Choose new rifle for hunting and shooting

[vmf]

Hi, I'm looking for new rifle (without modifications) to hunt in winter and to shoot in summer. I hunt deers and similar animals at 400 yards max. But I would like something enought to hunt bears. Moreover I would like to practice shooting, max 900 yards.

In my country with my budget I think I must choose between Tikka t3 lite, Remington 700 long range, Remington 700 sps Varmint, and Bergara B14, all of them in 7mm rem mag.

Which one is better to hunt and precision shooting? Which one has more precision at 900 yards?

Thank you.

 

[FEENIX]

Hi, I'm looking for new rifle (without modifications) to hunt in winter and to shoot in summer. I hunt deers and similar animals at 400 yards max. But I would like something enought to hunt bears. Moreover I would like to practice shooting, max 900 yards.

In my country with my budget I think I must choose between Tikka t3 lite, Remington 700 long range, Remington 700 sps Varmint, and Bergara B14, all of them in 7mm rem mag.

Which one is better to hunt and precision shooting? Which one has more precision at 900 yards?

Thank you.

Welcome to LRH and enjoy!

I don't own any of them but know quite a few guys that enjoys the Tikka T3 lite out of the box accuracy.

You might be able to fine tune a load for the 900 yards if you hand load.

Good luck!

Ed

 

[BallisticsGuy]

Any of them will make the distance. It's the ammo and how it shoots in the specific individual rifle that's doing to determine that. You can assemble a hand load that will shoot for almost any rifle, just takes time and effort and still relies on the shooter being able to do it. For factory ammo, it still depends on the individual rifle and the load selected and the shooter. Most of the listed rifles have very different intended uses. Bull barrels suck to carry in the field but help a lot when burning through ammo banging steel at 1KM.

When asking 2 jobs of any one tool you're doing at least one of the jobs a disservice. Build/buy a hunting rifle and hunt with it. 7mag's don't have the best barrel life so using one as a target rifle and a hunter is needlessly burning up a meat gun that would ordinarily last a lifetime. For target use, you can make 900yrds with a lot less recoil, blast, ammo cost and better barrel life. I'd recommend looking at having 2 rifles. One in 7mag for meat and one in 7mm-08 for banging steel to 1000m or so.

 

[sable tireur]

vmf,

You can choose any of the three brands and mostly be assured of getting a good product which will work for your adventures. Of the three though, the Remington would be the lesser of choices in my opinion.

I realize that you have already determined that you want the 7mm Rem. Mag but I would like to add in another suggestion just for the sake of conversation.

We recently had several brand new Bergara rifles in the shop for a small amount of custom work. The workmanship was superb. So in light of this assessment, I can recommend using the Bergara B14 HMR in .308 Win. for a couple of good reasons.

The .308 Win. is probably the most readily available, versatile, accurate cartridge since the .30-06 Springfield. Some of the best factory ammunition is made to come very close to custom loaded ammunition. But if you are a reloader, the world is yours for the taking given all of the highest quality components which are available. It is fully capable of harvesting most game in North America with the exception of the biggest bears.

It is also one of the best overall target cartridges utilized by competitors around the world in Palma and F-class competitions. Many militaries use it for heavier machine guns as well as sniper rifles.

I would feel confident to carry a .308 Win. when hunting any of the deer species including American elk. I would also be comfortable shooting the .308 Win. at any target range including but not limited to 900 yards since many of us shoot to 1,000 yards in competition. I think you will find that you can enjoy more shooting, especially at targets, with the .308 Win. than the 7mm Rem. Mag.

Regards.

 

[mrultramag]

I have a Bergara B14 7mag. Its what the rem model 700 should be out of the box other than id prefer a 26in bbl. Also the b14 is 1/9 twist rather than 9.25, 9.5, or less.

 

[vmf]

Thank you very much for the answers. I will consider the 308 win, I know it has less recoil and the ammo is cheaper. It woul be a very good rifle, but is not enough to hunt bears I think and the 7 rem mag is flatter and more powerful. I don't know, we will see.

Other person recommended me the Bergara B14 HMR before, this brand is from my country, but I don't really like rifles with "tactical" appearance.