Supposed Deer/Hog 308 Bolt Gun

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PearlWhiteGT

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Shopping around for a new bolt gun and would love any recommendations and advice from you fellas. This rifle will be used for deer and lots of hog hunting down here in South Texas. I will be running a suppressor on it so don’t want a barrel longer than 20 inches. Don’t need some fancy light weight rifle since most of my shooting will be out of a deer blind or off a tripod.

Few rifles I’ve had my eye on:

Tikka T3X CTR 308
Savage Model 10
Remington 700 SPS Tactical
Howa 1500 Barreled Action on Bravo Chassis

I’d like to stay around the $1K or less range if possible. Will be shooting factory ammo as well. Any advice on these rifles or others would be greatly appreciated.
 
Any of those rifles on your list would be a good choice. Personally I'm a Remington 700 man, so that would be my choice.

If I was younger and didn't have MS I would build me a short barrel 300 BO for nighttime Hog Hunting. Suppressed with a mid to high end thermal scope. If.................
 
I have a Savage Hog Hunter in 308. I live in NY so I don't know anything about putting a suppressor on it. I bought it because it has open sights so if I'm at my camp two and a half hours from home and something happens to the scope I can pop it off and still hunt. It's very accurate and overall I'm glad I bought it. I think the threaded barrel would make it an ideal choice for you.
 
I was wondering about the win of having a suppressor on a 308win.

I see that Lapua has a subsonic load for 308win. 200gr at 1066fps. That would be a neat loading for pigs in agriculture fields or under feeders.

Then load up for deer.

Have you looked at the Ruger American Predator it may also be a good choice.

Have fun with your search!
 
If I was on a budget, the Ruger American Predator 18" would be my choice.

The Howa in the KRG Bravo stock would be really nice as a package.

I've never been a huge fan of savage actions, but they're nice rifles.

The Tikka might be the best balance of weight, features and build quality from your options though.

I went a little over your budget and got a Sig Cross that I'm very happy with.
 
Another option is a Ruger Gunsight Scout with an XS Systems rail which will provide lots of mounting options for thermal/scopes/NV/etc. Ruger offers the 308Win in 16” & 18.7” length barrels (I believe the 18.7” is only bead blasted stainless).

Depending on your anticipated ranges you could decide on 308Win or 450 Bushmaster.
 
I agree with the savage model 11 hog hunter. I have a 223 and 308 that are both about 10 years old with a blind mag, 20" barrel, and threaded.

Ruger american predator also comes to mind
 
I like the Tikka CTR, but don't think you can do it under $1k. Maybe not much over it though.

2ND choice would be the Ruger Predator. You can get 2 in your budget. I know you don't need a light rifle, but chances are good it will shoot as well or better than the others and I simply like it better regardless.

I had a CTR for a few years and found it didn't shoot any better than my standard T3 so I sold the CTR.. I wanted the shorter barrel so I just cut my T3 from 22.5" down to 19". I don't need a suppressor.
 
Have a Savage 110 Storm in .223 that I`ve enjoyed shooting very much. I think the 110 line is a step up from the Axis line. Very accurate, although for a dedicated hog/deer gun I`d go .308. Tikka makes a fine rifle, no question, although I don`t know that from an accuracy standpoint they are any more or less accurate than a Savage rifle. Smoother action, if that`s important to you, although my 110 action is fine.
 
I’m using an 18” Bergara Ridge in 308, and it’s suppressed. Use it for whitetail hunting, but it’d do fine for pigs.

The ridge is also available in 20” barrel, but inside 400 it doesn’t matter much and I’m not personally shooting past that regardless of barrel length or cartridge

Savage makes a few 110’s with threaded barrels. Also a good choice.
 
Looking at the Howa 1500 16.25" Barreled Action (308 caliber) on sale at Brownells for about $400 shipped. Not sure how I feel about the shorter barrel but feel like with a can on the end of it, it should perform well. Any of you guys have experience with Howa 1500's?

The Savage Hog Hunter looks like a nice rifle as well. But I'd need a chassis/stock to mount my IR light onto for night vision. That's why I'm leaning towards the Howa 1500 action in some type of chassis.
 
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Any of those rifles will do the Job.

I like Savage as they have a lot of choices for left handers. However, even though I own 2 Savages that have the Accu-Trigger, I don't care for it. One of these days I'll get around to swapping out the accu-triggers for normal / standard triggers without blades.

I've killed 2 hogs using borrowed 308 rifles in the past 4 years. 1st with was with a Weatherby in 308. The 2nd was with a Savage Axis also in 308.
 
PearlWhiteGT said:
Looking at the Howa 1500 16.25" Barreled Action (308 caliber) on sale at Brownells for about $400 shipped. Not sure how I feel about the shorter barrel but feel like with a can on the end of it, it should perform well. Any of you guys have experience with Howa 1500's?

The Savage Hog Hunter looks like a nice rifle as well. But I'd need a chassis/stock to mount my IR light onto for night vision. That's why I'm leaning towards the Howa 1500 action in some type of chassis.
Click to expand...
I’ve run numbers in ballistic calculator with 18” barrel using 150 gr. Winchester XP.

I'm estimating MV at 2680 to 2700 fps ( -120 to -140 fps from test barrel specs) with suppressor so this is purely ballpark (without a chrono) but should be fairly close and I’d imagine the 16” isn’t terribly far off these numbers.

Per the calculation, the 150 XP still exceeds the 1800 fps needed for most ballistic tips to expand and carries over the minimum suggested energy for whitetail around 425 yards from 300 feet in elevation with 18” barrel.

I’d venture to guess a 16” barrel would carry similar estimates around the 375 to 400 yard mark.

Higher BC bullets, such as Nosler BT, AB, or Hornady Eldx would extend that range to around 550 yards and beyond…. Per the estimated calculations

That’s academic for me, though. I’ll take a 300 yard shot, but that’s really as far as I care to go on live game regardless of cartridge or velocities.

Hope that’s helpful info. And remember…. that’s a ballpark figure not precise. Need to chrono to fine tune
 
Any Tikka and done. I also like Remington 700's as everyone I have had was sub 1 MOA. But the others are good accurate rifles as well. I like my Tikka in 7-08. Great rifle out of the box. No tinkering needed. Pick the one that you like best.
 
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