Appreciate everyone's comments and boy this has been a fun discussion. I knew there would be no right answer but appreciate everyone's passion. I've been to KtP and Riley's and am even more unsure what to do. If I was practical I would buy a stainless t3 or even more practical a compact rar.
But this isn't about being practical. I want to order a mcmillan stock in the worse way just because. I see some good deals on stainless vanguard s2s and part of me wants to order one and put it in a mcswirly sako hunter. I see brownells has 20 inch cerakoted #1 barreled actions on backorder but don't see anyone with them in Stock. That in a mcmillan edge would also be awesome.
I love the idea of just keeping the venture and going hunting but though I'm seeing a lot of good rifle deals, hunts are just so expensive. I don't want to derail my own derailed thread so I think I will post a second thread about the best 1000-1500 dollar hunt. Yes, I can not pass a hornet's nest without kicking it nor do I ever pass a dead horse without beating it.
In the big picture, rifles are cheap. Even the big "hobbyist" picture! I have guitars worth ~3x what you are talking about spending...
Anyway $1000-$1500 buys a LOT of rifle... probably.
I get the impression that you are worried about spending a lot and not getting accuracy, which I understand... To that end, [bleep], just start buying interesting rifles, sell the ones that aren't accurate, and customize the ones that are to your taste.
Point being, it's an ongoing process, not so much a one-shot deal.
Example... I've owned a few "pencil barrel" mountain rifles. One was accurate enough to warrant further investment. The other two got rebarreled. The one I've put money into got a new stock, bottom metal, trigger, bolt shroud and innards... It
deserved the investment. So I dunno, I personally wouldn't go Tikka or Weatherby or whatever but if that's your taste, fine, buy one, shoot it, if it's a shooter then start the ball rolling on improving it. If not, flip it. Repeat as necessary.
ETA: Returning to the guitar analogy... I know more about guitars than 99.9% of the world does...but if a guy said to me, "I want to spend $2k to get my dream guitar; what should I get?", the truth is that's a flawed premise that has no correct answer. It unknowable what that person's dream guitar is. But if that person said, I want to engage in a process that ends in me spending $2k on my dream guitar, then I could give him very specific and good advice and I would be pretty certain he'd come out the other side with a guitar that made him very happy.
So-- I'd rephrase your question to: what's the best process to engage in towards owning a great $1000-$1500 rifle?
Or just spend it on hunts <g>....
