Best starter rifle under 500 dollars

Yurei · Post by **Yurei** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:09 am

This is exactly the sort of topic I was hoping would come-up sooner or later, so thanks to everyone who has contributed so far. I

BlauBear · Post by **BlauBear** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:11 am

At least the money stays on this continent. I get a little testy about the amount of money we're sending overseas.

BlauBear · Post by **BlauBear** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:25 am

[quote="Yurei"]Anyway, I

jneihouse · Post by **jneihouse** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:14 am

[quote]This is exactly the sort of topic I was hoping would come-up sooner or later, so thanks to everyone who has contributed so far. I

Bob Mc Alice · Post by **Bob Mc Alice** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:26 am

Has anyone got any experiance or feedback on the Russian made Winchester Wildcat? http://www.winchesterguns.com/prodinfo/ ... 0&cat=018C

Jason · Post by **Jason** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:32 am

[quote="BlauBear"][quote="Yurei"]Anyway, I

Yurei · Post by **Yurei** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:20 pm

Thanks for the advice on the scopes. I know the Muellers get a lot of praise at RimfireCentral, but I had wondered about the repeatability. My 452 .17HMR wears a cheap Simmons 6-18 that I

Jim Beckley · Post by **Jim Beckley** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:40 pm

In my mind there are plenty of good starter rifles out there if someone is willing to shoot them. The big question is where are the bodys willing to give this sport a try. The guy that I go hunting with has a mega buck house (before the market fell off), a not so cheap SUV, a Bass boat, a Motorcycle, and he hunts with a Rem 700 ADL, with a pretty inexpensive scope. I guess it's where you want to put your money. Another bud was in some sort of management with the AAA baseball team that was once here in Phx, he told me that you could pretty much have a couple having sex at home plate and your crowd would pretty much be the same size, Me thinks thats the way it is in Silhouette too.

Dee · Post by **Dee** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:03 pm

I have both the CZ Silhouette and the Remington 597. Last year I first gave SB a try with the 597 and a 3x9 Tasco Scope. After the first match I adjusted the manly 6.5 lb trigger pull down to a bit over 2 lbs. with the Volquartsen replacement hammer. This one change makes the rifle much more shootable IMO.

Now if it was you against me heads up and I got to pick which rifle of the two I would use it would be the CZ everytime. I like the 597 it is a fun little semi auto and pretty accurate as well. But it only took me shooting it 2 more matches even with the trigger weight reduced before going out and buying the CZ Sil. But like the 597 the CZ trigger was rough until I installed the Brooks kit. Bottom line for me is the CZ is going to be hard to beat for the money why mess with a good thing if its worked all this time. I don't see anyone running away from Anshutz rifles even though so many people jump right on them.

As for sending money overseas I am not to thrilled about it either but if you want what they have you really don't have much choice with what is available domestically. Life is to short to pay more and get less just to say you bought US. Not to mention Made in the USA doesn't really mean much these days as far as you know it was made in 3 other countries and assembled in the US or just designed in the US and sent overseas for production. IIRC only 10% of a product must be made in the US to still qualify as Made in the USA.

An old friend got a custom made drum set a few years back. On the bass drum head it said "Made by an American," I like that a lot more IMO.

Dee

_Shorty · Post by **_Shorty** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:22 pm

I have a lot of trouble recommending a Savage rimfire rifle to anyone. I bought a Mark II FSS in Jan of '07, and it had a myriad of problems, some that I didn't discover right away. It was sent off for warranty replacement a few months later, and the replacement I got had some of the same problems, and some new ones. So it also went back for warranty replacement. Greg Sage, the head of their quality control department, personally looked after my third rifle to make sure I got a good one. It was the worst of all three, and went back to them immediately. I got my money back. And that refund went towards the CZ 453 Varmint. Which is a great rifle! If I never see another Savage again I'll be happy.

Now, I know for a fact that there are many happy Savage owners out there, so this puzzled me greatly, as to how and why I could get three that all had similar problems and didn't shoot worth a damn. Especially considering some of them shoot so well, according to their happy owners. If I had just had one rifle with the problems I had, fine, got a lemon. But I don't know how to explain three bad rifles with similar issues over a nine month, or so, period. The AccuTrigger was pretty nice, but if the rest of the gun is garbage, who cares.

Another note about that Mark II Classic. You already stated how much more expensive it is than something like the Mark II G. Know what sucks about that? They are the exact same gun, except for the wood. Is all that extra money *really* worth it just for nicer wood? It is still the same cheap Mark II action/barrel/etc. They don't make the Classic's parts any better/nicer. They just take the exact same gun and throw it in a nicer looking stock. In my opinion, they're a huge rip off. You're not getting a $400 gun for your $400. It's still the same action made from a tube, and all the rest of the parts are just as cheaply and poorly made.

Not only that, all three of the Savages that I had couldn't routinely hit a ram from the bench. Would you really want to use one to shoot silhouette with if the gun isn't even capable of hitting all the targets under the ideal conditions of testing from the bench?

(Yes, I am soured on Savages, haha.)

chardonnay · Post by **chardonnay** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 4:22 pm

Just replaced sons scope, got a Weaver V16 from a place called Discovery Optics They have them for 279.oo with free shipping .. or did have when I got his. Worth checking out and they were very pleasant to work with.

Jason · Post by **Jason** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 4:37 pm

Thanks for the heads-up. Just did a search and found it, I think. Here's the link to that deal.

http://www.discoveryoptics.com/wea849410.html

choken · Post by **choken** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 7:50 am

How's about a 581...or was one of the criteria that it had to be currently produced ?

jneihouse · Post by **jneihouse** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 8:53 am

Not necessarily currently produced, just readily available. There are a lot of rifles that are not in current production that are very readily available.

Kitty

GeoNLR · Post by **GeoNLR** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 9:03 am

chardonnay wrote:Just replaced sons scope, got a Weaver V16 from a place called Discovery Optics They have them for 279.oo with free shipping .. or did have when I got his. Worth checking out and they were very pleasant to work with.

I sell that scope for $265. Please feel free to e-mail me on that scope or any other.

Thanks,

George

[email protected]

Best starter rifle under 500 dollars

Remington 581