In a hunting rifle action, what is your favourite classic AND modern design?

I'm a bolt action guy. Old or new they are pretty much the same. I do favor stainless bolt action with a penchant for CRF actions. My three most used rifles at the moment are a Ruger Hawkeye, a Winchester M70 and a Kimber Montana, all three SS and CRF.
 
Classic - double rifles and single shot buffalo guns in big bore rifles
New - Mauser 98.

Although to me "classic" is a fad that has past and not likely to be repeated. Like vintage muscle cars and big fendered land yachts of the 50s. In terms of guns highly figured walnut and case colored frames an smaller bits. Smooth lines. Hand fitted. Although this can still be bought in both guns and cars it doesn't have that classic feel

New is assembled and mass produced. The market has demanded lower standards and the manufacturing company's are racing to the bottom

I'm at the age where I want classic guns but can't afford them. The baby boomers have a lot invested and the generation after me doesn't want engraved case colored metal and bright bluing and fancy wood. They want the latest and greatest crap the gun writers push. High velocity an giant cases and camo or carbon fiber.
But then again who could forsee cooeys selling for over $200
 
Fer me it be Winchester 86,92 & 94's for lever guns. For bolt guns I prefer Lee Enfield & Mosin Nagant actions for their uber reliabilityand the fact that they have hand-graspable cocking pieces to enable silent cocking/decocking whilst stalking game. Cooey of course, fits the bill (Along with similar actions) for the smaller stuff.
 
Boomer said:
To me all turn bolt and straight pull actions are modern . . . well sort of. Ultra Modern rifles by contrast fill a particular narrowly defined niche, but aren't much good for anything else like ultralight mountain rifles, beanfield rifles, dedicated 12 ga bolt actions like the Tar-Hunt, and rifles, regardless of action type, that are chambered for extremely powerful cartridges like the .700 Nitro Express, and the .585 Nyati.

Classic = single shots like Sharps, Ballard, Farquharson, & Martini, double rifles like Holland & Holland, Chas. Osborne, Joseph Lang, Westley Richards, and lever actions like the Winchester 71, 86, 94 & 95.
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You are correct, as usual, Boomer. For me, however, I consider "modern" as starting from the era of accountant bean-counting and super mass-production. A time when humans stopped individually handling and finishing a rifle, however limited that human invention was.

M96/M98 factory sporters (FN, Husqvarna, early Browning, etc.), for example, were mass-produced, but even until the early-mid 1950's, involved final finishing by people, not machines or CNC lathes. I hold the FN commericial M98 action as still the very best possible basis for a custom build. In fact, I 'stock pile' the uber rare small-ring M98 variants for future non-magnum builds. Pre-64 Winchester, obviously largely based on M98 design, are in a similar camp for me.

While Tikka, for example, obviously have a winner with the T3, cost considerations were paramount into the action's design. It is one of few modern actions that work, work extremely well, and obviously are ultra-efficient to produce. Even with Tikka, I still drop a few factory 'cheapie' parts in favour for some high-quality aftermarket bling, but all-in-all, there's no shame in glass reinforced polymer magazines, and trigger guards-- most of world's militaries and police have gone that direction to varying degrees.

While I do appreciate some of the super expensive examples you note above, they are beyond my needs and/or desires, I simply don't hold them to the same regard. I do appreciate individual opinion and this thread has proven how varied our thinking works.

Thankfully, nobody has placed some real losers (will not name them) as their personal favourites, but I wouldn't criticize them if they did.

(yes, I am biased towards bolt guns.. :) )
 
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Classic design of the pre-64 Model 70 with all the modern improvements to the CRF design brought about by USRAC and FN. definitely my favourite centre fire rifle.

I find the Ruger No. 1 aesthetics very appealing as well, but the Model 70 is sensible and easy to live with in almost every aspect of its design.
 
In the lever category, for me it would be the Winchester model 71 Deluxe.



And in a single shot, a Winchester High Wall



And, in a bolt action, the Schultz & Larsen gets the nod.

 
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