Is there any particular reason I shouldn't get a r770 kit for a neophyte friend?

[Cryogaijin]

Sunday up here in beautiful Alaska is the day that Fred Meyers (A grocery store owned by Kroger) sends out their gun-ads for the week. Lately they've been doing 770 kits; a different caliber each week. This week is .300wm which is what I've been waiting for.

Here's the situation: My best bud up here is a financial idiot. He has sufficient debt to be a problem, and has a dead-beat ex who sticks him with large child support payments monthly. In short, he can't afford to get his own hunting rifle.

OTOH, I have sufficient discretionary funds to do so, and am considering helping him out. The issue is twofold. One, he's a total newbie. Two, I am not made out of money, so nothing more expensive than $300, out of the box ready to go.

Is there any reason NOT to go with a 770 in .300 winmag?

 

[NOLAEMT]

Unless he is a prohibited person, I say go for it.

 

[hso]

^ and he's likely to hock or sell it because he's not responsible enough to control his finances.

 

[kingpin008]

I'm gonna go with Hso on this one. It's awesome that you're willing to give your friend such a gift, but if he's an idiot with money, I'd hold off. If you can loan him a rifle for the season, do that instead. Otherwise, he might just have to be rifle-less until he can find his own cash.

 

[buck460XVR]

I'm gonna go with Hso on this one. It's awesome that you're willing to give your friend such a gift, but if he's an idiot with money, I'd hold off. If you can loan him a rifle for the season, do that instead. Otherwise, he might just have to be rifle-less until he can find his own cash.

^^^.... I gotta go with this.

and has a dead-beat ex who sticks him with large child support payments monthly.

Even if his ex is a dead-beat, SHE ain't the one who stuck him with child support payments. The state did, and rightfully so. If he complains and whines about paying for his own kid's food, shelter and comfort, I'd consider him the dead-beat......bigtime

 

[kingpin008]

Even if his ex is a dead-beat, SHE ain't the one who stuck him with child support payments. The state did, and rightfully so. If he complains and whines about paying for his own kid's food, shelter and comfort, I'd consider him the dead-beat......bigtime

Excellent point. People who complain about having to pay for kids that they had a part in making, are not to be given $300 gifts, IMHO.

 

[grubbylabs]

I think it kinda depends on the situation. Is he doing his best to be the best father he can? Is she living off the child support payments as well, or are they truly supplementing the support of the kids? If the money is only supplementing the kids then he should quit his complaining and be a man about it. If she is trying to live off those payments and keeping him from enjoying his kids then shame on her. Why is it that adults always forget that once they have kids it's no longer about them? Its about those kids and what they need.

Is he wasting his money on useless items, eating out all the time and what not. A better friend might help him see how thing really are and buy the rifle for him to use. Then when he has improved his situation give it to him as a sort of congratulation gift.

If he is spending his money as wisely as he can and just needs help, then yes I would help him, it does not matter how new he is to hunting, in my mind that is what friends do.

 

[hmphargh]

I would buy yourself a lovely new rifle and invite your friend to go shooting with you. Take him hunting with you and let him use your rifle. If/when he gets out of debt, maybe for a major birthday (one that ends in 0?), give him the rifle.

 

[ants]

Buying him a gift is your business, gaijin, not mine. That's your decision.

Your friends are your business, not mine. I'll keep my nose out of it.


Here's my feedback on the rifle. I bought the 770 combo in 7mm mag with 3-9 scope.

Holy crap, I am totally impressed with its accuracy, and the ease with which it develops accurate handloads.

Holy crap, I am totally unimpressed with its lousy controls and lousy fit 'n finish. A hard rifle to live with, to be sure.

I hate handling the rifle, it just feels so bad. It feels like a cheap crummy toy of a rifle, even though it shoots 0.770" groups with handloads, and 0.880" groups with Remington factory ammo.

The controls can be somewhat difficult, I struggle with them all the time. It's hard to close the bolt when the extractor doesn't want to snap over the rim. The stock feels like a Tonka Toy version of a toy hunting rifle. You release and insert the magazine only with the skill of a surgeon, it only releases half way when you press the mag release, then you have to hold the release and struggle to get the mag out. Bolt release is completely un-intuitive, I don't know where they came up with that. The Bushnell scope is a cheap version of a cheap scope, it works but it's not great. The trigger feels like prying open a car door with a crow bar. The sling mounts are just barely screwed into the cheap polymer plastic stock. Drawing the bolt feels like a tow truck winching a wrecked jeep out of a ditch.

But who cares about any of that, because when you put the focused crosshairs on something and pull the trigger, it hits that exact spot within 3/8" of the where the crosshairs pointed. Yes, for all its faults, it is indeed that accurate.

It's an inexpensive rifle with its target market those non-wealthy deer hunters who only go out once every five years, and never put more than two boxes through the gun. They just need to hit the deer, and this rifle will do that with excellence.

If you want to gift a rifle to the friend, and he doesn't care about all its faults, you'll save a lot of money and give him an accurate rifle.

But if he doesn't like a rifle that's hard to live with, it won't be much of a gift at all.

 

[gym]

The loan thing definatelly, even if you give it to him down the road.

 

[DAP90]

.300 winmag is a lot of gun for a "total newb". You might consider a lesser caliber so he doesn't develop a flinch. A cheaper caliber might be a consideration as well.

 

[Cryogaijin]

and he's likely to hock or sell it because he's not responsible enough to control his finances.

I'm not sure he actually knows what a pawn shop is. . .

If you can loan him a rifle for the season, do that instead.

I suppose I could loan him my saiga .308 with a 5 rounder, but he aint gettin his grubby hands on my walnut/blued r700.

Even if his ex is a dead-beat, SHE ain't the one who stuck him with child support payments. The state did, and rightfully so. If he complains and whines about paying for his own kid's food, shelter and comfort, I'd consider him the dead-beat......bigtime

Wow, judgemental much? Here's the situation: She moved back in with her parents 3k miles away because she had "lost her cold tolerance" never mind that her parents live somewhere with essentially identical temperatures to Anchorage. She told the court that she had a job and health care waiting for her the moment she stepped off the plane. Now, a year and a half later, she still has neither. Because of this, my friend's child support payments are exhorbitant. He doesn't complain about that anywhere near as much as the fact that she essentially lied to the court, failed to take the judge's advice, and is being a vengeful wench about a lot of things.

If she had followed through on her boasts in court, even at minimum wage, his payments would be half what they are.

 

[Frozen North]

Only you know your friends character. I was in the same situation a few years ago with a very close friend. He sold off everything he owned of value to pay a divorce attorney to fight for custody of his daughter. In the end, he got what he wanted, but he was left with a crappy car and an even crappier apartment with nothing in it. He is an avid upland hunter and I could tell he wanted to cry as summer came to a close. The loss of his prized BPS bothered him more than the loss of his wife!

I went to the local gun shop and picked him up a used pump 12 gauge of some sort for $125. The look on his face and the amount he appreciated it was worth every penny. He still has it, although he upgraded a few years later.

Broke does not mean someone is a punk. Stuff happens.

 

[buck460XVR]

Wow, judgemental much?

In this case I believe it's not being Judgmental, but being realistic. Your friend has made some poor life decisions. His choice to get married, his choice to have kids. His legal(and moral)responsibility is to support his children financially and to be there for them. This would happen whether he was still married or not. Courts order child support based on the income the non-custodial parent makes, not on what the non-custodial parent would like. They do not care how much irresponsible debt the father has accumulated, they just know, based on his income, what he needs to pay. If your friend cannot afford to buy his own gun, he, nor you can blame it on his ex-wife or the state ordered child support. His choices, his consequences. For you to give him a rifle to enjoy a passion is a noble thing and you are a good friend to be so generous. But don't blame your friend's financial predicament on anything else but the choices he has made. With the history of his poor choices, you should be prepared if he doesn't have the gun long.

 

[kingpin008]

To bring things back on track - I think the OP has been given some pretty solid options. If he loans his friend one of his rifles, he's not out any money and the friend still gets to hunt. If he buys the rifle for himself and loans it to the buddy, he can see how the buddy handles shooting. If he likes it and is capable of safely handling a gun, I don't see why it shouldn't be a gift down the line.

Seems all that's left to do is for the OP to decide which tack to take. I think we should leave further speculation and pontificatin' on matters of family for another time and place, yeah?

 

[Cryogaijin]

In this case I believe it's not being Judgmental, but being realistic.

More like "Making assumptions based on insufficient data" at the very best. Let me make things clear:

Both parents lived in Alaska. For the majority of this time the mother was making (significantly) more money, and was NOT paying child support.

Mother decided she had no real reason to stay in Alaska, so moves to the midwest where her family is, citing inability to handle cold. (Note: Much of the midwest is as cold if not colder than anchorage.)

Mother is now living with parents, unemployed and with no real expenses other than her own debt.

Because mother is now unemployed father has to pay child support to make up for the change in incomes. The mother is relying on the childsupport and her own parents for 100% of expenses, less what she's earning in unemployment.

Finally, custody was awarded on the assumption that the mother was going somewhere with #1 health care already in place (Didn't happen) and #2 a job for the mother immediately. (Didn't happen.)

The father's biggest issue in this situation is not that he doesn't want to pay child-support (Which he doesn't terribly mind, it is merely the level of it that bothers him) but that he hasn't taken the mother back to court for not living up to her end of the arrangement.

Oh, they were never married either.

With the history of his poor choices, you should be prepared if he doesn't have the gun long.

He wouldn't sell or hock a gift. That aside, I can't think what would happen to it.

f he buys the rifle for himself and loans it to the buddy, he can see how the buddy handles shooting.

I honestly have no use for a 770 kit. I am considering a couple other things for myself, but my requirements are different than his.