Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles hat is the best sub $700 Hunting rifle

I will buy every sub 600.00 pre 64 winchester model 70 in decent condition you can find for me.

Because I am too cheap to trash an expensive rifle like I have with every rifle or shotgun I taken into this environment. All the water that runs down the Red River is just as salty as the upper end of Trinity Bay below Houston on the Gulf of Mexico from naturally occuring salt deposits in West Texas....or think hunting in Coastal Alaska with temps down to match possible with some winters like this last one.

The Venture's grooved Hogue touch pads work better with a gunked up gumbo slimey muddy hand than my T3 270 SS/syn I have been using for wet weather in West Texas & I assume a Montana's composite stock would be no better. SA Kimbers ergo's also don't fit me well...and I wanted a 308 to shoot cheap milsurp brass & my 300WSM's bullets & my 9.3x62's RL15 powder for 25-2600fps MV's in 165's.

Before the feral hog population exploded in the last 10 years, I duck hunted this area for lots of years. More than once had to "swim" across an oxbow off the River in 6"s of water with a shotgun across the decoy bag to not have to put my feet into the bottomless muck that continually sucked my chest waders off no matter how I tied them on.

For a Statistical Example the Hagarman Goose Refuge & Fed WMA at the upper end of Lake Texoma, 10 miles from where I live now, has declared a War on hogs since their trappers are over whelmed and losing the fight, had a pair of 3 day Lottery hunts advertised locally this year for 190 hunters in March, no limits & leave'em lay if you wanted. The Bio guy was quoted in the newspaper & sez they had upwards of 2k hogs on property and needed to remove 60% of the herd just to keep the herd at the same level for a year....every year.

Hogs are huge problem in Texas & Oklahoma almost equalling our 3.5M+ WTail population according to TPW, and I still know a bit about hunting the Red River Valley on the Texas side in places ... and that's what I bought this Venture 308 for. Knock'em down, pull the back straps, mebbe the hams and move on. I only need this gun to shoot 4-6" groups for head shots at 2-250 yards and anything better than that will be a bonus...with a Lifetime Warranty.
Ron

I went and gave the Tikka a second look today. Specifically a T3 Lite model that was chambered in 308. My second impression of the rifle is actually better than my first. Although the stock does feel cheap and plasticky, it is a lot stiffer than my savage plastic stocks. The action was definately smoother than my savage rifles as well. Now for the most part I don't care about a smooth action, this will be a hunting rifle that gets beat around in the woods and the back of my truck. I have a savage action that absolutely sucks but, it is an absolute tack driver so honestly I don't equate the smooth action to neccesarrily mean more accurate. I think I am going to go ahead and give the tikka shot. Now I just need to decide on caliber. I know that 243 would be a good idea since I already reload for it but, I really think I want something with just a tad bit more knock down. I am leaning towards a 25-06 but a friend of mine is really trying to convinve me to go 260. I am still not opposed to a 270 or even a 30-06. I already own a 7mm WSM though so I was looking for something that fits in between a 243 and a 7mm WSM that has a manageable recoil. I mean my 7mm WSM isn't rediculous by any means but I sure don't like taking it to the range for an extended day of target shooting.

The .260 Rem or 6.5x55 would do everything for you. So would the .308.

The Tikkas are all long actions so take your pick. There is no weight or stiffness benefit of the short action caliber.

Weatherby Vanguard 7-08, walnut stock with maple fore end tip instead of the usual rosewood. Nikon Prostaff. $629 at Deadeye Gun & Pawn, Sparta MO. They ship.

If you want to see a picture of what that money will buy on the used gun market, look at Armslist, Springfield MO for Deadeye's ad.

Disclaimer: I have no interest in this gun or this shop whatsoever, and have never set foot in the place even though it is within 25 miles of my house.

For crushing the brush, a Remington pump wouldn't be a bad idea. It would be just like shooting a 20 ga. 870, with a great deal more range.

I am on my 3rd Tikka & 2nd T3 and find them to be extremely accurate, problem free, and none of mine have ever required any sort of tuning or adjustment. I've had a wood/blue 695 Hunter grade 270, a T3 6.5x55 HUnter Grade that shot bugholes with a Sierra book load & got traded off on a SAKO 260, and my current T3 SS/syn 270 that gives me sub MOA groups with a little load development. I've owned 45-50 deer rifles in my almost 50 years of hunting and NO brand of rifle has been so easy to work with and given less problems as the Tikka's I've owned except the SAKO's I used sell as a factory Rep back in the '80's.

As noted above, I bought a TC Venture last month for a specific purpose as "beater" at half the price of a new T3, but have been impressed with the fit & finish so far, just haven't shot it yet - other things in the house require priority right now. But IF the Venture just lives up to it's advertising that will be a high bar indeed to compete with a T3.
Ron

I'd bet money that your venture will be a shooting sob. One of my friends has traded off all of his savage rifles for the TC ventures. They all shoot sub moa.

I'll second that.
Too often we assume that all hunting rifles have got to be a bolt - and a new one at that.

Gander Mountain website is showing the Tikka T3 Hunter(wood stocked) for $679.99 in ,270 Win & .243 Win.

If you could tolerate the plastic stock they have a lot more caliber options at $599.99

I don't regard a Montana as an expensive rifle...I think it's a good value in a handy rifle, and they're plenty rugged.

The Venture is a fine rifle too, but I wouldn't hesitate for a second grabbing any of these rifles, or any of the ones in my collection, if rough treatment were demanded. My philosophy is that every rifle that's taken into the field should be capable of hard use. Working rifles are designed for hard duty, not as place holders in a wall display.

Plastic stocks are convenient, but wood stocks are a better material for any task except underwater applications. Scratches usually means that a rifle was put to good use, and as long as the barrel doesn't get bent too badly out of whack, a rifle can take a lot of abuse and still do the job it was designed to do.

I've always been a little too obsessive to just let things be, but looking back, if I still had a decades old rifle with original blue that was nearly rubbed off and some pits, scratches and cracks in the stock, now-a-days I would just leave it abused and battered, and treasure all the fond memories.

Any task? That is a matter of opinion and one which many people can and do disagree.



Or they can mean a rifle was neglected...

Look at the Zastava, with the Mauser 98 action, quality steel, on solid European walnut, M70 less than $700, very accurate.

Well I pulled the trigger on a Tikka T3 Lite in 25-06. I saw that buds guns had them for $578. I also noticed that they had a make an offer option. I offered $500 it was denied. I offered $505 denied, $510 denied, I think there were only 1 or maybe 2 offer chances remaining and I went ahead with my $5 incriment and sure enough, they accepted my offer of $515. So with free shipping plus the $6 I opted to pay for insurance and the $25 that my local shotting club will charge me for an FFL transfer, I am the new owner of a Tikka 25-06 for a grand total of $546. Now I need to find myself a decent little hunting scope. I own 2 viper's. One is an HSLR model in 4-16X50 and the other is the standard HS in 4-16X50. I don't need anything that big for this particular rifles purposes so i am thinking about maybe trying their new Diamondback HP 3-12x42.

Very nice, I think you'll like it. I took mine in 270 wsm to colorado two years ago and killed my first bull elk. Mine is very consistently accurate, often the first two shots in almost the same hole.

gonna get flamed but here goes...

local shop blowing out savage axis rifles at $229. i clipped two coils off the trigger spring and tightened the bolts. mounted a proven scope and went to the range to sight in the .243, thinking it might make a good truck gun for the price.

it put every load i put in it, into plus or minus 1/2" (i did not measure, just eyeball). freaking kidding me? for $229?!

now, it is nothing special to look at and is not the kind of quality you can get from other makers' (such as ruger or remington's) top of the line rifles. however... how lucky are we to live in a time where less than $300 gets you half-moa accuracy! gonna use JB as a shield here...he has gotten similar results with his wife's .22-250...

so to stay on topic, if mine is an example of how good rifles are now...$700 oughta be somethin' to see!

I think for the money it's hard to beat a Higgins, Interarms, Daly or old Husqvarna 98 mauser action sporter. I frequently see this class of european import Mauser for $300 + or minus. Those are good guns that will last for generations, and you'll never run out of spare parts.

The Tikka T3 lite's have my attention, great shooters, Sako makes good rifles.

If you have a sportman's warehouse nearby, their Tikka T3 lite's (blued) are on Father's Day sale for $449. Picked up a 7-08 today cuz I wanted to try the caliber and the rifle.