What rifle to start with

[chriskoob]

Advice sought: I've been shooting for years, but not much with bolt action rifles. Now I would like to get a nice rifle. One that is accurate, fun to shoot, and reasonably portable. For a budget, I'd like to stay below $1000 for the rifle, but that is not strict.

The first rifle on my list is a Tikka T3 stainless. (in 308 or 223). The other rifle is a Remington 700, but there are so many models and I really have no idea what would be a good one to start with. There is an SPS model,and a 5R.

So whats not on my list that should be? Which Remington 700 is the kind to get? Is the Remington decent out of the box, or should I plan on having something done to it?

Thanks
Chris

 

[roggom]

Re: What rifle to start with

Yes choosing a rifle can be daunting.

You must ask yourself what you truly intend on doing with your rifle.

Paper, steel , competition, hunting or even school.

If all you were doing was shooting prone at steel, then there is no reason not to have a heavy rifle (heavy bbl, chassis, glass, dbm etc)

It is another thing if you want your rifle to serve dual duty,(hunt and target), as humping an 18lb rifle in to the mountains will get old very fast.

That being said, when you research, take an inventory of the part weights you intend to use.

As for the Remington , at the amount you have, you can save a bit more and purchase a 5R, if you wanted a lighter rifle you can look at the LTR.

For Tikka, the T3 Tac should serve you well.



Then there is the glass!

 

[dbateman]

Re: What rifle to start with

I have a Rem 700 SPS in 223 and it is good out of the box and also a good rifle to build on as you learn more.

 

[chriskoob]

Re: What rifle to start with

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: roggom</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

You must ask yourself what you truly intend on doing with your rifle.

Paper, steel , competition, hunting or even school.

If all you were doing was shooting prone at steel, then there is no reason not to have a heavy rifle (heavy bbl, chassis, glass, dbm etc)

It is another thing if you want your rifle to serve dual duty,(hunt and target), as humping an 18lb rifle in to the mountains will get old very fast.
</div></div>

Idealy, I would like a dual duty rifle. Hunting, and shooting paper!

On the topic of the Rem 700. The 5R is a bit more than an SPS, in terms of cost. So, am I getting real value for the cost difference? Would I be better off buying the SPS and replacing a few things?

 

[patlaprade01]

Re: What rifle to start with

Look at a SPS 700 varmint and save a few bucks but you need to get a new stock for it though. Its the same action, twist and heavy barrel as the tactical. The tactical is a 20" wit a houge stock and the varmint is a 26" barrel with a crappy plastic stock. Remington currently has a $50 mail in rebate on the varmint too. The money you save can go to the stock you want, knob conversion, cutting down the barrel,threading,bi pod, scope base,etc.

Just my .02 on trying to make your budget go the furthest.

Good luck

 

[slm9s]

Re: What rifle to start with

Find someone knowledgeable to help you buy a used rifle. You'll get much more value for your money, and you can buy a proven shooter from someone on here. If you buy new, you'll be rolling the dice that you get a shooter or not.

 

[leadbullet]

Re: What rifle to start with

find a savage in 308, inexpensive, usually pretty darn accurate and you can buy a good scope with the money left over in your budget.
hope this helps.

 

[Judd]

Re: What rifle to start with

Straight out of the box...5R, Tikka, Savage (one with accustock) and then all other Remingtons.

I don't know about the 308 but the lighter calibers twist rates on the varmit stuff will not handle heavier bullets so look into that if you go with the varmit model 308.

 

[turbo54]

Re: What rifle to start with

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: slm9s</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Find someone knowledgeable to help you buy a used rifle. You'll get much more value for your money, and you can buy a proven shooter from someone on here. If you buy new, you'll be rolling the dice that you get a shooter or not. </div></div>

This is great advice.

Also, the fella that said "get a savage" gave good advice.

Put the two pieces of advice together, and: Buy a used Savage that someone has already tuned up a little bit. About the only bad things you'll ever read/hear about a Savage is:

1. They're ugly (who cares?)
2. They have shitty resale (good for a beginner such as yourself, buying their first rifle)
3. The accutrigger locks up sometimes (the "fix" is a new $85 rifle basix trigger - many used Savages here will have it already)

After ~6000 rounds of excellent accuracy, my Savage 10FP finally quit shooting. I bought a new Criterion barrel for $275, and screwed it on at the picnic table of my gunclub in 20 minutes. The result? Lights out accuracy restored. How can you argue with that?

 

[ShakyDave]

Re: What rifle to start with

If you're going to hunt anything larger than varmints be sure to check your state regs for bullet weight requirements. For example, in my state, .223 is too light for deer, but it's a great caliber for range work and practicing fundamentals because the ammo is about half the cost of .308.

On the other hand, my personal feeling is the .308 is the better all-around caliber choice - it does about anything pretty well but it's not the very best in any category.

For out of the box accuracy you can't go wrong with Savage. With the others, you'll PROBABLY get an excellent shooter, but you might not, so you have the pig-in-a-poke factor to contend with. The bigger issue is the glass.

 

[Tackman11]

Re: What rifle to start with

You can go wrong with those rifle that list above. I would invest little more for good glass."You can hit what you can not see"

Good luck

 

[roggom]

Re: What rifle to start with

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Chris in Texas</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: roggom</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

You must ask yourself what you truly intend on doing with your rifle.

Paper, steel , competition, hunting or even school.

If all you were doing was shooting prone at steel, then there is no reason not to have a heavy rifle (heavy bbl, chassis, glass, dbm etc)

It is another thing if you want your rifle to serve dual duty,(hunt and target), as humping an 18lb rifle in to the mountains will get old very fast.
</div></div>

Idealy, I would like a dual duty rifle. Hunting, and shooting paper!

On the topic of the Rem 700. The 5R is a bit more than an SPS, in terms of cost. So, am I getting real value for the cost difference? Would I be better off buying the SPS and replacing a few things? </div></div>

The 5R is milspec stainless with HS Preceision stock and 1:11.2 twist rate.

You can certainly enter with an SPS-varmint or SPS-tactical at a much lower cost. As a matter of fact if you scour your local gun shops, you may find the SPS-Varmint with the LTR barrel 20" with 1:10 twist.

You asked for a rifle in the $1K range, so I suggested the 5R and LTR. With the SPS rifles you can change out to a variety of aluminum bedded stocks for an addition $200 and Timney trigger for $125, or you can shoot it as is.

You will get a barrage of suggestions, just do some extensive research and see what folks are shooting, their results, what you like and what you want.

As you may have noticed there is a bit of a Rem / Sav rivalry, both make excellent rifles, in the end is what you want. You can look to the military and LE and see which bolt action rifles they use(M40, M24, XM2010), or maybe F class. In the end it should be a rifle you are proud to set up on the line.

Personally I have (2) 308's both SPS. My tac is set up for hunting, 20" 1:12 bbl, LTR HS precision takeoff stock, Weaver 3-10x40, Timney, and versa-pod. It weighs exactly 10 lbs and will push 168's and 175's with authority and accuracy.
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[JAAM12]

Re: What rifle to start with

I would consider the remington SPS varmint with the rebate because of the option of getting the stock you want. But I like savage to. In fact I build a 308 and 260. The cost is about the same depending on how you upgrade it. The remington will most likely resale faster as well. (rifle $500+ HS or B&C stock $225 + new swfa SS10x mil/mil $270(with $30 dicount)= $995 + rings and bases
Regards