Vanguard or Howa. The savages shoot but I hate the saftey
I hate the whole damned thing. But they shoot!
Look for a good condition used rifle of most any brand. It will likely work well with a little tweaking. Or possibly without. Do NOT buy a Remington 788?? (I have one and can't even remember the designation - probably some form of denial thing....) Walmart/Cabelas/ etc special package rifle. POS.
I have exactly one BG rifle that cost me- used- over $300 - and none over $400 - and I got that Ruger .338 with dies and various reload ammo. It just needed a little tweaking - trigger job and more importantly, glass-bedding and free-float. Terrible fore-end pressure!
With trigger jobs and glass-bedding (by myself), all of my rifles (M98, Ru77, Rem 700/725, Win '94) shoot 1.25 MOA for 3 shot groups. Or less- some far less.
Disregard the TC/BP Hawkin and Seneca- them things have a compromise 1/48 twist and will only shoot 6" group.... no matter what one does - goes to show you what compromises do. Why they still market 1/48 twists for BP rifles is beyond me.
