns often because they all break differently and so we wouldn't get lazy . That advice seemed to work.

Almost 40 years later, Jeanne and I own three Marlin 30-30's, three 1894 cl 32-20's and 6 Marlin 39s. When our scores take a dip we switch to a different rifle for a while and they usually pick back up.

I have no idea about scoped highpower rifles because I only own one, but all of our marlins seem to break differently so a change every so often keeps our attention up when we get lazy.

" that's a lot of brass and a ton of work."

Yes it is. The family of thirteen 7-08's needs lots of chow and the right diet ya know. I keep 2600 loaded rounds on tap at all times. That is about 13 lbs. of propellant tied up inside little brass containers. Four powders, five bullets and one primer, CCI 200's. I enjoy hand loading as much as shooting. It is a labor of love.

Multiple lever rifles. Good on you Glen.

jask wrote:Bob, nice to hear you have more rifles than I do. That puts me on the "less crazy list" according to my wife. I would agree that if you are going to put rounds downrange to hear metal clang, you don't want to do it with your best rifle but on the other hand, I would never go to any kind of match and not use my best shooter. 10 rifles, that's a lot of brass and a ton of work. Also, shooting live rounds is a painful way to work on trigger squeeze and trigger squeeze is everything when it comes to shooting.

Jask,

Most of us in Colorado use Bob to get on the "less crazy list" with our wives.

Gee honey, Bob has _____ more silhouette rifles than I do.
Gee honey, Bob goes to the range _____ more times a month than I do.
Gee honey, Bob moved _____ miles closer to the range than we are.
Gee honey, blah blah blah.....

You get the idea.

He lives about 20 minutes from the CRC HP Silhouette range and has access to the animals. He gets to shoot as much as the rest of us wish we could. And I think at this point he's inoculated himself to recoil.

Jeff