Oly

I'm looking at buying my first bolt action rifle and have done some reading on the subject. I'm leaning toward a Savage .308. Some folks I've talked to have suggested 30-06 as "the best" all around rifle. I was leaning toward the above manufacturer as they aren't too expensive.

Don't have a pic but the model is 11FXP3 (short action comes with an o.k. scope)

Any opinions or suggestions???

koorbloh

I like my .30-06 but with ~18" of bullet drop at 300 yards....make the call for yourself.

look into tikka's too.

KillermondoDude

My Dream Rifle



Accuracy International Rifle Packages

Accuracy International AE Accuracy Enforcement - .308
24" plain bbl - Base Price $3,200.00 -specs
Includes: user manual, one five round magazine, set of spacers and Harris Bipod adaptor.
AE Options
Adj. Cheek piece +$175.00
Folding stock with adjustable cheek piece +$515

Accuracy International AW .243 - specs
24" or 26" plain bbl - Base Price* $5,300.00

Accuracy International AW .308 - specs
20" or 24” plain bbl - *Base Price $5,300.00
20" plain bbl + std muzzle brake - *Base Price $5,525.00
20" plain bbl + tactical muzzle brake - *Base Price $5,565.32
20" fluted bbl - *Base Price $5,525.00
26" plain bbl + std muzzle brake - *Base Price $5,525.00
26" plain bbl + tactical muzzle brake - *Base Price $5,565.32

Accuracy International AWM .300 Win Mag - specs
26" fluted bbl + std muzzle brake - *Base Price $5,900.00
26" fluted bbl + tactical muzzle brake - *Base Price $5,940.32

Accuracy International AWM .338 Lapua Magnum - specs
27" fluted bbl + std muzzle brake - *Base Price $6,000.00
27" fluted bbl + tactical muzzle brake - *Base Price $6,040.32

*AW/AWM Base Price includes:
Fixed stock
Fixed cheek piece
Fixed butt pad with additional spacers
1 magazine
Harris bipod adaptor
User manual

AW/AWM Options: (available at time of order/manufacture. No retrofits.)
AI Picatinny Rail +$210.00
Adj. Butt Pad +$110.00
Adj. Cheek piece +$175.00
Folding Stock & Adj. Cheek Piece +$515.00
Folding Stock & Quick Adj. Cheek piece + $600.00
Folding Stock & Quick Adj. Cheek piece & Quick Adj. Butt Pad +$950.00
Forend Rail +$185
NSV 80 Rail +$475
AI Butt Spike +$290.00

AI Bipod +$280.00 (accessory)
Storm fitted case +$299 (accessory)
Click here for more Accuracy International Accessories (PDF)

Accuracy International AW50 AI .50 cal - specs
27" fluted bbl + std muzzle brake - $13,000.00
Includes: AI bipod + mount, Picatinny rail, 1 magazine and fitted case.

Accuracy International AICS Chassis System. - Provides a tactical stock, magazine feed and improves accuracy for any user of the Remington 700. - specs

SHORT ACTION (e.g. .308) Available in tan, green or black.
Stage 1.5 = Fully adjustable - $800
Stage 2 = Fully adjustable + folding stock - $999

LONG ACTION (e.g. .300 win mag) Available in tan, green or black.
Stage 1.5 = Fully adjustable - $800
Stage 2 = Fully adjustable + folding stock - $999

koorbloh

^my tikka cost ~$700, with the scope, and it was guaranteed to shoot within a minute of angle.


Oly, what are you planning on using it for? Hunting? Plinking? Long range targets? Short Range targets? Competition shooting?

WarriorDriver

I like 7mm rem mag

Oly

I have heard that as well and that's what moved me more toward the .308

Oly

Probably B and C. I don;t have anything that will shoot at distance right now and it would be nice to have.

pbmw

I shot .308 in the service. I'm partial to either a model 700 Remington or a Model 70 Winchester. Accuracy will depend on how the weapon is setup, ammo, weather, and you. Buy the best optics you can afford. Do not be fooled by the bells and whistles. Buy a good, solid, scope. I am partial to Mil Dot reticals.

koorbloh

well, define distance? 100? 200? 300? 1500 yards?

also, if you are looking for a hunting rifle, you'll want a nice, light rifle, with more than enough power, as you'll be shooting it once or twice at a time.

if you are looking for a target rifle, you'll want a heavier barrel, and a heavier gun to match. Possibly even with a smaller caliber. There are lots of smaller, flat-shooting, calibers out there. This will have less recoil so you can shoot more without hurting your shoulder too much.

My .30-06 is a LIGHT gun, with a LIGHT barrel and it kicks like a MULE. Any more than 15-20 shells and I'm hurting. Your mileage may vary...

roland

i would not buy a package deal rifle plus scope, my reasoning behind it, normally the scopes that come with rifles are low end or clearance type scopes nobody buys. spend the money and get the best rifle you can and the best scope you can afford or save your money and wait until you can affored to buy a good scope you will be money ahead when you realize that what you have purchased isnt what you really wanted. and there are many good calibers of rifles out there as well as manufactures. do a little research into what you want your rifle to do and then go from there. i personally have sako, remington, savage, nef, kimber and am happy with all of them, they suit the purpose they were intended for.

koorbloh

to that!

thejrod

Another to Roland. The actual rifle doesn't matter so much (as long as it's decent quality), but the scope is what makes the package. Save up for the scope, then buy the rifle.

Everything I've read about Savages indicates they are a fantastic bargain for what you get, and have great triggers. Tikkas are very nice too - my brother-in-law has one in 300WM and loves it.

Caliber - 30-06 ammo is plentiful, and if ammo ever got really scarce, 30-06 would probably be salvagable. But .308 is also very prolific, and has way better ballistics. I'd go .308. If you want even more performance, there are several newer rounds out there too (7mm, 300winmag, 300WSSM, etc.).

knightrider

My buddy has a Rem 770 and it is a pretty good distance rifle. We were having no problems hitting 1000 yds with it. But people are absolutley right about a scope, its a very important piece when buying a rifle.

Metonymy

Another to Roland. Skip the "combo" stuff. The scopes are mostly junk.

For my .22 setup, the scope was the same price as the rifle. Crazy? Probably so. But I guarantee you that I'll never have to put another scope on it. And at 110 yards I can shoot the center out of a clay target. (I need smaller targets to practice with... lol)

Kolat

use shotgun shells and shoot at the primer.

hondakilla98

The savages are nice guns, I'd defineatly stay away from a rifle scope combo. What you buy really depends on what you can afford. I'd go with 308 or 300 win mag as they're easy to find ammo for, and they are most common for long distance shooters and snipers. Personaly i'd look for a used remington model 700 sps tactical. It comes with a good barrel, better trigger, some action bedding, a nice houge stock, and looks cool with the tactical black finish. There's one for sale at my local range with a nice leopold scope for i think 700 obo.

Pointman

I keep it simple- I bought a FR8 Mauser with a scout scope in 7.62x51mm (NATO).

"Low and Slow"

phishisgroovin

I have a spanish mauser, turkish mauser, italian carcano and an Enfield eddystone.
Military surplus rifles are fun and still fairly cheap.

Last weekend at Paul Bunyan range on saouth hill, I nailed the Gong in the tires a couple few times with them on open iron sights. now thats fun!

phishisgroovin

thats a really nice looking rifle.

SespeCanyon

I am new to this site but I can throw my two cents on the table. My first real rifle experience was 7.62 MCRD San Diego(1971). I surprised myself as well as all of the range officers. I received the series "High Shooter" award, that was with open sights... no scope. So naturally I had an instant bond. It is a well respected caliber and popular enough so ammo is readily available and reasonably priced, uh.. barely reasonable. A good friend of mine reloads many calibers so if I keep him supplied with coffee I can get a fair price I tend to lean toward distance and accuracy... duh. So, it does depend on where you want to be with your shooting, target, hunting, brush country, mountains?

SespeCanyon

Sweet

1shot

30-06 is a good gun but its also something that everyone has... I had a 7mm mag and loooved it... made a few nickel sized groups at 100 yds with that gun,shot my first deer with that gun..it was a winchester and with scope was about $500 out the door.

I sold that cause it was a bit too heavy for the hunting i did.. I just bought a savage weather gaurd or weather warriro i forget, series with the factory muzzle break and accutrigger.. also it has a $300 leupold and i couldnt be happier with it!!
Edit: it is chambered in .270 wsm :) i would look into the short mag series, 7 mm mag short and 300. swm are also verrry nice and flat shooting

also you get what you pay for..

GregM

My first rifle (that I bought) was a real cheap 30-06. Mostly because my dad had one.
An old M98 action that had been re-barreled, in a painted alder stock.
I bought it at a hock shop on 1st ave for $75 in the mid 70s
When I pulled off the price tag tape the paint came off. So I stripped the stock down and sanded off the checkering and oiled it. It still had the two stage trigger which was really awful so I took it to a gun shop and and had an adjustable trigger put in. I took off the iron sights and put on a scope. About that time I started reloading so I worked up some loads for it.
I still have it. I call it my long range terrorist gun.
If I were to do it today I would probably go for a 308 bolt action. The reason being that in these bizarre times, if there's ever an "altercation" you would have better odds of picking up nato rounds than you would 06 rounds (off the ground).
I do have the DSA in 308. I call that my medium range terrorist gun.

I looked into 7mm mag and 300 weatherby mag but decided they would be pretty uncomfortable to shoot although they sure shoot flat

WarriorDriver

7mm isnt too bad, thats what I use.

oremike

I had an old 7mm Weatherby Mag in a Mk V deluxe darned nice looking rifle and would shoot a 175 gr bullet at 3000 fps into 1 MOA groups. Ammo was 60.00 a box but I had brass to reload that makes it cheaper. I don't Elk hunt and the 7WM seemed a bit much for Deer around here. I sold it and took the money and bought a Savage Stainless Acu-Mark .270 Winchester, a Leupold 44 mm 3x9 scope and 10 boxes of Federal ammo all with the same lot number. So a good rifle and a good scope is a good thing, a good rifle and poor scope might not be a good thing.

Iansstud

308 and 30-06 are too similar... 308 is cheaper and you can find WAY more info for target/sniping/DOPE on the 308.
here is what mine can do at 100 over and over and over again!!!!


I save the 1st round out of the box in my pocket. Then after 19 rds or when Im done, I pull the 1 round out and only have one chance at a piece of brass @100yds. It makes the shot count, Its Pass/Fail

hubers454

Stevens 200 I have seen them for $289 new(walmart) my sons is a tackdriver in 308/ 270 save the magnums fo the rich guys

ecotechjosh

I have a savage bolt .308 and 30-30 and they both are tac drivers. The new savage accu trigger is pretty nifty and easy to adjust for a lighter pull (be careful not to adjust it to much lol!)

ecotechjosh

here is my savage stevens I bought last year. The scope cost more than the gun, but it's quite effective :)

Cody1877

If money is a factor I recomend any weatherby banguard with a 4200 elite

If money isnt the primary factor I recomend a Browning A-Bolt with a 6500 tactical

Either way I dont recomend a 30-06 unless your shooting 700yds or less the drop can be a bitch after that even with a sweet load.

hubers454

hehehe
I have killed 20 Plus deer with the 30-30 savage bolt action that Ecotechjosh has now, open sights and you can pop the head right off a grouse to. I paid $85 for it in the 1960s hehehehe

ecotechjosh

just because i think everyone once in their lifetime should be stuck stripping a gun and doing a full kosmoline removal, you should wait until big 5 has another sale on Mosin Nagants and pick one up for $80-90 bucks :)

Ammo is cheap, and they are suprisingly accurate.

At 350+ yards I had no problem drilling a 1'x1' target on a hillside with open sights with Svytlana's shot after shot lol. I haven't sighted mine in yet but would expect the same.

DerBarbarian

I have a 91/30 and the M44 I love them, as you pointed out they're DIRT cheap to shoot and pretty damn accurate. 440 rounds is only 80 bucks.

kippen

Yeah, At christmas time they were dirt cheap at big 5, but I just thought I'd wait and buy one. Now they're asking $160+ and I really want one now. I hope they have another sale soon!

svytlana

have loads of fun with mine. if you want you can use them to hunt deer, or you can get the steel core rounds and have fun blowing shit up at the dump. was blowing through 1 inch plate at about 300 yards last season, that was a hoot. gotta love the ring it makes when it hits too. :-)

ecotechjosh

Ya shooting Svytlana's is what lead me to buy mine hehe.

I have it and a sealed tin of ammo in my "shit hits the fan" kit. LOL.

hubers454

hehehehe fun to shoot and cheap, legal for deer too I would hate to slip and fall with a $1000 browning

koorbloh

those mosins are fun. watch big 5, they usually have something for sale for less than 100 bucks around that range.

coop44

'06 is the original sniper round, there is plenty of info out there (if you look for it) it was used as a sniper round in ww2, korea, viet nam, The cool thing about '06 is being able to shoot the heavier bullets. 308 poops out at about 300 yds energy wise.

Find a good used win model 70, or a rem 700, or an '03A3 some one has sporterized.
save up the extra bucks and start with a good platform.

heres my remington sps varmit in an h&s stock (pss) My 'yote gun in .223, sub MOA, five shots in a quarter sized group. one shot is not a group, neither does it show any consistancy.

coop44

Big five mosins are crap find some one with a c&r, or get one yourself. Order one from the newest batch of imports, they are tending to be better rearsenalled ones than any previous ones.