Hi! I’m a north Texas shooting enthusiast and I just bought my first Savage rifle. My background has been focused primarily on handguns, with which I’ve trained extensively at a variety of locations, including Thunder Ranch. My training has also included tactical shotgun and carbine. Glaringly absent from all my training; however, is any training on shooting a rifle, specifically at any kind of distance.

I decided to fill this void by buying a decent rifle and learning as I build it out, likely culminating in some formal training when I’ve finished assembling it.

I’m very left eye dominant. So much so that I must shoot long guns left handed. I have some long guns that could go the distance but they’re all right handed. I decided that if I’m going to do this correctly, I don’t want to be starting with a rifle that’s not perfectly suited to me. As a result of this, I researched various left handed rifles and decided to start this process with a 10 Stealth Evolution in 6.5 Creedmoor that I just bought on Gunbroker.

I’m joining this Savage forum so I can learn from all the posts here and, when I know enough to know what I don’t know, I can start asking newbie questions.

While I’m waiting for the rifle to arrive, my next step is to decide what optic I’m going to put on it. My budget for a scope is probably around $600 - $800 at this point. In my pistol and carbine pursuits I’ve come to love the Vortex stuff, so I’m looking first at a Viper HST. I think that I might be an mrad person instead of a moa person, but I’m still thinking about that.

Anyway, sorry for the long first post and thanks in advance for tolerating my newbie questions.