I'm a Saint Louis guy who has never, ever, in my gun owning life owned a bolt action rifle. I'm not a hunter, just a target shooter and I've owned tens of self-loaders in the past. I've never had any inkling to buy a bolt action rifle as I was never "into" them that much... and spending too much money on my AR15's at the time. Now that I'm actually looking for one I keep seeing all these super high priced bolt actions with recognizable names (even to me a non bolt action gun user) but I just don't want to pay a thousand bucks for something I'm most likely going to shoot on the odd occasion that I want to do some long range bolt action target shooting...

So my question is: What do I buy?

I've been looking at the Remington 710 cheapie package and the price is nice but everywhere I go (other than www.remington.com) everyone seems to be bagging on it like it was the red-headed step child of the line. Everyone seems to put all their faith in the Remington 700 line ADL and BDL type. I've also heard a lot about the Savage lines of long and short actions and the old school Winchester 70s but some of those are out of my "price range" that I want to spend on this gun... it seems to me that almost all of these guns are designed for serious game hunting rather than weekend target shooting like what I'm looking to do. I also strangely prefer the synthetic stocks to the wood ones... I think that is the AR15 fanatic in me.

Would I be such a moron to buy one of those cheap Remington 710 packages with the included boresighted scope just to fool around with at the range?... or should I look at another low-priced model that is better? Also, what caliber would be best for someone who has little bolt action experience? I'm looking at the smaller .270 caliber just due to the logic that "smaller is usually cheaper to buy and easier to handle" nonsense.

Any input from local boys (or national ones)? Or better yet, anyone have a cheap bolt action with a scope and synthetic stock for sale right now in Saint Louis?

Mosin Nagat M-91/30.
Cheap, every whare, and scope mounts and synthic stocks abound.
Ammo is cheap.
The 7.62x54r is A little more stout than the 2.80 or whatever but it's so cheap you can't ignor it.
Recoil is not all that bad from this gun either.
Good luck.

If I were you I would go with the Remington 700. It's probably the most versatile of the rifles out there today.

As for older rifles. I own a little Remington Scoremaster 22 that I can peg almost anything with at 100yards and open iron sights.

I had an Enfield No.4 that as well was a beaut w/ iron sights, but I sporterized it with a B-Square scope mount and a Bushnell 4-12x50mm rangefinding scope that I was shooting at 500yards with regularly.

Now I own 2 Mausers. A czech VZ24 which has about seen its days (the bore that is), but still hits well with its iron sights. I am going to replace the barrel with a stainless .308 bull barrel from FAC, and give it a scope to revitalize its rock solid action! The nice thing about Mausers is that are still a ton of sources for ammo and spare parts, and even a lot of maufacturers who are making NEW parts for the Mauser action.

And I just acquired a brand new unissued Yugoslavian M48A Mauser that I think will become a mantle piece due to it never being fired.
Youll get more for your money in goofing around with old rifles, but better accuracy with newer ones.

My two bits.

Savage rifles ROCK, and won't leave you busted!
www.savagearms.com  Pretty is as pretty does, and what these things can do for the money is PRETTY.

I would and can recomend Remington 700s, they are trouble free guns that are accurate and mid-range in price.  They are soft shooters in comparison to others, in my oppinion.  They also come in a wide variety of styles.    

I own a savage, and for the money I think its a great gun, very accurate, but the stock is a little whimpy and sometimes the feeding mechanism will slow me down, but its ever bit as accurate or more than anything else I have seen at the range under $1000.  

My last but not least thought would be a Winchester or Browning because of the WSM line of cartridges.  For the reloader these cartridges are a dream, Winchester literature says that the WSM in 7mm and 300 can be reloaded a minimum of 12 times.  From observance of a friends's 7mm WSM they are ever bit as accurate with accuracy enhancing features, and performance is in par or exceeds  their magnum counterpart.  

There are others that are as accurate, reliable as the ones I have mentioned but have no personal experience with Sigs, Ruger's,

Your read on the 710 is correct - Remington should be embarrased to sell the rifle.

Find a used 700 BDL, or even ADL, a Model 70, or order a new Savage, then put a Sightron scope on and don't look back.

All of the low end plastic stocks suck; the forearms are extremely wimpy.  Buy one with a full length aluminum bedding block (B&C, McMillon, or HS Precision).

A Savage with an after market trigger will put you way ahead.

Quoted: Your read on the 710 is correct - Remington should be embarrased to sell the rifle. Find a used 700 BDL, or even ADL, a Model 70, or order a new Savage, then put a Sightron scope on and don't look back. All of the low end plastic stocks suck; the forearms are extremely wimpy.  Buy one with a full length aluminum bedding block (B&C, McMillon, or HS Precision). A Savage with an after market trigger will put you way ahead.

Another vote for the Savage here, but for the record I haven't shot any of the other rifles mentioned here.
Mines a 111f in .30-06.  Got the package deal with the Simmons 3-9x40 scope.  For the money (about $50 bucks at Wally) it's a decent starter scope for it.  The trigger I can deal with for now.  But yes, the stock does suck.  When I get around to making it a better rifle, that's the first thing going.

But for 350 bucks out of the box and shooting 30 year old Korean surplus, I still get good groups with my crappy shooting.

edit cuz I forgot to ask:  Aero, have you got any links to the B&C or HS Precision stocks for sale?  Alls I've ever seen are the McMillon ones.

Quoted: Quoted: Your read on the 710 is correct - Remington should be embarrased to sell the rifle. Find a used 700 BDL, or even ADL, a Model 70, or order a new Savage, then put a Sightron scope on and don't look back. All of the low end plastic stocks suck; the forearms are extremely wimpy.  Buy one with a full length aluminum bedding block (B&C, McMillon, or HS Precision). A Savage with an after market trigger will put you way ahead. Another vote for the Savage here, but for the record I haven't shot any of the other rifles mentioned here. Mines a 111f in .30-06.  Got the package deal with the Simmons 3-9x40 scope.  For the money (about $50 bucks at Wally) it's a decent starter scope for it.  The trigger I can deal with for now.  But yes, the stock does suck.  When I get around to making it a better rifle, that's the first thing going. But for 350 bucks out of the box and shooting 30 year old Korean surplus, I still get good groups with my crappy shooting. edit cuz I forgot to ask:  Aero, have you got any links to the B&C or HS Precision stocks for sale?  Alls I've ever seen are the McMillon ones.

Another vote for Savage.  I have a 30-06 110 Lefty with a Simmons scope.  Savage gives a lot of rifle for the money.  Use the savings and buy yourself a Leupold scope and rings and it'll shoot as good as you will probably ever need to.  At least that's what I plan to do.

I own more savages than any other single brand of firearm.
Thats where my vote goes.
Excellent product for the money.
Savage firearms have always been popular in my family.
The new savage accutrigger kicks ass!

www.hsprecision.com/

www.bellandcarlson.com/

for something a little different -

www.accuracyinternational.com/

[I have a 700 ADL that I think is waiting for a new barrel and one of these!]

Thanks for all the input, definately some things to think about.

I also talked this purchase over with a few of my shooting buddies and they also had good things to say about the Savage 110 and the Remington 700 BDL. It seems the only thing keeping me from buying one of these guns is the price tag at this point. I appear to be more of a cheap bastard than I thought... having just dropped some cash on a brand new Glock 27 (in hopes of the CCW bill seeing the light of day some time this year... freakin' gun grabbers) my budget is smaller than I was thinking so perhaps this purchase will have to wait a while longer.

Does anyone know if the price of these guns fluctuates much when hunting season is not on? I can't help but think that to buy a bolt action during hunting season is like trying to buy a convertable in the summer.

If you decide on a Savage, I'd get the 110F(L)P (L is for Lefthanded, like mine) in .308, with the new AccuTrigger, and then call Kurt and Walt down at the Swamp (KKF) and get one of Walt's Technicarbon Dynamics stocks.  Walt built my rifle for me, and I was shooting cloverleafs out of the box with a cheap-assed Tasco 3-9x40mm that had been dropped.

They also were working on an M-14 magazine conversion for it, last I heard.

Quoted: Does anyone know if the price of these guns fluctuates much when hunting season is not on? I can't help but think that to buy a bolt action during hunting season is like trying to buy a convertable in the summer.

Wait until after deer season, perhaps until tax time.  It seems like a lot of hunters buy a new rifle & end up selling it after deer season to pay off Christmas debt or taxes, only to buy another.  

Look in the pawn shops about 90 days after deer season closes to pick a gun that was pawned for Christmas money.

It ain't predatory if the gun comes out of pawn, because the origianl owner didn't redeem the gun.