Hello all,
I am interested in buying my first rifle. A little background info so you can get a better idea of my needs/desires: The ranges around my area only go out to 300 yards, so this would be my starting point (I realize this isn't very far, but it will be a start). I want to have something that won't be too costly to shoot since this is merely for personal enjoyment, I do not plan to use it in competition or anything where I need a more specialized cartridge so I'm thinking .308 is the way to go. The plan is really to only shoot from a bench so weight doesn't matter, I would think heavier is better though. Having a bull barrel, I would think, would be desired for those reasons as well. I would like to keep the cost of the rifle under $600, yes I know this is pretty low, but the options I was looking at initially were the Savage 10 FP-SR, or the Tikka T3 Lite. The Tikka does not have the heavy barrel but I've read so many good things about their rifles on this site so if having a standard barrel isn't much of a downside then Tikka would still be a great option. I could later on down the road re-barrel it with a 7.62 Hammer Forged Barrel that I can get just the chambered blank for and do the finish work on the barrel myself. I am a machinist by trade for a firearms manufacture so re-barreling won't be much of an issue.
Opinions between the two rifles is welcome, pros and cons of each. Ideas for different rifles is also welcome.
Please don't respond telling me that my budget is too low for this kind of sport. I'm sure I can get a great starting rifle for this price and could eventually upgrade it if I so desired. I do not want to build a rifle right off the bat, I'd rather have an out of the box shooter, with potential for upgrades later on.
One final note: the barrel blank would be hammer forged in 7.62 with a hammer forged chamber and I could get a 26" barrel out of the blank, priced under $100 for the blank (unsure on exact price).
I hope I provided sufficient info to get accurate responses, if I left something out please ask. Thanks for taking the time to read (I feel like I went on a little bit)!
-Alex
I am interested in buying my first rifle. A little background info so you can get a better idea of my needs/desires: The ranges around my area only go out to 300 yards, so this would be my starting point (I realize this isn't very far, but it will be a start). I want to have something that won't be too costly to shoot since this is merely for personal enjoyment, I do not plan to use it in competition or anything where I need a more specialized cartridge so I'm thinking .308 is the way to go. The plan is really to only shoot from a bench so weight doesn't matter, I would think heavier is better though. Having a bull barrel, I would think, would be desired for those reasons as well. I would like to keep the cost of the rifle under $600, yes I know this is pretty low, but the options I was looking at initially were the Savage 10 FP-SR, or the Tikka T3 Lite. The Tikka does not have the heavy barrel but I've read so many good things about their rifles on this site so if having a standard barrel isn't much of a downside then Tikka would still be a great option. I could later on down the road re-barrel it with a 7.62 Hammer Forged Barrel that I can get just the chambered blank for and do the finish work on the barrel myself. I am a machinist by trade for a firearms manufacture so re-barreling won't be much of an issue.
Opinions between the two rifles is welcome, pros and cons of each. Ideas for different rifles is also welcome.
Please don't respond telling me that my budget is too low for this kind of sport. I'm sure I can get a great starting rifle for this price and could eventually upgrade it if I so desired. I do not want to build a rifle right off the bat, I'd rather have an out of the box shooter, with potential for upgrades later on.
One final note: the barrel blank would be hammer forged in 7.62 with a hammer forged chamber and I could get a 26" barrel out of the blank, priced under $100 for the blank (unsure on exact price).
I hope I provided sufficient info to get accurate responses, if I left something out please ask. Thanks for taking the time to read (I feel like I went on a little bit)!
-Alex