Reviews Dollars Per Mile: Long Range Rifles for the Rest of Us Tom Marshall June 16, 2026 Join the Conversation At RECOIL, we review every product fairly and without bias. Making a purchase through one of our links may earn us a small commission, and helps support independent gun reviews. Read our affiliate policy. Find out more about how we test products. The very first time I hit a target at 1 mile was 2018. I was running a JJROCK custom rifle chambered in .375 CheyTac with a Nightforce 7-35x scope. All-in, the rig was nearly $15,000 worth of hardware, firing bullets that cost $6 per round at the time — at time of writing, it’s closer to $14 per round. While the thrill of reaching so far and hitting my mark with relative ease was undeniable, I was only fortunate enough to experience it on borrowed equipment for research purposes. For many years, the precision manufacturing required to produce rifle capable of such ranges was so expensive as to make mile-shooting a pursuit available to a very narrow socioeconomic bracket. Nearly a decade later, the landscape has changed substantially. While everything from real estate to gas has gone through the cost roof, high-precision, tight-tolerance manufacturing has proliferated vastly and significantly decreased the financial barrier to entry for long-range shooting. We set out to see how we could best balance budget and performance for a purpose-driven 1-mile setup that could be easily recreated by anyone without extensive parts shopping or excessive time and labor spent on custom building a franken-gun from a box of parts. THE RIFLE Putting together a long-range rifle package is an exercise in backward planning. With 1 mile as the goal, our next question was caliber. There is an ever-growing list of calibers and projectiles available that are now capable of reaching the mile marker. On one end of the spectrum are heavy hitters: .338s, .375s, .416s, and .50BMG. While they certainly have the mass and ballistics to go the distance, they run costlier in both price per round and recoil impulse. While shooting “the fifty” is great for bragging rights, it cannot in good conscious be called comfortable or pleasant. Newer cartridges like the .338 Norma and .416 Barrett certainly take the edge off, but the latter is currently running at nearly $8 per round, with Norma coming in around half that.Alternatively, there are smaller-bore rounds with heavily engineered, highly efficient bullets capable of the same reach. We’ve seen or made mile hits with 6mm Creedmoor, 6mm ARC, and 6.5mm Creedmoor. These cartridges come in at significantly lower costs, with 6.5CM available for around 50 cents each. You also get a much more pleasant shooting experience. But physics will continue to physics — these small, sleek bullets are more easily affected by wind. They may be easier to shoot with, but they may also be harder to hit with depending on wind conditions. This setup doesn’t meet any definition of the term “compact” but it provided a Cadillac shooting experience and made even targets past four-figures feel easy. After weighing out the pros and cons, we ultimately decided on 6.5mm PRC. Designed in part for PRS competition, the PRC can be viewed as an adoptive big brother to 6.5mm Creedmoor. They use the exact same projectiles, but the PRC offers approximately 28 percent more case capacity to raise velocity and flatten trajectory. It has a little more recoil compared to the Creedmoor but remains one of the tamest cartridges in its class. Match-grade ammunition can be had for as low as $1.25 a shot and even top-of-the-line options — like the Hornady 147-grain ELD load seen here — are available for less than $2.30 each. To launch these sleek slugs, we selected a Ruger RPR. Coming in at an MSRP of $2,209 for the 6.5 PRC model, the RPR offers a slew of modern amenities, including:Modern chassis system with M-LOK slots and full-length ARCA bottom rail Four-way adjustable folding stock Cold-hammer forged heavy contour barrel Adjustable trigger that can be set as low as 2.25 pounds Multi-magazine system that will interchangeably feed AICS, DPMS/SR-25, and Magpul magazines, as well as some M14 mags 30MOA top rail for increased usable elevation adjustment We topped that 30MOA rail with a Bushnell Elite Tactical XRS3, a first focal plane 6-36x scope with MRAD turrets and Bushnell’s own G5I reticle — a simplified Christmas tree that is also illuminated. Scope cost: $2,500. Finally, the rifle rests on an BT65-NC Atlas bipod that tallies in at $265. Total cost, all-in: $4,974 The RXM can is DeadAir’s collaboration with Ruger, and was right at home on the RPR. Note vent holes behind the end cap for recoil reduction. Less than one-third the cost of the very first 1-mile rifle I ever laid behind, less than a decade later. So far, so good. THE REST There is, of course, more to long-range shooting than a good rifle. Furthermore, if one is going to pursue such a sporting endeavor as hitting a 1-mile target, why do it loudly? We removed the RPR’s factory muzzle brake and replaced it with a suppressor. Specifically, the DeadAir RXD30Ti. As the name would imply, the RXD series is a collaboration between Ruger and DeadAir, with the 30Ti being the line’s rifle-specific can. Featuring a combination of Triskelion and Nomad baffle technology with integrated porting and a flash-reducing endcap, this titanium can weighs in at less than 12-and-a-half ounces. The tone was nice, especially shooting such a fast round through it, and we really did feel a smooth, incredibly comfortable recoil impulse. The complete setup includes Zeiss tripod and Bushnell Tactical-series spotting scope. Having a good spotter is critically important to a positive, successful long-range experience. We paired our Bushnell Elite Tactical scope with a Bushnell T-series spotting scope. This 15-45x spotter features a simple milling reticle, 60mm objective lens, FDE rubber armor housing, and Picatinny rail sections for accessory attachments. We mounted our spotting scope to a Zeiss Pro-Series Universal tripod. The Pro’s carbon-fiber elephant legs extend out to 36 inches with fast, intuitive twist-locks. The heavy-duty rubber feet planted firmly in dry, rocky terrain, and gave us a stable platform with ARCA compatibility for spotting scopes or rifles. The 5.11 RUSH Sierra One pack is portable final firing position, holding all the gear required for shooter and spotter. Precision shooting gets gear-intensive quickly. Binoculars, spotting scope, wind meter, range finder, and so on. It’s all gotta go somewhere, and we were able to build a comprehensive long-range shooting kit into the 5.11 RUSH Sierra One pack. This bag was designed with input from law enforcement snipers to provide compartmental organization and ample storage space in a pack that could be easily hauled into shooting positions with little hassle. The RPR’s 26-inch barrel barely fit with the installed muzzle brake. Swapping that with a simple thread protector — which gets removed to mount the suppressor — shaved just enough length off to fit comfortably inside the pack. Zeiss Pro-Series MAX-DUTY Tripod Kit $1,399.99 Airgun Depot $1,399.99 SCHEELS $1,399.99 Prices accurate at time of publishing. Affiliate disclosure. ROUNDS DOWNRANGE We hauled the freshly loaded Sierra One bag with us to a private range in southern Arizona to check our work. Could a sub-$5K rifle setup push the same ballistic boundaries as one that cost 15? After a quick zero confirmation at 100 yards, we immediately began working our way through progressively longer targets … First-round hit at 700 yards.First-round hit at 900 yards.First-round hit at 1,000 yards.First-round hit at 1,600 yards. Then came the 1-mile target: a 24-inch square at 1,760 yards, which works out to being approximately a 1.4 MOA target. By this time of the morning, wind began to pick up, and the mile target was across several ridgelines, exposing the aforementioned Achilles’ heel of smaller long-range calibers. The mile hit took us a dozen tries. But we did get it. We might have had quicker results with better wind, or a bigger bullet. Our spotter takes a turn on the final setup. Even still, we stand firmly by our selection of caliber and rifle. The 6.5 PRC out of the RPR was, to quote our spotter, an absolute pussycat to shoot. To the RPR, we give one of our most esteemed compliments: We shot it bone-stock and wouldn’t change one single thing. No trigger swap. No action job. No re-barrel. Nothing. Our test sample was smooth, fast, and easy to run right out of the box. Mount a scope and bipod and start shooting. This was truly a case of rifle, optic, and accessories coming together in perfect harmony to provide a pleasant, repeatable long-range experience. RUGER PRECISION RIFLE $1,679.99 Guns.com $1,679.99 Palmetto State Armory $2,299.99 Prices accurate at time of publishing. Affiliate disclosure. Why you can trust RECOIL Since our founding in 2012, RECOIL remains the premier firearms lifestyle publication for the modern shooting enthusiast. We deliver cutting-edge coverage of guns, gear, accessories and technology. We go beyond basic reviews, providing no B.S. buyer’s guides, hands-on testing and expert analysis on everything from firearms and survival equipment to watches and vehicles. Our reviewers are the backbone of our operation and come from diverse shooting backgrounds: Former law enforcement, military veterans, competitive shooters, seasoned hunters and plain old firearms enthusiasts. Furthermore, we’re not just gun experts, but dedicated journalists who adhere to the strictest standards of our profession. At RECOIL, editorial independence is the foundation of everything we publish and the cornerstone of reader trust. Our editors, writers and content creators make all editorial decisions independently, free from outside influence. That boils down to: advertisers don’t dictate our coverage, the outcomes of our reviews or what we recommend in our buyer’s guides. First and always, our commitment is to our audience—ensuring every review and article is accurate, unbiased, and driven by real-world experience. Whether you’re selecting your next firearm, upgrading your gear, or exploring the latest innovations in the shooting world, RECOIL provides the trusted insights you need to make informed decisions. Learn more about our Editorial Standards and how we review products. NEXT STEP: Download Your Free Target Pack from RECOILFor years, RECOIL magazine has treated its readers to a full-size (sometimes full color!) shooting target tucked into each big issue. Now we've compiled over 50 of our most popular targets into this one digital PDF download. From handgun drills to AR-15 practice, these 50+ targets have you covered. Print off as many as you like (ammo not included). Get your pack of 50 Print-at-Home targets when you subscribe to the RECOIL email newsletter. We'll send you weekly updates on guns, gear, industry news, and special offers from leading manufacturers - your guide to the firearms lifestyle.You want this. Trust Us.
