so other than rem700. what other base rifle around $800 or less is good to build on. i'm talking about eventually upgrade with chassis/good stock, trigger, etc etc. consider availability upgrades for the rifle too. savage 10fp, fn spr, howa, etc etc. just looking at option thats on par with rem700 for base rifle
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a base rifle to upgrade/build on
- Thread starter s002wjh
- Start date
I love my savage model 10. The accustock is garbage, but the action is nice. Upgrades are cheap and mostly capable of being done at home. I got mine as a trade for a 10/22 which I traded for and basically got for free. Check armslist, nice used rifles usually pop up cheap. Buy or trade for that, take the savings and buy a nice stock; then shoot it until it needs a new barrel and send it in.
+1, the savage 10 and 110 barreled action is an awesome way to go. Easily swapable bolt heads let you go from 223 sized bolt head to a magnum bolt head any anything in between cheaply and quickly. No need to ever spend money blue printing, barrel swaps can be done in your garage in 20 minutes with nothing but a vice an action wrench and a go gauge, the accutriggers awesome from the factory for most uses and the match version is superb, if you get one pre match theirs quite a few good aftermarket replacements as well.. the aftermarkets is good on them as is and steadily growing also so the one real downside they had in the past is exactly that a thing of the past. After owning both savage and remington I'm finding it harder and harder lately to want to pick up another 700, they just do t have the same appeal as they did before people started taking notice of the savages
My vote is for Howa if your not gonna run a 700, typically can get your base gun cheaper if you go with a Howa over 700's, after that they generally speaking gonna cost the same to rebarrel, stock, true blah blah blah
Howa is a good choice, whinchester 70 makes a good one, FN actions are fairly reasonable and shoot well. I could never get to liking the savage, i have tried a couple times. They do shoot i'll give them that i just have NEVER liked the bolt throw, feel, etc.
I love savages and have two in my stable. With that being said, I will be going with an R700 as my base rifle when I do my 338 Edge. The number of smiths familiar with the R700 FAR outnumbers the smiths familiar with Savages. I want to spend some money to have the factory action trued. There are 2 smiths recommended for Savage action work and one of late has ABYSMAL feedback. I've got an email to Kevin Rayhill (the other smith recommended). If his backlog isn't too bad, I may still stick with a Savage
My vote goes to Howa. I have 2 customs built off the Howa platform and love them both. Some even say they are stronger than the R700 because of the flat bottom and increased amount of steel. I do agree with that statement. Both are nestled in Manners stock, and have SAC bolt knobs on them. One built by GAP the other built by SAC. I love them both.
For a factory rifle my vote would go to the Howa/Vanguard. They are night and day better than a Remington or Savage. You get a one piece bolt, a massive M16 style extractor, and a built in recoil lug. The action is also very smooth out of the box and the factory 2 stage trigger is an excellent trigger and really doesn't need to be upgraded.
Another option would be the Tikka T3 but I would still choose the Vanguard over the Tikka.
Savages are decent rifles if you want to get a factory rifle and leave it alone. Once you start building it up it immediately turns into polishing a turd. As noted above, the accustock is a piece of crap, they start weakening and getting forend flex after not a lot of use. My biggest problem with them is you are basically stuck with the accutrigger. I know a lot of people will be offended, but the accutrigger sucks. Two of mine were constantly locking up and required complete dissasembly to fix. Your only option for aftermarket replacement is a rifle basics. If you do go with the savage platform I recommend the Stevens, they use the old style trigger and there are much more options out there. You're still polishing a turd though any way you slice it.
Another option would be the Tikka T3 but I would still choose the Vanguard over the Tikka.
Savages are decent rifles if you want to get a factory rifle and leave it alone. Once you start building it up it immediately turns into polishing a turd. As noted above, the accustock is a piece of crap, they start weakening and getting forend flex after not a lot of use. My biggest problem with them is you are basically stuck with the accutrigger. I know a lot of people will be offended, but the accutrigger sucks. Two of mine were constantly locking up and required complete dissasembly to fix. Your only option for aftermarket replacement is a rifle basics. If you do go with the savage platform I recommend the Stevens, they use the old style trigger and there are much more options out there. You're still polishing a turd though any way you slice it.
there was a thread dedicated to aftermarket parts/upgrades for the Howa. it was really good info.
Roedale, and XLR both make chassis for the Howa/Vanguard. I believe there are others as well. Manners also inlets them as does McMillan. CDI makes a bottom metal that works with AICS mags if you go the Manners or McMillan route. Any of the barrel blanks out there can be spun up for the action and most of the top smiths work on them. Several companies make picatinny rails. Aftermarket triggers are available as well but the two stage in the new models doesn't need replacing IMO.
Other than that there are really no other part you'll ever need.
I would call a few smiths that work on Howa's and ask them why they are vastly better than Remington or Savage.
