First rifle for young hunter

Fiftydriver

Official LRH Sponsor
Joined
Jun 12, 2004
Messages
7,539
Location
Fort Shaw, Montana
Had a local friend come to the shop with his son. He was wanting to purchase a new rifle for his first rifle as he had always used his Dads rifles hunting. He had worked hard and saved up some money and wanted to find out what he could afford. We quickly found out he was not quite ready to invest in one of my Stalker full custom rifles Which bummed the young man out….

However he did light up when i brought up my K-Rifle options and i explained to him how well they perform. These are the "economy" level rifles i offer to customers using a Ruger American receiver, fully blueprinted, trigger tuned, new Bartlein barrel, new pillar bedded laminated wood stock and also offer barrel fluting and muzzle brake options. Maxed out K-Rifles will be in the $2400 range and starting base price in the $1700 range. All fully function tested, load development done and accuracy tested at 800 yards just like my Stalker rifles and held to the same accuracy standards.

to save him a bit of cash we decided to use a Bartlein #3, .270, 10 twist barrel i had on the rack that i gave him a price cut on as I had been stuck with this barrel several years back.

we decided on the 270 win chambering and he was very excited about wanting a Blue laminate wood stock.

the end result turned out very nice.

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we decided to test the 130 gr SST and a good comfortable load produced 2975 fps in the 25" barrel. Tested at 250, 500 and 700 yards on a relatively windy day setting up his Vortex PST scope and the little rifle was dead on the money at all ranges and hard to believe how well these little rifles shoot at long range. Only real limitiation is the options for chambering with these rifles. Other then that though, they always impress me.

He was a very happy kid when he picked it up. Think he liked the stock color more then anything!!
 
That is very cool Fiftydriver. I love to see the youngsters get into the sport of hunting and shooting and a new rifle will be awesome for the young man. I have a very accurate older Ruger American Predator all dialed in and ready to shoot long range, I will be giving it to my nephew for his graduation present this June. He has already shot the rifle at 625 yards and you could of seen his smile a mile away when he hit the plate at that distance first shot. He has no idea it will be his soon. Job well done! cheers, Jason
 
That is very cool Fiftydriver. I love to see the youngsters get into the sport of hunting and shooting and a new rifle will be awesome for the young man. I have a very accurate older Ruger American Predator all dialed in and ready to shoot long range, I will be giving it to my nephew for his graduation present this June. He has already shot the rifle at 625 yards and you could of seen his smile a mile away when he hit the plate at that distance first shot. He has no idea it will be his soon. Job well done! cheers, Jason
That is awesome for sure!! Most hear Ruger American and think cheap quality rifle. In the factory for if left that way they can be hit and miss, with a bit if attention though, they seem to always be Tack drivers. I have yet to have one of my K-Rifles not easily meet my 1/2 moa accuracy standards at long range. Plus, they are very fast to build!! Not cheap in price but now days its easy to drop $1700 on a factory rifle that shoots like a factory rifle!! Unfortunately….😡
 
I was impressed with the accuracy of both of the Predator's I have. I bought both from a friend of mine in 6.5 Creedmoor. One was brand new in the box the other had 12 rounds down the tube consecutive serial #'s. I cleaned the fired rifle and started with 129 SST factory as I received a couple boxes with the rifles. groups were around .6 to .7 moa for 5 shots. I did sand out the left side of the stocks and cut one coil off the sear spring to lighten the triggers. I gave one rifle to my son and one is ready to gift in June. I bet your K-Rifle with a Bartlein would shoot very well! Good to hear somebody works on these in case we ever need a makeover. cheers, Jason
 
I was impressed with the accuracy of both of the Predator's I have. I bought both from a friend of mine in 6.5 Creedmoor. One was brand new in the box the other had 12 rounds down the tube consecutive serial #'s. I cleaned the fired rifle and started with 129 SST factory as I received a couple boxes with the rifles. groups were around .6 to .7 moa for 5 shots. I did sand out the left side of the stocks and cut one coil off the sear spring to lighten the triggers. I gave one rifle to my son and one is ready to gift in June. I bet your K-Rifle with a Bartlein would shoot very well! Good to hear somebody works on these in case we ever need a makeover. cheers, Jason
Not saying every one of my K-Rifles shoot like this but its not uncommon!!
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Target on the left was three shots fired by my then 10 year old daughter(her rifle) at 100 yards. She was pretty proud of that and asked me if i could shoot as good as her, had to really do my best to BARELY top her three shot group.😳. Little turd can sure shoot!!

the stocks on the factory rifles are certainly their weak link for sure!!
 
That is some fine shooting! Looks like your Daughter is right there with ya. She should be very proud of groups like that and I bet she is very happy to have a great teacher! Keep up the good work. cheers, Jason
 
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