New "Bargin" rifles"

[FLHTC]

Future thread.

Date 2025.

I remember when quality rifles were made out of excellent materials.

The barrels were solid steel, not an insert wrapped by carbon fiber.

The stocks were handcrafted on CNC and molded, not pressed out of waterproof cardboard.

The trigger groups were made from steel and springs, not an electronic release.

Scopes were made of glass and aluminum, not little tiny television monitors.

Price points at under $500, instead of the ridiculous prices charged now.

Where have all the quality firearms gone like the ones made in the mid 20 teens.

Ahh for the good old days.

762

i don't know which firearms you are referring to that has pressed cardboard for stock, TV monitors, electronic releases and carbon fiber barrels with metallic inserts so feel free to point those out. The Ruger American, which is the one I'm ordering is great with the fit and plane Jane with the finish. However pretty rifles are and were, looks don't make them do what they are designed to do. I don't worry about looks as much as I look at accuracy and function.
Those who make the rifles we shoot still have to drive the $40,000 pick-up, pay at the pump like we do and buy the food that we eat. The employee is the most expensive commodity since they never produce the same amount of work from day to day. That has changed the consumer product more than anything in history.

[Rustyleee]

As I mentioned in another post I just purchased a new Ruger 77 Hawkeye. As I get older I would rather have a nice piece of wood than less expensive plastic.

[Rick Hodges]

I own two "old" price point rifles...left handed 788 Remington's, a 308 and a 6mm Rem. I have restocked them over the years. They have lasted well over 40 years and have performed very well. Neither are for sale. I would bet some of the new ones will perform just as well.

[762 shooter]

i don't know which firearms you are referring to that has pressed cardboard for stock, TV monitors, electronic releases and carbon fiber barrels with metallic inserts so feel free to point those out. The Ruger American, which is the one I'm ordering is great with the fit and plane Jane with the finish. However pretty rifles are and were, looks don't make them do what they are designed to do. I don't worry about looks as much as I look at accuracy and function.
Those who make the rifles we shoot still have to drive the $40,000 pick-up, pay at the pump like we do and buy the food that we eat. The employee is the most expensive commodity since they never produce the same amount of work from day to day. That has changed the consumer product more than anything in history.

An attempt at wit through a thread written in the future. I think we are in Golden Age of reasonably priced, accurate rifles.

762

[owejia]

That is what makes this country so great, all the different choices we have. Buy what you want,enjoy and use it.

[vmathias]

As I mentioned in another post I just purchased a new Ruger 77 Hawkeye. As I get older I would rather have a nice piece of wood than less expensive plastic.

This can easily be fixed by buying a price point rifle and then throwing on a Boyds stock.

[pietro]

i don't know which firearms you are referring to that has pressed cardboard for stock, TV monitors, electronic releases and carbon fiber barrels with metallic inserts so feel free to point those out. The Ruger American, which is the one I'm ordering is great with the fit and plane Jane with the finish. However pretty rifles are and were, looks don't make them do what they are designed to do. I don't worry about looks as much as I look at accuracy and function.
Those who make the rifles we shoot still have to drive the $40,000 pick-up, pay at the pump like we do and buy the food that we eat. The employee is the most expensive commodity since they never produce the same amount of work from day to day. That has changed the consumer product more than anything in history.

Welcome to the future............................. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/...he-real-world/









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[FLHTC]

Maybe yours but not mine

[Uncle Grinch]

Gee, I guess I'm too old fashioned (read old) as these new bargin rifles are not for me. I'm sure plenty of people buy them and shoot them, even accurately for the most part. But, there is just something about them that doesn't set with me. I'll keep my opinions about them to myself.

My idea of a bargin rifle is often found at the pawn shop or gun show and usually is an older rifle or even a sporterized Mauser

[largom]

Gee, I guess I'm too old fashioned (read old) as these new bargin rifles are not for me. I'm sure plenty of people buy them and shoot them, even accurately for the most part. But, there is just something about them that doesn't set with me. I'll keep my opinions about them to myself.

My idea of a bargin rifle is often found at the pawn shop or gun show and usually is an older rifle or even a sporterized Mauser

Like Mike, I don't relate to these newer guns. I like old steel and real wood. If I want it to be pretty then I can do that myself. Means more that way.

Larry

[Pinsnscrews]

I buy the price point guns so if I break something trying to learn gun smithing on them, it won't break the bank to fix it. Right now, I am working on stockmaking. i will be using a brand new Ruger American Predator in .308.

my Axis that was in .308 taught me how to polish and stone a trigger. Then it taught me how to turn a tupperware stock into something nice and rigid, and what it takes to bed an action. I sold it for a Savage 111, which cost me 3x what I paid for the Axis, and couldn't shoot to save it's life. Bad barrel from the factory.

So I sold the 111 and used the money for the Ruger and a good plank of walnut, some carving tools and a new bedding kit...

[Maineboy]

I've bought plenty of guns over the last 45 years but only 2, a Marlin 1895 and a Ruger American Rimfire were bought new. My next purchase will probably be an all weather rifle in 308 or 30-06 and if I can't find a good used one, it will probably be a "bargain" model.

[dragon813gt]

As I mentioned in another post I just purchased a new Ruger 77 Hawkeye. As I get older I would rather have a nice piece of wood than less expensive plastic.

That's funny. My Hawkeye is matte stainless w/ a synthetic stock. And I bought it that way intentionally. It's my bad weather rifle and sees heavy use. Little less worry about it compared to a blued and wood stocked rifle.

I'm on the younger side. Don't lump all of us into the plastic gun crowd. There are plenty of us that appreciate blued steel and a fine piece of wood. Any firearm that gets someone shooting is a good one.

[Love Life]

I think it is good that these rifles are hitting the market. They allow people to get a gun, shoot, and possibly hunt for a pretty low price.

As for synthetics, I have some fiberglass stocks that are fantastic. The synthetic on the bargain guns are the cheapest the company can get away with.

Same for the Remington 700. I buy the Rem 700 at Walmart after hunting season when they are $349.00, just so I can tear it apart foe the action.

To the OP- I know a few people who are happy with what they purchased.

[vmathias]

I have been reading that the Marlin XL7 is a very good rifle for its price. Accuracy is excellent and quality is very good. Throw on a Boyds stock for an extra hundred and ya have a pretty nice rifle. Thinking of throwing the Hunter green laminate on my Ruger American. I will take the advice here and start looking at the higher quality used racks. Not a big fan of buying used guns though. You dont know if the gun had 10 or 10,000 rounds put through it.

[hpdrifter]

You dont know if the gun had 10 or 10,000 rounds put through it.

If you can't tell..........................

[vmathias]

If you can't tell..........................

Haha, You have a point there...

[kfarm]

Now days when I go into a gun shop I only look at the used rack. I'm not a fan of plastic stocks, that said my hunting rifles are in some sort of weather proof stocks. But as you know the gun writers only write and recommend high dollar rifles. Buy what you can afford and shoot it.

[Three44s]

Hmm,

I like my wood and blued steel guns so much ......... that I also buy a bargain rifle or two now and then to drag all over the ranch for day to day chores.

Those nice rifles stay nice longer ....... and the messy business of growing the nation's food gets done.

As far as the Ruger American goes, I have a compact in .223 ........ it's a great little hole puncher ......... my current favorite work rifle.

I also have a Marlin XL7 in .25-06 ........ drilled a coyote directly facing me at 435 yds last spring. I could not catch him broadside to save my soul ......... gave him the business anyway. The Marlins can shoot ........ trust me!

I kind of remember the Remington 788 as the red headed step child of it's day ........

........... NOW, it's a classic ...... go figure!

I have a .22-250 in that with a barrel that finnaly went south ....... it wears a Canjar single set trigger and was drug all over our ranch for about a dozen years and took coyotes a plenty until it wore out.

I gotta get that one rebarreled someday!

Three 44s

[Echd]

I don't have any interest in a Marlin XL7, Ruger American, Axis, or whatever, but besides a few absolutely terrible entries (like the plastic receiver'd 710...) I'd imagine these guns shoot better than the vast majority of shooters under anything other than perfect bench conditions, and I would emphatically state that they surpass the common man's rifle of 40 years ago in everything other than artistic merit.

New(er) ideas like barrel nuts on Savages and Remages make rebarreling a cinch, and cheap and easy, with no negatives towards accuracy...

Plastic stocks with aluminum inserts remove the need to bed many newer stocks, such as on the Savage accustock...

Every manufacturer has come out with their own adjustable trigger mech since the accutrigger turned the market on its head. I've heard plenty of people lament the commercial rifles pre-accutrigger, as being inferior to the rifles of yesteryear, but nowadays most manufacturer's triggers will beat any bone stock trigger on a 1950s-70s vintage gun (not counting tuned or replaced mechanisms of course)

Personally I see Savage as being the driving force for this shift in the industry, and I can't complain. I don't buy the lower end models of anything if I can help it, but there's no doubt that they seized on economy minded features, and turned them into performance enhancers, and made a lot of money as a result.

About the only "ugly" I see on these price point guns are ugly, ugly plastic stocks. And even then, those rigid, ugly, weather-insensitive, ugly, wear resistant, ugly stocks are more functional than a wood stock.

The beautiful and old-school rifles are still out there, and adjusted for inflation more affordable than ever. I'm probably a good deal younger than most of the crowd here and I put a lot of lead through synthetic stocked and scoped "tactical" rifles but I don't understand why the existence of these bargain guns is something to be derided or disliked. Their existence does not damage the rifles you like, and they can only serve to get more guns into the hands of new shooters, the less wealthy, and so on. We should be glad they exist, and after shooters are familiar with them we should encourage them to move "up" or even just work to upgrade what they have.

My favorite rifles are ARs and leverguns, but my knockaround gun is one of the first centerfires my dad bought me as a kid... a little single shot short barreled .243 braztech (pretty much a rossi). The thing is worth $150 on a good day, but it still shoots lights out.