What's a good affordable entry level rifle?

Remington or Savage would be two manufacturers to look at and it all depends on what you consider to be affordable.
 
There is a Musgrave and a Sportco for sale in the EE. These are purpose built target rifles and will likely shoot better than anything you could buy off the shelf.
 
223 is the cheapest caliber to load for. Even if a heavy barrel savage cost a couple hundred more at the begininning it will be much cheaper to shoot. Check elwood epps they have heavy 223 starting around 600.
 
Mercer21 said:
Hey I'm looking to get into compitive long range shooting,
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Do you mean Fullbore "Target Rifle" (prone, iron sights and slings, 300y-1000y, calibers .223 Rem or .308 Win), or Fullbore F-Class (prone, scope, rested, 300-1000y, .223 and .308 and also an "Open" class too), or another kind?

For the first two kinds, you should contact your provincial rifle association (APRA = Alberta Provincial Rifle Association, NPRA = Nfld PRA) - see http://dcra.ca/provincial_rifle_associations.htm

what's a good entry level rifle I had my eye in the mossberg night train 2 but I had a guy tell ne that he has one and never liked it at all so I'm open to suggestions and if anyone has anything forsale let me know thanks
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I think the Mossberg is quite new, I don't know anything about it. You might want to cautiously avoid it until it becomes known as basis for a proven target rifle.

How much many can/will you spend, what do you want and what are you willing to put up with?

You could get a used "Sportco", they are a .308 Win rifle made in Australia for target rifle shooting. They are a bit clunky overall in many ways, but they are actually pretty good (they can and have been used to win national championships). They are single shot bolt actions, which came with a fairly heavy 26" barrel and a plain wood stock; in a way they look like a .308 version of a single shot .22 Cooey. Sportcos are a very good choice for the cheapest possible entry-level into iron sight TR shooting. They're not necessarily the best choice for scope shooting, they have a very small receiver and they were not originally tapped for scope mounting. Scopes can be mounted on them of course, but it is extra expensive and a bit of a hassle too.

I am badly out of the loop on rifles pricing, but I would think/hope (and welcome corrections!) that you ought to be able to find a good used Sportco for $500, possibly even including a set of iron sights.

For $1200-ish you could get a brand new Savage target rifle off the shelf (there are a handful of models that would be applicable).

For a bit more than $2000 you could build yourself a first-rate custom target rifle. I know you asked for entry level, I just wanted to include this because if you can find a way to afford it, using the very best gear possible will make your learning of shooting a lot quicker.

There are also a wide variety of other used target rifles for sale, whose usability and price vary widely - from screaming bargains to nearly a ripoff. You might want to get some advice/help from someone familiar with this stuff (a member of your PRA ought to be able to help) if you want to seriously look at buying a used target rifle - knowing what things are worth and what is important and what is not, you ought to be able to get something for 1/2 to 1/3 of what it cost to build.
 
Depending on your budget, a Remington 700 SPS varmint would be a good choice. About 700 brand new with 24" heavy barrel. Available in .223, which would be cheap(er) to shoot.
 
Mercer, The best advice I can give you before you go dropping ANY coin on a gun, is to drop by a local match or club. If you are in AB, track down "Inspector" on CGN here and chat with him. I can't tell you how many times I have seen well-intentioned new shooters show up with rifles that they got flogged by the local gun shop, or pure junk, and they had NO way of knowing, because the kid behind the counter doesn't know his nads from his nostrils about precision shooting.

With all due respect to my fellow CGNers, you have already gotten a couple of pieces of bad advice in this thread regarding rifles and brands for precision and for competitive shooting. Conversely, Dan (rnbra-shooter) and Maynard are both competitive TR shooters and have some good practical suggestions.

I'm not sure how much you know about the various shooting disciplines out there, but for someone wanting to shoot competitively using a rifle, a scope, and a bipod, the discipline you are probably most interested in trying is F-Class. It is a CANADIAN born sport and involves shooting prone at bulls eye targets, and the closer to the center you hit, the more points you get.

There are NUMEROUS questions that need to be asked and answered by you before deciding on an appropriate rifle. I will stick my neck out a bit and say unequivocally, stay away from the Mossberg.

Some questions that require an honest answer...

*What discipline? this will determine caliber, and the realistic degree of accuracy needed.
*What are you prepared to spend?
*Do you reload (HUGE question)? This will determine the choice of caliber as many precision cartridges are not available off the shelf

For someone looking to get into F-Class in a province with no factory/sporter class, I would recommend a Savage FTR rifle and Sightron 8-32X scope. That represents an investment of roughly $2500 by the time the dust settles. I would also strongly urge you to hold off buying anything until you have actually spent time chatting face-to-face with some of the shooters at the venues where you will shoot.

You'd be surprised what terrific deals appear to help get interested new shooters on the right track.
 
These questions come up so often that one of the administrators in concert with one of our knowledgable competitors could create as a sticky.

Obtunded and rnbca-shooter gave two excellent pieces of information, and one should not have to read further.

This just may turn into 100 plus comments that simply don't make it worth reading.

"the kid behind the counter doesn't know his nads from his nostrils" . . . I was thinking he couldn't find his a$$ with both hands!
 
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