That's truly an interesting question. If you look at Winchester (XPR), Ruger (American), Savage (Axis/Stevens) and Remington (783), they'll all are budget offerings. All of these offering seems to borrow traits from one another with the Savage Stevens starting the trend. The 'fire seems to like to tinker with the cheaper models (including me) even though we have more expensive (is it better?) stuff to play with.
What makes the question even more interesting is that it seems like all of these budget offerings shoot excellent to a point where they might shoot better than their more expensive siblings.
With that said, I think we are seeing a trend where hunters/shooters want performance above costs and these models will become the new norm for all manufacturers as they are modular and cheap to produce.
The market is in budget, high end. or black guns. Went to the local Scheels store the other day. They have maybe dozen new rifles in the majors' flagship rifles (maybe three R77s, three W70, handful of R700). All other guns were Tikka, RAR,Axis, etc. They actually have more new Kimbers and Coopers than they do 77s, 70s, and 700s combined. Big cabinet of ARs. Where the market goes, the merchants will follow.
Kaiser Norton
