Best out of the box $400 or less .308 bolt gun?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Hanzo581

Hanzo581

Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2006
Messages
2,136
Location
Chesapeake, Virginia
This isn't for hunting, it's just for target shooting up to 300yrds (max range of the shooting facility).

I have only shot one bolt gun in recent years and it was a Savage .308, Model 12 I believe, with AccuTrigger and I liked it very much, but at $700 it is out of my price range.

Only interested in calibers that are relatively inexpensive to shoot and similar in ballistics to the .308.
 
Buy a savage/stevens 200 and a rifle basix trigger for it. That will get you around 300 dollars on the rifle from a good dealer. Abd the SAV-1 trigger is 85 bucks. Or hope a marlin xl7, ruger american or savage axis will do what you want. Reloading should be in your future.
 
Stevens 200 or ruger American. I don't have 1st hand experience but there is plenty of love for both of them. I'm sure there are some lemons out there but that happens with everything. If I was looking for a rifle with your specs I'd start with those.
Last year Dicks had the 700 sps varmint scope combo for $350 as a black Friday special fwiw. If I had to guess they'll do it again bc they've had the same special for a few years here.
 
Savage Axis in 223 rem. But they have heavy trigger pulls.
th_SavageAxis223R.jpg
[/URL][/IMG] Click for Larger.
 
Buy a used remmy 700 or Savage / Stevens. Steer away from the axis/edge rifles and stay with the 10,11,12 models with savage.
 
Buy a savage/stevens 200 and a rifle basix trigger for it. That will get you around 300 dollars on the rifle from a good dealer. Abd the SAV-1 trigger is 85 bucks. Or hope a marlin xl7, ruger american or savage axis will do what you want. Reloading should be in your future.
Click to expand...

My old pre-accutrigger Savage 110, I believe the same trigger as the Stevens has, is adjustable and can be set to 3 crisp pounds. It's very good on a hunting rifle, though bench resters will bash it. I shoot it well, though and am not into bench rest shooting. I bought it for hunting New Mexico. It's in 7mm Rem Mag.
 
My buddy picked up a Savage/Stevens 200 in .223. I sighted it in for him and was surprised how well it shoots.

He has less than $200 into the rifle and scope combined. I have no reason to think the same set up in .308 would do worse.

I usually avoid cheap scopes but I can't say anything bad about his set up. It's working fine so far.
 
I have a Stevens model 200 chambered in 308.. I put a Vortex scope on a good one piece rail and it shoots great. There are quite a bit of aftermarket parts for this rifle, but it shoots well right out of the box. Mine likes the 168 grain HPBT projectiles over Varget so far...
 
For the money, I really like the Ruger American. It's a lot of rifle for not a lot of money.

Geno
 
Ruger's new American is getting a terrific reputation for performing all out of line with it's low price. They did a shooting demo with quite a few gun writers using Americans in .30-06 with 3-9x scopes and they all shot very well out to some very extended ranges of up to 1000 yards. Here's a copy of an article on the event:

http://gunsmagazine.com/ruger-american-rifle/

The American sells for about $350 around here and it's available in .308 along with several other calibers. Add a decent scope such as the 10x Bushnell Midway sells for $199 and you'd have an even better target set up then those writers were using. The rifle is under your $400 cap, glass will put you over. I honestly don't see how you could get more for less however. If it takes saving up a bit longer it would be well worth it IMO.
 
I"ve seen some pretty spectacular deals on used howa's. howa 1500 + nikko stirling scope for about 400. That would probably get my money. But new, any of the new axis/american/xl7 guns. it's a whole new world in terms of accuracy and price with these new bolt guns.
 
In that price bracket, you might want to cruise the local gun stores' USED rack. There's a lot of those $700 rifles that have seen less than 100 rounds and come with a free scope...for $400.
 
I have the Howa 1500 in .308. Came factroy with a Hogue overmolded stock. Bought it used with a USA Redfield 3x9x50. Can shoot much better than I can. It can easily do an 1" with mixed brass and Hornady A-Max 168gr HPBT. I have yet to try any other bullet. Match Kings will be my next attempt...
 
Will be hard to find aftermarket stocks for rifles with recoil lug in the stock instead of on receiver side as Ruger American or Savage Axis.
 
If you're looking for .308 and a target rifle, I'd look for something with a heavy barrel and go from there. Many of the thin barreled hunting rifles will shoot great, but they heat up quick and at that price point you see POI changes with the heat. Hard to get into much of a dedicated target rifle for $400. I'd personally go with a Stevens 200 and upgrade as cash allowed. It's the nice thing about that design and the length of time that model has been around. You can upgrade everything at home to fit your shooting needs, if it needs upgraded at all. Barrel swap, no problem. New trigger, no problem. Stiffer stock, no problem. Other makes offer similar features but the aftermarket is much stronger for the Savage action.
 
Have not tried all that are available. So making a fair and balanced evaluation is impossible.

The only other option is "an opinoin." most of the time it`s biased to say the least.
So in my opinoin, it leaves "the best" up for grabs. JMO.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

_N4Z_
  • Locked
Most accurate out of the box bolt rifle?
2
Replies
32
Views
3K
Geno
G
N
  • Locked
Budget 308 help
2
Replies
34
Views
2K
Infidel4life11
I
M
  • Locked
Which is a better shooter and/or deal out of the box?
Replies
15
Views
1K
yzguy
Y
T
  • Locked
Bolt gun dilemma...
Replies
11
Views
1K
cratz2
C
L
  • Locked
Have $800 for rifle. Going nuts.
2 3
Replies
62
Views
3K
cal74
C
Back
Top