Best rifle investment?
Lady Kaylee
Member Posts: 20 ✭
I’m a pistol person and know next to nothing about rifles except that my son shot .22 very well in Boy Scouts. He’s 16 now and dreams of being the next American Sniper or maybe Dustin from Top Shot who hit a golf ball at 100 yards first shot. He prefers more tactical rifles but I’d like to buy something under $1000, a gun that can grow with him and I don’t want him training on bullets that cost more than $1 each. Don’t want something cheap but don’t want to break the bank either. I’d like to be able to sell the gun and not lose money if this is just a fad. I’m getting conflicting advise from different gunstore employees:
Employee A) get an AR
Employee B) too late to get an AR bc prices have doubled
C) get a 223. Good ballistics, not too expensive and can get to 1000 yards as he gets better
D) get a Creedmore type of assembly gun
E) get a Remington 700
F) don’t get a Remington bc they went bankrupt and you can’t be assured of parts in the future
G) get a precision gun like a Ruger
H) buy a cheaper gun like a savage and spend top dollar for a $3000 scope bc the scope is more important than the gun
As you can see, I’m getting no consensus and I’m more confused than when I started. Help!
Comments
Just about anything designed by John Browning is a good investment
There are a number of 1903s for sale on the auction side. Sporterized models for well under $1,000 at least at present.
No rifle is truly an investment, IMO, but the 1903 will last forever and will retain value.
Brad Steele
What Don said.
Current spikes in price of both firearms and ammunition will at some point resolve. Of course we do not know when or when the next spike may happen. To help control the long term cost of ammunition a rifle chamber in a main stay cartridge the ammunition manufactures will make even in times like now and make plenty of at other times will help.
Let's look at the needs to rifles will fill.
First is the rifle just for targets or will/might he hunt with it and if so what will he hunt? If the rifle could be used for hunting in the future that narrows the search somewhat. A good hunting rifle easily makes a decent range/target rifle but target rifles do not always make good hunting rifles.
What distances will he reasonable be shooting? A lot of center fire chambered rifles will shoot well out to 400 yards with good optics mounted. 1500+ yards sniper scopes aren't necessary for 400 yard rifles, but a decent quality scope is. If he practices and gets the most he can out of it then he can consider higher end equipment.
Cartridges that are common and generally reasonably priced are .223 Remington, 7mm-08, 22-250, .308 Winchester, 30-06 Springfield, .270 Winchester, 7mm Rem Mag, .300 Winchester Mag. I've seen 6.5 Creedmore prices reasonable. There are more. Of these I would look primarily at two, the .223 Remington and the 308 Winchester. If he thinks he will deer hunt with the rifle I would choose the 308 Winchester of the two as the .223, while capable, in my home state it isn't a legal deer cartridge and the 308 is simply better for the purpose.
IMO a good bolt action rifles with decent optics is the best platform for a beginning shooter to learn the basics of accurate distance shooting. Production rifle quality is fairly good now with most manufacturers. Ruger and Savage would be my first two choices for reasonable priced entry level rifles that provide good quality for a good price. There are other brands that will also and that is just my opinion. Scopes are another item of conflicting opinion. Other than the real low end stuff most scopes today will do the job. Burris and Leopold are the American mainstays but there are other brands such as Vortex. I personally have a few Bushnell Elite series scopes that serve me well and just bought a Burris. If I needed 2000 yards European optics I would save the money and get it, but I don't, as a hunter 400 yards is about as far as I am going to shoot something.
I would approach it this way. 1)Choose a cartridge, 2) choose the platform (bolt action, pump, semi-auto, lever action) 3)choose the rifle 4) choose the scope (if any, iron sights are fine in some rifles). Make sure the person mounting the scope knows what they are doing as good bases, rings, and mounting are very important for accuracy.
A difference would be if you choose a rifle platform first, like an AR for example, then you would have to choose a cartridge available for that platform.
I know this isn't an answer it's really just food for thought. Don't over think it he will enjoy and learn with what ever you get.
EDIT: My post was written with the assumption you are looking for a center fire rifle. If he does not have a .22 rifle then he needs one. Even if you get him a center fire rifle he needs the .22 for practice and fun plinking, I am in my late 50's have a safe full of rifles and still shoot .22 more than anything else. Good used .22 rifles are easy to find and will retain value. If he was close enough I would take him out and let him try several rifles to see what he likes.
Brilliant analogy.
I still have my first rifle.
What to chamber this Savage in?? The 308 is a choice that almost never would be a wrong choice but it isn't very high on the "cool" factor. Who knows if the current craze for the 6.5s will last but at the moment the 6.5s have the "cool" factor going for it. For a good all around caliber looking over the many 7 mm's would be educational.
Personally I am not able to tell a lot of difference between a good 5 to 7 hundred dollar scope and one of those very expensive scopes, but that's me. Maybe your son would be able to see enough difference to justify the price difference.
Investment?? If I buy carefully and after a while decide I want to another direction I have yet to lose money on any gun. My profit might be under a hundred dollar bill but as I said I didn't lose money. If your goal is a serious profit all I can say is lots of luck!
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/880252168
This is an excellent setup and a fantastic pice so far. You can do a lot with that gun, hunt, target practice. You will never go wrong with a Winchester.
22 LR runs out of real accuracy at about 75 yards. Now you can ask 10 of us, and get 20 different answers- but my vote would be for a bolt action Savage. I love my older Mossbergs, Marlins and Remingtons- but Savage is making very good rifles for the money. You CAN do better than .22 LR, though. Get a Savage 93 in .17HMR.. Ammo is about 20 cents per cartridge. It is SCREAMINGLY accurate. The very light bullet WILL get pushed around by wind, and you WILL have to learn to read wind. Definitely within your price range, not for big game hunting, but mine will shoot 3/4 inch groups at 100 meters if I do my part.
Regular wood, synthetic, thumbhole laminate, blued or stainless. Add some good glass, and you still won't break the bank.
Help him with it, yes, but make him put some effort into it.