[MAJOR PITA]

I've always been a person to want his cake and eat it too.

I just purchased a Savage 10FP-LE2, which I'm slowly going to build into a precision rifle.

While I do that (which could take months), I'd like to have a good, lightweight hunting rifle that is light enough to take deer hunting, and yet its accuracy is about MOA out of the box with good factory ammo. I've considered another Savage 10FP, with maybe the 20 inch barrel this time (instead of the 26-inch of the LE2), but this may still be too heavy for a "hunting" rifle.

I'm pretty much "married" to .308; I don't like to own multiple, similar calibers. I have a horror of getting 40 miles into the boonies only to find I've brought the wrong ammo!

Is there a lightweight, current production hunting bolt-action rifle you know of that fills the bill of good hunter and tack-driver?

:sniper2:

 

[mike26038]

I know you said .308, but I have a Remington Mountain Rifle, weighs like 5 pounds, in 30.06, and shoots sub MOA.. But the bbl is sso thin you can only take 2-3 accurate shots, then you have to let it cool down for a bit.. But again the bbl is thin, so the cool down doesnt take long, and for deer hunting how many shots do you need...If you need over 2 shots, possibly 3 you really should'nt be hunting..


Now that I think about it.. I would have to suggest a remy Model 7.. They come in .308, are very light, and should be a tack driver as well.. The Model 7 also has the shorter receiver, so that save weight too..

 

[sks_hunter]

I have a Browning A-Bolt Medallion that I handload for. It's chambered in .300 WIN MAG. with sierra match 150 gr. bullets, a 4- shot group is one ragged hole at 100yds. I had to spend some time with the recipe for the load, and playing with the B.O.S.S., but I have yet to see anything so accurate. I believe that any decent hunting rifle can easily be made to shoot really tight groups, but it all starts with finding a load it likes...
Cephus...

I totally agree with the Ruger falling block... Ruger No. 1... awesome shooter right out of the box. Not to mention, beautiful to look at.:thumbup1:

 

[sks_hunter]

Cephus...
I've been reloading for about ....hmm...... 15 or so years, and I've had the browning for about 10 years, maybe 8. where I shoot, I can go about 500 yds flat, then I have an incline to deal with beyond that. For the longer distance stuff I like the Hornady A-Max bullets. great Ballistics. I've never shot competition LD, but would love to some day (I'd need ALOT more scope than the Swift 3.5-10 that's on it now)
My next project, probably for winter is going to be a mauser 98 (after the 3 AK builds I'm awaiting parts for), rebarrelled and rechambered for..... you guessed it... 30/338! I really want to try to make/carve a stock for it, but have never even attempted anything but basic whittling before. This is a great shooting cartridge, and the possibilities are endless for handloads, as well as being an excellent hunting round.

ditto on the price of the #1... my wife would probably bust it over my skull...:bangin: she just doesn't understand.... I don't really want one.... I NEED ONE!!!:wallbash:

 

[sks_hunter]

I used to have an old #4 enfield that I used for hunting. It had been sportrized, and I'm not sure if the barrel had been trimmed or not. It was an exceptional shooter But, I do remember, that thing totally abused my shoulder every time i touched it off. I don't know if it was stock design, weight (or lack of) or what, but that thing just plain hurt me. I think shooting that, though made me a better shooter, and taught me, kind of in a backwards way, to tolerate the recoil.

97.5 gr.?
holy cow...like the powder capacity of a bar-bottle!
I had the extreme pleasure of shooting a single-shot 50BMG that a buddy of mine made. he was a machinist by trade and a hack gunsmith, and he actually made a falling block design, built it into a receiver, bought a 50BMG barrel, and fit it all together. the trigger pull was slightly heavy, at about 20 lbs, but boy.... what a rush... just the concussion of the thing going off just about takes your breath away. I think the barrel had been cut to about 22", and there was a huge homemade muzzle brake on the end of it. quite a contraption.

next time I'm down that way, I'll just have to stop in!!! I can yack about reloading and guns and just about anything else all day!

 

[Sangrun Hunter]

Here's an idea for you guys that like the C&R thing.

It might seem a little sacreligious, but you have to consider these guns both had counter bored barrels with terrible accuracy.

This is now an extremley accurate light weight rifle now from what was once a rifle that shot 12 inch groups at 35 yards. It now hits 2 inch groups at 125 yards with milsurp ammo.

Dad figured a way to make a silky smooth trigger with bedded stock. I have an M44 that has recieved the same treatment and will have an adjustable trigger when I'm done. I don't have a pic of mine, but it's very similar in looks.

$69 bucks at the time and can be gotten in some places 5 for $100

 

[sks_hunter]

sweet... did you free-float the barrel, or is it possible?

 

[Sangrun Hunter]

Yes, it's free floating. My Dad is satisfied with his this way. Mine will have a custom bent bolt along with the screw driver adjustable trigger.

There are trigger kits out there for $70, but my Dad studied the Finnish tricks that they did to their Nagants. Very simple changing of the way they pivot the trigger and where a stop can be put in for travel.

 

[sks_hunter]

distributor shaft firing pin!!! I love it. There aren't a whole lot of people out there that can say that, I bet. Truly original.

 

[sks_hunter]

that Browning has a B.O.S.S., which actually tunes the barrel. Alot of people who have them, don't really understand them, and say they don't work. I beg to differ with them... they are truly amazing if you take the time to tune them correctly. I also have a 270 remington model 700BDL, and it was spotting holes all over the place. the wood forearm was touching the barrel. I dremelled it out a little, and voilla.... tight groups, and one of my best shooters.

 

[MAJOR PITA]

Here's an idea for you guys that like the C&R thing.

It might seem a little sacreligious, but you have to consider these guns both had counter bored barrels with terrible accuracy.

This is now an extremley accurate light weight rifle now from what was once a rifle that shot 12 inch groups at 35 yards. It now hits 2 inch groups at 125 yards with milsurp ammo.

Hmmmm... is this "counter-bored barrel" something that a person could have seen before buying the rifle? Can you describe ( or better yet, show a photo) of what the inaccurate barrel looked like before you fixed it? I've often looked over Moisin Nagants at gun shows, but now you've got me wondering how to spot an inaccurate "counter-bored barrel."

 

[Sangrun Hunter]

The first 2 inches or so of the barrel is smooth bore or the rifling is almost gone.

It's fine if you're street fighting in Stalingrad, but not good for a match shoot.

 

[sks_hunter]

Might they have designed this into the rifle purposely to keep pressures down?

 

[Sangrun Hunter]

No, it's from the muzzle end having dirt, being cleaned, and general corrosion. They get shot out and it's also common on M1 Garands.

It's very typical of Nagants as they refurbed every Nagant for battle by any means.

 

[MAJOR PITA]

So what you're basically saying is that if you look at a rifle's muzzle and you can't see the muzzle crown at the tip of the muzzle, then if you buy that rifle you may have to have it recrowned or even rebarreled?

 

[Sangrun Hunter]

So what you're basically saying is that if you look at a rifle's muzzle and you can't see the muzzle crown at the tip of the muzzle, then if you buy that rifle you may have to have it recrowned or even rebarreled?

Yes, those would be options too.

What a lot of people do is cut down the barrel until they have good strong rifling again. In our case it was about 2-3 inches back then a recrown job. We are lucky that the barrels were in good shape besides the counter boring.

My Dad's M44 is outstanding and he says it's his favorite rxifle he's ever owned. That says a lot when you consider he's has Win Mod 70's, Rem 700's, along with a few other that have been customized.

He's got no money in it except the $69 price tag and his labor. It shoots 1-2 inch grougs at 125 yards with milsurp ammo. He hasn't tried good commercial grade in it yet. That is open sights too with what he calls bad 58 year old eyes.

I got him an M48 in nasty condition with a shot out barrel this year for his project. It shoots 16 inch groups at 35 yards! I didn't know it could be that bad! He's already found a 30.06 barrel from a 1910 Mexican Mauser for $25 and an 8MM barrel from another M48 for $10. I would imagine by this time next year I'll be posting pics of that project too.

 

[sks_hunter]

Centerfire has M38 Nagants for $45.00. They advertise them as "collector grade".

 

[Sangrun Hunter]

Century or maybe it's SOG has 5 for $100 dollar specials on M44's. I just saw it in a flyer and I'm thinking it was SOG.

I'm certain a nice complete rifle could be had from 5 since all 5 come with all the parts.

 

[Sangrun Hunter]

I just looked and it's Century.

They have some 5 for $110

Others are 5 for $100

Some are 5 for $75

I'm thinking of getting an order.....


EDIT: They could be missing any parts though

 

[MAJOR PITA]

Sounds like it's a good thing I passed on those $79.95 Nagants at Big 5 Sporting Goods. Could be they were shot out, too (I didn't look that closely at them).