heavy barrel varmint rifle

[Kimber]

I am about to purchase a heavy barrel varmit rifle, the two that i have seen are Rem 700 & a Stag mdl6. any other sugestions would be greatly apreciated.
Thanks

 

[sgreen3]

I would also consider some of the Savage Varmit rifles, Very quality rifles for reasonable prices.

 

[bRAD]

Check out the CZ 527 Varmint. For the money they are the best rifles you can buy. The Savage rifles are a close second.

 

[42769vette]

the savage line is defintally worth a ssecond look. imo the 2 main choices are the savage and remington, between the 2 is a diffrence most shooters will never notice.

 

[451_Detonics]

The Savage will outshoot any of the factory offering under $1000.00, I would say you would have to go to a custom to beat them. Savage is one of the few companies that still makes barrels the old fashion way, the same way most custom barrel makers do it. The barrel is paramount to accuracy and Savage barrel are one of the best factory barrels available.

Any of the 12 Series from Savage will do very well but I am not overly fond of the plastic stocks Savage uses, I would only buy one if replacing the stock was part of the plan otherwise the laminated wood stocks are great. I recently bought a used Gen 2 12BVSS and even with the nasty 8 pound pre Acutrigger trigger in it I was able to shoot these initial groups. These were shot with zero tweaking to the gun and were done just to sight in the rifle. Ammo is factory not reloads, I called both flyers...both were due to the heavy trigger.

I would happily shoot this rifle against any factory rifle in the same price range.

 

[red_zr24x4]

Love my 10FP .223
I'd deffinatly check out the Savage lineup

 

[koenig clone]

my savage 10bvss in 223 is an unbelievable bench rifle. if i could only keep one gun, i think it would be that one! smoothest gun i have ever fired. Everyone i let shoot it, falls in love with it.

 

[Shooter1]

Go for savage because the Rems just suck now!

 

[buford t justice]

my uncle bought a 700 rem a few years ago in 22-250 it wouldnt shoot with
any ammo. He sent back to the factory and they told him the action was
bored off center. He got his money back and bought a savage it shot sub moa
at 100 yards. I think these guys are on the mark.

 

[kboom524]

I have a Remington 700 SPS Varmint in .223. I have had no problems with it. Very accurate rifle. Have a friend who has two 700 SPSs one .223 and one .308. No problems with either of these rifles. Both are tack drivers also. Any of the other 700s I have had a chance to shoot have all been great rifles.

 

[sloughfoot]

my uncle bought a 700 rem a few years ago in 22-250 it wouldnt shoot with
any ammo. He sent back to the factory and they told him the action was
bored off center. He got his money back and bought a savage it shot sub moa
at 100 yards. I think these guys are on the mark.

This is amazing. First that it was off center. Second that they admitted it and didn't make it right by fixing or replacing it.

I second all the motions for any model of Savage. The Savage line has a lot going for it, including the option of changing barrels and calibers very easily. Of course, within the same boltface range.

 

[Eric86]

I agree that the Rem 700s and the Savages are a very good starting point for out of the box accuracy and to build/add on to later. You also need to look at twist rates on the barrel of the rifle of your choosing. Different twist rates affect bullets differently. For example a faster twist rate stabalizes heavier bullets and a slower twist rate is better for lighter bullets.
For example the .308 Remington 700 varmint has a 26" barrel and a 1-12 twist rate while the .308 Savage varmint has a 26" barrel and a 1-10 twist.

 

[jayhawk]

I went through this not too long ago...looked at everything under the sun: Tikka, T/C, Weatherby, Savage, Remington.

I guess it kind of depends on if you want a rifle that you're going to keep basically stock, or if you're buying into a platform that you intend to upgrade.

Weatherby offers some really nice out of the box options with Bell & Carlson stocks and that are tested to be sub-moa at 100yds.
Weatherby VMM256RR4O Vanguard SMOA 25-06 $789.00 SHIPS FREE

I don't think you can go wrong with either Savage or Remington, both are very nice, but unless you spend a little more, the standard synthetic stocks leave a little to be desired.

I personally ended up with a second hand 700. It's been modded a fair amount, but it's pretty darn accurate (easily sub moa), even with the bargain basement ammo that I usually shoot.

 

[buford t justice]

My uncles 700 was a lefty and remington told him he would have to wait till they tooled up for left hand actions to get a replacement,so he asked for his money back.

 

[Eric86]

I went with this package. Sniper Central - Remington 700 Entry Package

If you decide you want to purchase this package, you might as well become a member for $10 because he knocks off $25 as member pricing.

 

[gglass]

The best bang for the buck under $1000 is the Remington 700 Police. Not many rifles at any price will shoot under .25 MOA with factory ammo, but a R700P will.

My 700P:

A few sweet groups:
[

 

[xmas_asn]

I had a Savage 112FV with a heavy barrel 1/9. With a 12x scope and 75 grain .223 I was hitting 850 yards on a 12x12inch plate. Consecutive 10 rounds was my own record. I didn't have a target any farther back so I almost didn't have anything left to shoot!

 

[teddy12b]

The best bang for the buck under $1000 is the Remington 700 Police. Not many rifles at any price will shoot under .25 MOA with factory ammo, but a R700P will.

If your 700P shot those groups out of the box without any work then I'd agree that you got a good one and found the right ammo. On the average though for what a person can expect out of an untouched 700P out of the box versus an untouched savage 12 series out of the box I'd bet my money on the savage every time. I'll admit that I am biased on behalf of savage. I'm also man enough to admit that if a remington gun as accurate as yours ever came up for sale I could put my feelings towards savage aside and look at buying it.

 

[Leo]

I think production rifle barrels tend to be the luck of the draw. My new Rem .308 sps heavy barrel shoots about 1 moa with match bullet handloads and slightly bigger than 1.5 moa with quality hunting ammo. Not exactly a tack driver, but plenty good for hunting. In all fairness the whole rifle with the silly looking plastic camo stock cost less than I pay for a Hart match barrel blank and the machine work to fit it to a match rifle, so I cannot complain too loudly. Even though the Savage action is not as slick as a Remington, the barrel on my Savage 12bvss .308 was a lot more accurate. The laminated stock only needed the pillars epoxied in to be a very repetable rifle. I have seen many articles in varmint hunter magazine where they test a stock savage and get amazing accuracy. I do think that as a whole, the Savage heavy barrels are at least slightly superiour.

 

[jayhawk]

The best bang for the buck under $1000 is the Remington 700 Police. Not many rifles at any price will shoot under .25 MOA with factory ammo, but a R700P will.

Those are really great groups, esp since they are 5 shot groups. What sort of optic is on you 700P?