Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Nosler Trophy Grade Rifle, thoughts

i see nosler has there rifles on sale for 1495.00,,,
any thoughts on the gun, any one have one, i am thinking 280 ack, it has the heavy barrel not the light barrel as the 270,,,,

The talk is that the Nosler action is a Howa or some other asian made. It does not appeal to me at any price.

The Nosler specs show that the 280 weighs a lot more than the WSM version. On top of that they don't chamber the 7mm WSM.

Here is a link to the Nosler site. Nosler rifle

I would wait for the Kimber 84L's or get one of their current Montana's.

i would take a kimber 84l in 280 today at there prices,,, especially with a fiberglass stock,,,

When I Saw the rags touting this I looked at the articles and said... "Just what we need, ANOTHER damned push feed bolt gun" BIG yawn.....

Nothing special about it that I can see. Lots of MUCH better choices at that price point.

Howa actions and Bell and Carlson stocks. Just dont get any better than that.
Not saying there is anything wrong with Howas but not at that price

Once upon a SHOT Show I tried to get Nosler to go public on the relationship of their rifle actions to Howa, but you would have thought I asked them to perform an unnatural act.

My first law of acquisition is if you can't fix it, feature it; obviously it is not theirs.

jim

yeah, but the action IS slabbed.

Lots of sales during the Christmas shopping season.

Products that are normally 5x overpriced are put on sale at 3x...

So...better buy it before it goes off sale, wouldn't want to miss out!

TC

for 1500 clams, I would be thinkin Cooper.....

And be getting your monies worth too.

Sub MOA guarantee, Cerecoat/microslick finish inside and out, Pac-Nor barrel, Timney trigger, not a bad stock. Likely a pretty damn good hunting rifle.

Actually FVA, you're right, it's not a bad price for what you're getting. (at 1500 smackers that is) I was just having some fun - hence the smiley.

Cooper's come with a 1/2 moa guarantee. Oh......and it's made in the USA.........grin

Seems like most of the Nosler is USA made, machined, assembled.
Coopers are nice but pretty much fair weather rifles.

I've shot a few of them and think they are great guns. Both shot 1/2 moa w factory ammo Excellent company with good people, they stand behind their guns and sell many at full price. There aren't a ton of these made - if you want a Nosler, now is a great time to buy.

The December 2010 issue of The American Hunter has a review of the Nosler rifle.

They say Nosler made the actions?

Five shot groups were:

Fed. vital shock 165 gr Barnes TSX 1.52"
Nosler trophy grade 180 gr 1.24"
Winchester ballistic Silvertip 180gr 1.12"

The writers should get together and deliver the same message instead of guessing. Rifle magazine did a review and said the action was made by Pine Tree Castings (owned by Ruger). Another writer said it was "machined" in Oregon by a small machine shop to their (Nosler's) specs. Yet another writer said it was made in house, by Nosler.

Let's do some math:

Weatherby Vanguard rifle, on sale: $399
Bell and Carlson stock, for same: $249 (roughly)
Timney trigger: $100 (thereabouts)
Cerakoting: $150 (not including shipping)
Micro-slicking: $100 (not including shipping)
Bedding of stock: $100 (not including shipping)

So, with those rough figures the Nosler comes out pretty close to what many so called "custom rifles" here at the 'fire cost. Most 'swirlied 700s come in near $1000 when it is all said and done and most scrape $1500 if rebarreled.

On the wood stocked rifles I would agree with you. They do make a synthetic stocked rifle called the Excaliber. It would be perfect if it was a tad lighter, IMO.

I think the first run of Nosler's were made w/higher end stocks, and ltd. to 500 rifles. Later a 'lesser than' stock was used, and not sure about other components.

I would use one. Howa makes good stuff despite if one like where they are mfg. I prefer them over Rem myself in out the box build quality, that's just me.

That said, Cooper looks to have a good reputation and with Dan out, there is not much complaining I hear about. Kimber get's hit/miss reviews so perhaps you roll the dice there, same as my experience w/Rem.

If I spent big bucks on a semi custom, I'd look at Nosler, Cooper, or even a Sako w/McMillan stock myself. If Cooper DOES decide to go w/a SS/Syn rifle in the future, they JUST might be onto something if they keep their price point.