anybody got anything to say about or compare: ruger hawkeye,sako A7,and especially the cooper 22 and cz 557. remington factory guns QC is terrible from things i have seen personally and heard from trusted smiths/shop owners . savage has some attractive options but i hate the accutrigger. looking at a 308 for shooting paper and most likely 26" bbl. wide price $500-1100. thanks for replies.
some comparison,experience and opinion questions on a few factory rifles
- Thread starter mosin46
- Start date
I have a Sako A7 Rough Tech Range in 308. Works good, up too 300 rounds. Trigger break is clean and the action is extremely smooth. It made the MOA challenge on arf.com list at #58. Not really a tactical rifle, extremely limited aftermarket support. Most people mistake it for a Ruger American or a TC compass.
Works well stock, the mags suck, your limited to 3 rounds if you get a 6.5 or 308, 2 if you get any of the magnums. No one makes a DBM for them anymore and the A7 has been replaced by the S20. I replaced the polymer floorplate and the polymer bolt shroud with an atlas worxs floorplate and a Sako 85 shroud.
Most of the parts are compatible with Sako 85/75 (Firing pins, Bolt Shroud ect. Not the floorplate or mag). Bolt works much better with a metal shroud, I think the plunger would dig into the plastic at times.
Mags are polymer with metal lips, had to bend the feedlips to make the factory mag function right. Factory mag would spit rounds. Spare mag didn't have this issue. Mags are about 80 bucks. Since the rifle has been discontinued, I am not sure how long mags will be available for it. However, it can be easily single fed as well.
Can use a Browning Abolt 2 piece base. 20 moa bases are getting hard to find. I think brownells has Talley Bases backordered. The bases that come on the gun are not that great. More of an after thought and worth ditching.
Got it heavily discounted, it compares well to my older R700 XCR LRT. I got it for 799+tax from Sportsmans warehouse not long ago.
If your planning to build on the rifle, you may want to look elsewhere, McMillan and Bell&Carlson both make stocks, no chassis or any other manufacturer produces stocks. Factory stock is decent, I think it comes from the factory with a Bell & Carlson stock. Midwest Gun works sells a lot of parts for the time being.
If I could do it all over again, I would have bought a Tikka or Seekins Havok or built a 700. Its a great hidden gem of a gun but being a hidden gem means its not got a lot of support. Might be worth money some day due to it possibly being rare.
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Works well stock, the mags suck, your limited to 3 rounds if you get a 6.5 or 308, 2 if you get any of the magnums. No one makes a DBM for them anymore and the A7 has been replaced by the S20. I replaced the polymer floorplate and the polymer bolt shroud with an atlas worxs floorplate and a Sako 85 shroud.
Most of the parts are compatible with Sako 85/75 (Firing pins, Bolt Shroud ect. Not the floorplate or mag). Bolt works much better with a metal shroud, I think the plunger would dig into the plastic at times.
Mags are polymer with metal lips, had to bend the feedlips to make the factory mag function right. Factory mag would spit rounds. Spare mag didn't have this issue. Mags are about 80 bucks. Since the rifle has been discontinued, I am not sure how long mags will be available for it. However, it can be easily single fed as well.
Can use a Browning Abolt 2 piece base. 20 moa bases are getting hard to find. I think brownells has Talley Bases backordered. The bases that come on the gun are not that great. More of an after thought and worth ditching.
Got it heavily discounted, it compares well to my older R700 XCR LRT. I got it for 799+tax from Sportsmans warehouse not long ago.
If your planning to build on the rifle, you may want to look elsewhere, McMillan and Bell&Carlson both make stocks, no chassis or any other manufacturer produces stocks. Factory stock is decent, I think it comes from the factory with a Bell & Carlson stock. Midwest Gun works sells a lot of parts for the time being.
If I could do it all over again, I would have bought a Tikka or Seekins Havok or built a 700. Its a great hidden gem of a gun but being a hidden gem means its not got a lot of support. Might be worth money some day due to it possibly being rare.
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thanks. was leaning away from it due to plastic bottom "metal",mag and general support issues. my t3 has that and i have to live with it.
The bottom metal is a cheap replacement, but I am not sure why Atlasworks made a metal bottom metal to use factory mags instead of single stack AI mags. At least with TIkka everyone and their brother makes a bottom metal. I assume its from being stuck with single stack mags and orginal mag hardware attached to the trigger and recoil lug.
I own a Cooper 54 in 22-250 and it just oozes quality! Anything Cooper makes is just plain top shelf! I've owned quite a few CZ's and they have all been great guns!
