I am looking for a new, lower priced rifle in .308 Win. I am more a varmint and target shooter so I don't know how much use I'll give a .308 and would like the rifle to be about $500 max unless someone says you've just gotta try this... Initially it will be used for hogs at probably less than 100 yards so extreme accuracy is not so important and I assume any modern rifle will be accurate enough.

I was hoping to find a used rifle and let what was available help with the choice but there are very few used ones around and the gun stores and pawn shops are selling used ones for about the same price as new ones. So, I'm starting to consider new. It seems the cheaper rifles are light weight models with plastic stocks weighing around 6 1/2 pounds. I was hoping for the gun to weigh about a pound more to help with the .308's recoil.

So far I've only seen the Marlin X7 for $399 and the trigger was OK but the stock felt like Fisher Price. For a hundred more I saw a Tikka T3 lite which had a great trigger and and a decent plastic stock.

Any recommendations or rifles I should take a look at?

 

The Ruger American in .308 stickers at about $450. Composite stock and you need to add your own sights.

Don't own one, but it is in your price range.

 

I have not hunted hogs so I don't know, but are you looking for a semi auto or bolt? Other?

 

I've owned quite a few rifles. One of my all time favorites was in .308 caliber. I had a Winchester model 88 for a lot of years. If you can find a good used one it will do exactly what you want. It's fast and accurate (especially for a lever action) with reasonable recoil. I saw a used one just a few weeks ago at a Cabela's. I think it was around $600.

 

I'm thinking of a bolt action to keep the cost down.

 

U can't beat the price of the .308 Remington 770 Sport Rifle Package w/scope. A lot of bang for the buck. Sorry, bad pun. lol

 

Wouldn't that be a lot of bang for the pig?

Wow! The .308 Remington 770 Sport Rifle Package w/scope is $300 on-line. It is based on the 700 action. I'd tell you where but we can't advertize. If you google ".308 Remington 770 Sport Rifle Package" you will find it.

Another one you might want to check out is the Savage Axis. They run just under $400

 

I had to do a little reading as a 308 sounded a bit large as Tolyn mentioned, it can be used for moose up here, but for an all around gun, that sounds like a good choice. My son has a Ruger M77 308/scope and I have used it successfully several times. Drop plate for unloading and easy to handle. Once we sighted it in years ago it has never changed. He did float the stock as well.

Bud

 

My first thought also was that .308 was more gun than needed but wild hog can be tough to kill. I was initially thinking of a 25-06 that could also be used for longer range varmint hunting but availability of inexpensive plinking ammo .308 is really driving me to that caliber.

I have a friend who hunts them exclusively with 75 grain BTHP 5.56 but he lives in prime hog hunting territory and just waits until he gets the shot he wants with great success. I have to drive several hours to hunt hog so I want a bit more shot flexibility and in the dense forest I want them to drop as quickly as possible. I'm not keen on crawling through the briers tracking a wounded hog.

I have a M77 Mark II in .223 and it shoots quite well. Unfortunately even a basic M77 is a little more $ than I would like to spend on this rifle.

 

My son can usually pick up some inexpensive 308 ammo for playing and likes his 165 BT ammo for deer. I can certainly agree with dropping them where you shoot them as tracking without snow is a pain. We probably get a better selection of used guns way up north than you do, but the Rugers are never cheap, kind of middle of the road.

From watching the shows on hog hunting, it looks like our cold weather isn't much of a barrier. maybe we will all be hog hunting some day.

Bud

 

I hope this is true! We do not have them in MN but WI has them and I have heard some good stories from people who have hunted them.

IMO you can not go wrong with a .308. Cartage has been around a looong time, inexpensive ammo and will put down anything in North America. It is a cartage that is on my "to do" list likely after a 22-250 rifle.

 

I wish I could find a Remington 770 somewhere so I could physically put my hands on it. The reviews say it's a bit crude with decent accuracy and according to the specs it's a bit heavy at 8 1/2 pounds, perfect to tone down the recoil a bit. For the price it does seem hard to beat.

 

no Scheel's, Cabella's or Bass Pro Shops nearby?

 

Ruger 10/22.

Its all you need and you could get one used for $100 bucks.

I know all you guys will make fun and call it a cap gun but it does everything I want. Very accuate.

I like subtle. All my friends like the stuff that will blow a volkswagon door off at 10 paces.


Mike NJ

 

Well, a 22 is no cap gun, but it's not the best for anything above a rabbit. If something were our 50 yards it would be useless and if one of those hogs was in at 5 yards it would again not be my choice. They are perhaps the most cost effective plinking gun, and I love them for squirrels and snowshoes, but it is not a sporting caliber for taking the game in question.

There are lots of options below a 308, but the availability of guns and ammunition play a big role. Besides, you never have too many guns.

Bud

 

Yes, the 10/22 would make a good club to beat a hog over the head. If you want a really fun cap gun I absolutely love the .17hmr. I think the biggest difference is the quality of bullets available. With the .17 you can get into real jacketed bullets and the little 17 grain ballistic tip bullets fragment very reliably unlike a .22lr slug which is often going slow enough to ricochet nicely.

Unfortunately the closest Cabella's or Bass Pro are over 150 miles away. There are some Dick's Sporting Goods stores within an hour's drive but in the past I've looked at their ammo prices which makes me afraid to see their gun prices. The bigger shame is that their website is useless. It just says go to the store.

Last night I was all set to move up in price and order a stainless Tikka T3 which by the time I scoped it would end up around $1'000. Then this morning I'm thinking of something like a Remington 770 package for a bit over $300. Right now I'm a bit worse than my wife shopping for shoes.

 

If that was the case, you'd have 100 guns in your closet that you never shoot. LOL

 

And I don't think you should forget about Savage either. I often see them in packages including a scope at the local sporting goods store for around $350 including a scope suitable for hunting. The scope may not be the greatest, but it comes with a manufacturer warranty at least. Many say Savage is one of the most accurate out of the box riles you can get for the money. Heck...they even have one called the Hog Hunter...lol. Bit over your price range according to MSRP.

 

I stopped in at a local pawn shop while out running errands and they had a Remington 700 in .308 with a Redfield 3-9 x 50mm scope that followed me home.

 

I don't think you'll go wrong as long as it wasn't abused by the prior adoptee.

 

Nice job... the .308 Remington 700 is my favorite deer rifle- I haven't missed yet with it! Knocks them down and they never go far after that! Have fun practicing w/ it and sighting it in!

 

The bolt face looks like new and I pulled the stock off and everything in the trigger group is nice and clean inside with no rust. The gun is a bit lighter than I am used to at 7.4 pounds but I'm so accustomed to long, bull barreled target & varmint models that I'll shoot is a while and see how it feels. The stock is pretty much totally hollow so it would be easy to epoxy or foam in some lead if I want to bulk it up a bit.

 

7 and a half sounds about right for your use...guess it depends on whether you are walking or in a hide or similar. I haven't had a real rifle in so long all I remember is the last time I shot quals with the M-14s in the Navy. (I sooo want to get an M1A.)

My Fox 16 ga is so well balanced it might weigh 10 or 6, I can't tell.

Good luck with it and let us know how the first shoot goes. Funny, this Topic gets no posts for months..then 2 in one day.

 

Yea, I posted those two recovered bullets in the other section to try and get some interest going but who knew this thread would be the one to grow legs.

 

I demand pictures!

The Remington 700 SPS Varmint is the .22-250 that is my top choice right now. The 700 action has been around for quite a while. I think you made a good purchase.

 

Sorry, I did not see your post until I was at work today so pictures of the new gun will have to wait. I do have a bullet at the office and thought it interesting to see my new .308 cartridge next to some others for comparison. Unfortunately this angle does not really show well the difference in size between the .223 and the .30 cal rounds. Looking straight at them the three .30 cal in the center take nice even steps in height even though the brass is almost the same height on the .30-30 and the .308.



Down in front you can see some of my latest bullet recoveries and my real drive to get a hog gun. In front of the .30-30 is a cheap 150 grain soft point and in front of .223 is the largest piece from a Hornady 75 grain BTHP and a 70 grain Barnes TSX. When I recovered the TSX I saw the textbook shape and thought it would be great until I sat it next to a .30 cal slug. There is not much comparison.

 

Here's a quick shot of the new rifle.




And, just so everyone knows, no I don't have a gun that shoots .50 BMG. I once owned a Browning A Bolt in .30-06 and like an idiot thinking "oh, I'll never need it" I sold it.

 

My brother used to clean the offices of Hornady Mfg here in Nebraska and we got the self-guided tour... all the big game they have hanging on the walls there is AWESOME. Old Mr Hornady was quite the hunter!

 

I am jealous. Putting everything together to make a cartridge is pretty easy to understand but I'd love to see how they make the bullets, and then do several hundred a minute. Right now I'd be happy to have their website work on my home computer. I think there is something about my satellite Internet that does play well with the Hornady site. Odd since that's the only website that's had troubles.

 

It took me a while to find my this. My buddy from Seattles post. This is a site he has regarding generators actually but he posts about many flaws in the general scheme of the world and basically his take

. I spoke with George on the phone some months ago and he is a very smart individual. Seems a bit eccentric but never meet him in person...LOL

I think his write up is good. You need to read it through.

With that said I still like the 10/22...LOL



Remington Under Fire, October 20, 2010 | UtterPower.com

Here is the actual video links from the show.

News Headlines

And here is remingtons reply.

Remington® Model 700™ Network: Video Library


Hmm.... come to your own conclusions.

To any one out there the question is do you want that gun in your home????????



Mike NJ

 

Nice looking rifle! Looks new, did it come with the scope as well? Did you stay within your budget?

 

Yes, the Remington 700 controversy has been going on for a long time. Fortunately or unfortunately I've talked with too many people that have been using the rifle for 20 or more years without trouble. I knocked on a block of wood though just to be safe.

I squeaked in under my self imposed $500 budget at $499. I do need to get a scope cover for it so that will push me a bit over in the end though.

 

Just because the plane I am flying in does not crash, does not mean there are no plane crashes......

Mike NJ

 

Speaking of... I sold my plane 4 years ago. The guy who bought it was killed last summer in a plane crash. Not in my plane. He sold it to someone else several months prior. Then a few months later I got a call from the guy who currently has my old plane. The engine threw a jug and he put it down in a field and luckily was skillful enough to come away without injury. I still fly. Cars crash and I still drive. People get shot and I still shoot 8-10k rounds a year. I hope a moment of carelessness never catches up to me.

 

Since getting the rifle I've put a little over 500 rounds through it and the more I use it the more I like it. It's very accurate, light to carry and it points well. The action has smoothed out nicely and it feeds cartridges from the magazine much better but it still has some trouble feeding the last round sometimes.

My hog hunt, the reason for buying this rifle, was a bust. I never saw a thing so it's still nothing more than a target rifle. The scope is great in the daylight and works OK at night but the reticle was hard to see in some situations. In heavy rain or night time high humidity haze I could not use my gun mounted light without being blinded by the haze like using your high beams in fog. Soon NC may allow night coyote hunting. If it is approved I'll be taking a serious look at all my optics. I'm debating switching over to illuminated reticles or making the jump to night vision.

 

Too bad about the hog hunt. I was looking forward to some picts.

FYI - MN might be getting a Timber Wolf season.

 

When hunting at night there have been some situations where seeing the reticle was difficult or impossible. Usually I'm hunting hogs over a baited area that has a gree LED light illuminating the area. If the hogs are under or behind the light there is no problem. If the hogs are closer, between me and the light, they are back lit and the reticle disappeared in their black silhouette. For several months I have been toying with making the jump to proper night vision but finally decided to stay with traditional optics having an illuminated reticle. I decided on the Trijicon 2.5-10 x 56mm with an amber duplex reticle.





As you can guess there is a penalty for that big objective lens. The Trijicon is about 6 ounces heavier than the Redfield I had on the rifle. Right now the mounts I bought are higher than I'd like but I'm holding off on trying lower ones until I see how it is to work the bolt with gloves.

 

I've not tried it in the dark yet but under certain situations during the day you can see the illuminated dot. This reticle has a small dot for more precise long range shooting and in some situations during the day you have a hard time noticing that the center is glowing.

 

DROOL! Being Trijicon, I assume the dot is self illuminating? OR is the yellow band on the top for fiber-optics?

 

It has both fiber optic and tritium so it's both. In total darkness the tritium glows and during twilight or daylight the fiber optic adds more light so the brightness is self adjusting. There is also a tube on the scope that can cover the fiber optic to varying amounts so you can control the brightness.