I'm looking for a sporting weight rifle, it will be used for shooting cast boolits off the bench and in walk around plinking. Probably it will be used for hunting too, maybe with cast and maybe with jacketed. Being able to just walk in and buy ammo at Wal-Mart or Academy is desirable. I want a gun that isn't bothered by rain, no stock swelling, etc so this probably means synthetic stock.
Caliber: I'm thinking .308 because that's what I'm used to and because it works. I also load cast for 30-06. Does .308 have an accuracy advantage over 30-06? Don't know if the smaller calibers, 7-08 and such work well with cast, anybody know? I have 309-120R, 312-185R, 312-155 molds and have a 314299 ordered from the group buy so .30 molds and dies are already taken care of.
Marlin's XS-7 looks good but some posts say they have very long throats in .30 and 7mm calibers. This can't be good for accuracy.
Steven's model 200 is a Savage, it's trigger can be worked on with a lighter spring and some smoothing. Don't know about the throat length but everybody says they shoot very well so it probably is OK. There's lots of stuff available for these rifles too.
Mossberg ATR, there have been some posts indicating there are problems with these.
Remington 788, very accurate, very fast lock time, bolt handle might come off but they have a wood stock and I wouldn't want that in the rain. Still, these are excellent rifles, very stiff, nice barrel weight, OK trigger.
Older Savage 110, probably in 30-06, probably wood stock and people are asking a lot more for them than a new Stevens 200 sells for. Trigger work is fairly easy on the older 110's from what I read.
So, what do you think? Right now I'm thinking Stevens 200 in .308 or Remington 788 in .308.
Any and all advice and comments are welcome and will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Mike S