Posted: 11/2/2011 5:16:30 PM EDT
| Alright so just about right after this years Deer season ill have about 800 or so bucks saved up that id like to invest in a bolt gun primarily for hunting. Ive settled on the .308 and was wondering if i should buy one of those Savage combo guns? Or what gun and glass would you reccommend for about an 800 dollar total? I know the scope is a huge part, but should i focus on the gun, throw a cheap scope on there and upgrade it later? |
|
You can get a Savage 111 for about $400 or so. It comes with a cheap Bushnell scope already mounted. Detachable mag, nice bluing, soft recoil pad, accurate....it's a good deal.
http://www.cabelas.com/product/Shooting/Centerfire-Rifles/Bolt-Action|/pc/104792580/c/105522480/sc/105523380/Savage174-Bolt-Action-Centerfire-Rifles/728570.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse%2Fshooting-centerfire-rifles-bolt-action%2F_%2FN-1102332%2FNs-CATEGORY_SEQ_105523380%3FWTz_l%3DSBC%253BMMcat104792580%253Bcat105522480&WTz_l=SBC%3BMMcat104792580%3Bcat105522480%3Bcat105523380 |
|
I'd put more money into the scope then the rifle.
A low end savage.110, remington 700, Mossberg 100 atr, or marlin 7 will throw bullets just fine for hitting deer, but you have to be able to see them to hit them. The new redfields are a nice scope. Made by leopold in America. |
|
Savage
Model 11 FCNS 17826 308 WIN 1 in 10" 22" 6.9 lbs 4 round box mag $675.00 I have a couple of their rifles and I am very satisfied with them. Every time I read an article about Savage or talk to a person who owns one I hear the same two things. 1 Great rifle. 2 Best rifle for the money spent. This rifle has the accutrigger and accustock! Scopes... Buy cheep now; upgrade later if it ever fails you (It won't I have this one) Midway Nikon ProStaff Rifle Scope 3-9x 40mm BDC Reticle Matte Product #: 175710 Status: Out of Stock, Backorder OK $169.95 $149.95 Save $20.00 |
|
Get the Savage, for $400, and spend another $400 on the Zeiss Conquest 3x9 Zeiss Conquest
Since Zeiss announced their special pricing(meant to entice more people in purchasing) on their 3x9 Conquest I've been slowly replacing my current scopes |
|
Stay away from package guns.
Buy used for the best deal. DO NOT GO CHEAP on base/rings. Having said that, I am not saying you need to drop $300 for Badger Ord mounts, but you should plan on budgeting $50 or so towards this. Buy as good of a scope as you can afford, but get the rifle you want now. I would highly encourage you to look for a used Remington 700. If you can pick one up in the $450 or so range, you would be doing great and you always have a receiver that is worth close to that much should you ever decide to build up a rifle in the future. (Please forgive me, I am a Remington snob; however, there are MANY other great options available. I would not hesitate to buy a Savage if you like it.) Doing it up like this, it will leave you about $300 to spend on a scope. You can't go wrong with a Leupold VX-II in that price range. There are other options, but that is one helluva scope with a lifetime warranty. |
| I am a big fan of Remington 700's. With that said, this weekend I took out my brand new Savage 7mm 08 purchased at Academy for $179.00. I scoped it with a Burris 3x9 for $250. After trying 4 different loads, one of those being factory and the other three hand loads I got easy half inch groups at a 100 yards. Nosler bullistic tips, Winchester brass, and Winchester 760 powder. |
|
Quoted:
Alright so just about right after this years Deer season ill have about 800 or so bucks saved up that id like to invest in a bolt gun primarily for hunting. Ive settled on the .308 and was wondering if i should buy one of those Savage combo guns? Or what gun and glass would you reccommend for about an 800 dollar total? I know the scope is a huge part, but should i focus on the gun, throw a cheap scope on there and upgrade it later? You won't go wrong with either a Remington 700 ADL or Marlin XS-7 topped off with a Leupold Rifleman scope. A Savage would do just as nice... All can be had for well under $800. |
|
If Tikka is half as good as a Sako buy it.
Also for what its worth; a scope is completely optional. Iron is good to 500 yds and most deer hunting is under 150 yds. Typical Marine can hit 10 out of 10 in a 9 inch circle in 70 seconds with a mag change at 200 yds. So yes a scope is very much optional for deer hunting, please don't spend $600 on a scope. |
|
I'm a big Savage fan here. I own a couple. Savage makes a dman fine deer rifle in my opinion. They have a reputation for accuracy, the accu trigger kicks ass, and best of all, you can get a lot of gun for your money. If you go savage, don't buy a combo. Get a scope seperately. The old adage about spending as much on your scope as you did on your rifle doesn't hold true any more in my opinion. There are a lot of perfectly good scopes out there in the $150 to $250 range. Optics are a lot better and more reliable now then they were just 10 or 20 years ago. I've had great luck with Nikon scopes. The buckmaster line is a good scope. You should be able to get yourself a savage 308 and a buckmaster 3-9X40 pretty easily within your budget.
I'll throw out another suggestion though. If your going to get hte gun right after the season ends that measn you'll have nearly a year to save up for a scope so maybe you can afford to spend a little more on a rifle. If that's the case look at a model 70. I'm a big fan of savage, but I'm a huge fan of the model 70. I just ordered my second last week. I have a stainless synthetic model 70 classic thats about 10 years old that has been a great gun. I just ordered a model 70 featherweight in .308. For my money there is not a finer off the rack bolt action then the model 70 and the featherweight in paricular is just a beautiful gun. I just paid $716 out the door for mine at budsgunshop.com. The long actions were just a fuzz under $700. In my opinion, given the quality of the new Columbia SC made model 70 thats a whole lot of gun for the money. Incredibly reliable action, the best safety available on a bolt gun and the MOA triggers that I fealt were realy nice. Adrock1 |
|
Quoted:
I'm a big Savage fan here. I own a couple. Savage makes a dman fine deer rifle in my opinion. They have a reputation for accuracy, the accu trigger kicks ass, and best of all, you can get a lot of gun for your money. If you go savage, don't buy a combo. Get a scope seperately. The old adage about spending as much on your scope as you did on your rifle doesn't hold true any more in my opinion. There are a lot of perfectly good scopes out there in the $150 to $250 range. Optics are a lot better and more reliable now then they were just 10 or 20 years ago. I've had great luck with Nikon scopes. The buckmaster line is a good scope. You should be able to get yourself a savage 308 and a buckmaster 3-9X40 pretty easily within your budget. I'll throw out another suggestion though. If your going to get hte gun right after the season ends that measn you'll have nearly a year to save up for a scope so maybe you can afford to spend a little more on a rifle. If that's the case look at a model 70. I'm a big fan of savage, but I'm a huge fan of the model 70. I just ordered my second last week. I have a stainless synthetic model 70 classic thats about 10 years old that has been a great gun. I just ordered a model 70 featherweight in .308. For my money there is not a finer off the rack bolt action then the model 70 and the featherweight in paricular is just a beautiful gun. I just paid $716 out the door for mine at budsgunshop.com. The long actions were just a fuzz under $700. In my opinion, given the quality of the new Columbia SC made model 70 thats a whole lot of gun for the money. Incredibly reliable action, the best safety available on a bolt gun and the MOA triggers that I fealt were realy nice. Adrock1 I thought the Model 70s werent what they used to be? Are they still in the running? I was thinking of spending a little more for a Tikka T3, read good things, and yea i agree since ill have plenty of time before next years season i could buy a little more expensive. |
|
You should buy good glass... but a Burris Fullfield or Leupold VX-II in the $300 range is all you need. Mount it correctly on a half decent rifle and spend the rest on ammo to practice. Blow through a battlepack of surplus .308 over a few weekends getting comfortable, then re-zero with your expensive hunting ammo. My go-to hunting rifle setup ran me about $600. I have nicer rifles, but this one's never let me down. |
 I recently purchased a Remington 700 SPS Tactical .308 with a 20in barrel. Since I hunt deep woods the scope is a used Redfield 1.75x5x30. Warne steel rings and steel 2 piece base together total $800. I sold the original all black hogue stock and bought a gillie green hogue stock. The rifle is a hunting rifle and is sub-moa in it's current form. I was very tempted to purchase a Browning xBolt .270 WSM, but the Remington got the purchase because of it's short barrel. With Hornady Superformance ammo, the 150g SST exits the 20" barrel at 2940 fps.
|
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
I'm a big Savage fan here. I own a couple. Savage makes a dman fine deer rifle in my opinion. They have a reputation for accuracy, the accu trigger kicks ass, and best of all, you can get a lot of gun for your money. If you go savage, don't buy a combo. Get a scope seperately. The old adage about spending as much on your scope as you did on your rifle doesn't hold true any more in my opinion. There are a lot of perfectly good scopes out there in the $150 to $250 range. Optics are a lot better and more reliable now then they were just 10 or 20 years ago. I've had great luck with Nikon scopes. The buckmaster line is a good scope. You should be able to get yourself a savage 308 and a buckmaster 3-9X40 pretty easily within your budget. I'll throw out another suggestion though. If your going to get hte gun right after the season ends that measn you'll have nearly a year to save up for a scope so maybe you can afford to spend a little more on a rifle. If that's the case look at a model 70. I'm a big fan of savage, but I'm a huge fan of the model 70. I just ordered my second last week. I have a stainless synthetic model 70 classic thats about 10 years old that has been a great gun. I just ordered a model 70 featherweight in .308. For my money there is not a finer off the rack bolt action then the model 70 and the featherweight in paricular is just a beautiful gun. I just paid $716 out the door for mine at budsgunshop.com. The long actions were just a fuzz under $700. In my opinion, given the quality of the new Columbia SC made model 70 thats a whole lot of gun for the money. Incredibly reliable action, the best safety available on a bolt gun and the MOA triggers that I fealt were realy nice. Adrock1 I thought the Model 70s werent what they used to be? Are they still in the running? I was thinking of spending a little more for a Tikka T3, read good things, and yea i agree since ill have plenty of time before next years season i could buy a little more expensive. To the contrary, the new model 70s are probably better then they have ever been. I'm not an expert on them but I can give you the cliffs notes on the model 70. You basically have the pre-64 models which is where the 70 earned it's rep. Damn fine rifles. Thats where they earned the nick name the riflemans rifle. After '64 the redesigned the action. Went to a simpler less costly to produce push feed design more like the rem 700 then the mauser style controlled feed. Everybody got all wrapped around the axle becasue they went and screwed with a really good thing. Truth is, the push feed 70s were good guns too, they just weren't the original any more. In the '90s they came back out with the model 70 classic. This was basically the reintroduction of the pre-64 action. My first model 70 was one of these and thats what made me a fan of the rifle. Several years ago Winchester closed the plant up in New Haven and discontinued the model 70 (among other models). A couple years later they started making them again in the FN plant is Columbia SC. I just got mine the other day and couldn't be happier. The new version had excelent fit and finish, pretty nice wood for an off the shelf standard model, the trigger kicks ass, the action is butter smooth, oh, and it shot tiny little groups with the first box of off the shelf hunting ammo I put through it. FN makes an accurate barrel. THe barrels are floated. THe stocks are glass bedded from the factory, and as I said the trigger was just perfect from factory. Light and crisp at probably four pounds at the most. The model 70 is dead reliable, pretty damn accurate, has the best (safest) safety you'll find on a bolt action. Whats not to like. Get the plain jane wood stocked sporter if your on a budget. Go for the featherweight if you want a realy pretty gun. For a strictly utilitarian gun get the stainless synthetic version. They now come in a nice sturdy fiberglass stock instead of the injection molded plastic types that come on most guns from the factory. THe fluted barrels are nice on the stainless synthetcis as well. Bit pricier though. Adrock1 |