OP, all advice has been good so far. This highlighted portion of Square Grouper’s post is the most important advice for you I think (as well as for most of us not named Chris Kyle or Carlos Hathcock actually). I’ll second SG’s advice for the Thompson Center, a co-worker that’s an occasional shooter is already punching 2” to sometimes less at 200 yds with the same setup SG proposed. And that’s not too bad. BTW, 200 yards isn’t 1,000 yards like you hear on TV, but it’s a farther poke than you think if you’ve never shot it.
I still haven’t picked up on if you’re new to shooting in general, rifle shooting specifically, hunting, or precision rifle shooting. Forgive me if I’m incorrect but I’m assuming you’re new to rifle shooting in general. All of the suggested inexpensive rifle and rifle/optics packages are all claimed to be capable of right around MOA accuracy (or 1” groups at 100 yds). Those rifles are all capable of that accuracy with some skill/practice on your end, to at least 200 yds.
Unless you are a member at a private range, most public ranges are gonna top you out at either 100 or 200 yards. You should get proficient at those ranges, then you should be good to go to give some hunting a try. Most hunting shots in MD are taken at less than 150 yards anyway (if I got the statistic # correct - if not I’m close). After mastering shooting at these distances, along with your shooting techniques including posture, grip, breathing, trigger squeeze, and positions such as prone, kneeling, standing, etc, you’ll probably have “ the bug” and then you’ll get into all the more advanced (and silly expensive) stuff, then you’ll be driving hundreds of miles to a range where you can stretch out to the longer distances. You’ll start experimenting with different ammos, hand loading, buying new rifles, building new rifles, etc....
Good luck with your new (& soon to be expensive hobby
). There’s some great advice on this forum. I hope I was of some help to you as well.
