Congratulations on the new rifle Zugunruhe. I am sure you will have excellent luck with the rifle. Make sure you report back on your overall opinion of the rifle and the way it shoots. Also you have one heck of a wife!! I found it is easier to not even ask, because they never notice another one on the wall collection.. (kind of like sabotloader..)

They're the same guns. Winchester just put there name on it. I just bought one in stainless and black for 200 bucks at cabelas.com. I can't find a Kodiak with all those features for less than 310 bucks. The only difference between the guns is the price tag basically. The Apex is slightly heavier as well. If you want the Apex you'd better hurry and buy it on the internet right now. They'll sell out fast. You can get it by Christmas if you order it today.

You won't find a better gun for the money,I guarantee it. Good luck.

Oops, didn't see you already got one. Congratulations!

You need to check that kodiak out really good. Almost every post ive read, people have bought cva's from gander mountain and end up taking them back due to really hard trigger pulls. Seems like gander mountain takes all the bad eggs.

Congrats! Have fun at the range! Let us know how it shoots.

My kodiak,shoots great with 300gr speer GDHP/w harvester crushrib sabots by pushing it with 100gr 777 pellets. Every gun is different so try various loads and bullet combos, I'm sure you'll get groups to your satisfaction.

Congrats on your new toy. You'll have a blast shooting it, I know I did.

I just got my Apex. It's definetely a better deal than the Kodiak.

Got a chance to try out the Kodiak on Christmas day and I have to say with only one exception, I really like the gun. My exception would be the trigger- HEAVY! I'm not a rifle guy (yet) but this thing is stiff. But surprisingly, we were able to shoot it very accurately at 40 yds. off my deck and with a 20+ mph cross wind. It was cold out so I didn't shoot much but ran half a dozen or so rounds out of it. In a very unscientific fashion, I loaded up 90 gr. of 777 loose, a 295 gr. PB (came with the gun) and a Win 209 primer and proceded to kill a milk jug full of water with the first shot and finished off the remaining chunks with shots 2, 3 and 4. Then gave my f-i-l a load and he put it right in the jug too. We were both impressed with the open sights, nice and bright and fine enough to aim accurately. The gun is pleasant to shoot, doesn't kick nearly as much as my 870 with slugs. I finally put up a target and put the final shot right in the 10 ring just a little low and left of center. That was enough for me for first impressions so I went to cleaning to see how that went.

Let me think of some relevant points... okay, diassembly is a cinch. Remove two allen screws from the stock and you have two pieces, barrell/trigger group and stock. The stock is very light, not nearly as nice as the Apex, but comfortable to hold and shoot. Gun itself balances well despite the light and hollow stock. Breech plug removes easily with the supplied wrench or a 12mm socket. I had only Winchester 209 regular shotgun primers and they did leave a very pronounced "crud ring" with the 777. I had to swab between shots or loading a second shot on a dirty barrell was a chore, even with the PB's. The crud ring was easily removed though with one wet patch and a dry patch between shots. For final cleanup I used wet patches with windex and some of the CVA bore blaster gel. It took a total of 7 patches to come out clean, not bad in my book. One thing I forgot to mention, I need a range rod! While the included ramrod is serviceable (fiberglass or polymer), it is too short for my liking, a "T" handle would be nice also and easier on the palm of my hand.

My dad managed to find a Walmart that still had powder left and picked me up two pounds of Pyrodex RS for $11, not bad, but I could have gotten it for $7 here had I not hesitated[]. I've been searching around here and have written down some loads to test. Need to order some sabots and I think I'll try 250gr. XTP's and 300 gr. Gold Dots first. I can tell already this is going to be addictive!

Zugunruhe,

My Apex was around 4.5 lbs and a shorter pull than my sidekick. I did not like it at first until . . . I learned the grip and trigger placement allowed me to grip around the trigger with the second part of the index finger. I simply gently squeeze the whole hand (all fingers and thumb) just like a hand shake. Do try that, because I so like the way mine breaks that way that I won't do anything to reduce its pull weight now.

Congrats on your new rifle. Sounds like she's already a shooter.