In my life so far, I've built up 2 different 308 heavy barreled rifles. Both Rem 700's with HS Precision stocks, 20MOA picatinny bases, Leupold Tactical scopes, bipods, etc. The problem is, they just sat in the safe. I don't have a place that's close enough to shoot long range regularly and I can't afford the $30/box match ammo. Also, these rifles suck to try to carry around the woods and hunt with because they're so heavy. I did it last year, it sucked!

So I have an old (1976 MFR) Ruger M77 in '06 that was my first "deer" rifle and was a gift from my parents. I'm working on getting one of my AR's set up with a 1-6 variable that should easily cover anything out to 400-500 yds. Torso hits at 600 should be doable.

Beyond that or if heavier hits are required, what about just grabbing the '06? It worked well enough in WWII, right? I think the rifle is probably capable of getting hits out to 1000. The limiting factor right now is the glass. Since it's just a dedicated hunting rifle, it wears a Leupold Vari-X II 3-9x40 with duplex reticle. It works well enough for the 225yd max shot I have on my hunting property and I've taken a deer at that range, but there's really no holdover required at that range with the '06.

What I'd like to do is upgrade the glass to something that would be useful for shooting longer range. Either a dial-able turret or a reticle with meaningful holdover points. Then again, this is a nice, old walnut and blue rifle, so I don't want to "tac" it out.

Optic thoughts and recommendations, and is my thinking reasonable for my expectations of the rifle?

This is the best pic I have of the rifle, so please excuse the "redneck-ness" of it. I had just killed my largest buck, so I was grinning like a cheshire cat.