Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles The rifle market sucks…

Valid point.

We have a lot of new shooters now, and most of them probably know or care little about the nuances between a nice rifle and a plastic tool.

Man, SAS dropping some serious truth throughout this thread.

A visit to the rifle counter in gun shops is a sad state of affairs for sure. Surely there are lots of pieces to the puzzle of why, many have been pointed out here. It seems any product manager at a major rifle manufacturer could watch the price trend of used rifles on Gunbroker and develop a business case for a high quality, hunting style rifle. Maybe the volume of the cerakoted crap rifles is so high that the profitability trumps this opportunity, I don’t know.

I’m in a Bergara group on Facebook, I guess because I own one. Anyway, watching posts and trends there provides some insight to the ignorance and sometimes lack of intelligence amongst many of the rifle buyers in the market today. I think clockwork_7mm hit the nail on the head here:

“Some of this has to do with a false cultural shift. Black Rifle Coffee and Instagram type stuff make it seem like everyone has a huge beard and a Barrett 50. It's a mirage just like the political echo chambers...”

Much of the current rifle buying customers now are flat out fakes. They only care that they look like fit in group so they mimic what they see others doing/buying and have no clue how a product should work or perform, and seemingly what it’s supposed to do. Almost daily, someone with a new HMR posts on the Facebook page something like,”what’s everyone using for ___________?” The blank could be suppressors, scopes, scope levels, magazines, tripod mounts (my fave, lol)…you get the idea… They might as well scream, “I can’t read, comprehend and discern for myself what to get, but that doesn’t matter because all that matters is that you accept me so tell me what to do.”

When the consumer is concerned that his product makes him part of the crowd more than whether it functions as it should, and is ignorant to the point he might not even know when it isn’t functioning as it should, well, it’s very easy to be impressed with a cerakoted barrel that’ll have some surface rust in the bore before you can get it home from a morning hunt in a light drizzle.

It’s a fake culture, as clockwork said, where appearance matters and substance just isn’t important.

Rant over….

Have had quite a few walnut / blued rifles over the years. Some new, some classics.

Plastic aint pretty, but its tough.

Hell if it wasn't so much money, I'd convert my Ruger single shots to synth.

Several weeks ago I walked through Sportsman's Warehouse. One wood-stocked rifle caught my eye as it was the only one in the rack of bolt actions. I counted 87 bolt actions.

Last week I was there. No wood-stocked bolt actions. Fewer bolt-actions overall-maybe 70.



Bruce

It used to be when I would take a slip and fall while hunting, I always made sure the rifle or shotgun stayed up and my body took the impact. At 70+, I have tried to be more careful, but have also vowed to sacrifice the gun before the body. Hence, I now rifle hunt with a plastic stocked TC Compass that cost me $218 at a box store and shoots 1" groups with factory ammo. It is made as well as any AR platform, and shares some of the technology. My pre-64's and 77 tangs stay in the safe. To me, its about the hunt and not the gun. JMHO

I have a pretty stock on a tang safety 77 and it is a beautiful accurate rifle. I hunt with a crappy plastic stocked Weatherby Vanguard & it doesn’t bother me to beat it up badly dragging through oak brush elk hunting. Guns are tools first, pieces of excellent artistic workmanship 2nd. Why don’t you all hunt with fine double rifles? Too expensive & not as practical as bolt or other actions.

We have rifles under $600 that guarantee 1” accuracy. Those beautiful old Remingtons didn’t shoot as well as plastic Tikkas or Vanguards of today. We aren’t limited by few efficient calibers we don’t think 30-40 Krag is the deer caliber of choice.
I

Buy old.

Gotcha.

The only new rifle I have bought in many years is a Mauser M12 308 Win sold at a huge discount around a year ago. Some folks here know of what I speak. When delivered it was a quality piece to the point of me buying three for my sons as Christmas gifts. They are happy... I have plenty of pre-80's, 70's, 60's... rifles. These Mauser made me appreciate the "new" build.

I am in the same boat. A ss Howa in 6.5 cm In a McMillan Sako Classic would just about cover my hunting needs.

I love my classic FN, BRNO and HVA 98s. I love my CZ 550s, Ruger M77s and I love my high end full customs. These days it is hard to disparage the weight, simplicity and utter effectiveness of taking a Tikka or similar rifle afield. I hate to admit it but they are every bit as "good" hunting rifle as some of their safe-mates that cost five to ten times as much to have the best smiths in to business build.

For me the new rifles have no soul. It is simply a tool to get groceries. With the exception of my .416 Ruger, I have never subscribed to shooting rifles chambered in cartridges under 50+ years old. Don't really have a great reason but it comes back to the reverence for heritage and legacy that I have for the sport.

Very interesting thread, and regardless of your particular preferences, it’s hard not to notice the trends on the shelves at the big gun shops. I also liked it better when there were more real choices out there, not so much “what paint job” on your econo-rifle. If I’m budget shopping, give me bare bones and good guts, not extra fluff and bedazzling. I was always a huge fan of a moderately priced stainless sporter that could be something special with just a stock swap. As I’ve got most of what I need in that department, my last couple of hunting rifle purchases have concerned what I feel to be actually useful evolutions of this Tactical surge, being a Sig Cross and a lightweight AR10. But they were still bought with hunting as their main purpose. If I had to tell somebody what to look for in a lifetime hunting rifle at the store right now, the choices are much slimmer than they were a decade ago.

Haha I *knew* you would comment on that. I know some guys hate the new trigger. (I'm not old enough to remember the old one in its heyday, but have never had an mechanical issues with the new.) Compared to its peers, though, in terms of wood, bluing quality, no plastic, action smoothness, having a floor plate, etc., I don't think it's even a contest. The Portugal M70 FWT is as close to "new old" as you're gonna get under $1000.

I agree with SAS on the general rifle market....but.....I do think there are excellent off the shelf, very high quality, hunting rifles available now. They are very different from Rem/Ruger/Win standard production line models....and the price does show it. It's a different category but there's a lot of production rifles you'd have to go full custom to get the quality of now.

Nice rifles GW. Just getting caught up.

If anyone wants a picture of current demand for the non-existent factory wood/blue rifle, all you have to do is look at GB auctions for Left Hand Remington 700's. Clean used LH BDL's are bringing $1,000 to $1,500. Clean used LH CDL's are bringing $1,500 to $2,000. One NIB LH CDL in .223 brought $3,000 last month. Left Hand Remington 700's bringing as much as Left Hand Win M70's brought a couple years ago...

A person could go with a custom action, barrel, stock (not high grade wood/checkering), and smith work for less than that .223.

No doubt that the LH rifles are bringing a premium, but most all the original 700's are selling high over there. I did a transfer for a neighbor, he paid $1800 for a 1970's 700 Varmint BDL, nice wood and metal, although it did show some use. I sold a NIB 700 BDl 30-06 on GB for $1500 last year. The market on 700's is crazy these days.

Short of my recent purchase of four Mauser M12's on sale, I have not bought a new centerfire rifle in many years. I'm really not lacking for my needs and wants, thankfully. I am enjoying accurate 22 rimfires a lot these days.

3 times a year I take a weekend, a full tank of gas, and pocket full of cash and make a wide circuit through a series of small town hardware / sporting good stores. There I find all manner of used firearms - some trash, some plastic, but most are well cared for wood stocked rifles.

Most of time it results in just a drive through some nice country, but every so often I come across some gems that cash will move small mountains.

Been doing this for so long that some owners/managers will give me a heads up when something special comes along...