So far I have been shooting tons of .17 hmr and .22 lr just to get practice in and realistically the close places I have to shoot max out around 350-400 yards and anything centerfire would probably be too loud. I do however make a hour+ drive sometimes on the weekends to get out to some grasslands where the sky is the limit distance wise. I cant really decide, I do 75-80% long range (micro long range for now pushing he rimfires to their limits) target shooting. Starting out shooting paper at 100 just to make sure everything is good with atmospheric changes then moving out to cinder blocks, steel plates etc out to 400 with the .17 and out to 300 with the .22. I want to get a centerfire and get into reloading and start going for farther and farther distances. I think .223 because its so widely available and cheap, lots of gun and ammo choices, then I think either .204 or 22-250 for some nice flat long range shooting, then I think get a .308 or .243 and then maybe get a 260 and 7mm08 barrel and really go for it. Thing is anything bigger than the .204, 22-250 and .223 I am only going to be able to shoot out on the planes with a pretty far drive. So this is making me lean towards the smaller stuff. Since I dont hunt very much and if I do its not anything bigger than prairie dogs, crows and other over populated varmits and mostly just like shooting targets and other more reactive stuff like cinder blocks, milk jugs and such. The .223, .204, 22-250 and .243 and really standing out to me but I would also really like to try .308, .260 and 7mm08 even though I really dont need bullets that heavy. Any suggestions? I'm thinking just slowly work my way up from small to big.