New rifle for my son.

[JoeS1044]

Id recommend in this order for best bang for your buck and a gun your son will love to use and will serve him for many years

1. Tikka T3

2. Savage Arms

3. Howa

These three guns are all great shooters I personally own a Tikka T3 Superlite in 308 shoots amazing I was able to turn the trigger down to 1lb 4oz! And I just bought a savage long range hunter in 6.5x284 yesterday. Hopefully ill be shooting that on thursday best of luck in your choice but I would personally pick the Tikka first and dont look back!


PS:

Regarding your question about the quality of Howa they are really good factory rifles my buddy and coworker owns one in 25-06 and he was shooting the same hole with hsm ammo. They are really well built as they are weatherby guns made in the Japan factory.

 

[Roy Sparks]

Joe thank you.

My son is set on a 243 Win for himself probably because he has witnessed my Win Featherweight bring down so much game over the years.

We do have heavier calibers suited to long range when required 7 Rem mag , 300 H&H , so I'll look at those rifles for sure. If he feels the desire to upgrade he can earn that money from shooting jackal with one of the three you mentioned.

Thanks a lot - Roy.

 

[brianmark]

If I were to pick a good performing, low recoiling caliber thats capable of long range id pick a 6.5 creedmoor..didnt read to see if you reload, but if you dont you can get the hornady match factory ammo that out of mine shoots amazing in both 120 and 140..and the 120s hammer deer, shot 2 at about 350 and 200 and neither took a step..best part of the hornady match ammo is it gives exact load data on the box that you can replicate. My 6.5 creed is on a tc encore, and I love how it shoots but id like to get one in a bolt gun someday to use longer ranges...I really like what savage or ruger has for it, but of ciurse you could build one on any platform you wanted

 

[travelr47]

The only problem I've experienced with my Tikka T3-Lite is that it has a "floating" recoil lug so it has to be re-zeroed after the stock is removed for cleaning/maintenance. By "floating" I mean the recoil
fits into a slot cut into the action and comes out when re-assembling the rifle. I've tried to think how to anchor the recoil lug, but other issues crop up such as accuracy. It appears the lug is intended to
fit a specific way or else accuracy falls off. The only solution I could think of was to have the lug attached to the action by a gunsmith, then route out the stock and re-bed the action to the stock.

The caveat there is while it is inconvenient to have to re-zero after I've removed the stock and replaced it, but the rifle is exceptionally accurate! My wife shooting off-hand, standing, placed her shot dead center of a 1" sticky target at 100 yds. Needless to say, I don't remove the stock unless I
absolutely have to.

I don't own any Howa rifles, but discussing them with several rifle builders, they are well thought of
and come highly preferred/recommended.

As for caliber, any of those you mentioned will work very well. My preference is the 7mm-08, but there is nothing wrong with the .243 or .308 either.

I prefer the 7mm bore simply because the bullets tend to have higher sectional density to other
larger caliber bullets of equal weight.

 

[rfd]

imo, caliber choice (form) depends on primary usage (function). the .243win is always a good choice with its overall lowered recoil, for very accurate varmint and light deer hunting. i have one and love it for exactly those reasons, rar w/swfa s/s 10x42 (just awaiting the advent of the new boyd's laminate replacement stock offering!) ...

however, ime the .308win is the better longer range cartridge that increases the spectrum of game hunted and can be capable of excellent really long range accuracy. on the cheap (but GOOD), a remlin xs7vh in .308win, with its heavier barrel and adjustable trigger, and some good glass, would/could offer a good bang for the buck. and if you handload, reduced h4895 .308win loads make it easy for teens to shoot with greatly reduced recoil (trail boss loads too!). i added in a boyd's stock and swfa s/s 12x42 to mine, quite pleased ...