OK...new question I had a nother log thrown on the fire..my old man is sugesting the BLR in .308 instead of the ruger...The price is close enough not to be a problem I like leverguns and bolt guns..If given the choice which would you chose and why??

RLB..

Ruger, just never liked the looks of the BLR. Shot one in .300 Win. Mag. the other day while a guy was sighting in on my backyard range. Thought I was going to have to use both hands to pull the trigger. I don't know anything about working the trigger on the BLR, but the Ruger only takes me half an hour and a $1.00 spring from the local hardware store.

Ive got six BLRS now (257 rbrts,270,30/06,300 win,358 win and 450 marlin) and they can be extremely accurate, fast handling and well balanced, I prefer the older steel receiver models,with strait grips but, thats a personal preferance. my 358 win BLR gets ALOT of use!
load a 250grain speer over 44-45 grains of IMR-4064 in that 358 win and sight it 3.3" high at 100 yards youll be close to dead on at 200 yards and about 10" low at 300 yards, and even at 300 yards it drops ELK very effectively
personally I prefer the 358 win vs the 308win

RUGER!!!

I've had both and in differnt situations I'd have different picks.

I like the fact I can clean everything on the ruger, action and all. I didn't like the fact I couldn't take the BLR apart to clean the action.

I could cycle the BLR so fast the deer couldn't differentiate between the shot and when I was cycling the lever. That was never true of the Ruger.

Mounting the scope on the BLR was more difficult, and the trigger pull was much worse (no timney trigger for a BLR) the ruger I replaced with a nice timney. So the BLR was a bit harder to get used to trigger wise.

The BLR did break in after a few hundred rounds and started grouping like a bolt.

The light weight blr has a finish on it that could wear, so if I get one again it will be the stainless finish which shouldn't scratch off ( I never did scratch it but I did worry about it).

I did free float the barrel on the Ruger, but I LOVED, and I mean LOVED the magazines on the BLR (All good) I didn't like the ruger magazine setup.. some what of a pain.

Chambering wise I love the 358 but you have to "load your own". In the end both were great rifles, I like the BLR better until I had to clean it.

Spot

If you don't have a bolt action in .308 or a bunch of similar calibers, buy that first.