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Forum Index > Rifles general discussion > Whats the best rifle you've ever owned

Whats the best rifle you've ever owned

28 Aug 2021
@ 11:21 am (GMT)

Warwick Marflitt

Mine was a Miroku Lever Action 22LR. Sadly it's stuck in Queensland Australia. It was a laser beam and hit where you pointed it. It was Light fast and easy to use and keep it clean and it was a no fuss rifle....
Who else has a Gun,Rifle,Pistol that's a good functional Tool..... Cheers all

I found this write up and liked the passion in the post about this guys 35whelen

https://www.ifish.net/threads/the-best-rifle-caliber-of-my-life-the-35-whelen.1632461/

Replies

1
28 Aug 2021
@ 12:27 pm (GMT)

David Landwehr

Re: Whats the best rifle you've ever owned
Tikka t3 stainless varmint in 223. I've stabilised the fore end and bedded with match grade. It has a 3-16 S-Tac up top in signature zee rings and it also hits what I point it at. I've shot coke cans at 600 yards (very still day) and iy has accounted for numerous foxes on the farms I visit. Longest shot on game is just 220m on a fox while biped prone. Its just no fuss and gets the job done.
Its also my comforter. When I start missing with something else I fall back to the 223 to get my confidence back up.
28 Aug 2021
@ 06:16 pm (GMT)

Kevin Jensen

Re: Whats the best rifle you've ever owned
Sako TRG S in 270 Winchester. Have had a lot of luck with this rifle.
Handloaded with 150grain Hornady SST's have made it an accurate & hard hitting rifle.
28 Aug 2021
@ 08:00 pm (GMT)

Ben Law

Re: Whats the best rifle you've ever owned
probably my howa varmint 223. i think i paid $449AU for it with a free gunbag and t-shirt. never shot a group over .9moa, sub .5moa consitantly and quite often in the .3's with very basic load development.
29 Aug 2021
@ 01:56 pm (GMT)

corrie den haring

Re: Whats the best rifle you've ever owned
interesting that 66% of people have said .223 and i agree, have very basic rem .223 but with stabilised stock, match bedded (thanks Nathan) and added timney trigger with bushell Trophy on top. best day so far is 50 goats with 63 shots, reload with VitN130 and use Z max 55gr. Sold all my rifles above 6.5mm as after 45 yrs my shoulder cannot take any more hits...also shoot 25-06 Sako A5, 6.5x47 lapua, winchester custom and remington custom(very underrated calibre) and 6.5x55 M38 military.
29 Aug 2021
@ 07:41 pm (GMT)

Sabine & Olivier ROUVIERE

Re: Whats the best rifle you've ever owned
Personally, the Tikka CTR in 308 20" barrel, the perfect all around/crossover rifle: wood & top/driven/stalking hunting, tactical, plinking

Cheers
29 Aug 2021
@ 11:28 pm (GMT)

Vince

Re: Whats the best rifle you've ever owned
First Big Game Rifle, .275 Rigby

30 Aug 2021
@ 12:53 am (GMT)

Magnus Hansson

Re: Whats the best rifle you've ever owned
1. Blaser R8 professional.308win (best trigger, best precision, best safety, easiest to clean)
2. CG 1900 deluxe 30-06. (Next best Swedish thing from the seventies after Abba)
3. Tikka T3 Hunter .308win (sold) Great gun but not near the feeling from the CG1900
05 Sep 2021
@ 09:54 am (GMT)

Mike Davis

Re: Whats the best rifle you've ever owned
the zastava mini mauser in .223 closely followed by my now dead model 70 push fed .270 winchester
both rifles just worked
the .223 I will never sell,it just does whatever I ask...am contemplating trying to make up a paulawina wood stock for it....will see,no hurry as wooden stock on it is fine...
06 Sep 2021
@ 12:10 pm (GMT)

Scott Struif

Re: Whats the best rifle you've ever owned
I don’t have a favorite, but I agree with Mike, you couldn’t go wrong with a post-64 push-fed Model 70. My 30-06 easily shot 2” groups at 200 yards out-of-the box.
09 Sep 2021
@ 02:24 am (GMT)

Joshua Mayfield

Re: Whats the best rifle you've ever owned
It's not mine but it's the rifle that I grew up viewing as "the rifle." Grandpa had a Marline 322, which had a Sako Riihimaki (L46) action and the Marlin micro-groove varmint barrel, chambered in .222. It was Grandpa's, now it's Dad's, someday it'll come to either my brother or myself. I don't know how many factory rifles in the early 1960s could fire a sub-inch 200 yard group, but this was one of them. Since before I was born the rifle has been topped with an ancient Weaver 4x scope with extremely fine crosshairs and had a very Spartan leather sling attached. In my youth I got to be quicker with this rifle than I am with a shotgun and to this day I am probably more comfortable carrying it on a walk than any other gun. It's a connection to my grandpa and while my dad or brother having it is a good and comforting thought, the idea of it being sold outside the family is a profanity.
09 Sep 2021
@ 01:10 pm (GMT)

Lane Salvato

Re: Whats the best rifle you've ever owned
If I take it in terms of just feeling like the kind of rifle I love to shoot it would have to be my Winchester Model 70 Featherweight 25-06. The action is extremely smooth and I've hunted with it so much that I don't have to think about any of the operation of it. I've taken everything from rabbits to big game with it and it's just a fun rifle.

Wish the old 25-06 was more popular but the 6.5's have put it out to pasture for the majority of younger hunters.
02 Feb 2023
@ 04:15 pm (GMT)

Calvin Nickel

Re: Whats the best rifle you've ever owned
that's a tough question...at present I honestly love all 6 of my centerfires, i was able to afford them, and don't plan to part with them

Husqvarna M98 in 8X57 - got it for 200 bucks canadian, felt like cheating! the buttplate was missing and the stock had some chips and cracks so no one wanted it on auction...a 16 dollar slip on recoil pad and some good wood glue and we have a fully functional all business rifle WITH UNADULTERATED IRON SIGHTS - why do so many old guns have the irons removed and new ones don't even come with them - this is my brush rifle, not afraid to use it hard, and man that action has no business being that smooth. And I like the cartridge so far...everyone and their dog has a 308 or 30-06 haha.

Savage 99 in 243 winchester, inherited this from a great uncle who made me swear I'd keep it in the family when i was 15. great little rifle, shoots a heck of a lot better than it should for a two piece stock rear locking lever action with a pencil thin barrel that has seen probably 2000+ rounds. with a 4x tasco No trouble popping milk jugs at 400 yards.

Savage 111 in 270 winchester - my first centerfire, my mom and dad bought it after I got my first deer with a neighbours rem pump 30-06. I was going to get a 30-06 but they were sold out and I went home with a 270 I'm so glad I did, that cartridge really was the beginning of my true interest in ballistics.

Savage 111 Long Range Hunter in 300 win mag. Love this rifle. Single most useful cartridge on earth for all non-dangerous game as far as I'm concerned. Very accurate out of the box. Most accurate thing I own and load for.

BRNO ZG47 rebarreled to 358 Norma Magnum - this cartridge doesn't do anything the 338 win or 375 hh cant do but I don't care, neither of those interest me at all and I've ALWAYS wanted a .358 norma for some reason. As Nate Foster here says, it has an intangible x factor. I'm in love with it. It doesn't kick as bad as you'd think...my dad who is 73 and 150 pounds soaking wet had never shot anything bigger than my 300 win mag before and after firing the 358 actually looked at me and asked "is that it?". 280 A frame at 2800 fps should take on a lot.

Weatherby Vanguard S2 stainless synthetic in 257 weatherby magnum. Most ergonomically pleasing rifle I own. And i'm in love with this cartridge, just got it this summer. More energy than a 30-06, less recoil than a 270, flatter shooting than a 22-250 (with 75 grain hammer hunters doing over 4250 fps)
03 Feb 2023
@ 11:00 am (GMT)

Andrew Murray

Re: Whats the best rifle you've ever owned
Surely my Howa 1500. 308 with 24" heavy barrel. Blued finish with black stock,

Y'all would have seen the posts here about the processes of bedding and accurizing. Then load dev. Wonderfully immersive process.

It's in a hogue stock. So I don't care if it gets scratched or bumped. It is heavy though (for a hunting rifle (according to modern marketing anyway) at 5kg(11lb).

But it shoots straight and true and I've never had a drama with.

I am fond of all my guns, but the Howa just has a presence the others don't.

05 Mar 2023
@ 03:14 pm (GMT)

David Hartley

Re: Whats the best rifle you've ever owned
Quote:
Tikka t3 stainless varmint in 223. I've stabilised the fore end and bedded with match grade. It has a 3-16 S-Tac up top in signature zee rings and it also hits what I point it at. I've shot coke cans at 600 yards (very still day) and iy has accounted for numerous foxes on the farms I visit. Longest shot on game is just 220m on a fox while biped prone. Its just no fuss and gets the job done.
Its also my comforter. When I start missing with something else I fall back to the 223 to get my confidence back up.


I have the .223 1:12" Super Varmint.

It would be hard to split any of the four main hunting rifles I use, they are all excellent at what they do. But the Tikka Super Varmint would have to be the "favourite" because of the memories it is associated with. I bought it in Perth, Aus in 2013 and used it almost daily for 3 years on the station for ferals control. Goats, dogs, foxes, cats, pigs and scrub bulls. I used two projectiles - the bulk buy Hornady Z-Max 50gr for varmints and a bulk buy bonded 62gr from Nosler which was a factory overrun and cheap as (came in a box of 5,000). I brought the rifle back to NZ and now it's used for deer and goat control, as well as long-range varminting.

The rifle is getting on a bit now, somewhere around 6,000 rounds down the tube. Still pin-point accurate. I've worn out 3 factory mags and use a David Waters "Rifleman" alloy mag now.
09 Mar 2023
@ 06:34 pm (GMT)

John Smith

Re: Whats the best rifle you've ever owned
09 Mar 2023
@ 06:35 pm (GMT)

John Smith

Re: Whats the best rifle you've ever owned
09 Mar 2023
@ 06:44 pm (GMT)

John Smith

Re: Whats the best rifle you've ever owned
For deer: A 2011 Ruger No. 1 Light Sporter in 6.5x55mm
For elk: A 2016 Winchester Model 70 Super Grade in 7mm08 Rem.
13 Mar 2023
@ 08:37 am (GMT)

Frederic Duffour

Re: Whats the best rifle you've ever owned
Definitely my Heckler & Koch PSG-1.
Unfortunately, it had to go (along with others for a total of 60 guns) when I left Switzerland to come back in France.

It was a wonderful gun. Even if many found "too low" it's x4 fixed scope (and unable to be changed). It proved more than enough to place precise shots over 500 meters.
The only downside being the weight. But on the other hand, it allowed to shoot almost as fast as I could without losing sight of the target. Emptying a 20 rounds mag could be done in the blink of an eye.
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