Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Accuracy Versus Price/Quality

I sort of follow Dave Skinner's philosophy.

I have a hard time getting rid of an accurate rifle. I was out shooting a cheap Walmart purchased ADL in 223...with the round count down the barrel, it shouldn't be shooting this accurately still, but it is....the day the accuracy gives up the ghost, I'll just have the shoulder set back, and maybe rechambered in 222 or 223 again..... of course I also have a brand new take off ADL barrel in 223 reserved for it also...

not that I treat my rifles like Schtick treats his, I still look at them as tools... If I have a rifle with too fancy of a stock, I pick up a Hogue or some other type of Synthetic stock for it....

There is a threshhold of accuracy that makes the grade and more is not necessarily helpful to a hunting rifle. For me the requirement is around 1 1/2" at 100 yards.

I love those little cloverleaf groups as much as anyone but don't consider them a requirement for a hunting rifle. On very rare occasion I use my .257 Roberts to remove a head from a Ruffed grouse and super accurate helps a lot if that is the task at hand.

First and foremost is the functioning.....if it don't feed well, or extract, or eject, it's simply junk regardless of the accuracy. This has been the reason I own no Savage rifles and have long since parted from my Remington 788.

I don't know if this will be a popular view, but with CNC machining and improved technology, there seems to be less need for custom rifle services - with certain exceptions.

When wooden stocks were the norm, and metal parts/fitting was finished by hand, there was more demand for the talents of gunsmiths who could put a beautiful, accurate rifle together. I wonder if custom gunsmithing isn't as popular as it once was.

Factory rifles are more accurate than ever before. If you don't reload, ammunition seems to be better too. Are there fewer custom smiths these days?

I think Steve makes an important point.

I have a hard time getting rid of anything. I've got a Winchester M70 XTR Sporter in .300 Weatherby that is marginally accurate at best. Shoots under 2 inches on a good day and it doesn't ahve a lot of those. And it's freaking finicky.

Almost 30 years old and I bought it used and the stock looks like it was rarely taken out of the safe and the bore looks like it rarely had a round through it.

I'm guessing the previous owner couldn't get it to shoot either and got tired of it kicking him all the time.

But I still have it and can't seem to let go because I think one day it's going to miraculously shoot for me.

I bought three of the Marlin X7 series rifles when they came out.A 270,30/06 and a XS7SS 243.They all exceeded my expectations for accuracy,but I could not warm up to them.To me they felt cheap,and I wondered when one would fail me.So I sent them down the road.I have had very good luck with Tikka T3 lites .I had a Custom made Rifle with knock out English walnut with an FN action and a Douglas barrel in 280 Rem.It would shoot almost any weight bullet to about the same point ,but would avg about 1 1/2" groups.Super accurate???No way,but it came up right and felt good.No searching for the right scope picture as the stock was made for me.You get exactly what you pay for me thinks.

The last wood/blued rifle went down the road last week, all now are synthetic/ stainless/coated, all come with a guarantee of <1" @ 100m most are 0.5 moa with hand loads, all have excellent triggers and function perfectly, all can be bought off the shelf. I seriously looked into a custom over the last month, with a good scope looking at ~$5000. Sure you get any caliber/cartridge/configuration you can dream of, quality of build is only as good as the builder and looking at 6 months to a year and a half, and who knows the pitfalls along the way, stopped me cold. I suppose if you are high end competitive shooter then a .3 or.4 moa rifle would be needed.

Yes, BR rifles would be one of the exceptions I alluded to in my original post. I was looking at my rifles, and most have synthetic stocks. These days, people are less inclined to wait a long time for their rifles to come back. Being able to buy an off the rack firearm that shoots well means not having to wait.

There were growing pains in the firearms industry WRT the use of polymers in rifle construction. There certainly was resistance from shooters! When plastic stocks came on the scene, many people railed against them. Using synthetic material on non stressed areas of a rifle still rankles some, but polymers are here to stay. It may have helped that people with military experience carried synthetically stocked rifles around, and got used to them.

As someone who likes Tikkas, I often chuckle at the complaints about their plastic magazines. They've been around now for a while and almost all are still intact. I'm quite sure someone out there has had one fail, but they haven't proved to be the weak spot everyone suggested.

Lord knows, there's always a person or two waiting to jump out at you from the murkiness of the Internets, but it would seem that plastic is the new wood. I know that they can simulate the general look of wood using polymers, but I'm waiting for the technology to advance to the point where it's impossible to tell the difference.

Must be me, but I just don't understand the 6 month wait for a barrel. There are many barrel manufactures out there so some one should have a EG:.284 1:8 twist on the rack ready to ship, better still the 'smith should have one in inventory. A good machinist is required but it is not rocket surgery or magic. I get the feeling that the hold back gives exclusiveness to justify the price ( I have no issue with people making a good living selling /manufacturing quality products). Over the years , on occasion I've asked a gunsmith for a fix,( well leave it here and call in two weeks, maybe it will be done) many times these 'fixes' were a 10-15 minute job. All I ask is don't bullshit me , if it takes 15 minutes , requires specialized tools and knowledge then charge me $100 or what ever for the few minutes it takes. This keeps me away from customs or for that matter a simple re-barrel. With todays manufacturing techniques precision rifles can be bought over the counter, also if light is your game you can come within a pound of any custom

Let me go make some popcorn quick

What Steve said!

Well its no real trick to get a rifle to shoot well, how well that is in the eye of the beholder. For me, all I require of a rifle is that it holds zero, feeds and extracts with out any issues. My old Sako 75 in 338 shot well out of the box, and its still putting the bullets right were I zeroed it, back in 1996 when I bought it. Same for my current favorite rifle. I paired down my collection some years back, I kept the Sako 75 along with a couple of others. I could live out my life or what is left of it hunting with that one. I was told when I bought it, the stocks are not very good etc. I filled my last tag the other day with it just because I wanted to sit with it. 225 gr Blue Box Federals shot right were they always had just an inch higher than the 250 gr Nosler Partitions I zeroed with. I like nice things, I tend to buy the good stuff, since you only have to buy it once.

" I like nice things, I tend to buy the good stuff, since you only have to buy it once."

But that takes all the challenge and fun out of the day of a genuine "gun loonie."

Like the accuracy over craftsmanship debate, I guess every man has to seek out what level of sportsmanship he's on.

I've got a Winchester M70 in .300 Wby that has worked very hard to prove this wrong.

Gunsmith buddy who looked at it last just laughed when he gave it back to me.