Major depression regarding prices!

If you like the Sako, look at a Tikka. Similar but different........ They are nice, but for a whole lot less.

You should be able to find a lightly used A-Bolt for $500 or less. I like the Sako 75. I went mint condition on an easy FTF sale with that.

You can find a good used Winchester 70 or Remington 700 for around $500. The good thing about a lot of used rifles you find out there is they just havent been shot that much. Most people carry their rifles a lot more than they shoot them.

rifle

dont forget savage 110,very accurate and you can change cases if head is same 30/06-243-ect.

Remmington 700 I bought one in the .270 calibur at walmart for 477$ I put a leupold rifleman 4-12x scope on it. I was hitting within +-2 inches at 300 yards with rented sandbags at the range. I would recommend the remmington model 700 in any calibur.

Dont know exactly what you are looking for in a rifle but the Marlin XL7 in 25-06 is a great gun and can be had for under or right at $300.

The X-bolt's will get much smoother with some use and lube. I've got a box through mine and it's about as slick as my Sako 85. It will outshoot my Sako 85 too. The X-Bolt is lighter, and the magazines's are better desinged IMO. No more Sako's for me.

the rise in gun prices have kind of turned me off, too. i don't feel that many rifles out there, especially new, are worth the ask price... i have definitely slowed down my gun purchases and put a lot more thought into each purchase now. i went from buying a couple guns per month to a couple per year because i am having a hard time justifying spending more money on my toys than i spend on my mortgage.

fortunately for me, i have a pretty sizeable collection now and can get by without purchasing very many new guns. i think the guy who is just starting out his collection, though, will be turned off quickly.

i have switched from buying guns to buying accessories. for example, i think suppressors are pretty cool...

Mossberg

Yes, the shotgun company. They have a budget gun similar to the Marlin base 30-06. Great company, so it's probably worth looking at the gun.

I haven't noticed any rise in gun prices other than the "assault like" black rifles (these went through the roof) and a bit of jacking up on some models of handguns, especially semiautos, from well known brands (SIG, Glock, Beretta, etc..).

With $400 or less you still can buy an excellent brand new hunting rifle (often in combo with a scope) and just about the same amount will get you a good pistol (Bersa, RIA, some model of Taurus, etc...)

Cabelas has Browning A-Bolts with wood stock for $600 included a generic 3-9X 40 scope and a case.

Ammo it's a different story....

Specialty or "jewel like" guns has had very high (and not justified by "fundamentals") prices for years...some particular models/brand have the ability to command "irrational" prices (for example, any Kimber product)....thank God I'm a practical collector...you still can buy good quality no-nonsense firearms for reasonable money

As much as I want to help the local guys, sometimes these shops are the ones that price their items out of earth orbit....big box retailers are hard to beat...I can pay a bit more for more "personalized" and knowledgeable customer service but sometimes that "premium" amout to double the price or ever worse.....

2 weeks ago one of my neighbour bought a Tikka Stainless 30-06 in combo with a Bushnell Scope for $450....when he tested the rig at the range, the shots were landing on top of each other at 100 yards after less than half box of ammo.

Had a Sako---one of the main reasons of getting rid of it was the goofy scope mounting system---factory rings were sky high IF you could even find them.

Get the Browning.

Raindodger;

I too have looked at the X-bolt. I didn't like it, or it's price. Particularly when store's in the area are having tremendous sales on Browning A-bolt Medallion II's at $399.00 while they last. And they didn't last long, I can tell you that. I have concerns about the rigidity of the X-bolt with that cavernous hole in the bottom.

So, I now own another Tikka. I currently have an older Whitetail Hunter, and am having a new T3 rebarreled to 6.5 Swede as they haven't released a lefty Swede at this time.
Gotta say that I might very well have purchased a CZ550 in Swede instead if that were available with a left hand bolt, but it isn't either.

900F

I agree with the Tikka comment, very good rifles that are extremely accurate.

The Tikka I had shot patterns not groups, my Sako's on the other hand shoot very well. Buy a Cooper!