Hunting & Fishing Hunting rifles that shoot FAR better than they should.

[FN in MT]

Maybe this is a dumb thread...if so it will die.

But I've always been amazed how well certain hunting or varmint rifles will shoot. NOT talking about that anomalous, occasional good group. I'm talking about a rifle that will CONSISTENTLY shoot a MOA or LESS 3-5 shot group, TO THE SAME POINT OF IMPACT, year after YEAR.

Also referring to HUNTING ammo, not Match grade........... and basic off the shelf rifles or maybe a simple re barrel.

Yesterday my interest in this was again reinforced when I checked zero on an old Win M-70. This is a pre 64 gun, wearing a HART 24" in .257 Roberts AI. The gun was re barreled with an exact clone of the original taper, down to the rear sight hump. It was not pillar bedded, glass bedded , nothing. Simply barreled and stuck back into it's original circa 1958 stock. It has consistently shot 1/2" to 5/8" for 3-5 shots at 100 yds with 115 gr Nosler BT's. I could take several years worth of test targets stacked up..... you would see one ragged hole at 1.5" above point of aim. The zero never seems to waiver.


About 15 years back I took a Weatherby Ultra Light Weight as a trade on an old, beat up Colt SAA I had recently traded into. New in box, in .280 Rem, with a Leupold 2.5-8X, rings/bases and three boxes of Federal Premium, 150 gr Nosler partiton,factory ammo.

I intended to scope it and sell it as a package at the next weeks gun show. UNTIL I shot it. Capable of 1" off the bench at 200 yds and 1/2" or or less at 100 yds. With FACTORY hunting ammo! I was never a Weatherby fan but KEPT that gun and it has accounted for several deer, half a dozen elk and a couple of antelope. ALL one shot kills. Same thing with the ULW. I can take several years worth of targets and the POI seldom varies by more than a fraction of an inch.



Taken with the .280 Rem ULW at 300+ yds.

Over the past 20-30 years I have had built Customs with the best barrels, expensive glass stock, all of it meticulously assembled and finished and a few of them have been very much MEDIOCRE shooters. WHY these two rifles amaze me. NOTHING extra ordinary and both shoot very well. Though no denying the .257 AI DOES have a great barrel.

I have to say that anything assembled recently though....Has shot very well.

Any one else have one that fits in the "This shouldn't shoot as well as it does" category??

FN in MT

 

[aggiesig]

Not quite as good but I'll throw my story in the ring:

My grandfather won a 5 dollar raffle at the Navarro county fair back in the 90s sometime.

A savage 110 .270 with a bushnell no name scope. Blued with a really ugly wood stick (birch maybe?) with rust spots all over the barrel from sitting in a nun climate controlled closet. Anyway around 2002 when I started to get into shooting he gave it to me to sight in for him and then He told me to keep it. The scope on the thing actually adjusts decently, I being as broke as I was in college at the time bought a couple boxes of Remington core-loct the cheapest stuff walmart had at the time. That thing shoots 5/4" of an in inch with the core-loct and 3/4" with ballistic silver tips (I make a little more money now and feed it better). I've got slot more exotic stuff now, but when I need to go on a hunt and everything else is out of ammo or between loads or too big/too small or scope is questionable or a buddy needs to borrow a gun or whatever...

that old ugly savage never has failed to put meat in the freezer.




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[gknutson]

5/4 of a inch. Is that a fancy way of saying 1.25"? Gotta remember that one.

 

[GlockBlock]

Lots of rifles built recently shoot really well out of the box. The Savages, the marlin X7, 700 SPS. They will all do under an inch with factory loaded quality ammo. I had a Mossberg 100 ATR in .270 WIN that would do under an inch with Corelokts.

 

[roggom]

I invited a guy from church to sight in a the local gun club. I shot first (100Y) with my Rem 700 308, 20" jewel trigger, NF scope and did about avg .75" of two groups.

He is up and shows me this Weatherby Vangurad .270 he got from Walmart in 1998, Burris scope, Burris Zee rings, he sighted in last year and hunted with it. First three cold bore, ....Cloverleaf, next group two same hole and third about .5" away. I just wanted to vomit.

 

[ranger1183]

This Remington 788 Carbine was like that. Crazy accurate with decent ammo. Great in-the-woods hunting rifle.

 

[aggiesig]

5/4 of a inch. Is that a fancy way of saying 1.25"? Gotta remember that one.

I wouldn't say fancy, just simpler to type in my phone


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[bohem]

I have a 30-30 Marlin that has a cheapie Bushnell on top. I bought it when I was 18 and with cheap Win silver box hunting ammo it puts the first 3 into 3/4" year after year. I used it from 2002-2010 for hunting and it killed everything I pointed it at, it wasn't until 2011 that I started running a match rifle from medium ranges that the 30-30 started to sit in the safe more.

 

[1911fan]

I bought a used 700 in 7mag for $200, because it was a deal. I commented to my friend that i didn't really want a 7mag, and his reply was, "Well, you could put a .338 barrel on it." Turned out a friend of mine had a .338 takeoff for $35 that headspaced just fine, and with the ammo he threw in it cloverleafed at 100 yards. Still does.
Better yet, it's wearing a Zeiss Diavari M 2.5-10X44 that I'm into, new, for $250- that's another story. So I've got a great caliber well-scoped rifle that I'm into for about $485. It's my go-to hunting rifle, though it's a little excessive on whitetail does.


1911fan

 

[FN in MT]

5/4 of a inch. Is that a fancy way of saying 1.25"? Gotta remember that one.

That's how my Builder Dad used to communicate dimensions to his Partner. Both went to Trade School for Carpentry in the 1930's.
I think speaking in 1/4's was common back then for Builders, Plumbers, etc.

 

[Hookturnr]

I'm fortunate enough to have 2 of these. First is a 1938 win. model 70 in 30.06. My great grandfather bought it new and it has made it way to me through the years. It was run with 180gr. corlokt for ages and just shot the same 3/4" group at 100yds...now I feed it nosler custom 165gr. accubonds and it shoots 1" at 200 year in and year out. The other I have is a Sako aV fiberclass in 7mm Mag. It's constantly at 5/8" groups at 100 with federal powerpoints...of all things.....I recently put a load together with 180gr. berger vlds just to see and I got it to shoot several 3/4" groups at 200yds but I'm just going to keep running the powerpoints in it as it's a backup deer rifle to the winchester....either way, these two have permanent homes in my stable.

 

[jayd4wg]

I can't speak about too many custom rifles. My uncle has a really nice Sako in 300WM that is a dream to shoot, it's just heavy enough and recoil is very nice. it will throw 180 grain remington green box all day long into a 3/4" hole with a nikon scope on it. He hunts in SD Badlands and frequently stretches the rifles legs to 3-500 yds. When i bought my first "real" rifle, i was under a STRICT budget and opted for a Marlin XS7 in .308
I drove straight to the range with it from Cabelas in WV, and cleaned the cosmoline off of it on the shooting bench. I then ran 5 shots of Federal 150gr blue box and some Winchester 150's. both 5 shot groups were 1" on the button, first 10 rounds out of the rifle. I then chucked a few Magtech .308 150's out of it and had pressure problems. bolt got really sticky. I ended up going thru some issues with Magtech, but they made good on it and I never use their ammo in "thumper" anymore. Thru a lot of generosity on this board and a couple of my buddies that had stuff laying around, i now have a decent reloading kit and i'm running some tame reloads thru it (44.5gr varget or 45 gr RL15, hornady 150gr SP's, cci primers and WIN brass) and get 1/2" or better as long as i do my part. 6th round walks on a cold barrel, but the CBS is ALWAYS 1/2" high left and marks the top left of group every time. the next 4 will print just southeast of the CBS and I'm content with this. back to the point though, if i ever find myself without reloads i can drop over to walmart and pick up either winchester or federal ammo and still pull a consistent 1" group that hits just a touch lower than my reloads every time i take the rifle out. Accuracy tightened up ever so slightly after i put the Boyd's FWTH stock on...presumably because of the fully free floated barrel and good action contact in the stock. it's not bedded at all...i put some modelling clay in the stock and tightened the screws to see how it was sitting and the clay squished out to the thinnest haze on the wood...i am not touching what ain't broke at this point. I have all of ~$550-600 wrapped up in this thing including RL gear at this point and though it was a cheap rifle, i'd be proud to hand it down to either of my boys. it's a damn fine gun period...but considering what i have invested...i'm way ahead of the curve I think.

 

[hillbillybear]

My Tikka T3 Lite .243 thinks its a 15lb varmint rifle instead of a 7 lb hunting rifle. It consistently shoots in the .40 range with the 95 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip and in the .30 range with the 70 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip.

 

[kineticmedic]

For me it's a Sig SHR 970 in .308. I'll never understand why Sig stopped selling this rifle in the states, it shoots like a dream. Excellent trigger pull out of the box. I topped it with a Weaver Grand Slam 3-10x40 and it shoots ragged holes at 100 yards. It's taken it's share of deer as well.

 

[malaga2]

I'll also put my Sig Shr970 up there with rigs that shoot better than they are supposed to...fantastic rifle!

 

[Ridgerunner665]

Slightly modified, FN made Winchester Ultimate Shadow (30-06)...if I quoted consistent group sizes, most wouldn't believe me...so lets just call them one neat lil hole...all my ammo is handloaded by me...the rifle shoots any decent ammo sub MOA...but with the load that is tailored to the rifle, its nipping on the heels of Benchrest quality groups.

Factory barrel (very tight chamber), .001" headspace.

Factory trigger (MOA trigger)...tuned and tweaked it a bit myself.

All I did was changed the stock, and bedded it in MarineTex...made sure everything was properly fit (the inletting from McMillan was good...but far from prefect)...the action and bottom metal now fit as close to perfect as anybody could get them...stress free.

It was a sub MOA rifle even in factory trim...but I hated that plastic stock!

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[B Man]

I have two in the safe that have an everlasting space in there.

Savage 112bvss 7mag. Cuts tiny bug holes with 140 gr accubonds Bought it in a pawn shop 10yrs ago.

Remington 5r milspec is my new dream toy. Three seasons, never touched the scope still holding zero and cutting ragged holes. This gun made me love a .308 and I always despised them.

 

[TOP PREDATOR]

savage 24 (old style not that crap they have out now.) .223 over 12 gauge, under 3" at 200Y. heavy and clumbsy as hell to carry but it shot very well for what it was, took many a turkey further out than would have expected with it - with either barrel - great patience rifle too as 1 shot was all you have. another rifle i now regret selling.


savage 99 in .308 shot several deer over 250 yards with it

notice a trend with the savages?

 

[ccoker]

Have a few in that category:

1959 Sako 243
64 Sako 22-250
Nosler TGR 280 AI
Had a Tikka stainless lite 308

 

[Biscuit]

Rem 788 .308, shoots so good I can't even talk about it lest somebody roll their eyes and pat me on the head

Rem 721 300 H&H, cycles smooth as silk, recoil is a gentle shove, shoots 180grn SGK into a very small area at 200 yds

Savage 11 .243, ugly little laser

all of the above shoot better than other rifles I have had that cost much much more. No real surprise though as they all have reputations for great accuracy.

 

[ridenrunwv]

Tikka T3 Lite is a very accurate and lightweight hunting rifle.

 

[Xshot]

I'll add the 3rd Remington 788 (.308). Mine is the rifle version with 22" barrel and I had it for nearly 40 years. It's crazy accurate with any 150 grain factory loads I've run through it. It will always be mine.

 

[Smcarroll]

My old trusty m70 in 7mm rem mag. It was my first bolt gun and has killed more deer than old age.

I learned to shoot long range with it and reloading for it got me started in that. I have made some silly shots with it, the kind you don't believe when hearing the story.
My m98 300 Wm. It was the first rifle I built, with the help of a friend. It will make ragged little holes all day long and it was built with spare parts.