Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters A little (hopefully) constructive criticism

Remember when you were 16 and a new car was out of the question? You dreamed of owning something cool, but funds wouldn't permit. You probably knew a lot about automobiles generally, and vowed that one day you would own your personal fave. For me, it was a 1965 Mustang. I never got that car, but bought my fair share of VW bugs.



Rifles are a lot like that. People dream of owning a Sako, Kimber or custom rifle, but cannot afford one. They continue to dream, and there's nothing wrong with that! In the meantime, they buy less expensive firearms. You just gotta shoot!

I have always referred to Stevens 200, Axises (Axes?), RARs, etc. as utility rifles. They are the jeeps (or VWs) of the rifle world. Not the best at anything, but fun to play with. You can shoot them as is, tinker with and add to them as funds allow. It's part of the learning curve. (I like building my own rifles using inexpensive Savage actions.)

How do you discover that an inexpensive rifle with a Simmons scope probably won't do well at 600 yds? Well, if there's real estate available, you can try shooting targets with your Walmart prefab rig. There's nothing wrong with that! Any trigger time is good time.

Will that rifle be able to hit a 600 yard target with a cheapy Simmons 3x9 and factory loads? Probably, but the odds are against it. The scope is likely to fail, or not adjust properly. For dependability, you gotta buy quality optics. The trigger will need work. The stock probably won't fit...etc.

The biggest reason though is that most buyers of inexpensive rifles lack the skills necessary to reach out that far. It comes with instruction and practice. But if you don't practice - even with an old milsurp or budget priced cheapy - you'll never improve.

Then there's the group that just wants to hunt once or twice a year. They don't see a need to spend a lot of money on a deer rifle, and they are absolutely right! If they catch the bug, they'll upgrade or fix up what they have. It's all good.