I have eight NEF rifles. There is nothing in the world wrong with them. I have also had the Encore and contender. They may be a little better finished gun and have a better resale but not three times as good. For 200 bucks you can expect to have a few drawbcaks but they are getting around to correcting the few little bugs. The 223's shoot very well as do most of the low pressure rounds. You may have a little extraction trouble with the high pressure cartridges. They are fixing this by replacing the ejector with a Mechanical extractor so this problem will be solved. With the right loads, they will shoot along side most bolt action rifles. I have the 26 inch barreled 280 and it shoots 1 1/2 or better groups. I have the 44 Mag, 223, 243,7MM-08 , 280, 45-70, 45-70 Buffalo classic with 32 inch barrel, 22-250, 357 Mag and 12 Ga. All the high pressure rounds seem to shoot the lighter bullets per caliber best. You should have no problem getting good hunting accuracy.