Browning or Winchester

DemonDS

Well I have decided I am going to go with either .270 WSM or a .243 WSSM. I wish I could get a .257 WSM made though [8D]. Anyways, both Browning and Winchester make both loads obviously. I am looking at the Stainless Stalker in the Browning and the Wichester Shadow rifles. I am just curious as to what your guy's opinions are on the better rifle. If you know of another maker that makes a really light gun in either of these calibers let me know. I have provided links to the three guns I am considering.

http://www.browning.com/products/catalog/firearms/detail.asp?cat_id=035&type_id=008&value=001B

http://www.winchester-*/prodinfo/catalog/detail.asp?cat_id=535&type_id=929&cat=001C


http://www.winchester-*/prodinfo/catalog/detail.asp?cat_id=535&type_id=943&cat=001C

DemonDS

I am getting ready to purchase a new 270 for deer hunting in Colorado and looked a two different rifles. I need opinions on both. The Browning A-Bolt in the stainless stalker and the Winchester model 70 in either the Featherweight or Sporter LT. What would be your recommendation. I shoot a left handed bolt.I have shouldered them both and both feel comfotable. Secondly is there a big difference between the featherweight and sporter LT (besides the obvious). Thanks for you recommendations.

DemonDS

Here is another round I would love to have. The Lazzeroni. I like the .264 Phanton the most along with the .243 Spitfire. Do you guys have any idea what cartridges these are derived from? I would love the Phantom but I could no way in heII afford the $5500 for his Mountain rifle. But if I could make one??????? Any info on these lil rippers?

http://www.lazzeroni.com/ct_sacart.htm

DemonDS

You have to be kidding me, noone has anything to say about these rifles??? Noone has one, likes, dislikes, ANYTHING???

Colt Super

OK, I'm new and stupid, but here's my opinion - for what it's worth: They are both fine rifles. I prefer the Browning, but Winchester outsells Browning by probably 20 to 1, so I'm in the minority.

I also am not much of a fan of the "short magnum" type rounds.

Have you considered the light Weatherbys?

JustC

The lazzeroni stuff is proprietary, and way overpriced. You can make your own wildcat from a 404 jeffries or 416 rigby and not have half that much in the gun.

The WSSM's are a neat idea,...but I would personaly not buy one because once the barrel throat is toasted,..(and these will definitely do that quickly) you can only rechamber that action for another WSSM. The ejection ports and magazine wells are not suited to handle even the standard short action calibers. Therefore,..you will always have to chamber one of these caliber with each new barrel,..use it as a single shot, or sell the action to someone who wants a WSSM rifle built. If that is of concern,..I would go with the winchester action,.because far more gunsmiths will work on the winchester than on the browning.

Take a look at the WSM's or the SAUM's. These are standard short action length actions,..which can be rechambered to any short action caliber. You can wildcat either of them down to a 25 or 6.5 cal round and have one heck of nice round,..but with an action that is far more versatile and resellable.



why chase the game when the bullet can get em from here?....
Got Balistics?

NOTPARS

For Doug Wilson, most of the magazines I read seem to prefer the Browning A-bolt over the other rifles. Do you believe it is no better than a Remington, marginally better, and so forth? The reason I ask is I have an acquaintance who sells Remingtons and doesn't like them. He said their quality control has gone way down over the past 10 years and he is always having customers bring them in, brand new, for warranty work and so forth. He has not had this happen at all with Tikka, Ruger, and or Browning.

DemonDS

First I want to say thank you to JustC and Doug for responding.

Wel I did more research last night and found a few more options and eliminated one. I have decided on the .270 WSM. I would like to take it and kneck it down to a .257 so I can shoot 100 Gr. bullets, but I can figure that out later.

I actually found the Winchester in question at Walmart last night in the .300 WSM. The gun was indeed light but also felt like a real POS!! I did not like the way the action felt at all and it came with a real junker of a scope on it. All for the everyday low price of $399. I guess maybe I am spoiled by the Sako and Weatherby actions I am more accustomed to. I just did not feel at all that the quality I prefer in my weapons was at all there. Sorry Winchester you flunked that one.

So now it is down to three. I know the browning is a nice gun. I have had one in a 25-06 about 15 years ago in the a-bolt medalion. It was my first big rifle. I really liked the gun and I traded it to go towards buying my Sako in the 7mmSTW. I have kicked myself ever since. It was just a terrific gun that I should have never got rid of.

The next two I am going to have to look further into. I found on the www.shortmag.org sight some links to other manufacturers that have guns chamberd in the WSM chambers. The 2 that have stuck out to me are the Tikka T3 Stainless ultralight and the Kimber in the Montana stainless. I know the Tikka is a great gun for the money. The Kimber I dont know anything about.

What are your opinions on these 2 rifles?

Colt Super

NOTPARS - I agree with your friend. About the time he is talking about - 10 years ago +-, Remington changed their entire production from traditional machining and hand-fitting, to all CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) machining. While it reduced costs by about 30 %, it reduced human interaction with their weapons by half. With far fewer people looking at each weapon, I believe the overall quality declined. Also, it made all the rifles more consistant to a lower standard. Also, I saw no evidence that any of their reduced cost was passed on the the user in the form of lower pricing. I do believe that their basic products are very good for building a custom rifle through a good gunsmith - the designs are superb - the military uses 700s as the base for most of their highly customized sniper rifles. I have also heard that the Remington Custom Shop turns out great pieces... pricey, but great.

On the other hand, Browning has not seemed to suffer from that sort of change. The downside is: once in a while you can get a Browning that is disappointing - inconsistant to poor accuracy, less than excellent fitting, etc. The upside? If you get such a Browning, the factory fixes it right - fast and free.

These are my observations and opinions - I'd prefer a Browning, even at a higher price. But, I still don't like the "short magnum" class of cartridges.

257izmycal

Browning in 270 WSM.

JM2CW

257

You're a statistic whether you want to be or not.

Colt Super

Well... I trudged into town to the closest Wal-Mart and found: Weatherby Vanguard, synthetic stock, stainless steel barrel and action for $469.00 in .257, .270, 7MM and .300 (all Weatherby Magnum calibers). Blued action and matte blue barrel for $100.00 less. They are also available in standard calibers.

Although the Weatherby Magnum calibers shoot faster and flatter, and hit harder than standard calibers, the performance is accompanied by lots more noise, recoil and higher ammo costs. Those things are worth it to me, because they make me look like a much better shot than I am.

Anyway, some alternate thoughts from... Doug

DemonDS

Doug,

I already have a .257 Weatherby in the Mark V Deluxe topped with a Leupold LPS scope. An absolutly awesome peice of firepower. Big time money as well LMAO but it is worth every penny. The problem though is my Dad uses the gun every season so I dont have access to it LOL. The gun was originaly his and he passed it to me but as long as he is still going he gets the gun. I put the scope on it to replace the older Luepold that was on it. Once it is mine to use I probably wont use it much do to the sintimentalness of the gun. Just like my .264 Win Mag that I have from my grandfather. I used it to shoot a cow Elk 1 time. The only reason I did was it was my bro's first year in hunting and his rifle didnt come in in time for the hunt so I let him use my 25-06 and I used the .264. I was glad that I did. It felt like it connected me with the gun and my grandpa. The gun is now retired in a custom built shadow box that was built by my brother. Trully a family keepsake. I had to file bankrupcy recently and if you thing the Gov found out about it......think again, and they would have one heck of a good time trying to find it LMAO. All is well again in the Demon camp though. By the way I thought I should tell you guys dont be fooled by the name, I got the name racing quads and it has just stuck.

As of right now I am highly leaning towards Kimber 8400 Montana in the .270 WSM They are back orderd on it for about 2 months which is fine with me, I am in no hurry. The gun weighs in at 6.2 LBS with a 24 inch barrel. The accuracy is said to rivel any production rifle (Including Weatherby and Sako) and will compare very well with most custom guns. Pleasant people to talk to and very willing to answere any questions I had. I have never owned a kimber and i figure what the heck it might be a chance well worth taking.

Colt Super

I have no personal knowledge of the KImbers, but everything I've heard and read says "fine rifle". Let me/us know how you like it.