I can't believe how good the "Inexpensive Rifles" are nowadays !

[wingspar]

Is that a bell and carlson stock ? Looks Nice !

Yes. It is the Bell & Carlson Medalist/Varment stock.

[Love Life]

I just picked up a Howa 1500 in 308 Win 20 heavy barrel. this one came tricked out w/Hogue over mold pillar embedded stock, a scope, Buffalo tilting bipod and the detachable mag upgrade. The whole gun and scope was dipped in Kryptek Typhoon. $750.00 for the whole shabang. these things are supposed to shoot sub MOA out of the box. I thought the fit, finish was excellent. was looking for a Savage but I think these Howas are comparable shooters AND good looking!

Tom Eardley won a 1,000 yd F-class match at Palamino Valley Gun Club with a bone stock Howa 1500 using a USO scope, and 175 gr SMK bullets.

[Wolfer]

Like many here I like wood and steel. I like my guns to have soul. Mausers, old Marlins, old Remington's etc.
When I decided to start prairie dog hunting I needed a rifle. Not sure that I would like it I bought a Savage 111 in 223 with the black plastic stock. $316 out the door. ( this has been a long time ago.)
I was impressed by the way it shot but hated the plastic stock and factory trigger. This was before accutrigger.
First I put in a sharpshooter trigger. A year or so later I had Fred Wenig turn me a laminated stock for it.
Cut the stock to fit me and now the gun had soul. At least to me anyway. Lots of prairie dogs later the old barrel gave out and was replaced with a Shaw.

All that's left of the original gun is the bolt, action and mag well. Topped with a 5x15 Bausch & Lomb and a Harris bipod I now have $1250.00 in it.

Being a poor boy I like these cheap rifles because I can build them as I want when I can afford it but use them in the meantime.

[rsrocket1]

^^^ Wow, that's a big prairie "dog"!

Very classy looking gun there.

[Wolfer]

We grow em big here in Missouri.
Actually that was the first picture of the rifle I came across.

[northmn]

I had an old Savage 110 in 243, factory trigger white wood stock stained. The darn thing would practically one hole varmit loads using the lighter bullets. It was just the inexpensive sporter and I traded it off as I was doing a lot of that back then. The old Savages would shoot, but many only had one action length suitable for 30-06 class cartridges. Had one in a 223 with a heavy barrel that had a spacer in the magazine to take the shorter cartridge in the longer action.
Kind of like Wolfers comment about using the less expensive rifles and fixing them up while getting the use out of them. That Savage 223 gave me fits until I figured out that the inexpensive Bushnell scope was not holding zero. When I tried another scope it shot very well. The rifle actually deserved a much higher grade of scope than I ever put on it as it was that accurate. I wonder how many of these inexpensive rifles get put down because of the inexpensive scopes that they seem to get paired with. Although the scopes have also come a long way since then.

DEP

[nicodiesel]

i got a savage left hand 116 in 300 win mag that was a custom order from savage for less than 1000$ canadian wich really considering us/ca exchange realy high. tried it at range with regular winchester grey box and shooting under 1" at 100 yards. i own pricy rifles that dont do that good even with fine tuned reload.

[Wolfer]

When I was looking to buy a 223 I had pretty much decided on a Ruger 77. My buddy the had an FFL said he could get me a Savage $100 cheaper and it would outshoot the Ruger. I had my doubts but when talking to Carrol Pilant at Sierra bullets he said the same thing.
I can't say since I never bought the Ruger but I would think it would have a hard time against a Savage.

The out of the box Ruger was a classy rifle though. The Savage was not.
How is it they say. Pretty is as pretty does!

[wonderwolf]

When I was looking to buy a 223 I had pretty much decided on a Ruger 77. My buddy the had an FFL said he could get me a Savage $100 cheaper and it would outshoot the Ruger. I had my doubts but when talking to Carrol Pilant at Sierra bullets he said the same thing.
I can't say since I never bought the Ruger but I would think it would have a hard time against a Savage.

The out of the box Ruger was a classy rifle though. The Savage was not.
How is it they say. Pretty is as pretty does!

Rugers with the exception of their new precision have had a tough time in the consistently accurate department I've found. The savage rifles are easier to work on and play around with to boot, would like to find some take off barrels in different calibers for my axis still....35 whelen (evil laugh)

[izzyjoe]

My wife bought me savage axis 223 for Christmas last year, man that thing shoots like a lazer, the stock has to go though,I'm not found of plastic, it has no soul!

[54bore]

I almost bought the Ruger American predator rifle in 6.5 creedmoor for my wife, I have no hands on experience with them but have read lots of great reviews, my favorite of the budget rifles is the weatherby vanguard S2, I had one in .257 weatherby that shot dime size groups at 100 yards every time if I did my part, it was a little bit much for my wife so I ended up selling it to a friend and then bought the exact same rifle except in 7MM-08, this new little rifle shoots just as good as the .257 did. There's a lot of stiff competition between the gun companies these days to produce a good solid gun at an affordable price, I like it!! Yes the high end fancy guns are really nice, but not everyone can afford 1000 and UP UP UP on such guns, I have a Remington 700 XCR 7Mag that I really like but I don't think it's any better than this S2 Vanguard

[W.R.Buchanan]

54 bore: and that's the point. The level of accuracy available is attributable to two different components, Better Bullets and Better Barrels. The rest of the gun has much less to do with the end result on the target in front of you.

I personally think that bullets are the larger contributor to the equation as they have advanced more in the last 20 years than barrels have. They have been making good barrels for along time, but I can't explain how the cheapest bullets available still go into <1MOA from my Ruger Scout, other than to say it's barrel is exceptional. However what I continue to hear is that they all are exceptional so the barrels must be contributing greatly.

The rest of these guns is more about advancements in Manufacturing Techniques and simple designs. Plastic Molded stocks instead of wood is another factor in their favor. They don't cost as much or take as much time to make but they have an excellent effect on accuracy since they don't move around like wood does.

The above point made that more people can afford to buy these new guns is where this whole discussion leads us. This gets more people involved with guns and that's a good thing. Now if we could just get every gun manufacturer to include a NRA membership with every gun sold we'd soon have 10 million people in the NRA and that's what we really need!

Randy

[Yodogsandman]

A few weeks ago, I got a demo Remington model 793 in a 270 win for $169.99, out the door. I added a Bushnel 3-12x50 scope and mounts bringing my total to $230. This is my first group with V-Max bullets.

[Jtarm]

Yeah I get tickled when I hear the old "don't make em like they used to" saw.

You can walk into a big box & out with an HP rifle & factory ammo capable of putting three in one inch at 100 yards (assuming good optics & shooting.)

I paid $300 new for my Ruger M-77 in 1984. That would be close to $1,000 today. I had to glass/float & work up good loads to get one-MOA groups.

It's a good time to be a bolt-action rifle shooter.

I guess the grouches are right: they don't make em like they used to. Many are a lot better.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Yes guys, Time marches on and what was new yesterday has gone by the wayside tomorrow.

The advances in machine tools has a lot to do with this situation.

As fabrication techniques continue to automate the prices have got to come down even more simply because the greatest expense in the manufacturing chain is Man Power. and when you eliminate those men your product gets better and your labor costs go down.

I learned very early on in my machine shop career that the less human hands touched a part the better it turned out. Simple fact of life.

Art Work is what Hand Work is called now,,, but Production Work is NOT Art Work.

Production Work is work done to feed the masses. IE: Henry Ford

Production Work is done for utilitarian purposes.

You can have a Hand Made Claw Hammer that is a work of art, but what you probably need, is a cheap well made claw hammer you can actually use everyday to make a living, and if it breaks you can get another one easily.

Snap On used to make the best tools out there. They were essentially Art Work.

Now they are made in China!

So much for Art Work.

Randy

[Four Fingers of Death]

Speaking of cheap, modern rifles, I bought a 222 Remington Marlin X7 today. It will be run in on jacketed bullets then will be a cast boolit rifle. It will replace my Remington 788 in 222, which is in excellent condition, but I like to carry the rifle on the sling afield and don't want to risk losing the bolt and mags are all but impossible to obtain here. I have a friend offering me more for the 788 than the X7 costs, so it is a no brainer for me.

[mjwcaster]

People also have so many more choices than blued and wood.
The cerakoting craze is in full swing.
The shop I work at does a lot of it, just delivered an AR in black and dark silver the other day that was the best looking ar I have ever seen.
We are working on bringing in a line of 1911's in the white to be custom finished in the customers choice of colors.
The market for beautiful blued guns is drying up, there is a beautiful Turnbull 1911 on consignment in the shop that doesn't even get a second look by customers, they will buy something else and drop the money to have it done in they're own color choice.

So many choices the wife got overwhelmed trying to pick colors for her new shield.
Guns are getting customized all the time, just in different ways than they used to.

Just look at what is available in colors now, looked at lcp's the other day, must be 20 colors offered by the factory now.
Same with many other guns.

My plan is to get a few savages and eventually restock them how I want, not what the factory thinks I should have.

[wadcutter]

Which of the modern cheap-but-good rifles comes with a wood stock? Laminated is ok.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Custom work is definitely an option and when you are only spending $3-400 on the initial purchase, there is a lot of room in most budgets for extras that enhance the appearance and functionality of the gun.

I saw one last night that I was not aware of, it was a Thompson Center Bolt Action similar to the Ruger American Rifle for a MSRP of $399. That's easily below $325-350 at street level. Guaranteed sub MOA with their ammo and available in both short and long actions in all the popular Hunting calibers.

Lots of room for a new paintjob on that one.

I just bought a new Ruger 10/22 collectors series. It has a Gray Composite Stock which may or may not stay that way. I would prefer a darker gray or possibly a dark OD green camo job.

I have also been looking at a Ruger 77/44 and the choices are SS with Black stock or Camo with SS. I don't really want either and would gravitate towards Black metal with a Dark OD Green Stock. Cera-Kote is not that hard to do at home as long as you can come up with a suitable sized oven to bake the stuff in. It is the best gun coating I have ever seen and comes in every color of the Rainbow. They are using it on Cars and Engines now, saw it at SEMA. Believe me,,, Once it is on there,,,, it's on there!

These new guns are opening up lots of new possibilities, and I just love "Customizing stuff!"

Randy

[charlie b]

What a great topic. Why don't 'they' make $500 heirloom guns? Because people will pay way over $1000 for one. 99% of us who buy guns want accurate tools to use, yes, like Henry Ford's production line. The same reason I drive a diesel pickup. It is a tool, not an exotic sports car, and priced that way. I don't want a fancy walnut stock or a polished deep blue finish that I have to worry about when taking it in the field. Plastic and brushed stainless work for me.

If I want an heirloom gun I will go to a maker and select stock material and have them fit it to an action and barrel of my choosing. Meanwhile I will keep my father-in-law's M1 Garand, my grandfather's 1911 (not 1911A1), and my father's Python where they won't get damaged. Yes, they get fired all the time, but, not out in the woods. And they will be handed down to the next generation who will care for them the same. Hunting guns? Nope.

Having said that, my last purchase was a nice Lyman Great Plains Hunter muzzle loader. Beautiful stock and metal. No, not polished, it is still a field gun

I am happy as a pig in s*** that we can get these inexpensive rifles that shoot so well. I will probably buy another one in the near future.