Which rifle?
 

I'm looking for a new bolt action rifle and I can't decide which one to buy. I thinking of getting it in .308.

I'm considering the Winchester Model 70, Ruger Hawkeye, Browning X-Bolt or Savage 16. (In that order) I also think I want an all weather gun, so stainless barrel, etc.

I plan to use the rifle to hunt deer, Boar, Moose and maybe ELK....is .308 enough?

Thoughts?

Model 70 all the way.
Then flip a coin for the Ruger or Savage.
I wouldn't have an X-bolt personally. IMO Browning hasn't made a bolt action rifle worth having in a very very long time.

The .308 is plenty enough gun for all the animals you mentioned.

I would go with the Ruger. But I'm biased, I've owned several over the last few years, mostly at the same time.
My next choice would be the Win.

Proud owner of a Browning X-Bolt Stainless Stalker in .338 Win Mag & a Savage Weather Warrior 16 FCSS in .204.



That new Winchester is nice though.

If it had a detachable box magazine, I'd already own one in synthetic/stainless.

Nuff said

I'm a Ruger man but it wouldn't hurt all of manufacturers to put a decent trigger in a mid priced ranged rifle. Savage is pretty accurate out of the box for a hunting rifle. Can't go wrong with a Remington or a Winchester as far as a hunting rifle either. In a .308 I'd opt for the Remington 700 tactical model. It is short well balanced, a tack driver and for the price the best trigger you'll put your finger on for less than $600.00.

winchester model 70 or browning x bolt

I'd recommend purchasing in the order which you previously listed. The new (SC made) Winny's are quite nice!

My father and I own X-Bolts. They are very nice guns. I have a 7mm08 and he has a 243.

I'd go with a Ruger if you don't want an X-Bolt.

I've had success with their guns in the past as well. I'm still trying to get my father to sell me the old Ruger .44 semi-auto rifle he has to use as a backup gun. It was the gun I used when I began to hunt. It survived my early years of making mistakes to help me become a decent hunter.

Although, I'm also apparently biased as well. ;)

Biased As Well
 

Look at Thompson Center , Icon, Venture, or Encore !

I suggest you try them all for fit and feel. Also consider the functions. I personally do not care for the 3 position safeties on the Winchesters or Rugers. I do like the rifles though. I do like the tang safeties on the the Brownings and Savages. Now that being said, I have never owned a Model 70 only because I am a lefty. (Never got a chance to own one of their left hand bolts when they cam out). I do/did own Ruger 77s, Savage 116 (the long action version of the 16) and Browning A bolts. And to get them to my satisfaction, I had trigger jobs done on the Rugers and the Brownings. And bedding on one Ruger and one Browning. The Savage (several in fact) shot terriffic right out of the box. But it all boils down to the first statement. Get the one that feels the best in your hands.

I have several Ruger's and they are nice, but I think of out of the box accuaracy its hard to beat Savage.

I have one marlin XL7, a couple of winchester model 70's and one Browning Xbolt, and one remington branded model 798(mauser 98). The winchesters (7mm rem mag and 300RUM) are both my go to rifles. Both shoot sub moa. The Xbolt in 300win shoots moa, and is a nice to shoot rifle. The model 70's are stainless, but both sport nice wood stocks now, and look nicer that way. The browning, is the hunter model, matte finish on wood stock. It has about the best feel, with a nice palm swell for your trigger hand. In 308 win, it will do fine for elk, just no long distance shooting. Best thing you can do is go to the store, handle as many as you can, and decide what feels best. I prefer the 3 position safety, as I can have a safety on and bolt locked, or safety on, and able to clear the action with an added level of safety. Lots of guns dont have this, but one more bit of safety is priceless, and has never compromised relaibility.

which rifle
 

try looking at the Rem. SPS rifle. its made in stainless steel and comes with a synthetic stock. also a good choice of calibers.

I would also consider looking at the Tikka...very impressed with the one I have in 270 WSM.

.308 will take all the animal you list with ease and they are inherently accurate.

The .308 is good for your purposes. Very good caliber. Of the choices you mentioned I would go with the Ruger. I have many and they have never let me down. I handload for accuracy in many calibers.

shot my dads ruger a lot in 7mm rem mag. i love how smooth the bolt is accuracy is great too. i love the looks of it

my personal preference is the winchester model 70. as a matter of fact i'll be purchasing the model 70 in .308. just gotta decide if i want the featherwieght or the extreme weather.... plastic or wood..stainless or blued gotta make up my mind!!!!!

Jerry,

Good luck with your decision.


Hope you get a shooter !!!

Jerry, just an FYI... That stock that's on the extreme weather is far from the typical plastic stock. Fiberglass, carbon and aramid fibers and gel costed.

Thank Sheridan. Yup,I know BigBulls.It's a B&C,the stock felt real comfortable.There's just something about that Schnable foregrip that i love!

I would choose between Rugers Gunsight Scout or one of Savages offerings, like perhaps the precision carbine.

Well I finally made a decision and bought the Winchester Model 70 Featherweight in .308.

As much as I liked the look and price of the Rugar Haweye, I didn't like the feel of the trigger at all.....it seemed to take a lot of effort to get it to fire. My friend has the older Ruger (the last model) and it’s trigger is a dream, so I was very disappointed.

As for the Savage, I didn't like the way it felt in my hands, but I really liked feel of the Accutrigger. A nice gun overall, but there was something about it I didn’t like.

So, that left me to compared the x-bolt and the Model 70. Both had nice finished wood with nice carved checkering. Both have very smooth bolt actions. The X-both had a nice 2 position safety, that you could release the bolt (by pressing a button on it) without taking it off safety. The M70 had a 3 position safety that did the same, so about even. Both seemed to have nice triggers

X-bolt Positives
The X-bolt is tad lighter (4 Oz) than the M70, not much but, I guess a slight plus for X-Bolt.
The X-bold seemed to have better scope mounts with each using 4 screws
The X-Bolt looked sleeker and was a tad shorter overall.

M70 Positives
The M70, has a mauser style controlled feed action, which I think is a plus for the M70.
The M70 has a larger loading/ejection port. It looked easier for my short fat fingers.
The M70 uses a hinged floor plate magazine.

My major concern was that the X-bold uses a Plastic 4 round magazine. It clicked in nice...but it's plastic??? How long will it last? Will I be able to get a new one in 20 years and what will it cost? Right now they said a new magazine cost $40. I could see myself loosing it in the woods or even stepping on it and breaking it.

It was a tough process to decide and fun too! Lastly I put a Leupold VX-3 2.5–8x36mm on the rifle. So far, I’ve only put 5 rounds through it and it shoots real nice. I’m planning to take it to the range this week end!

Thanks for all your comments!

I bet you will be happy with it. Searching for that special firearm is half the fun.

Now that I’ve taken my new rife hunting I thought an update was in order.

After my first 10 min of hunting I discovered a flaw with my new Winchester M-70 rifle that I thought you folks might like to know about

When the safety is set in the Intermediate position (the trigger is locked but you can still work the bolt) I discovered that the bolt is very loose. I never noticed this at the range. It is so loose in fact that it fell open and expelled a few rounds when I put the rifle over my shoulder. The bold was so loose with the intermediate safety set, that I found it impossible to use. Even sitting still, the bolt would gradually creep up forcing me to use the full safety setting. So rather than a quick flip of the thumb, I had to rotate the safety all the way around. This is a pain in the neck, noisy and time consuming to accomplish. Just to be clear, I was only using the intermediate safety setting when I was in a “ready to shoot” mode, I always use the full safety when walking or stalking.

Not being happy I took the gun back to store where I purchased it. They agreed that I have an issue and sent it back to Winchester. That was 2 weeks ago and I've not heard a word.

Has any else experienced this with a Model 70?

The Winchester Extreme Weather is a real nice rifle.The stock isn't your typical factory synthetic stock {injection molded} It's a Bell & Carlson made of fiberglass with an aluminum bedding block.......it's a nice stock. Plus the rifle has a fluted SS barrel which IMO adds to the asthectics of the gun.

I have a model 70 from circa 04ish and I have never experienced this issue. But I also keep my gun on the full safety all the time so I have never really had the chance to notice it. The only time I use the middle safety is to unload. Mine regrettably does not have a floor plate so I have to work the bolt to remove the rounds, so that middle safety is nice to have for unloading it.

Westtexducks does your bolt operate with the same tension in the Intermediate saftey and with the saftey off?

Mine is much different.

Honestly I have not payed much attention to it never had to worry about. I will definitely look this weekend and report here when I get back. Now that I think about it it is looser but I have never really thought of it as a problem. But I will double check when I get back after the weekend. To bad I cant bring it with me to college.:sad0064:

Well, there isn't anything at all wrong with how your safety is working. It is doing exactly what it is suppose to do. The middle position is so that you can unload the rifle with the safety still engaged and so that you can take the bolt out of the rifle and disassemble it with out additional tools. That's it. It is loose like that because of the way the safety works. The safety pulls the ****ing (C O C K ing) piece to the rear and holds it there completely separate from the trigger. When they are separated there is no tension on the ****ing (C O C K ing) piece so the bolt is completely free of any tension what so ever.

If you always walk with the safety in the third position then how did you dump the rounds when you put it over your shoulder?

I'm not sure how time consuming rotating the safety could possible be but OK.

It's probably taking so long because they are all sitting there asking each other why in the hell you sent the rifle back to them. BTW, two weeks isn't a long time to wait to return a gun to the factory. They never come back in two weeks.

I realize that you may be new to rifles and are to the model 70, and the above wasn't meant to sound rude. Just razzing you a little. But seriously, if that gun store sent that rifle back for what you described then I would find another gun store to patron because they don't know a model 70 from a hole in the ground.

Stupid ass dirty word filter. It's a C O C K ing piece for God's sake. Hey admin, a C O C K ing piece is a part of a firearm and we are on a firearms forum. You also have to C O C K a revolver to shoot it. Lever action rifles also have hammers that must be C O C Ked in order to fire them.

I have an old tang safety Ruger 77 and a newer Ruger Hawkeye.Love both but I think if I were buying today I'd go with the new Win 70 Featherweight.The new owners are building them right again.

Bigbulls, it is only my opinion, but I feel that the bolt should operate the same with the intermediate safety on or with it totally off (ready to fire). However your explanation on why there is difference makes perfect sense to me. That said, I’ve used my friends Ruger 77 which has a similar 3 position safety and his bolt operates exactly the same with the intermediate safety set or not.

To answer your other question. This was my first time out hunting using my M70 and I found what I thought was good spot. So there I stood waiting and watching. After a while, I decided to survey the map in my pocket and maybe move to better spot. Rather than put the rifle down to look at the map, I choose to put it over my shoulder, using the sling. I probably should have gone on full safety, no argument there. When I did so, the bolt lifted the rest of way and slid completely back, expelling the round. This is when I noticed how easy it was to lift the bolt with the intermediate safety set. I only used the gun at the range to set up the scope where I was loading one round at a time. I’d take one shot, open the bolt and I’d put the gun on the rack, to let it cool down. Then I’d use my other rifle while it cooled, so there was no need to use intermediate safety.

Obviously, I’m no bolt action rifle expert and that is why I purchased from what I thought was a reputable gun shop. If I was a rifle expert, I would have noticed this in the store and probably gone with the Browning X-Bolt instead For what it’s worth, the gun smith at the store agreed with my concerns, even if they are most likely unfounded. I’m sure, Winchester will agree with you Bigbulls, that there is nothing wrong with the bolt on my rifle.

It doesn't.

His Ruger safety does not operate like a model 70. The safety on a Ruger does nothing more than block trigger movement. The ruger safety is on the tang of the rifle and simply rotates inside the receiver to block trigger movement and does not touch the ****ing piece inside the bolt body while the model 70's safety is located on the bolt and actually pulls the ****ing piece to the rear and completely separates it from the trigger. Take the Ruger out of the stock sometime and you can see how its safety operates in relation to the trigger.

I know it is different than the typical push button safeties like what is on Brownings, Remingtons, etc... and you're not use to it but, for what it's worth, the safety on the model 70 really is one of the absolute safest safeties ever designed on a bolt action rifle and is one of the most copied safeties by custom builders.

BTW, I wouldn't use that gunsmith that looked at your rifle if you should ever need work. There are probably as many model 70's on this planet as any other sporting rifle and for an actual gunsmith not know how one operates is scary for his customers.

Bigbulls, I really appreciate your input on this and concur with your comments about the gun smith. He should (and sadly…so should I) have known how it operates and sent me packing. As you can tell this is my first bolt action rifle and up until now all of my Deer hunting has been done with Remington 870 (with a rifled barrel) or with my 2 muzzleloaders, one of which shoots 54 cal patched round balls (that gun is really fun to shoot). I typically hunt in the forests in the Northeast where all of my shots are less than 100 yds. I wanted to expand my hunting territory so I bought a bolt action that would permit me to shoot much further. I feel much better, knowing that odds are that there in nothing wrong with the gun. Thanks for all your help!

Big Bulls is right about this one. The first time I ever noticed this on a M70 was while handling a friends. He has several in different calibers and as I was handling one I noticed this. I thought I'd broken something working the bolt, and then he explained to me what was going on, and proceeded to demonstrate this to me on several other M70's he has. It's completely normal for them.

No, you are new to rifles and the model 70 so you are learning the in's and out's about them.

He, on the other hand, absolutely should know how one of the most popular rifles ever manufactured operates and should have taken the time to explain to you how it operates.

Once you get use to the rifle I think you will find that you will really like all that the model 70 offers in a rifle. Good luck.

Thompson Center Icon. Exactly what you described you wanted and one excellent rifle.