Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Budget Mountain Rough Terrain Rifle! TC Compass

So I have not had a chance to get to the range with it yet and 3 years ago I moved from the country into a town. So before I had 1000's of meters of nice land to shoot from now I need to go to a range.

This thing is light! My TC Compass is in 30-06 and it actualy comes in a bit under 7 1/4lbs. on my old postal scale and when I hold it and hop on my scale it tracks pretty close with the postal scale. The magnum version is listed at 7 1/2lbs.

So while this is not in the same league as an Ultra Light Arms or Mew Ultra Light Arms rifle in terms of fit and finish and design but in terms of what you can do with it "utility wise" they are very similar tools.

The stock is cheap flexible Tupperware or for 2019 Pampered Chef it does work as a hunting rifle if you ignore it. I paid $299 for mine but 2 years ago some people were getting these under $200 with rebates.

As far as I can tell it is hit and miss with 1 MOA guarantee you either get a gem or a polished turd luck of the draw. As near as I can tell the accuracy issues seem to be attributed to throat that is too long.Just about everyone that has reviewed one has had issues with Front stock screw coming lose and scope bases coming lose as shipped from the factory.

I chose the 30-06 for 2 reasons. 1) It is the largest cartridge in the 7 1/4lbs. package. 2)I was thinking about using it to build a 284 Win or a 280 Rem.

As light as this rifle is as long as you do not put heavy tactical steel rings, bases and a insanely large heavy NightForce scope on it you get a really light weight and low cost rifle. It already has a threaded barrel so if you wanted to attach an acc. to it no problem!

I wish someone other than Boyds made a wood stock for it in various styles. I wish someone made a bottom metal kit for it. The biggest issue this rifle has is it's terrible stock and magazine.

She is ugly from a design stand point but no worse than the Savage 110 in terms of manufacturing methods and very cheap machining processes to make up sub parts and they loosely assembled into large assembly. People always forget that and Remington 721 and 700 were designs that were meant to lower production cost compared to manufacturing a rifle like the Mauser. The Savage 110 was just ahead of it's time in terms of how much money you could take out of the rifle and still produce a decent product.

It amazes me that Howa is so affordable when it has a forged receiver and bolt. Likewise until the CZ got popular and people started to charge a premium for them they too are made from forging and where affordable as well! Mechanically there is nothing about the design that is out of place or inferior outside of the stock and magazine and well almost everyone has gone that route today. I think the only American made design that is still made from forging is the Weatherby Mark V but I do not know if the forgings they use are made int he USA for all I know it could just be finish machined in the USA and either way no one would know.

Sadly their is no reason you can not have a rigid and cheap stock. Now making it rigid, cheaply and light weight would pose an issue. Oh last but not least the recoil pad on these is very soft. I would imagine that is to take some of the sharp kick out from having the rifle so light!

I bought a Compass in 308 last fall. Finally shot it a few weeks ago. A little over an inch with Winchester 150 grain loads. Remington Corlokt 180s are solidly under an inch. Not a bad little rifle for $209.95.

Nothing wrong with that at all. Since they make a big deal out their 1MOA guarantee you have to call them on it when so many companies actually deliver on that! All things considered not like it is hard to re-barrel an action or true an action if you just have to have 1MOA or better. For the price point Minute of Paper Plate at 100 yards is more than enough to put meat in the freezer.

While not popular today when I was a kid growing up I was always taught that any rifle that would allow yo to put 10 shots on a paper plate at 100 yards shooting standing with no support and iron sights was plenty for accuracy for hunting. Then again no one was trying to shoot an Elk at 1200m or a Prong Horn at 1500m!