Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Best overall "budget" rifle

Accuracy, fit and finish, handling?

I would like thoughts

Howa, or the Weatherby equivalent. Forged actions with one-piece bolts with toolless takedown, decent hinged flooplates, use 700 two-piece mounts. Some don’t like the two-stage triggers, but I do, and all three currently in hand have nice, crisp pulls.

LSI has finally started importing SS models again. Barrelled actions are available from Brownells if you don’t like the factory stocks.

I wouldn’t mind a Mauser M18 or Fiocchi either, and some Ruger Americans are interesting.

A friend and his family really like their Ruger American rifles. WE have 2 .22 version and find them really satisfactory. We also have a Howa Mini action that is very smooth and accurate. The mag well will need to be replaced however or you'll be losing magazines left and right.

I am a Weatherby Vanguard fan and a Tikka fan.

What’s the “budget”?

I paid less than $400 for my Howa 1500 .308 at Sportsman's WH. So far very accurate and it likes most loads.
A little on the heavy side but not too bad. mine wears a Lupy VX2 3x9x40.

I'm a big wthby vanguard/howa fan for hinged floor plate options.....but for the same money or maybe less I've been able to buy the sauer 100xt and a mauser 18 that use DBL stack mags flawlessly and both are excellent shooters with great triggers.

Remington adl

At the current prices....Mauser M18 by a mile.

Dave

I don't know if I consider the Vanguard a real budget rifle, somehow it's still fairly cheap, but the action is well-machined and doesn't really have the typical budget rifle features (the easy to produce tubular receiver and full-diameter bolt, plastic detachable magazine, etc.)

I'm not sure what you're looking for, but if you like Mausers, Tradeex has new Zastavas in several calibres. They have wood stocks and are starting at $695 CDN.

Eurooptics has the Mauser 18 on sale for $429

https://www.eurooptic.com/Mauser-M18-Rifles.aspx

A used 700, Model 70, Ruger 77 MKII or Hawkeye.

For ridiculously cheap, it’s hard to beat a TC Compass or Savage Axis.

For a bit more, the Ruger American Rifle is known for accuracy and value.

Bump it up to around $500 and you get MUCH better stocks than the above, with nice triggers. I prefer a detachable magazine so my favorite here is the Winchester XPR with its super-accurate barrel and MOA trigger, both of which are the same found on new Model 70s. If you like a hinged floor plate, give the Franchi Momentum a look.

If you want to spend $750-1K, the Weatherby Vanguard is tough to beat.

FYI, I bought a Winchester XPR in 6.5 Creedmoor three years ago when a rebate from Winchester and a ridiculous online sale price by one of their dealers happened to coincide so I picked it up on a lark, figuring it could make an OK backup truck gun that I’d have very little money into. The darn thing ended up shooting anything I fed it well and some things VERY well. The crisp trigger broke clean at 3.6 lbs out of the box and it shoots 140 SST, 140 BT, 142 ABLR, 143 ELD-X and 147 ELD-M all sub-MOA. Even shoots some 120-130 grain bullets nearly as well. It has a much more rigid and ergonomic stock than the RAR, which was its prime competition for this role.

I’ve since killed three deer, a pronghorn and an elk with this rifle. I actually like carrying and shooting it so much that my more expensive rifles are staying in the safe.

Modern manufacturing is pretty amazing.

Buddy just bought one there in 7mm mag for 399. I got to shoot it last week and I liked what I saw. I think he got a pretty good deal on that.

Mauser 18 gets my vote, though have had good experiences with several of the other rifles mentioned, especially RAR Predators, along with Franchi Momentums and T/C Ventures. (My one experience with a Compass wasn't totally positive, but wasn't the Compass II.)

Real budget rifles often have unconventional bedding systems and/or barrel attachments that make them less upgrade-friendly, if that’s a possibility you may want to consider. OTOH, they apparently often shoot like a house afire right out of the box, and can be traded off with minimal loss when you get another itch or the barrel loses its edge. I can see the attraction of that, though it’s not my practice; I tend to buy stuff I plan on keeping around, though that often isn’t the case.

If you catch the Howa barreled actions on sale, they can be treated the same way; replaced more cheaply than rebarreled.

All kinds of interesting choices now, just not much ammo!

He will have to confirm, but I believe that Skatchewan is in Canada. M18s are available up here, and start at $800. That might be out of his budget budget.

It really does depend on what your budget is and if you have time to shop around.

One of the guys who rents one of my Wife's farms just bought a T-C Venture 2 for around $360 after he gets the $75 rebate card. He liked the 6.5 CM so much that he ordered another Venture 2 in 223. I handled it and it seems OK, although the bolt handle seems to be on the small side.

If a used rifle will work, I think that a used Colt Light Rifle is a better than average value if you can find one for around $500 and one of the four cartridges that they were chambered in would meet your needs.

Last spring there was a dealer in MN selling stainless Howa 1500s for $406. The point being that if you're not in a hurry and keep looking, you'll find a deal.

Agree with that..

Great gun and with some shopping, one can be had for not a lot more than the true low end budget guns.

The M-18 isn't a low end rifle.

DF