SHOOT MORE; SAVE MORE

There are few pursuits in life more costly than boat ownership and equestrian competition of any sort. Somehow, precision rifle competition feels like it’s a not-so-distant third place in that ranking of activities. It’s not uncommon to see Precision Rifle Series competitors pulling $5,000 worth of gun and glass from hard cases and shooting $250 worth of ammo during a match weekend. Add travel costs, a weather meter, ballistic computer, shooting bags, ear pro, and on and on. All that and we haven’t even covered the cost of practicing with your 6.5 Costmoor.

In an effort to avoid selling plasma, many PRS shooters practice with 22LR ammo. To get the most practical training value out of the .22 round, some competitors build custom guns with rimfire actions mated to centerfire stocks that mimic the handling characteristics of their competition guns. More so-called tactical trainer options have come to market lately with manufacturers offering versions of their bolt-action rimfires in tactical stocks. These factory options might not be clones of a game day gun, but they’re cheaper than cloning one while getting the job done.

TESTING

We picked up four rimfire tactical trainers, all at different price points, and ran each through an identical evaluation process that included shooting about 600 rounds of Eley Club and 200 rounds of Eley Match ammo in each. We ran the guns as they were meant to run, from barricades, 50-gallon drums, and from every position