Help me spend $2500

[Stadoc]

For Sale - WTS NIB Browning Euro Bolt II with Boss 7mm magnum

New in the box is a rare Browning Euro Bolt II rifle which includes the BOSS recoil reducer and the solid extension for those who don't like the BOSS system. This rifle has a very nice wood stock with a Schnabel forend and a butter knife bolt It has been sitting in the safe for several years...

www.longrangehunting.com

Ran across this earlier beautiful rifle.

 

[Jim’s Hunt]

By all means stay away from Christensen and Fierce. Both have lots of negative. Check out Pure Precision for a barreled action

 

[Starbuck]

I wouldn't buy a Fierce after the issues a buddy had with the rifle, and their CS.

He bought a 6.5PRC Fierce Carbon Rogue for his Dad, and asked me to work up a load for it.

Lapya brass, I tried 6 different bullets, 4 different powders, 7 different primers, 2 different scopes, checked crown, checked torque on everything, cleaned twice. After 160 rounds, it was sent back, as nothing met their "accuracy guarentee". I had two groups that were under .5 MOA, but they would not repeat.

It was sent in to Fierce. It took MONTHS for them to look at it. They test fired it with every ammo they had per the representative I personally talked to. A single group shot .650", and they said it met their accuracy guarantee and were going to send it back. I asked if it would repeat that group, so back into the rotation for another test. Not sure how many more times it was fired, but 6+ months later, it was deemed to meet their accuracy guarantee. My buddy had to pay almost $400 for this "service" to even get his rifle shipped back. They shipped the target back with the rifle...with a 4 shot group that measures over 1". The "flier" marked as "clean bore fouler shot" and 3 more in a .650" group. Must be nice to be able to throw out a bad shot and still say the group is sub-MOA. 1.063" or 1.015 MOA.

It was sent to Fierce in Nov 2023, It took over 13 months to get the rifle back. I just got it back last week.

View attachment 640925
View attachment 640926

Thanks for sharing that experience.

 

[Boomstickin]

By all means stay away from Christensen and Fierce. Both have lots of negative. Check out Pure Precision for a barreled action

Steer clear from people with negative opinions about specific brands of rifle. No brand of anything is perfect, even some of the highest priced precision platforms fail to perform to the standard set by the manufacturer and or the consumers expectation (sub 1/2" MOA, etc). Should the manufacturer not take care of the problem, assuming it is a build quality issue….that is another story & folks should testify accordingly instead of making blanketed negative statements without providing facts. 7 PRC with a 22" barrel should be easy to find, almost every manufacturer makes something that falls into this caliber & your parameters. Currently, I've got 1 or more of both of the above mentioned brands & these rifles will outshoot all of us trained marksmen everyday of the week. Also own a Pure Precision, very nice rifle & the customer service is excellent. One thing about buying a "new" rifle versus a lightly used rifle, is that you get to see if the rifle shoots or not. Sometimes buying BNIB makes sense but it does not always guarantee that the rifle is going to perform to the manufacturers standards or ours. Money being no object, you can save yourself a lot of heart-ache & money by buying lightly used from a well respected & trusted private party. Guy's are always buying the latest & greatest, selling to attain the newest or next best option. Good Luck with your search, should see more 7PRC's hit the chopping block due to the release of the new 7mm Backcountry storming the market.

 

[marksman1941]

By all means stay away from Christensen and Fierce. Both have lots of negative. Check out Pure Precision for a barreled action

This. I used to work in firearms retail, and the rate of return to manufacturer on those two brands was insane. We averaged 20% return rates on Christensen, and a hair under that on fierce. Christensen was easier to work with, but for a $3000 rifle they made regular, stupid mistakes. Avoid at all costs, unless it's a used rifle that you know functions already.

 

[marksman1941]

Steer clear from people with negative opinions about specific brands of rifle. No brand of anything is perfect, even some of the highest priced precision platforms fail to perform to the standard set by the manufacturer and or the consumers expectation (sub 1/2" MOA, etc). Should the manufacturer not take care of the problem, assuming it is a build quality issue….that is another story & folks should testify accordingly instead of making blanketed negative statements without providing facts. 7 PRC with a 22" barrel should be easy to find, almost every manufacturer makes something that falls into this caliber & your parameters. Currently, I've got 1 or more of both of the above mentioned brands & these rifles will outshoot all of us trained marksmen everyday of the week.

it's a sample size question. When they work, they work great. If you happen to have picked up a good one, then you're happy. But you're working with small sample sizes. In the same vein, if you got a bad one, folks will hate the brand, even with a sample size of 1, because that's how brains tend to work.

We had a higher return percentage on Christensen and fierce than we did on the early Taurus, if that tells you anything. Typically fierce came back because they wouldn't shoot accurately, but they did function at least. Christensen came back for the most bizarre chamber problems imaginable. Regular issues with rifles not even chambering the caliber marked on the barrel (undercut chambers) or not passing a no-go gauge test (massively overdue chamber) in addition to stupid QC problems that shouldn't be prevalent on a $2,000+ rifle.

 

[adam32+P]

Sample size is the question right?

Currently on GunBroker there is over 10,000 listings for Christensen in "bolt action rifles" as opposed to Pure Precision with 151...of course you'll see more negative reviews out there when there's literally thousands upon thousands more rifles to review.

You won't see many if any negative reviews on Jarrett rifles because he only makes 100 a year... Christensen does that in a day.

 

[Boomstickin]

Great feedback on the above mentioned manufacturers. It is a shame that the rifles in question have such high rates of return & for the reasons for the return. It is a wonder how these manufacturers stay in business with questionable quality control. Suppose I'm a bit biased because the rifles from these manufacturers that I own are well built & shoot better than the accuracy guarantee set by the manufacturers.

 

[Starbuck]

Steer clear from people with negative opinions about specific brands of rifle. No brand of anything is perfect, even some of the highest priced precision platforms fail to perform to the standard set by the manufacturer and or the consumers expectation (sub 1/2" MOA, etc). Should the manufacturer not take care of the problem, assuming it is a build quality issue….that is another story & folks should testify accordingly instead of making blanketed negative statements without providing facts. 7 PRC with a 22" barrel should be easy to find, almost every manufacturer makes something that falls into this caliber & your parameters. Currently, I've got 1 or more of both of the above mentioned brands & these rifles will outshoot all of us trained marksmen everyday of the week. Also own a Pure Precision, very nice rifle & the customer service is excellent. One thing about buying a "new" rifle versus a lightly used rifle, is that you get to see if the rifle shoots or not. Sometimes buying BNIB makes sense but it does not always guarantee that the rifle is going to perform to the manufacturers standards or ours. Money being no object, you can save yourself a lot of heart-ache & money by buying lightly used from a well respected & trusted private party. Guy's are always buying the latest & greatest, selling to attain the newest or next best option. Good Luck with your search, should see more 7PRC's hit the chopping block due to the release of the new 7mm Backcountry storming the market.

I agree with the majority of this post; however, I view poor results with a particular brand or model similar to positive results; they are data points to establish a trend or to substantiate an already formed opinion based on my own results with same.

I've also bought a few rifles to use as donors Because their previous owners claimed they were not good shooters, and then found the rifles were in fact very capable of good things once fitted with good mounts and reputable scopes, so I do eye a lot of bad rifle reviews with a level of sceptisim, unless the review is from someone I know and trust or the write up establishes proper context.

I don't know that I'd say the BC is "storming" the market quite yet. Not saying it won't be a paradigm shifter, but I don't personally know anyone who ran out to get one yet or is even planning to shortly, whereas I know a lot of folks, myself included, who procured 6.5, 7, and 300 PRC's and 6.8W and 338 Fed's, etc., as soon as they could. I know it's a small consumer sample size and, thus, might not be properly representing the larger rifle looney community.

A lot of us are waiting on more info on the loading process, properties of their proprietary case, and reports of barrel life with higher presssures. Certainly steel cases have been tried before and haven't shifted the market, but that's not to say that new technologies won't make this approach one that stays around awhile.

 

[Starbuck]

One thing I'll pass along about new rifles in general is that people need to test functionality by feeding from a full mag when practicing. I'm amazed at the amount of feeding problems I see at the range and hear about when people are telling hunting stories. Additionally, a friend recently sent me a 500 yd challenge video made by Eric Cortina, and we couldn't believe how many high zoot, custom rigs couldn't clear an entire mag without some type of feeding issue. I personally won't abide such things. Last place I want to find that I have cartridge feeding issues is when I really need a quick follow up.

 

[marksman1941]

Sample size is the question right?

Currently on GunBroker there is over 10,000 listings for Christensen in "bolt action rifles" as opposed to Pure Precision with 151...of course you'll see more negative reviews out there when there's literally thousands upon thousands more rifles to review.

You won't see many if any negative reviews on Jarrett rifles because he only makes 100 a year... Christensen does that in a day.

My point was comparing production boutique mfgs like Christensen to larger scale operations like Winchester. Both touted as quality brands, but we sold 5x as many winchesters and had half as many warranty returns. Remingtons had some famous qc problems, but by volume their return rate was above Winchester and on par with Ruger. All of which were well below the Fierce and Christensen ratio of sales to warranty returns. At the price point, QC should not even come into question.

If I'm buying a Palmetto State blem, I 100% expect to QC it on my own. It's cheap, it knows it's cheap, but it works usually. When it doesn't, it's cause someone forgot to tighten the bolts on the gas block, or didn't install a gas tube. Silly mistakes, but I'm paying $300 so I expect some of that. Above $2,000, it had better be checked out and function properly, without fail.

 

[Gabe22BR]

Looking for a new rifle. I want it to be chambered in 7 PRC and would prefer a 22" barrel so I can run a suppressor. Shooting will probably be mid range by most of your standards but would like to be able to be confident to make shots in hunting situations to 600 yards or so. I realize this takes practice. Not a big fan of Seekins as I don't like the feel of their stocks. What other rifles should I be looking at?

I would build a custom to your requirements, set up the way you want. Kelby, Bat, Borden actions, any Stock you desire, and a barrel, then choice of trigger.

That'll get close to your budget, & be better than factory offerings.

If you have a specific bullet in mind, get a chamber reamer for it..

 

[Treeslug]

I've never been disappointed by a weatherby mark V. The new apex and high country would be perfect for your needs. Comes with a 24" barrel that has a 2" brake installed, would be easy enough to shorten it by 2" if you really wanted that extra bit of maneuvering. Go with a deluxe if you like the wood stocks.

Could also go semi custom such as buying a barreled action from zermatt and a cheaper stock like bell and Carlson and a triggertech or something that'll really push your budget to the limit but will be an excellent rifle for the money

$2500 is nothing to scoff at. A lot of people on this forum use much cheaper guns and achieve quite the long range feats.

For my .02, find a Weatherby Mark V that flips your switch! Price range is right and it will be difficult to find a better "off the shelf" weapon.

 

[skipglo]

If I was buying now it would be Seekins PH3

Traitor!!!