Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Better than most factory hunting rifles

The Stainless Stalkers are about as good as a factory hunting rifle gets

Browning xbolt hands down for me ergonomics, accuracy, ease of operation, reliable.

1. Kimber Montana (84m)

Light isn’t easy to do well, and the Montana does light incredibly well.

Mine have been very accurate.

They have phenomenal factory triggers.

Stock quality is top notch - the equal to the best McMillans I have - and the stock soaks up recoil like no other I’ve run.

Magazine and throat geometry are done right.

Tough, all weather, hunting rifle with no floor plate to empty the magazine at just the wrong time.

My Montana 7-08 is my favorite rifle.

Plus, the little .223 Montana is all the above with an action scaled so well to that cartridge...

2. Barrett Fieldcraft might have a chance to equal or better the Montana in many ways, but it’s a little heavier - and shaving weight well (like the Montana) is hard to quantify.

I love the Fieldcraft from field/hunting positions.

(I sat in an 80 acre field and dry fired a few rifles at deer from various field positions after the season - very educational exercise if you get the chance - the Fieldcraft was a wonderful blend of everything needed to get on target and touch off “shots” that stayed rock solid in the vitals - moving deer, near, far, stationary - really fit well and got on target and stayed there - swung well on all kinds of moving targets - impressive - will hunt it a bunch and see how it stacks up for real.

I haven’t found any factory rifles I thought were quite in the Montana/Fieldcraft class - although there are several I really like - but I like rifles enough I’m going to keep trying.

3. Although very different from the Montanas and Fieldcrafts, I’ve got a pre 64 M70 Featherweight that I absolutely love.

Fair weather rifle that drives tacks and fits me really well. Can’t get the factory trigger to rival the Montana or Fieldcraft, of course, but I’m not swapping it. Might send it to a better gunsmith...grin.

3a. Rem 700 xcr in 7-08 that I dropped in an Edge. It’s fantastic, but not exactly factory in the McMillan stock.

DJ

I was excited to learn about the New Barrett Fieldcraft and could not wait to get My hands on one till I did. For me the stock sucked! So i gladly handed it back to the salesman. I have found only one factory bolt action rifle that equals ( or in my case betters a Montana) and that is the Proof Research Elevation .308 Win, its not quite as light as a Montana but mine is a fantastic rifle that feels great in My hands and will shoot my handloads into one ragged hole @100 yds if I do my part that is....Some days i shoot better than others 😁....Good hunting...Hb

This gets posted all the time... but who actually does this? DBM or floor plate, to each their own... this just seems like a silly reason.

I’ve never handled one of the Proof Research rifles, but if it’s better than a Montana, I’d love to get my hands on one.

The jury is still out for me with the Fieldcraft. I haven’t had it long.

I wasn’t particularly impressed with the Fieldcraft handling it before I scoped it, but I liked it better shooting it off the bench and dialing it in, but I still didn’t like it as well as a Montana.

It wasn’t until I started playing with it dry firing on a field full of deer that it distinguished itself. I had several rifles and was going to spend the evening doing some long range shooting, but when I saw deer feeding I decided to play around with some rifles dry firing from field positions on live targets. It was sort of eye opening. I know the extra beef in the barrel made the Fieldcraft steadier (it's a 24” 6.5CM) - it just seemed to want to balance and get right on target and stay there better than than the other rifles I had with me.

I think I’ll use it calling coyotes and see how that goes - should be interesting.

DJ

Tikka is an easy, solid, dependable, and ultra-accurate bet.

No kidding. It's par for the course, really or, better stated, it is really the status quo. The OP's initial post asking: "What would everyone say are the best out of the box?", from my perspective, wants other people's opinions which may or may not be backed up by empirical data and both objective and subjective input. As always happens some participant asserts opinions as facts and make it known to the world that if one does not agree they are a moron/a-hole/etc. It makes for great entertainment.

Having not tried them all, of the ones I have tried, my first choice (opinion) is a Barret Fieldcraft. My second choice (opinion) is a Kimber Montana. My third choice (opinion) would be either a Browning X-bolt of some form or a Tikka T3/T3X. All of those on my list have demonstrated, for me, exceptional function and exceptional accuracy. Heck, I'm not sure I've purchased a rifle in the past 20 years that I would not assert to be accurate beyond my capabilities.

Rossi

If it doesn't have a detachable magazine, I won't even look at the rifle

I wish everyone thought this way... I'd be cleaning up on M70s and high end Mausers 😇😂

It’s not DBM vs floor plate - it’s ADL vs BDL - floorplate vs no floorplate.

What makes sense depends on what kind of country you hunt and how you use your rifle.

I rattle a good bit in south Texas and guide in the brush country fairly often.

I was on a blood trail of a hunter’s deer - literally crawling through thick brush with a Moldel 700 BDL (hinged fllorplate) slung over my shoulder, and as I was working through the thicket I managed to hang some brush and open the floor plate and dump 4 rounds out.

Backtracked and finally found them, got back on the blood and found the deer dead a few hundred yards later, but the only rounds I had were in the rifle (and of course I didn’t have one chambered), so it was aggravating to find the floorplate open.

ADL style rifles have something less to go wrong - and it’s not a silly choice in the least if the way you use a rifle justifies preferring it over the convenience of a hinged floorplate or detachable magazine.

DJ

I've come to prefer magazines that can't be lost, misplaced or fall out of the rifle.

Yep, I love my Montana but I really prefer a hinged floorplate best, I think my least favorite is a Detachable Mag as i lost one out of a Tikka T3 Several years back ( With 2 Of my .300 Win Mag Handloads inside) and it is still laying somewhere on Black Mtn to this day ....Hb

I have no use for a floorplate