Best Beginners Bolt Action Rifle?

[BigBoyPinoy]

Long Range

I wanted to try out some long range/accuracy bolt action shooting on a poor man's budget. I was lucky and bought a couple of used Savages. First a model 10 BA Stealth in .308 last year from Turners and a model 11 in .223 just this month from a member. About $450 each as pictured. Savage would be your best bang for the buck.

[yacko]

I'm saying spending spending good money on top of the line kit while having lacking fundamentals will still equal poor results. According to the OP it's his first rifle and even if he/shes a proficient pistola shooter moving to a rifle to shoot LR requires different techniques. Sure practice with a .22LR will be cheap, but the lack of poor body mechanics will/may not show in your groups until you try to shoot a caliber with a bit more giddy up. IMHO during live fire a competent shooter will know what they did wrong by the time the bullet hits the target. A very competent shooter will know what they did wrong when he/she dry fires.

OK.

I'll agree. I misunderstood your original post as using good gear to cover up lack of fundamentals. Where good gear shows a persons weakness with nothing to blame but themselves. And yeah.... fundamentals matter, and a low recoil cartridge with a brake, you can get away with it... but a big boomer... nope... you dont....

[hambam105]

The obvious answer is .22LR.

However, within the first sentence the OP mentions long range shooting. Fine.

If you want to play with the big dogs than a MN and 440 round spamcan
should keep you busy long enough to test your commitment.

[Munny$hot]

The most useful thing for a new shooter is shots downrange. If I was new, I'd want to get as many shots downrange as possible.

The OP mentioned spending constraints. For that reason, a 22lr would be the best way to get 1000 rounds, for example, downrange at the cheapest amount.

A RPR rifle in 22lr would also give him experience fitting the rifle to his body to see what he likes/dislikes when it's time to upgrade.

Considering every shooter should have a 22lr, might as well make that the first purchase.

A 22lr RPR + the vortex above + good rings (I like badger ordnance) + 1000 rounds would cost about $1000. After the OP figured out what he likes and has a bunch of shots downrange, he could upgrade the rifle and stick that vortex on the new rig.

At today's prices, 1000 rounds of some other caliber will likely cost the OP $1000 alone. And if he wants competent ammunition it's going to cost north of $1000

That may make the OP a competent .22 "LR" (LR definitely doesn't stand for "Long Range) plinker ,but if he/she decides to upgrade to an Oh' boy caliber all that .22 live fire ain't gonna mean squat. The OP would be better off with a Savage Axis/Weaver (not recommending due to it's ability to hold groups when the barrel heats up, but it fits the basic criteria)scope combo @ 299.00 in .223, .308, .270, 6.5, 30-06, etc 400 rounds of ammo @ 400.00 of ammo and a good 2 day class @ 300.00 and end up with enough knowledge and skill to become an effective rifle shooter for the same 1K .22LR budget. Is a .22 LR good cheap practice, sure if you have all the fundamentals down, but dry fire is just as/if not more effective and it's free.

This kind of reminds me of a guy at the range with his shinny brand new 1-8 NightForce ATACR, he was sending a bunch of lead down range trying to sight in his scope at 50 yards. First problem he had no idea if his scope was in mils or moa, 2nd he had no idea how much each click moved his scope at 50 yards, 3rd he could have simply used his reticle to measure how much to move his POA to his POI to adjusted accordingly and have sighted it in with 2-3 rounds. Due to lack of knowledge he thought he could just figure it out. After I tried to explain it to him, he said "I got it" and continued to blast away. He even had a friend that was look though a spotting scope trying to call where the hits where landing, while he kept on cranking on the adjusters and kept sending costly noneffetive lead into the berm.

Also a good friend of mine had a .38 special he had hidden some where in his garage because his wife didn't like guns. He hadn't shot it in 25+ years. Fast forward his son gifts him a gen 4 glock 17 inner family transfer and he goes to shoot it. He calls me the same day and says somethings wrong and every once in a while he gets a stove pipe, immediately say he's limp wristing it, told to stop being a PU#@* and hold it like a man that your wife should have married, he pauses, then breaks out in tearful laughter. After I explained how it happens and how to avoid it he said it made sense because it only happened when his wife shot the gun. Just think about how many rounds or worse he ends up selling the gen 4 glock cheap because he thinks somethings wrong with it. The moral of the story is without proper instructions or training chances of becoming an effective self taught shooter is not easily accomplished.

[LynnJr]

Get a Remington 700 because it is the best foundation you could possibly start with in a factory rifle and it has the most aftermarket support.

New around $400 used around $350 and if you decide you like rifles you have the best foundation for upgrading.
I'm not a big fan of starting small and working your way up so I will leave the chamberings debate for those that like to debate.

[Sir Toast]

6mm rpr is ideal. Do you reload? If not, I suggest 308 win.

I agree. You can get tons of .308 match ammo for pretty cheap, especially if you don't reload.

[mmlook]

I'm saying spending spending good money on top of the line kit while having lacking fundamentals will still equal poor results. According to the OP it's his first rifle and even if he/shes a proficient pistola shooter moving to a rifle to shoot LR requires different techniques. Sure practice with a .22LR will be cheap, but the lack of poor body mechanics will/may not show in your groups until you try to shoot a caliber with a bit more giddy up. IMHO during live fire a competent shooter will know what they did wrong by the time the bullet hits the target. A very competent shooter will know what they did wrong when he/she dry fires.

[sigstroker]

What? So like you need a $600 bipod to see trace? You can't see it with a $50 Caldwell?

[FishnHunt]

Everyone wants to be a sniper.
My buddy wants to get into long range and is going to start off with 300 PRC.
I can’t seem to get through it’s too much gun for newb.
Start off with 223 or 6.5 CM or 308 if you must have a bigger caliber.
Bull barrel is really intended for bench shooting only.
Anyways. Quality scope is a must. I’m so sick and tired of hearing about vortex and their “ warranty “…. That should be your hint
Start small and work your way up. Lot cheaper to learn how to dial and read wind with cheaper ammo vs Magnums

[n8vrmind]

Folks trash talking about different brands of optics should know that most of these brands don't make their own scopes. Vortex sources OEM/ODM scopes of varying grade from China, Japan, and Philippines..

Vortex Razor made by Light Optics Works in Japan will be superior as well as more expensive than Vortex Strike Eagle made by Miao Optics in China.


You get what you paid for.

[Harry Ono]

Sounds like since OP is a beginner all he needs is a Ruger 10/20 with a pretty good scope.
If things look great, get a Savage + Scope as your next step.

Lucky me I was able to score a Savage M10 in wood with Accutrigger in .223. $450

[Preston-CLB]

N-D7100-1952-Web.jpg

My Savage M10 (Trophy Hunter) in .223. 22"barrel, 1:9 twist. The scope is a Leupold 4.5-14x40. I also use a Harris Bi-pod.

It will shoot 1 MOA at 100 yards all day long using factory ammo. Yes, the barrel heats up. I use a barrel cooler from Barrel Cool that works quite well.

At some point, I'll change out the barrel for one more target/bench-oriented, but for now, it shoots nicely, and recoil is easily manageable.

Savage makes a fine rifle for the price point.
-P

[mmlook]

What? So like you need a $600 bipod to see trace? You can't see it with a $50 Caldwell?

no, but it helps

how can you expect someone to get better
when they have a smaller margin of error than a top level shooter to get the same results.

you get better by understanding what a good shot is, and consistently repeating and refine it.

not going to learn anything shooting a 10lb .308, and having to ask people if you hit the target

[gunsfortyranny]

The cheapest one, in general. Find out if you enjoy shooting it first. Go on gunbroker or this site and you'll find a lot of guys that built the "ultimate" fill in the blank gun and never even shoot it. Don't be one of those guys..(kcheung , wong time dufus)

[FeuerFrei]

Here's the thing. Your rifle and ammunition are not unimportant, but beyond about 300 yards the biggest variable is likely to be wind. If you can't ready the wind, the rest of it doesn't matter.

I had a .30-06 for hunting but the next rifle I bought was a .22 and I found plenty of ways to challenge myself with it. Start off by putting all of your rounds inside an 8" target at 50 yards. When that becomes easy, move the target to 100yards. After that reduce the size of the target to 4". Then set out clay birds and try breaking them using a 50 yard zero and a holdover (don't mess with the scope). Then build yourself a little rig to hold spent shotgun hulls and start at 25 yards. Shoot from a bench, from the prone position, off sticks, off a tripod, standing, sitting, kneeling. Then graduate to off-hand.

The rifle is cheaper, you can use a less expensive scope, and you can shoot ten or more rounds of .22, even at today's absurd ammo prices, for the cost of a single centerfire round in just about any caliber.

I advise new rifle shooters to first get a reliable 22lr. Learn that and transfer the experience to something more powerful.