AZZA'S HJ47 wrote:Ok so have been doing the bench rest thing for a while have progressed to unassisted methods with great results. Currently on the look out for a accurare reasonably priced rifle. What are you guys using and what are your thoughts. I spoilt myself with my first gun and have been cautious as hell when i comes to anything else. However the thought of banging up a 3k rifle is kinda daunting, thats where your help would be greatly appreciated
What sort of hunting do you want the rifle for?
Calibre, length, action?
You only want one rifle to do everything or will you buy different rifles for different jobs?
Personally, I'm loving the Ruger Americans.
I like to be able to use a variety of cartridges, but I really don't like having a mish mash of different rifle designs, controls, trigger feel, sight picture and cheek weld, with different scope mounts and slings on each. I did that when I was younger, and it made sense to experiment until I discovered all the personal features I wanted in my shooting. I don't expect or want one rifle to do everything, I want to do everything but within the same platform. One rifle that I can do a lot of shooting with, become intimately familiar with, and learn to rely on. Whether I'm laying in a paddock shooting rabbits on the horizon with the .204, or sneaking through thick brush looking for pigs with the .308, trying for a long shot on a deer across a valley with the 7mm-08, or shooting paper out to 1000yds, I want my connection to my primary hunting rifle to be as consistent as possible.
Coming back into long guns after years in WA only shooting handguns allowed me to start from scratch. All I really knew for sure was that I wanted .223, 7mm-08 and .204 Ruger, short action, and synthetic instead of wood. I've never had any interest in firearms (or anything else) for their aesthetics, I only care about their mechanical quality, performance and bang-for-buck. I spent a lot of time, months, researching one rifle that offered the most options that might appeal to me. Perhaps not immediately, but something that would have the options available if I got bitten by different bugs down the track. I was thinking along the lines of the Remington 700 or Ruger 77, primarily because I knew them from years ago. I hadn't heard of the Ruger American but I started seeing references to it, videos, and reviews from lots of very impressed owners.
When I started looking at its options, and its price, there really weren't any others in the hunt. I figured Ruger would not market a rifle around its .204 Ruger invention if it didn't perform, so I ordered one. Never even seen one. Didn't know anybody else that had used the Ruger or the .204. No regrets at all. I've also got the 7mm-08 and the American Rimfire in .22LR. I'm also getting the .223, .243, .308, and 6.5mm Creedmore. And I'm putting Bushnell AR Optics 4.5-18x40 scopes on all of them. Straight out of the box the .204 shoot's 0.5MoA with no effort on my part out to 200yds and I can comfortably keep it under 0.75MoA at 300yds. I've run Hornady NTX 24gn, VMax 32gn & 40gn, ZMax 32gn, Sierra 39gn Blitzking and Speer 39gn TNT so far and have settled on the NTX 24gn at 4400fps, ZMax 32gn at 4000fps and VMax 40gn at 3700fps. I also use the ZMax 32gn at 1600fps and 2400fps with Trailboss loads. The 7mm-08 reliably holds under 1Moa to 200yds with Sierra 100gn HP and Speer's 145gn and 160gn HotCore. And today I picked up 100 Hornady 162gn ELD-M's and 200 120gn VMax's to work up a long range precision load and a long-range varmint load.
The short action for the .223 or .308 bolt face, both available in stainless, and parts and accessories are interchangeable through the Standard, Compact, Predator and Ranch series'. Same mags, trigger packs, stocks, barrels, scope bases, etc. A good range of cartridges from .20 to .30 calibre, 16", 18" and 22" barrels, in blue or stainless, threaded if you prefer, length of pull of 12.5" or 13.75", only 2.8kg - and I bought all three new for under $700 each delivered, transferred and registered.
In the .223 bolt face and magazine you have:
.204 (12" twist), .223 (8") and .300BLK (7").
In the .308 bolt face and magazine:
.22-250 (10"), .243 (9"), 6.5mm Creedmore (8"), 7mm-08 (9.5") and .308 (10").
Available barrel lengths (threaded 1/2"-28 or 5/8"-24):
16-1/8" threaded blue in .223 and .300BLK.
18" unthreaded blue or stainless in .223, .22-250, .243, 7mm-08 and .308.
22" threaded blue or unthreaded stainless in .223, .22-250, .243, 6.5mm Creedmore, 7mm-08 and .308.
13.75" length of pull stocks in black or Muddy girl (Standard), green (Predator), and Dark Earth or Kryptek (Ranch).
12.5" stocks are black (Compact).
The long action and magnum action are of no interest to me and don't offer the interchangeability of the short action.
The long action gives you .30-06 (10") and .270 (10") in 22" unthreaded blue barrels and 13.75" black stock.
The Magnum gives you 7mm RemMag (9.5"), .300WinMag (10"), and .338 WinMag (10") in 24" threaded stainless barrels and 13.75" black stock.
For similar money the Savage Axis series offers the same calibres except for .204.
The Howa 1500 series does include the .204, but not 6.5mm Creedmore, they do 6.5x55mm though.
Weatherby Vanguard series doesn't include .204 but does do the Creedmore.