Ruger, Remington, Tikka

[yog1]

being new to the gun seen i was thinking about buying my first centre fire rifle, I would like somthing in black synthetic stock, stainless barrel and .204 caliber,
i was thinking about a remington 700 sps stainless, but after looking about a bit i've found that some say the stock affects the accuracy, i then started to look at a ruger m77 hawkeye all weather or a tikka t3 light stainless or t3 varmint,
i cant find as much out about these, any help would be great, what would u buy and what faults have u heard of when it comes to these guns,
also what does "MOA" mean when they talk about accuracy, sorry for ranting on, or asking stupid questions

[ajstrider]

Well you have several questions in there, lets see if I can knock some of them out. The stock can affect the accuracy in any rifle. Free floating a barrel is the way to go really. What this means is that the stock doesn't touch the barrel at all. Things to consider here, if you squeeze the stock, and thermal expansion of barrel after shooting multiple rounds. The idea is that the stock doesn't ever touch to the barrel and send any vibration to it to send you bullet slightly off. Most new rifles of good construction are mostly free floated as long as you don't put a death grip on the front of the stock. A quick check some people do is to take a dollar bill, and slide it between barrel and stock and run it all the way down to the action, if it gets held up, obviously the barrel touches the stock and it is not actually free floated.

A MOA (minute of angle) is used to describe accuracy and adjustments of rifles in particular. A MOA at 100 yards is 1", at 200 yards it is 2" and 400 yards it is 4" and so on. So if something is a MOA accurate at 100 yards, that means it puts its shots in 1" there. Ideally if something is MOA accurate, it will continue like this forever, but accuracy drops off as range goes out. MOA is also used to discuss scope adjustments. Most scopes are 1/4 MOA per click. This means at 100 yards, one click is 1/4". At 200 yards this becomes 1/2". Anyways, there is a simple pattern there.

As far as rifles go, if you buy any one of the bigger brand names, you should be fine really. Remington, Browning, Savage, Tikka, Thompson/Center, Winchester and Ruger all make fine rifles. They just all have their own small differences like safety position, bolt operation, stock feel, and so on. Try them out and see which one feels the best to you. I personally like Browning rifles. The A Bolt is a definite winner all around. I like the newer X Bolt a lot too, but I do not like the looks of its stainless version.

[heinz57]

well documented ajstrider may i add that if you hunt in a rough climate get the stainless steel barrel and synthetic stock ...we all know that a wood stock and a blued barrel looks better ..but my advice is strictly for hunting ..

[yog1]

thankyou for the replys, being able to get advice from people who know about these thing is great,
funny u say that heinz57, the only reason i want a stainless steel barrel and synthetic stock is cause of the way it looks, i just prefer them to wood, unless its a light coloured timber, witch seems to be hard to find, out of intrest how much would a remington 700 sps stainless in .204 cost in america, i shouild have said that i'm in ireland and i'm getting prices of around £825 british pounds and i got a quote of £783 for a CZ, all are plus scope mounts and moderator

[mdewitt71]

Do lots of reading, get your hands on as many rifles as you can and see what qualities you like versus other brands.
I love Rugers...anything Ruger. For some reason Ruger models always catches my eye, some hate em.
But, with that said; I bought a Tikka T3 Lite and am pretty impressed with it so far. I would put it against my A-bolts, MK77, or Model 700 anyday of the week.

[heinz57]

YOG 1 i live in Canada and we pay more for rifles and amo than the people in the USA ..a REMINGTON mod. 700 s/s and synthetic stock would be $ 800.00 .+ tax

http://www.remington.com/products/fi...stainless.aspx