New Rifles: The Good, the bad, the ugly

[koonazz]

I'll comment only on rifles I have personally shot.

Good: Used a Ruger 77 270 Winchester one season. Consistent shooter, easy handling and killed a couple of 8 Points with it.
My Winchester Featherweight 270 WSM has been shooting 1/3 MOA almost 2 decades now, but only after my gunsmith added a target crown, new trigger and Acraglass bedding. So customized a bit.
Wanting to improve on that, after much research I narrowed it down to Browning X-Bolt, Sako 85 and weatherby. My dad and I both had hunted with Brownings so I was leaning toward the Sako 85. High dollar guns were above my pay grade. I was about to buy the Sako when Sauer und Sohn came out wit the 100. First time in my life I had ever seen a Sauer I could afford! They described it as "an entry level rifle into the world of Sauer"; that claim turned out to be classic understatement. So I got curious and found this newly designed rifle had a bunch of unique engineering features. A sleeve between the barrel and reciever I had never seen before. Everest Bedding I have to this day never seen anything like it. Noticed the barrel was same as used on their $4,000 rifles and was perplexed as to why Sauer would even be interested in going into the lower priced rifle market. Seemed too good to be true. So read some reviews, all of which sounded like love letters. Then found some new owners who were posting targets which again appeared too good to be true. Then a guy from Australia posted targets from the cartridge I was considering. Couldn't stand it, so rather than getting a Browning, Weatherby or Sako, I ordered one. Best shooting rifle I have ever had. Seems "Entry into the world of Sauer" is the German way of saying "gateway drug". I now have 3 of the things. Groups under a dime at 200 yards on all of them.
The bad: Thankfully I have avoided wasting money on rifles that won't shoot or have quality control issues like Christensen. You either get a good one or as you have all seen by now you get a nightmare that may or may not be fixed before you demand your money back or have to sell at a tremendous loss.
But a few other factory rifles are problem prone as well. Some just are not designed or produced to shoot any better than 3/4 MOA but Joe Deer Hunter seems to be satisfied with that. So they sell a lot of them.

The ugly: Can't say ugly without thinking of Savage. Some shoot great but they are ugly. Life is too short to hunt with an ugly rifle.

I think today I would add Bergara to the good list. But my safe is full.

I have nearly the same experience with the Sauer 100 I bought one to try and have since bought a 2nd. Mine both shoot good with factory loads and exceptional with handloads. Actions are super slick. Those German "entry level" guns are as good if not better quality than most domestic higher grades.

 

[Lee7588]

I'll only speak to the good. My dad just purchased a south paw version Christensen Ridgeline FFT Ti in 7rm. Its a fantastic looking rifle! I've not had any experience with Christensen arms but if this thing shoots as good as it looks its going to be stellar. Its got me wanting one.

Hopefully he got a good one, their QC isn't where it should be.

 

[jimbo111]

I like your style Darryle.

For bolts I'd love to see TC bring back the Icon and dump the venture and compass lines entirely. Love what they have in the Encore and the new 10/22 clone they have is basically perfect, it takes care of all the mods a home builder would make. But those budget bolts from them just don't set my heart thumping.

The Icon was a great shooting rifle, but it had cheap wood for it's stock. If it did come back, it would need to have an improved stock, the old one was spongy. I have one in .308 and it shot great, when I worked up loads for it, everything I tried shot under an inch at 100yds, 2 loads are under 1/2".

 

[epoletna]

I bought a Howa 1500 6.5 Creedmoor two years ago. Liked the look and feel of the rifle when I bought it, but had a hard time getting a good group out of it off a bipod. Finally decided part of the problem might be the flexibility of the forend, which seemed to be made of a heavy rubber. I embedded some graphite rods in epoxy resin in the forend, and that improved it a little but not as much as I was hoping. I got a Bell & Carlson stock for it, but found that heavier than I wanted. I'm thinking of going back to the original stock on it. It would be a good coyote rifle that way.

In my experience, the Howas are well made but need a stiffer stock.

 

[nksmfamjp]

I bought a Howa 1500 6.5 Creedmoor two years ago. Liked the look and feel of the rifle when I bought it, but had a hard time getting a good group out of it off a bipod. Finally decided part of the problem might be the flexibility of the forend, which seemed to be made of a heavy rubber. I embedded some graphite rods in epoxy resin in the forend, and that improved it a little but not as much as I was hoping. I got a Bell & Carlson stock for it, but found that heavier than I wanted. I'm thinking of going back to the original stock on it. It would be a good coyote rifle that way.

In my experience, the Howas are well made but need a stiffer stock.

Yea those Hogue stocks they put on so many are a noodle.

 

[andy smith]

Curious to see what new rifle offerings people are excited about, ones that people are scratching their heads over and ones that being are just plain repulsed by. I'll start the ball rolling with some of my opinions, polite disagreements are encouraged, emphasis on polite.

The good: I think Kimber is onto something with their open range models. They look to be well thought out and nicely spec'd. don't own any Kimbers but these looked interesting to me. Browning continues to impress me with their X-Bolt offerings, it seems like they have a model that would fit the bill for every hunter even though I think it's weird that they run a 1-12 twist on their 308 Win barrels. Ruger I think has nailed the new Marlin 1895's, really excited for the 336's.

The bad: I can't for the life of me understand what Savage was thinking with the impulse. It seems like a waste of time, effort and money. I applaud them for trying something new and thinking outside the box but I can't see that selling or where they thought there would even be a demand for that rifle. I was disappointed to see Weatherby stop offering the vanguard/mk5 in stainless. I like to overkill my rifles and cerakote my stainless steel rifles, I like the idea of a more corrosion resistant bore. Generally I love the Ruger M77 Hawkeyes but the hunter model with the 20 MOA rail on a walnut stock with a stainless action is just a real head scratcher to me. It's like a baseball player going to his game in shoulder pads with basketball shoes on.

The ugly: anything wearing that NRA over watch pattern or the Ruger Go Wild Pattern. I remember it from a few years ago and hope it died.

Episode IV: a new Hope- would love to see the TC Icon come back, that think was ahead of its time.

I bought a proof research 6.5 prc an it's the most accurate an best handling rifle I own. I'm left handed so I had some rem. 700 LH rebarrled an stocked by different smiths all over but this proof is hands down the best.

 

[Gman338]

Seekins Havak would get my vote as one of the better production rifles. Very accurate and overall great fit and finish.

I have the Seekins element in 6.5prc for 3 years, best money I've ever spent. 1/2 moa all daylong if I do my part

 

[Jon Bischof]

So, who is shooting one? Good? I want to drop some money on something in that lineup, but willing to wait. Thinking about something light in 7-08 or 6.5 Creedmoor or maybe 308.

A Sauer 100 6.5 Creedmoor weighs 6.7 lbs. It is well balanced and outshoots everything. I have two of the same barrelled actions (Sauer and Mauser) and am unable to tell which shoots better. The Zen-like zone that one has to be in to consistently shoot at the level of marksmanship that can show what these rifles can do is very difficult to achieve.
As far as my hunting goes, I no longer care which one shoots 0.21 MOA or 0.18 MOA. And I don't care about trying to measure and compute that stuff.
I am just glad I have such accurate rifles.
Just as an example, here are two different rifles, Sauer 100 30-06 and Mauser M18 6.5 Creedmoor. 30-06 at 200 yards and 6.5 CM at 300 yards. I don't have calipers and don't really care what MOA it is. Be nice if someone calculated it for me, but I know it is really good. The 1st group is admittedly cherry picking with a certain amount of glee. But the 2nd group isn't. It shoots like that whenever I do.

 

[Ronald W Schaefer]

My favorite off the shelf rifle is SAKO 85. I love my Fierce custom rifles but daaaang they take forever to build one without communication or updates. I also love the Browing X-Bolt rifles but the triggers suck...I always have to drop in an after-market trigger or the M-Carbo sear spring to get 'em under 3 lbs.--loving the new 6.5 PRC and 6.8 Western cartridges.

 

[Jon Bischof]

My favorite off the shelf rifle is SAKO 85. I love my Fierce custom rifles but daaaang they take forever to build one without communication or updates. I also love the Browing X-Bolt rifles but the triggers suck...I always have to drop in an after-market trigger or the M-Carbo sear spring to get 'em under 3 lbs.--loving the new 6.5 PRC and 6.8 Western cartridges.

Came really close to buying a Sako 85, but chose the Sauer instead. Still think it is a beautiful rifle, but had just sold a Tikka T3 and so didn't want to get something similar.

 

[Ronald W Schaefer]

Oh yeah, forgot my Weatherby's as a solid go to, especially in mag/weird calibers and the Ruger 77 M II is a solid bang for your buck. My wife has a Weatherby Camilla in 7mm-08 and she really slayed the plains game in Affrica with one shot DRT kills. I have shot a number of mountain light weight savage 110, with the proof carbon research barrel and carbon stocks, and I don't know what all the negative remarks are about, they look sharp, well-built and the three I've shot really shot lights out.

 

[Ronald W Schaefer]

Came really close to buying a Sako 85, but chose the Sauer instead. Still think it is a beautiful rifle, but had just sold a Tikka T3 and so didn't want to get something similar.

Yeah man, I have a Sauer 90 I bought in Germany in 30-06 and it is truly a thing of beauty...shoots good too. I just passed it down to my oldest son.

 

[Jon Bischof]

Yeah man, I have a Sauer 90 I bought in Germany in 30-06 and it is truly a thing of beauty...shoots good too. I just passed it down to my oldest son.

I intend to pass my Sauers down to my beloved son also; but only when I'm stone cold, graveyard dead

 

[Ronald W Schaefer]

I intend to pass my Sauers down to my beloved son also; but only when I'm stone cold, graveyard dead

Yeah about two years ago, my son was home for Christmas and had been living in Colorado for about three years, decided to get back into hunting. He says, "dad you always told me you're gonna pass that rifle down...do I have to wait until you croak, 'cause I can really use it now?' So I let him have it along with a box of 50 custom rounds and got my favorite gun shop to build me a custom 30-06!