If you can use you're "gift card" for the scope and accessories, Have a look on the EE for a used rifle. I bought a used Sako A7 in 300 WSM for $800.00, used very little. I put on a scope I had laying around. A Bushnell 5-15, the rifle is 7lbs ready to shoot, but man it slaps. I don't spend hours behind it at the range but for a mtn. rifle it's great! I do have a Zeiss conquest on my Sendaro and love it, but it is a bit pricey when on a budget. I also have 2 Sightron SII Big sky scopes on a 338 Edge and a 223. No issues, even with the big boomer. You could get an SII from Jerry at Mystic Precision for around $500ish, all the scope you need. So for your 1200.00 budget you could do fine with a used A7 or Tikka T3.
Help with custom rifle??
- Thread starter hunter-4-life
- Start date
Too many conflicting goals in this purchase, it's evident you're new to the game and nothing wrong with that, it's why you're asking.
QF scopes, honestly utter trash, you're better off to light your cash on fire as at least you'll be able to say you burned money, literally, once.It won't last under good circumstances, let alone atop a light weight magnum. Even entry Bushnells are complete rubbish, a friend's just internally collapsed on us while shooting his Remington .308 (heavier gun, light recoil). We were shooting 500 yards and I was spotting, shots started going multiple yards to either side of the steel, and I was wondering what was up. He said "Hold on, look at this" and I looked throught the scope, glass had actually fallen out of place, crosshairs broken, and that's a GOOD scope compared to the Quigley-Ford.
Point 2, the rifle won't be custom under $3,000, below that you can get nice semi-customs like Cooper, and then below $2,000 get a nice production rifle, below $1,000 a cheap production rifle (pre-scoping prices). The recommendation for a new Winchester Model 70 is a good one, and in your budget, high quality, nice features production rifle. Splurge the $500 on a Leupold scope, and good rings / bases, and you have a really nice, affordable hunting rig.
As all the others have mentioned, avoid lightweight magnum rifles. No matter how recoil seasoned you feel you are, a 7lb .300 Mag will clean your clock in a serious way, no way you're shooting that for hours. In 7mm Mag your recoil's about the same, but you can burn out a barrel in no time shooting it several hours at a time, they're hard on barrel throats. I shoot .375 H&H mag exclusively for hunting, and I wouldn't touch a 7lb .300 for a regular shooter / long range days rifle. A .308 or .30-06 would serve you very, very well, they're giving you sound advice.
Good hunting.
As a younger shooter, one that has been shooting since 6 years old, that has spent the last 2 or 3 years painfully unlearning bad habits, you need to heed what Ardent is telling you. I would go so far to say that 75% of hunters in my area (BC) are over-gunned and too insecure to admit it. I grew up shooting a HEAVY p-17 sporter in 30-06 and it figured it was time for a new rifle. I bought myself a nice 300 WSM Tikka T3 SNTL in 2006 and got into handloading at the same time. I spent a LOT of time at the range doing load development and even managed to get a few really nice bug-hole groups. The problem is I knew I was flinching hard. I worked at this like you wouldn't believe. A quick aside about me: I am 6' tall, 155lbs and athletic. At that time I was doing Karate, running, weight lifting, etc. I was in the best shape of my life and quite used to being hit / managing pain. I still struggled with flinching. I wouldn't say no one can tolerate light rifle magnum recoil, some people can. After the summer of shooting and focusing on ignoring the flinch response, I was pretty good with that rifle. Give me a few months away from shooting over the winter and I flinched so hard I couldn't hit a target freehand at 100 Yards. I decided, wisely, that I simply didn't spend the time behind the trigger required to deal with that kind of recoil. Another way of looking at it is why bother putting up with it even if you can handle it?
Don't create a problem by demanding a specialized mountain climbing magnum when you neither need the light weight or the magnum power to hunt everything in NA shy of Griz and bison. Me? I dropped down to 270 Win and my 'ol 06 and I can't make them heavy enough. I would much rather hump them up and down my BC mountains all day then deal with my old magnum Tikka again.
"...expecting a $1200 bill..." Not enough for a 'custom' rifle. I wouldn't ever go with any magnum, but I'd never go with a WSM. Not that there's anything terrible about the cartridge, but you won't find it in Upperrubberboot's Crappy Tire should you get out in the bush to find you left your ammo on the kitchen table. You likely will find the other two.
"...I get $500 bucks off..." Yep, and $500 is $500. Even if it doesn't go far any more.
"...I get $500 bucks off..." Yep, and $500 is $500. Even if it doesn't go far any more.
Well said.
Unless you regularly practice and harvest game at 400yards or more stick to the tried and true .30-06 or .270. They are fantastic for all but the largest Buffalo and Brown Bear.
Most of my shots are less then 100yards here in B.C but my .30-06 still has more then enough killing power at triple that range.
The most important thing though is trigger time. Which ever rifle and cartridge you end up with, practice practice practice.
This is exactly what I would do. Drop a G-note on the M70 and use the card for a good piece of glass. $500 just about covers a Conquest or VX-III nowadays, no? Maybe even save a bit with a Monarch Pro or Grand Slam. Decent scopes for the money.
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^^yup that's exactly what I was going to suggest and it already has a B&C stock. I have an M70 Extreme Weather in .325wsm and love it. It's not bad to shoot at all at 7lbs plus scope but the quality stock and recoil pad help lots. So a 300wsm will be fine. But if your wanting to save weight then go short action non-magnum like a .308 @ 6lbs 12oz.
There is a reason light weight mountain rifles come in calibers like .260rem, 270, 280 7mm-08, 308. Just sayin
Like im shooting a 270 now but a little nervous with bigger game like moose and elk. I know shot placement is critical, but we all screw up and sometimes that little bit more lead and powder with help and sometimes it wont. Im a good shot with my 270, I can put 3 shots into 0.98"@100 yards, but thats with no adrenaline or anything
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
Stick with your 270. Quality .277" bullets through the boiler room will kill big grass eaters dead.
And for the fact its a savage axis, good action and barrel but the stock sucks, and you cant find different stocks for them. I was tempted to buy another 270 but this time make it good. that or a 308
CZ from prophet river or winchester model 70. 270 will kill everything... Jack oconnor proved that... Or go to 9.3x62. Avoid magnums. All they do is spoil more meat....
hometownhero
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Toon Town, Sk
Your 270 will do the job just fine. Load up a premium bullet and go moose hunting. A guy I was friends with in high school shot a moose last year under 100 yards with a 7mm rem mag took 3 shots to down it he was using winchester super x because it was cheap. Load up some partitions, tsx, gmx or similar and go hunting.
Speaking of Jack O'Connor, I was just reading his book "THE HUNTING RIFE" and here is a quote from the chapter on The 7mm. Magnum:
"Those looking for a short-barreled featherweight sporters should stay away from the 7mm. magnum. Cut the barrel below 24 inches and you lose a great deal of velocity and the muzzle blast would knock the ears off a horse. Cut the weight to less than 81/2 pounds and you get belted pretty bad. But the big 7-mm.'s are fine cartridges as use all over the world and on all sorts of game has shown."
Later in the book he says: This would be a dull world indeed if we all thought alike. "If we agreed and were completely logical and rational about our choice of firearms there would be little interest in them, little to talk about."
So I reckon we can all give advice on what we think is the "logical and rational" rifle for you to get and in the end you will likely get the rifle you want because it is the rifle you want.
I usually just fall in love with a rifle, then justify why I need it and have trouble sleeping until I get one.
"Those looking for a short-barreled featherweight sporters should stay away from the 7mm. magnum. Cut the barrel below 24 inches and you lose a great deal of velocity and the muzzle blast would knock the ears off a horse. Cut the weight to less than 81/2 pounds and you get belted pretty bad. But the big 7-mm.'s are fine cartridges as use all over the world and on all sorts of game has shown."
Later in the book he says: This would be a dull world indeed if we all thought alike. "If we agreed and were completely logical and rational about our choice of firearms there would be little interest in them, little to talk about."
So I reckon we can all give advice on what we think is the "logical and rational" rifle for you to get and in the end you will likely get the rifle you want because it is the rifle you want.
I usually just fall in love with a rifle, then justify why I need it and have trouble sleeping until I get one.
Sounds like a great way to live life... For buying guns... In my last argument with my GF about me buying guns (before we broke up) I told her that she had spent 2x what I had spent for guns in the same period on makeup, clothes, and shoes... My guns can be sold for near to and some more than what I paid for them, and I got to enjoy them; while her clothes, makeup and shoes had little to no resale value... She might get $1-5 a piece on $20-100 dollar items. I called guns my 'savings plan'. haha
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
And now someone else is giving her a smack in the seat. Classic example of winning and losing at the same time.
So i'm thinking i'm going to go with a Weatherby Vanguard S2, in .300 win mag topped off with a Vortex Viper HS 2.5-10x44. maybe down the road ill swap out the stock for a lighter B&C but that wont be until I go to the mountains. Ill just put a good sling on it until then!
