Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Rifle recommendations

Greetings all,

I will be graduating next year as a nurse practitioner and am going to give myself a graduation present. I'd like to buy a new rifle, 308 cartridge for hunting, bolt action, wood stock, don't need anything ultralight. I have shot Savage rifles for most of my adult life and am a fan of the accutrigger. However I am open to a different brand. Budget for just the rifle is 1k. What would you all recommend? Never to early to start researching and thanks everyone in advance.

Scott

If I was into a wood stocked 308 and didn't really care about weight, I'd likely look at a clean used Sako L579.

The little Kimbers are gorgeous , but are fly weights.

If I was into Accutriggers and Savages, well.........

If you like your Savages you might want to consider this. Friend of mine won one in .308 and she loves it.

http://savagearms.com/firearms/model/14AMERICANCLASSIC

https://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog...d/14461/Savage+17771+14+AMER+CLS+DBM+308

Agreed, if you like Savages, you could do MUCH worse accuracy wise. I have an iron in the fire. I told myself its for my daughter when she gets older

I picked up a lady hunter stock (love the ergos) from Numrich ~$90
SS HFP - $80
SS studs - $5
I plan to put a 16 LWH .223 BA into it

I should be well under $1000.

You could also just pick up a 14 classic or 10 TH and be done.

I have a 2008 model Rem 700 SPS in 308 and it was/is very, very accurate right out of the box. Those are good rifles. Used would be "new to you".

If I were buying brand new, it'd be a custom build. If I were buying commercial new, it would be Sako 85 or Rem 700.

Howa (Wby Vanguard) is great but heavy.

Thanks all good information so far.

I like where your head is with the walnut/blued mentality. I think Kimbers have some of the nicest wood out there. I haven't seen a wood stocked Savage that made me nostalgic.

You might look at the X-bolt with a birdseye maple stock if you want something that stands out.

You can get a Stainless or CM Rem SPS barreled action and find one of the older good looking wood stocks pretty cheap and get it fit and bedded within budget.

Congratulations on your graduation.

I'd take a long hard look at a Winchester Model 70 Featherweight.


Okie John

Yonker Kimber 84M Rifles have the best wood,trigger,checkering and fit of steel to wood of all the current USA 1K class rifles

+1 here. Don't let the name fool ya, they're not that light but just about right in my opinion.

Thanks all the M70 and Kimber are high on my list.


Scott

+3

+4 on the Winchester Featherweight.

I love my old HVA (60 years) lightweight .308 but a M-70 featherweight is probably the way to go even though I detest the wing safety. Again Congrats!-Muddy

I think you would be hard pressed to find a better oldie in a 308 than a Sako's L579 or A11. I always find it a hard choice do I take the my A11 or the Kimber.

Those are great rifles too. I've seen them around here for great deals too. Usually right around the $400.00 mark, which always seems very reasonable for such a lightweight nicely made rifle.

Sako L579 if you are set at $1000. If you look long enough you can find a deluxe. I bought this one in 243 about 4 years ago for $900. The 308's are a little more scarce but you can find them.

Photobucked down,will try later.




If You can you might want to save a little more and look into a Cooper.

Considering your budget x2 on both of these recommendations.

A wild card outlier for a bit less might be the Bergara.

Again great information all thanks for the replies and well wishes. M70 in the featherweight so far looks really good from what I have been seeing on the web. Need to go handle one in person. Thanks again all.

Scott

This:

https://shop.whittakerguns.com/product/202