Tikka, Howa, Remington, Savage?

[nysharps]

So I'm looking to build a long-range precision rifle in .300 Win Mag. I'm decided on the caliber.

I'm trying to figure out which action would be best to start my build on. I have narrowed it down to the above 4 because 1) they're roughly in the same price range, 2) they have a good reputation. Now, I have experience with the Remington 700. I have two, in .223 and .308. With good ammo, they're ridiculously accurate. Much more accurate than me. With the .308, I've done holes-touching at 200 yards, and that was using factory loads. I also like Remington's adjustable triggers very much. I worked on them myself and found them very easy to get to where I wanted (about 3.5 lbs and very crisp).

So why don't I just get another Rem 700? A couple of reasons: firstly, I've heard quite a few people praise the accuracy, especially of the Howa and Savage, over the Rem. My Rems are more accurate than me... but maybe I just got lucky? Secondly, what's life without a little variety? Blondes and brunettes. Fords and chevies.

So these are my questions about the four rifles above:
1) Who do you feel has the best barrels out of the 4?
2) Who do you feel has the best triggers? I understand that all 4 come with adjustable triggers. Which ones can be adjusted most finely?
3) Which comes from the factory with the best bedding/stock?

Btw, I have googled this question extensively, but not really found a side-by-side comparison of the 4, so I apologize if this thread feels like a re-hash of a million other threads.

 

[Hunt4life]

I have three of the foUr, I do not have a Tikka. The Howa is very accurate, the rem has been trued/blueprinted and wears a broughton match grade barrel, it shoots sub.250 Moa. My savage wears a 28 mcgowen barrel, never trued but so far I am at .333 Moa in load development.

I think savage is the best straight out of the box of the three I have, best barrel, most concentric, and the floating head are all contributors to great accuracy. There are exceptions always, but I just use savage action to build on any,ore.

 

[ranger1183]

So I'm looking to build a long-range precision rifle in .300 Win Mag.

If you want the best out of the box long-range precision rifle in .300 Win Mag, just buy a Remington 700 5R in .300 Win Mag. Excellent stock and 5R barrel (for a factory rifle) and they run around $1,200. When you can afford to upgrade, send your rifle off to have the action trued and bedded, the trigger tuned (no real need to spend hundred$ upgrading a perfectly good trigger) and the recoil lug upgraded (PT&G .300 - .500 thick). An excellent gunsmith who is both very fast and very affordable is JD Thomas at High Speed Shooting Systems, Custom Gunsmithing, gun repair, Yakima Wa.

 

[Cobracutter]

Without a doubt Tikka.

 

[Captramrod01]

I'm a huge fan of the tikka and howa action over the remmy and savage. If your screwing on a premium barrel any of those 4 actions will probably be just as accurate as each other so that will be a mute point. Go with the one that has the best features for you.

The tikka is the smoothest, enclosed, bad ass trigger that can be adjusted to a crisp 1lb with a 6$ spring, side bolt release, standard barrel threads so most smiths should be able to work on them. Negatives would be only 1 DBM maker, some do not like the recoil lug design, shitty plastic bolt shroud. factory stock doesnt seem to harm accuracy but doesnt feel that great. Factory recoil lug needs to be replaced to a nice steel one on heavy recoiling rifles like the win mag.

Howa has a 1 piece bolt, my older howas trigger was decent, have not tried their new 2 stage though. Flat bottom action, integrated recoil lug. Pretty sure it takes remington bases? Negatives are its metric threaded so a lot of smiths wont want to work on it. 1 DBM maker?

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Tikka... or buy a gently used TRG-42 and be done with it. You won't build a rifle more accurate for the price of a TRG.

Of course, it the building is the goal... I'd still go with Tikka. Talk to Pac-Nor barreling. They just did an amazing job on a T3 for me.

Cheers,

Sirhr

 

[nysharps]

The tikka is the smoothest, enclosed, bad ass trigger that can be adjusted to a crisp 1lb with a 6$ spring, side bolt release, standard barrel threads so most smiths should be able to work on them. Negatives would be only 1 DBM maker, some do not like the recoil lug design, shitty plastic bolt shroud. factory stock doesnt seem to harm accuracy but doesnt feel that great. Factory recoil lug needs to be replaced to a nice steel one on heavy recoiling rifles like the win mag.

It seems like a lot of people really like the Tikka. Can you elaborate on replacing the factory lug with a steel one? I'm actually rather surprised that recoil lugs, of all things, would not be made of steel... but I learn something new every day... Are steel recoil lugs readily available as aftermarket parts, or is it something I would have to have made to order?

ETA: I also probably should've specified - I'm looking for a rifle with the best FACTORY barrel. I don't have the disposable income where I can invest $5000 in a rifle in one go. This is why I would like to start with a good factory barrel, a good factory trigger, a good factory stock (in that order), spend as much as I can on a scope, and have a rifle that I can shoot and have decent results with. Tuning and truing, barrel replacement, stock replacement, custom bedding, etc. can (and will) come later. I'm trying to get the best results I can before investing money into all of those things.

 

[6.5BR]

Tikka uses Sako barrels from what I understand, and that's not bad