Are folks really buying those rifles in the mags????

[rbertalotto]

In the last couple days I received a few gun magazines. Mostly having to do with rifle shooting.

One of the big name bullet companies has a factory rifle that has a "starting" price of $4000.......And it isn't even polished and blued.....it's painted!......another company is pulling bits and pieces off the shelf and assembling a nice rifle that "starts" at $6000!!!!!!....more for "Select Walnut"!!!

It seems like all of a sudden, everyone got a CNC turning center and they are making actions that are MUCH better than what you can currently get. Seems all the companies that have been making actions for the past 30-40 years had no idea what they were doing.............

And then a writer gets one of these mega big buck rifles and takes it shooting. Of course there is always an excuse...."Wind was blowing hard"...."It was too hot"....."It was too cold"........The scope wasn't set for his eyes!!!!"........"Only had factory ammo available"..........And many times these guns turn in a 2.5' - 3" THREE SHOT GROUPS!......But the writer always covers himself by stating that "With handloads it should do much better"...."It show potential".........

Then on the very next page, a $1000 Savage factory rifle turns in a 20 shot average group of .5" (Petersons RifleShooter, July/August 2011 pg 24)

Same magazine, pg 48, has a rifle for $6,498 that averaged it's best three shot groups of 1.0"...........

I think I'm going to go out and sell my truck and get a CNC turning center........

[oic0]

I don't think I could ever shell out over a grand for a gun unless it did a magic trick or came with some wicked optics.

[jnyork]

You have covered exactly the reason I quit reading those gun rags years ago. Sad thing is, people believe the BS and go running out to buy whatever is hot at the moment.

[jerry b]

There's one born every minute, you know.

[Blaine]

LOL...those off the shelf Savage rifles are taking the thunder out of a ton of expensive rifles. I stopped getting gun rags years and years ago....I'll get my info right here, thank you very much.

[t.r.]

I feel that vast majority of current gun writers are prostitutes. They shamelessly give it up for their Editors who it in turn receive the big dollars for ads and feature articles. A big change from 30 years ago, that's for sure.

Col. Whelen fired ten, ten shots groups to determine accuracy. That's 100 shots! He cleaned the bore thoroughly after each ten shot group. In contrast, prostitute writers fire several groups but only report the best one.

My neighbor recently purchased a Mossberg bolt action in 270. He expected less than one inch at 100 yards (as reported in magazine article). But was amazed to get 2.5 inches after testing two different ammo brands. Does this mean he bought an economy rifle in vain? Nope. I convinced him that he'll still get his deer as typically hunted within Pennsylvania's hardwood forests. But he feels gypped. So it goes.

I trust the writings of Wayne VanZwoll, Sam Fadala, and Ed Hall. They're still reporting accurately no pun intended.

TR

[Mescalero]

I used to read rifle magazine.
Then one day they ran a story on Mannlicher Carcano.
After reading a truly horrible story, with a preposterous conclusion; I stopped reading that one also.
I am with Blaine, get most of my info from here.

[Jeff H]

Not for me.
I once considered making a Sako my go-to rifle and selling off the others but the (then) $750 price tag was off-putting.
It has been factory Rugers for the store-bought guns for me mostly and pretty much old Mausers I have picked up for under a hundred bucks - and that's been mostly old Mausers because I can count the Rugers at around a half dozen (all gone too).

My current favorite bolt-rifle is an '09 Argentine I picked up for $93, with a $98 Boyd's stock, $100 to mount/chamber the $70 A&B barrel, $5 safety and a $16 bedding kit. Beyond that, my only other investment was time and elbow grease because I haven't even bought any specialized tools for them. Looks like I have less than $400 in it because I had the scope, rings, bases and other items.

First two (3-shot) groups at a hundred yards out of a "Bubba-ized" Mauser, using 160 grain Hornady and Sierra bullets stuffe in a 6.5x55 case looked like THIS, so I think I will pass on the extreme rifles I have been seeing in the mags, thank you.


I may blow another $20 on some kind of fancy paint from Brownell's and will add a homemade front sight to complement the Lyman peep (not shown) and will be miles ahead of the $6k guns. Besides, "cheap" rifles have so much more class.

[Mescalero]

Hey, I like that stock!

[Slick]

Col. Whelen fired ten, ten shots groups to determine accuracy. That's 100 shots! He cleaned the bore thoroughly after each ten shot group. In contrast, prostitute writers fire several groups but only report the best one.

That right there is exactly the problem.. I'm letting my Shotgun News subscription run out because I'm tired of listening to one of the two main gunwriters yammer on about about all their "mercenary work in El Salvador" and the other writer never tests a rifle that shoots over 1/2 MOA. The last article I read from that that writer listed groups that were measured in 1/10th to 1/5th MOA increments... Why this guy doesn't give up writing and go win every rifle match out there just baffles me (if his results were real). It makes reading the article worthless since I don't feel that I can trust the other things that are written either.

[RustyJr]

I very rarely buy gun magazine any more but do like to read articles by Massad Ayoob, Brian Pierce, John Barsness, Bart Skelton and John Taffin. Aside from these gentleman there arent too many that I care to read. While I agree that there arent many good ones left these days there are some that I still think are on the money. The latest issue of Handloader magzine had an article by Mr. Pierce on handloading the 270 Winchester that was very good.


RustyJr

[O.S.O.K.]

My $180 Stevens 200 .270 Win shoots under an inch at 100 yards easy. What more do you need?

$4000 for a rifle? Why?

Perhaps these are for the folks that purchase Jaguars and the like... Jag-u-are.

Who knows?

[Blaine]

I always like to talk about Col. Coopers one shot group theory: Bang...did you hit it?...Yep...Good Group!

[JReed]

My $180 Stevens 200 .270 Win shoots under an inch at 100 yards easy. What more do you need?

$4000 for a rifle? Why?

Perhaps these are for the folks that purchase Jaguars and the like... Jag-u-are.

Who knows?

I am right there with you. My 200 in 223rem will do the same and if I am on my game will break into less then half an inch at 100 and stay on a praire dog sized steel target at 500 as long as I dial the right clicks into the scope.

[Mescalero]

Yep

[rbertalotto]

I hope you folks don't take my original post the wrong way. I can appreciate a beautiful custom rifle with amazing craftsmanship. I could easily justify the $5000+ price tag also. I know what kind of time and learning it takes to be a real rifle craftsman. I also appreciate a $10,000 double rifle. If I had the $$, I'd buy one in a second. Just to fondle it. I might never get to Africa, but I love the big boomers.

The beautiful Sharps rifles and Winchester 1885 falling blocks that come out of the various shops in Montana are in my opinion, well worth the $3-$4,000 dollars they command.......

My gripe is with relatively inaccurate, plastic stocked, painted, production rifles that sell for these amounts.......and/or what I call "parts rifles".....An action from here, a barrel from there and a stock from somewhere else........And call it something special and charge twice what any good gunsmith would charge for the exact same thing.

[6pt-sika]

Think I've bought one new rifle and one new shotgun in the last 4 years .

The rifle was a Ruger #1B in 264 WIN MAG I purchased maybe a year ago and the shotgun was the Savage 220 20 gauge bolt action rifled slug shotgun I bought maybe two years ago when the very first ones hit the distributers shelves !

And believe it or not both of these have shot very well for me !

I have an inclanation for one of the Savage 212 12 gauge bolt action rifled slug guns as well , but I doubt I get one since I already have a Savage 210F which is the same thing without a removable mag !

I'd be up for a Ruger #1A or #1B in 260 REM or 7mm-08 . Or Ruger #1B in 6.5-06 but other then that my brand new this year wants are pretty slim ! And none of these are a grand !

[jlchucker]

Not for me.
I once considered making a Sako my go-to rifle and selling off the others but the (then) $750 price tag was off-putting.
It has been factory Rugers for the store-bought guns for me mostly and pretty much old Mausers I have picked up for under a hundred bucks - and that's been mostly old Mausers because I can count the Rugers at around a half dozen (all gone too).

My current favorite bolt-rifle is an '09 Argentine I picked up for $93, with a $98 Boyd's stock, $100 to mount/chamber the $70 A&B barrel, $5 safety and a $16 bedding kit. Beyond that, my only other investment was time and elbow grease because I haven't even bought any specialized tools for them. Looks like I have less than $400 in it because I had the scope, rings, bases and other items.

First two (3-shot) groups at a hundred yards out of a "Bubba-ized" Mauser, using 160 grain Hornady and Sierra bullets stuffe in a 6.5x55 case looked like THIS, so I think I will pass on the extreme rifles I have been seeing in the mags, thank you.


I may blow another $20 on some kind of fancy paint from Brownell's and will add a homemade front sight to complement the Lyman peep (not shown) and will be miles ahead of the $6k guns. Besides, "cheap" rifles have so much more class.

That's a fine looking rifle!! How did you ever manage to do all of that without a CNC Machining Center and a mountain of money LOL!!

[tman]

Always felt i was wellheeled with a 30-06 and a 4x scope and a .357 pistol for north american game hunting 30 years ago. When the gun rags tried to convince me otherwise, i stopped buying them. Don't regret it.

[rimrock]

I read the the rags like most everyone here does. I get some helpful bits and pieces of information form them. My BIL has a sweat EBR in .308 that cost him $2000+. It has a 14" barrel with a flash suppressor, it's plenty powerful and accurate, but the backwash is awful and it's loud. Both of of us planted 10 rounds in about 4" at 100 yds. shooting as fast as we could. I just like my 5 shot lever. YMMV. He has 10,000+ rounds of .223 for his other EBR. They're really nice guns if that's what you what or think you need. I support my BIL's decision to have that much stuff for bad times scenarios, but my way of thinking is I'm gonna hide out, and bust the BG chops from 2-300 yds with what I got only as a last resort. Those with the EBRs can do the spray and pray thing, but I intend to keep low and out of sight for as long as possible, and then walk on a deadly shot from as far out as possible. I think EBR's are extremely functional, but they just don't satisfy me. I would rather buy 3-4 levers for the price some wish to pay for one gun. Again, YMMV, and I'm all in favor of you also be satisfied. That's one thing that makes this country still different from others-- the freedom to choose how to spend money.

rimrock

[AJMD429]

I would rather buy 3-4 levers for the price some wish to pay for one gun.

That's the way I feel about buying a Tasco vs. Leupold scope for 90% of my shooting.

[6pt-sika]

That's the way I feel about buying a Tasco vs. Leupold scope for 90% of my shooting.

Can't go along with that one !

I have NEVER purchased a new Tasco and all the used ones I got on rifles I purchased were quickly given away or sold !

I like Leupold for bolt guns , single shots , my ML and two rifled slug guns . For my old levers I use old Weavers , old Redfields , a couple Marlin scopes and a old Bushnell . Oh yeah and my 2001 rifle has a year old Redfield Revolution 3-9 !

[AJMD429]

Well, I guess I should add Bushnell and Weaver, if that makes you feel better...

[two bit okie]

The Big 5 sporting goods in the west usually has a center fire rifle in it's weekly ad. A month ago I picked up a savage 111 in 7 mag. with a 3x9 bushnell. Brand new in box $399.99.

The reason for a 7 over an 06 is that I have and M-1 to feed and would not want to feed the old war horse somedthing that might give the colic. And I also already had the loading stuff from a prior life.

[Jeff H]

....That's a fine looking rifle!! How did you ever manage to do all of that without a CNC Machining Center and a mountain of money LOL!!

All the difficult work was done in Germany about a hundred years ago!

I hate to think what it would cost to have such an action built today,..... maybe $4k??

[Old Savage]

Jeff, I am impressed - very good looking rifle.