What is the best rifle ever made?

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This is the sort of idle fluff worthy of the lesser breed of periodicals.
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Word.

The best rifle is the one that does the job assigned to it with the least compromises. Given the variability in expectations (be tactical and military! be shiny and pretty! be accurate! be easy to carry! be easy to shoot from the bench! be cheap! be expensive! be reliable! be light! be heavy! shoot a powerful round! shoot a not-so-powerful round! shoot slowly! shoot quickly! shoot once! shoot lots of times without reloading!), its silly to think that any one rifle can equally satisfy all needs.
 
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Page 2 and no 10/22 yet....

Best just what is that....best selling, most robust.

Narrow that sucker down.
 
This is the sort of idle fluff worthy of the lesser breed of periodicals.
Click to expand...

It's the High Road, we know you had to sugar coat it.

"Best" on internet forums usually means "that which is ranked topmost in social standing and which imparts the owner is the Alpha male in the pecking order, i.e., the winner in the locker room measuring contest of peers."

Read enough posts in gun, knife, car, even carpentry and plumbing forums, you see it everyday. It's used to inject emotion and socialization into something that demands cold hearted empirical examination.

One party claims "X" is best, another "Y," but the issue is there are no ground rules established. Which then means it's up to the Big Guy to sort out what's important.

If you're following along you see what I'm doing here.

Let's ask the OP what he thinks "best" means in terms of range and target. That's what a gun has to accommodate - it is a tool to reach out beyond arm's length to accomplish a purpose.

Define it.

No definition, then it's trolling for the sake of creating dissension - because males have to have boundaries defined so they can strive against each other. Without boundaries they go rogue and it takes force to make them conform. With boundaries it then has limits and can be sporting or at least civilized.

Ok, OP, set the boundaries. Best rifle - for what?
 
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Vague, but a common watercooler/campfire casual conversation starter with no legit single answer so I'll play

1) Whatever you got at the time
2) Depends on what you want it for
3) .22 Marlin or Marlin lever (ducks from 10-22 barrage and Winchester fans)
4) P14 or SMLE (ducks from Springfield fans)
5) Garand
6) M14 (Merica!), FAL, G3
7) M16 (Merica!)
8) Mauser 98, Winchester 70 (pre 64), Savage 110 stainless accutrigger and jeweled and hand lapped bolt, Sako Finnbear, Tika T3,?
9) Merkel Drilling
 
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no such thing as a best ever, but I have to agree with sixshooter.

only one rifle in the world is still in production, 120 years after its conception, with millions produced, on a large scale, to be used as a hunting rifle, as a presicion sports rifle and in military service as a sniper rifle and that is the bolt action, front locking lugs, cock on opening rifle, better known as the mauser 98 (and it's derivatives and clones)
 
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its silly to think that any one rifle can equally satisfy all needs.

yet for hundreds and hundreds of years it did exactly that...
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Well, now you have to tell us what single rifle satisfied all needs for hundreds and hundreds of years. You can't just leave us hanging like that.
 
Well if nothing else, the question has revealed the tightly-wound amongst us. Had someone pondered the meaning of life, heads might have exploded.
 
Among manually operated center fire repeaters the 98 Mauser basic design probably is the 'best'. Too much competition in the other categories to declare a clear winner.
 
Reminds me of why I stopped reading Black Belt Magazine back in the '80s. Got tired of the cover of every issue proclaiming, "Is (insert technique here) (insert style here)'s Most Powerful Technique?"

Not convinced the OP's question was meant to have any specific direction.
 
I'd say Mosin-Nagant. Need to shoot something 2000 yrds away? Mosin can do it. Worried about hitting something that far? Ammo is cheap enough that you can just keep shooting till you hit the target. Something on it actually breaks? Just buy a new one. Most likely cheaper that way. Need to use it in self defense? Well even if you don't have a bayonet the rifle is big and heavy enough to be used as a club. Then if you do have the bayonet you can stab them from almost as far as you can shoot.
 
Sam1911 said:
No reason to even speculate on something like that. There's no "best" anything. Every need is slightly different, and "best" is a pointless idea. A lot of what's "best" about one rifle will make it nearly "WORST" for many purposes.

(Deleted)
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^^^^^^^^^^
This.
*SIGH!* Wow, what a LOADED question.
I'd love to insert some snarky little assertions but the truth is Sam1911 really did say everything that need be said.
 
I really kind of doubt the OP was expecting that there would be a consensus or that we would eventually come to the realization that the Consnooter 1492AXT-LS is the BEST gun of all time. It seems to me that it is just one of those silly questions that has no real answer(other than the Marlin 336 like I already said) but it's worth seeing what other people might think.
Of course, knowing how internet forums generally go, two guys will soon be thrashing each other about their choices and some Glock folks will get all up in arms so the thread will need to be closed.
 
A nice start

I'm just logging on for the first time today -- and have to go to work now, so I haven't even had time to read all responses carefully yet.

I'll get back later and complete reading, and explain why I left if purposefully vague.

But for now, in a nutshell, I think a bunch of you get it: there is no single answer to this. It depends, including what the use is for: hunting, war, targets, plinking, etc. I contend that we can learn interesting things about people -- and a diverse community like this one -- by how we respond to these kinds of questions.

If I could change one thing in my OP, it would be to add the question, "Why?". That would make use more clear.

Oh, and I have my candidate for "best", but I'll save it for later. ;)
 
For me, it's simple: the "best" firearm, is the one that fits the me best, be it for target, hunting, home defense.
 
The one that fits you, the one that shoots better than you do, and is economical to buy, maintain, and load/buy ammo for your purpose.


The Unicorn of Rifles
 
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