no_skill

Who makes top line hunting rifles? I know everyone has their preference on weapon manufacturer but I don't. Most of the brands I ever hear of is Browning, Remington, and Savage for a good deer rifle. I've been reading up on some guns, and I hear the Tikka T3 Lite is a very nice weapon of choice with any chamber you want... My Friend has a Remington 700 .270 and loves it, another friend has a .270WSM and loves it. I personally haven't shot anything other than a 30-06 and a 7mm mag, aside from military weapons. The 30-06 has just a bit too much power to my liking as far as recoil goes. (I'm a little guy weighing in at 140llb) The 7mm mag I thought was just overkill. I was really looking into 308, 25-06 or a 270 or the 270wsm

I'm only asking because I'm looking to spend about 1200$ on a good setup including the scope...

P.S whats the difference between a Leupold and a Bushmaster, I honestly can't tell the difference when looking out of them.

TreednNC

I have a Remington Model 700 ADL synthetic with a blued barrel... in a .270


Im thinking it's a $300 rifle? Not too much. I love it and wouldnt trade it for anything, as it's my work horse.If I were to do it again, I might go with a Savage 110, get a trigger job (just lower it to 2lbs or so, my 700 only took 30min to do) and put a quality scope on it....so again say $400 for rifle and go with a Nikon Monarch for $480.00 in a 2.5x10 with 50mm objective and you still have enough money to take your wife out to a fancy dinner.

TreednNC

To my previous comment....If i were to buy a new rifle I that's the route I would go. Im currently looking to add barrels to my encore.

Briman

My preferences for a new rifle would be CZ and Tikka with the possibility of a FN made Winchester model 70.

TreednNC

Wouldnt mind having a Tikka myself...but arent they up there in price?

no_skill

Price really isn't the issue... I go to war in April so I'm buying and using w/e I wanted to have that I was never able to afford before I go to Iraq... Yeah, like I said before I heard Tikka was really good, just wanting some varied experiences people have had with their weapon and other models.

semi

i would suggest a Savage package with accutrigger. For about $400 you can get a good accurate rifle. I would go 7mm-08 if you are hunting deer. Great round, with less recoil than a .270 and just as good of performance.

DM

The reason i have Leupolds on most of my rifles is that i hunted in the worst conditions for weeks at a time. With day after day of freezeing and thawing conditions, no heat and many times snow, sleet ect...

I need something i know will take that weather day after day, and when i pull my rifle up for a shot at a brown bear, it needs to be clear, not fogged up. I need to know it hasn't changed POI from all the banging around, and Leupold has done all of that since the first one i bought in the 70's...

After a few years, i even quit carrying a spare scope into camp...

DM

CamoCop

since you used the word "quality", i'd have to go with Thompson Center Arms, Weatherby, Kimber, etc. pretty much all firearm manufacturers make a bottom of the barrel line of firearms that are more affordable and they make a top of the line firearm as well. with the brands i mentioned above, it is my opinion that their bottom line firearms are better than alot of the other companies top of the line firearms.

stalkingbear

For upper quality rifles,look at cooper if you can afford them. A step down from them is browning (my personal pick),sako,and a few others. Another option is to simply have a custom/semi custom rifle built just for you.
The 7mm08 is truly a cartridge that performs all out of proportion to it's size,while offering very mild recoil.
The leupold is the brand to compare to in american scopes. I'm sure you mean bushnell and while they may offer top quality scopes (elite series),I swore off anything with bushnell on it because of crappy customer service several times over the years.