Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Buying a proper Wood and Blue rifle - $2000 budget

mystro,

Every one of the Jack O'Connor tribute rifles I've heard about is a real shooter, including mine.

I believe they are shot indoors as well.

Yea, not ammo sensitive and the JOC seems to be the most accurate rifle I have ever owned. The gun shoots better than my skill level and I am able to get 1' groups at 200 yards and even 300 yards with factory ammo when I am on my game. I only shoot mine at the range now and won't take it hunting because the stock can not ever be replace from Winchester from what they tell me. It's certainly a "blue chip" rifle from Winchester and will only appreciate in value. I have many other fine M70's that I hunt with.



2p-

Same here.. Both of those would be pretty high picks for getting a solid, good looking working rifle...

I would agree with Schrapnel, GW and others that you can't go wrong with the older Sako's. I have a few from a 1956 L46 Varmint to a 1999 M75 Hunter Stainless and they are all nice. This Pre-Garcia L61R Deluxe in 300H&H would be the favorite; but $2k would not buy it, especially since it has my initial in Sterling Silver:

So here's a follow up question, and I'm sure this will be personal preference as well...

What quality level of gun would you say is "too fancy" or "too nice" to make a week in, week out hunting rifle? Not a workhorse gun by any means, I have synthetic stocked guns for that. But I plan to hunt this rifle. It will take on a ding or two or three I'm sure. When is it "too nice" to hunt without stressing over it?

Buy a nice gun of your choice that already has a few dings, save some cash and roll with it.

If the above 300H&H took a bad fall; it could cost me $500-1000; but I still take it out occasionally.

I'll tell you what. I looked at a M70 SuperGrade yesterday and it was a beautiful piece! It was a .300WSM, bolt was smooth as glass like M70's usually are, and it fit me like a glove!

These 2 rifles are 30-06 and 300 WBY deluxes, between them many hunts and over 30 elk. They aren't unmarked, but they still look great. Life is too short to hunt with an ugly gun...

It would certainlay be foolish to take a pristine, collectable rifle out to get banged around, especially if it was a big investment in your eyes. The rifles pictured here though are meant to be used, shot, hunted, and given reasonable care afterward. I'm careful with all my guns in the field, not just the pretty ones, but they get rained and snowed on and bang into my binoculars occasionally. It's inevitable that they're going to pick up a few dings. Don't sweat it, they're tools.

This picture should be in a beer or cigarette commercial.

That is a tricky question. Collectors or limited edition rifles are too nice to be used on a hard hunt for me. I feel more comfortable shooting those rifles on the range in a controlled environment. I don't want to be constantly babying a pristine collectors rifle while trying to beat my way through the woods. I've tried that before and it's frustrating as hell. A standard or deluxe model 70 in a featherweight is what I would want to hunt with. When the weather turns nasty you can't beat a fine SS rifle like a Kimber Montana or the like. If the weather isn't sloppy I'm more inclined to carry a traditional model 70 featherweight that is nice looking but replaceable. That way any little ding or scratch becomes a cherished memory of that hunt.

This is what I feel comfortably hunting with as opposed to my JOC tribute gun for my 270 rifle.

Get something with an oil finish rather than an acrylic.



Here's a push feed Winchester 70 in 270 Win($350), a Mauser 98 in 7 x 57($500) with a hand carved mesquite stock, and a Sako l61R varmint in 7mag($850). I 've owned all three between 20 and 25 years. The 7mag was the first Sako I ever bought and it's my favorite out of the two dozen or so I've owned.

They all have nicks, scratches, bumps and dents from carrying in the field. Good thing mesquite is dense cause I dropped the Mauser from 15' onto a pile of rocks, crawling into a tri-pod







However the nice thing about oil finish is you can touch it up or strip it down and refinish.
Here is a Sako AV in 375 H&H. I picked it up around 1999 for $500. Here it is after a new recoil pad was installed and it was sanded down and a half dozen coats of tru-oil





Best,


GWB

I like the classic style stocks with a matte finish. To me the Tikka Hunter wood stock looks real good. But I also like the CZ American 550 Classic wood stock with a single set trigger, if you can find one. These would be my first two choices.

If you would really like something very nice take a look at the Steyr Mannlicher Classic Half Stock. Or Sako Classics.


You mentioned hunting with Weatherby's wood stock, if you're looking for a shiney stock, there are lots of used Weatherby Mark V's to choose from. Another real good shiney rifle is a Colt-Sauer.

If I wanted a wood stock I would just go ahead and hunt with it. Walnut is a pretty tough wood and the nicks and scratches from brush usually don't go very deep.

You could always get a barreled action and a chunk of wood--take off everything that doesn't look like a gunstock.

that definitely looks proper to me.

Best,

GWB

Not a Winchester Super Grade,but it has some pretty wood.











Bought it last year for 1k off of http://www.cdnnsports.com/70-270-fthrwgt-higrade-22.html#.VmD2HUKEnVo

http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/cz-vz33-7x57-r17978


This is a custom stocked CZ 7x57 Mauser

Nice photos of your JOC rifle! They are a fantastic value but the ones out there will keep going up in price!

I see yours is the Tribute also! I could not bring myself to deal with the .270 with a steel butt plate! They are probably the best deal I ever saw in firearms!