Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Beater rifles that shoot like hell. What’s your favorite ?

I purchased a 700 bdl many years ago at a gun show. The gun was rough, no bluing left on the floor plate. Maybe 80% bluing left on the gun overall. You could not put your finger anywhere on the stock without touching a scratch or dent. It had a 3-9 vari xii 3-9x40 in Leupold mounts (scope looked like the gun) I hated to even flip over the price tag. But when I did $280 I thought was worth the scope and action no matter how bad it looked. After getting it home taking everything apart cleaning oiling and cleaning the barrel. Range time. Started out with 100 gr Remington core lokts. Never tried anything else in it. Crazy beat to hell abused/neglected rifle would shoot 1/2” groups. When it shot groups worse than that it was my fault.... funny how you can take a chance on one and it turns out better than expected.

Echols

Stevens model 200. In any chambering.

Or Marlin X-7. In any chambering.

Ruger american predator.

I bought a Turkish Mauser off of gunbroker a few years back for cheap. It had a Remington Classic barrel in .250 Savage put on it. Couldn’t find a load that it did t like to shoot. Multiple powders primers and bullet combos.

Tc venture. Best $299 I ever spent.

My first "tinker" rifle was like that. 22" or 24" Rem 700 chambered .243. Shot pretty good groups. Killed a bunch deer with it. Son finally got of age to deer hunt. Had barrel cut to 20" and re-crowned. Picked up a cheap Youth LOP stock. No bedding and continued to shoot well. Put a fixed 4X Leupold on it. Nearly 8lbs. But, still dead nuts reliable. Son, daughter, friends killed another bunch of deer with it. Son enlisted in USAF. A year or so later, no young right handed deer hunters in the house. Sold it to fund something I can't remember...

THIS

If the Axis can't be labeled a beater shooter right out of the box...

Yep, the sleeper of all sleepers.

Marlin 336

Gotta add the axis and Remington 783. Have yet to shoot one of them that wouldn't go less than an inch

a few years back Academy Sports had Stevens M200s on clearance for $179 if I remember correctly, most of them were in 708 with tan stocks

I like my Ruger American in 243 a lot. I did drop it in a B&C stock, but it’s still a “beater” in my book.

Shot my $240 x7 (remlin) today. Its a 243 and I was shooting 100 gr sierras over a mid level dose of IMR4350. Shot around 1” three shot groups at an avg of roughly 2775 fps, at 150 yards. I think I need to move it over 3clicks to the left and it should be 2” high at 100 yards. Of course it has a Vx-1 3-9x40 on it, so the number of clicks might be off a bit...

i had a ruger merican predator in 308 (18” bbl) that put 3 through the same ragged hole at 100, consistently. shouldnt have sold it.

Close out vanguards and the brownells howa barreled actions are a lot of gun for the money too. Right now everything from 2 years ago seems like a heck of a deal though.

Basic Walmart 700 ADL