Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Bolt action rifle

Come on guys, I wanted to get $2,500.00 out of him. You are making too much sense. Damn... As far as the suggestions are going for which rifle to buy. Weatherby vanguard? Browning A-bolt? Good grief...

Win M70 - Classic Stainless or Extreme Weather. Leaves you plenty of coin to get a McMillan of your liking,

If you really want to lighten your wallet some,
Buy a used M70 in 30-06 or 300 Win, order a McMillan,
Brown Pounder, or other good Handel, have it shipped to
Redneck, get the bolt fixed, trigger done, have him make everything good,
and put the thing together.

You will have a better than average, customized, rifle.
And might still have some green left.

Or, follow the Montana path.
If you win the roulette, you save about $1200.
If you need a barrel, you still save $500+.

I can attest to the Vanguard (AKA Howa) as being an excellent pick. If you go to gunbroker you can get one for the same $400 I previously described.....and even in .300 Weatherby if you like. but just between us....(don't tell anyone now) it's still not a lot better than the .30-06

here's one now

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/884948124

Look at a Sako 85

Mike Cronk has killed a pile of animals with his tikka in a 300 wsm. I also know the guy that loads his ammo for him (me😁).. The op being from Tok should know Mike..

I wander a bunch of stores guess what you can’t find right now far as ammo.. 30-06 (165 higher) 300 win mag. But plenty of 300 wsm heck I seen more 325 wsm now than I have in years past. Still plenty of 338 win mag to be had..

Go bigger or smaller...

And $1500 should get you all the rifle you need.




GR

I would go for reliability, robust action and easy repair. That would mean a Mauser, Win. M70 or a Ruger in that order for me. The Howa and many others are good too but I prefer a controlled feed/claw extractor action. It is not so much that they are more reliable but they have more extraction power if needed.

The rifle would be stainless, Nitrided or black chrome finish. The stock would be an Echols or a Bridges in edge fill. Scope might be a 6x fixed or a low to medium variable. I would favor one with diamond coat or some anti fog lens coatings.

If I wanted to build one it would be on a Pierce or Dakota action. Not sure of the availability of the Dakota now. The barrel would be equivalent to a Douglas #2 or a Bartlein 0 contour or similar to a Mountain rifle contour with a little more muzzle diameter say .600 to .625" at 24". Barrel length would depend on the cartridge and how often it would be in the Alders.

The cartridge is not so critical, I could be happy with anything between the 30-06 and the 300 Weatherby. Probably I would go 300 Winchester Magnum.

I can sell you a Kimber Montana in 325 WSM that is a proven shooter and save you a lot of money.

All great suggestions
But I already have
4 30/06's
3-308 win
2-338's
2-9.3x62's
2-270's
1-35 Whelen
1-7mm Rem mag
I was thinking of something new that I don't have. Don't get me wrong I love an 06. It is one of the true great calibers. Maybe I was thirsty and drank some WSM coolaid.
The main thing is I am looking for a new maybe lightweight semi custom rifle, for general hunting needs in AK.

Thank you one and all for your help.

I would get what ever rifle you have determined has the most reliable trigger, the trigger has to work correctly every time no matter what the conditions. Especially if you are in a remote part of Alaska far from any gun smith services. The old original Mauser battle rifle triggers proved them selves in trench warfare, that is a pretty good pedigree. It spawned the old Springfield O3A3 and original Mod. 70 Winchester which has my favorite hunting trigger and I have used them since the mid 60's. Of the Mod. 70 rifles the "CRF Classic series" with the old Mod. 70 triggers are my favorites. With a bit of tweaking they are a top tier hunting rifle and the basis for my custom .338 Winny I have used for 30 years. Dakota Rifles and Montana Rifles both use variations of the Mauser and Winchester rifles.

On top of that the Mod. 70 bolt can be easily field stripped with out tools. In a properly bedded rifle it could be removed from the stock cleaned and put back together and remain close to the original zero.

The most popular cartridges in Alaska are the .300 Win. and .338 WIn. Mag. and the 30-06. I consider the .300 and .338 WInny with the right bullet good big bear medicine and capable 500 yard moose loads. I consider the 30-06 a 400 yard moose rifle and with a 168 grain or heavier Barnes TTSX bullet a good brown bear cartridge, but I would keep the brown bear shots under 200 yards for the first shot.

I have 5 friends that use the .35 Whelen and 225 grain Accubond bullets. The amount of one shot kills they have on moose and caribou is impressive, as is the range they can hit at. Don't be mistaken and think the .35 Whelen can't "reach out there". The guy in Oregon named Jess can bore about any bolt gun to a .35 Whelen.

I do not know Mike but I have heard the name.
I do like the Tikka i have, I might look in that direction.

Guess Tok bigger than I thought lol..

Maybe 1500 residents.
I saw his name on a few signs, something about political ambitions. I couldn't pick him out of a crowd of 2. But i have only been in Tok a short time.. (over 20 years.)

Nothing wrong with the 300WSM. Every one I've owned has been very accurate and easy to load for. I'm down to one Wizzum and its a good one. Some of the guys suggesting Tikka or CRF model 70's is on the right track. Very dependable and accurate rifles. 79s says he's seeing 300WSM ammo on the shelves at his LGS, so that is good info. I think you need to lower your price point a bit because you can buy a damn good rifle for less than $1,000.00. Just sayin.... I only paid $500 for this one:


And that was with a Nikon Monarch rifle scope I have on my Tikka T3x stainless lite 7mm08. You could also look for a 2008 limited edition BACO. They are pretty nice rifles and still made in the US:

I paid $600 for this one and it shot lights out. I later installed a 300WSM extreme weather take off I paid $100.00 for:

The rifle was exceptionally accurate and the limited editions had some pretty nice wood on them... You know I was joking pretty good about you buying my rifle, but the simple truth of the matter is, you can find a damn good rifle and scope package for less than $2,000.00. I only have $1,400.00 in this package:

Or even less, if you take into consideration I'm using the Nikon, that originally came with the rifle, on my 7mm08. If I sold the Nikon for $150-$200.00, that number drops down to $1,200.00 in the complete package, including the Nightforce SHV 5-20x56 and Nightforce ultralite rings and mounts. Chances are, a full on custom is going to struggle to compete with the accuracy of a rifle like this. Good luck with your search.

Oh he’s a lifelong resident he grew up in northway..

I saw your list of what you already have. Like me, you already have more than you need. So it is perfectly OK that you have just decided you also need a 300 WSM and there is absolutely no reason for you to buy anything else, given the other rifles you have.
Given your other desires for this rifle, if it were me in your shoes, I'd get a Win M70 Stainless CRF with the old style trigger (don't overlook the old "Ultimate Shadow" models as your baseline while shopping - the used market may be your best bet). Use some of the money you save to go to Shooter's Pro Shop online and buy a big bucket of the 200 grain Nosler Partition factory blems they have for dirt cheap, before they run out. (Pick up some 250 NABs for your 9.3s while you're there) Then get on the waiting list for a keg of RL-26. When it arrives load a whole bunch of those 200 gr partitions over 60-61 gr of the RL-26 for your four 30-06s and go kill anything Alaska throws at you. And do whatever you want with that 300 WSM - I reckon it'll shoot those 200 NPTs pretty good too! But seriously, I don't see a "hole" in your line-up, but if you do, and a 300WSM is going to fill it get one! I kind of have to agree with the folks that say if there is a hole the 300WinMag might fill it a little more than the 300WSM, but...see my previous comment regarding the 200 NAB at 2750 FPS in the 30-06.

My dos centavos - enjoy your quest!
Rex

It is interesting that most of the folks and many of you have a lot of experience do not understand why people living in remote communities pick up oddball calibers. I started hunting and shooting 40 years ago and shot my first moose with a 300 Win Mag in a push feed XTR. My first rifle(1980) was a Weatherby Vanguard predeluxe when they were a poor man's Mark V in a 300 Winchester Mag. You guys will ask why my father insisted that we go 308, 270, 300 Win Mag, 7Rem Mag, 8Rem mag and 350 Rem Mag for calibers growing up. I later figured out that my father had figured out that when you shot stuff that other people didn't shoot they wouldn't come to borrow ammo and they knew what you had for guns so that they were unlikely to try to steal them because everybody knew those oddball guns would below to only one family. He did this with ATVs, Cars, Trucks and even fishing poles. I just thought that he had a screw loose at the time. I thought that an 06 was the beesknees. But after I went out to Ambler and Nulato I discovered the same thing. Nobody would steal the big limo BearCat that the teacher owned and nobody would try to steal parts. Nobody wanted to steal the 788 22-250 that i hunted with because nobody could get ammo. The Yamaha ATV that I owned was the only one like it in town and I didn't have any problems. Now if I would have had a 06 I would have no end of people trying to borrow ammo or even trying to steal the rifle if they got the chance. Winchesters are great for the back country but right now Tikka would be the brand of choice. Kimber seems not to be getting much inventory up here. It is a different world and I will leave it at that.