Best hunting Rifle poll.

[Karl Blanchard]

Heading to NV in a few weeks to demolish some prairie dogs.  Taking a few rifles with.  One of which is a new tikka in .243. It's dropped in a B&C medalist stock,  Egw rail which I bedded,  Egw rings, and topped with a mrk4 6.5-20.  Took it out this morning for some intial load development.   Shot all loads well under an inch.  So far this was the best of the bunch.  Loaded 5 rounds but after the first 4 I wanted to see what the magneto speed had to say. 

[jdb]

Pretty sure I walked right by you

[Karl Blanchard]

Pretty sure I walked right by you

  haha. If it was a brown long bed tundra then that was me.  Nice day to be out and about.

[jdb]

Yep that was you! We had parked at the gate (white Toyota) about day break and hiked to the top of the ridge.great morning for a hike!

[Stein]

My daughter's Axis shot sub moa, out of the box with crappy action, crappy stock and crappy scope.

I put a $200 Vortex on it, lapped the rings and cut some off the trigger spring.  It's now a 0.6" gun for under $600.  For the price, it is the best gun I've seen.


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[quarterstaff]

That's a big question, so I'll try and give my opinion geared toward if I could only have one rifle for hunting, and I would have to say as far as caliber goes 30-06 is the winner for me and really a bolt action Winchester model 70, or a good 1903 Springfield with a scope and a decent stock simply because the one I have just seems to fit and carry like it was made for me.

[coachcw]

I think Jake has about $1300 in his tika. Stock , muzzlebrake,  and crecote.  Plus glass . Sweet set up . Blrman pumped some rounds through  it too .BTW  nice chronograph buddy.  :tung

[JakeLand]

I'm no professional by I do know what I like and what I shoot ! I bought a Tikka in .300 WSM and I loved everything about it BUT the stock . I put a B/C stock on it and my favorite eye gear and as long as I do my part it has never failed and me and my rifles go through hell season in and season out !! My buddy has a ruger American in .308 and that little gun will do the same as my Tikka

[thinkingman]

The Tikka is going to have better fit/finish, will be lighter, the bolt is going to be smoother, magazines easier to change, won't require custom scope bases (but do require Tikka specific rings) and the trigger is going to be better. The only drawback for the Tikka is that their synthetic stocks are extremely sensitive to variations in action bolt torque.

The Savage is arguably going to be more accurate in the long run and the accustock chassis is aesthetically ugly but engineering wise a thing of beauty. Really the Savage is just a bit less refined than the Tikka, but still a very good rifle.

first thing I do is toss the tikka rings and go to something better, which is basically anything.  Egw base and some egw, warne, etc. will do the trick.

I have an EGW rail NIB and Warne QD rings if anyone's interested.
I love my Tikkas and like that they don't need a trigger/stock/bedding just to get in the game.

[grundy53]

Seems like the Ruger American is getting tons of attention but not one vote?

Why buy a $350 rifle if you have $1000 to spend?

So you can spend more on glass. Which I think is more important with how accurate rifles are these days.

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[Stein]

Seems like the Ruger American is getting tons of attention but not one vote?

Why buy a $350 rifle if you have $1000 to spend?

So you can spend more on glass. Which I think is more important with how accurate rifles are these days.

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Ammo, reloading setup, training class, range time, etc.  If you want to shoot accurately, a $300 rifle with 500 rounds through it will get you there more effectively than a $1,000 rifle that sits in the closet.  If you have money for both, do it.  The rifle is the easy part.

For $1,000 not including optics, you can get a sweet Remmy 700 with great trigger and aftermarket stock and unlimited upgrading potential and aftermarket accessories.

[chester]

Seems like the Ruger American is getting tons of attention but not one vote?

Why buy a $350 rifle if you have $1000 to spend?

So you can spend more on glass. Which I think is more important with how accurate rifles are these days.

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Ammo, reloading setup, training class, range time, etc.  If you want to shoot accurately, a $300 rifle with 500 rounds through it will get you there more effectively than a $1,000 rifle that sits in the closet.  If you have money for both, do it.  The rifle is the easy part.

For $1,000 not including optics, you can get a sweet Remmy 700 with great trigger and aftermarket stock and unlimited upgrading potential and aftermarket accessories.

Or virtually any other manufacturer that you won't need to blow money on upgrades for.


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[thinkingman]

Seems like the Ruger American is getting tons of attention but not one vote?

Why buy a $350 rifle if you have $1000 to spend?

So you can spend more on glass. Which I think is more important with how accurate rifles are these days.

Sent from my E6782 using Tapatalk

Ammo, reloading setup, training class, range time, etc.  If you want to shoot accurately, a $300 rifle with 500 rounds through it will get you there more effectively than a $1,000 rifle that sits in the closet.  If you have money for both, do it.  The rifle is the easy part.

For $1,000 not including optics, you can get a sweet Remmy 700 with great trigger and aftermarket stock and unlimited upgrading potential and aftermarket accessories.

Or virtually any other manufacturer that you won't need to blow money on upgrades for.


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Zzzzziinnngggg!!!

[Stein]

Educate me, what rifle comes out of the box sub moa with a competition level adjustable trigger, full aluminum bedded stock,  and everybody and their brother makes stuff for it in the $800 range?  I'm serious, there may be some out there and I would check them out.

[Bob33]

Educate me, what rifle comes out of the box sub moa with a competition level adjustable trigger, full aluminum bedded stock,  and everybody and their brother makes stuff for it in the $800 range?  I'm serious, there may be some out there and I would check them out.

"Sub MOA" is a result of many factors including the ammunition, and of course the shooter. I've seen some rifles advertised as "Sub MOA" that shot 2.5" groups with some loads. In my experience most factory rifles will shoot 1 MOA or better with the right loads, but it may require extensive handload development. For most big game hunters a rifle that shoots even 1.5 MOA is adequate at reasonable distances.

If a trigger breaks cleanly and is adjustable down to two pounds like many are now, what is the line that makes it "competition level"?

Bedding stock: is that necessary for someone who wants a hunting rifle, and it shoots sub MOA but doesn't have an aluminum bedding stock?

Accessories: same question as bedding stock.

Thanks.