Some interesting comments above. I'm not defending my purchase of an A7, but rather I am musing about what exactly is wrong with it's concept.
New Blued Tikka's with glass stock sell from around $550. give or take $25.
New Stainless Tikka's are around $650. give or take.
New Sako 85's run $1200. and up, and up.
Used 75's are around $950. to $1050 or so.
Blued A7's $750. SS one's $850. or so.
So A7's are more expensive than their Tikka counterparts by $200. and less expensive than used Sako 75's by about the same amount. So are the A7's too cheap or too expensive.
The 75, even used, is a better gun for sure, and it is priced that way. The 85 is better yet and is priced as such. Is the A7 "better" than the Tikka? I don't know yet, but I do prefer a short action, rather than Tikka's one size fits all. And that is worth $200 to me, if not to you.
Are the weaver bases on the A7 cheap? I don't have my A7 in my hands yet, but if they are made out of Aluminum I would say YES. If they are steel bases, which is my understanding (and I may be wrong), what would posters like them made out of? And if they are steel, why change them. And how are steel weaver type bases cheap? Ever price Leupold MK 4 bases? Or how about IOR's weaver type bases for Sako 75's?
As far as the plastic trigger guard and magazine I guess I'm just jaded. I owned the original plastic wonder gun a Steyr Mannlicher Professional in 270 Win that I bought in 1988. It had a plastic stock, trigger guard and magazine. I think it retailed for around $750 even in the late 1980's. Now Steyr never sold a boat load of them, and it did have some funky styling, but I never heard a Steyr called a "cheap" gun. The now defunct Steyr SSG target/sniper rig was built the same way. All plastic, and very accurate. Their last retail price was over $2k. No, not cheap at all.
Now the A7 may be a dog, and it may turn out to be a cheap POS. Time will tell. And if you are a "blue steel and walnut" kind of guy, I would think that the A7's style would not appeal. But because something is different and it's not made the way they were made before, does not make it junk.
I was guilty of the same thinking when a small Austrian company released it's new plastic pistol in the 80's. I thought they were junk; I mean they were made out of figgin plastic, they just had to be junk. Today Glock owns the pistol shooting community. Sometimes junk can take you a long ways.
Regards to all,
Bob
Last edited by Shadow; 03/30/09.
