Not results I would be happy with if I wanted a "precision" rifle, especially after spending that much. The Scout has it's 'cool factor' but not recommended for his intended purpose. Not to mention, the forward mounted scope (which is basically a handgun scope) won't provide the magnification he needs to make 1000yd+ hits accurately, or at least pleasing to him. He's going down the right path.

Cool gun though. I have the knock-off Savage 10 Scout with the accu-stock and trigger and a Nikon 2.5-8x28

Another opinion
 

A friend of mine once said;

"If your rifle is not a 308 and you can't hit what you are aiming at with de-linked machinegun ammunition you are a pretender". ;)

MVP

Thanks for the morning laugh. I have a Ruger mk 77 in .308, When I changed the scoped and sighting it in with basic hand loads, it clover leafed three times. I has sort of bragging to a friend about it when we when shooting. That time I brought some EU Nato surplus to shoot, I think the best I could do at 50 yards was a six inch group. Might have been Spanish or Portuguese ammo. Murphy did it to me again. :mad:

Is this because .308 rifles are more inconsistent depending on round quality? I'm considering getting a 700 in .308.

I don't think caliber has anything to do with it, just very poor quality control on the ammo.

Stay away from surplus ammo on a bolt action set-up, it's pointless unless you own a Nagant or similar. Same goes for steel cased or any Russian/Serbian crap (Monarch especially) that's not to SAAMI spec. It's tempting because it's so cheap, but working as a range officer I've seen far too many malfunctions and even catistrophic failure due to these loads.

Ray, do you have some special qualifications you have not mentioned in your Intro that qualifies you to be dispensing advice among QPs with more than a few hundred years of collective shooting experience?

Don't mind a new perspective, but I would like to know where it is coming from.

Particularly if it is not based on personal experience.

TR

TR,

"Special" qualifications? No, sir. I'm currently working fulltime as a range officer, and have been for 4.5 years, watching and learning from other people's mistakes 8 hours a day. You see just about every combination of mistakes and misguided stupidity you could think of. When our inhouse gunsmith speaks to customers about their guns, I listen as well. I also have experience owning, shooting and troubleshooting/maintaining a variety of firearms over the past decade as well.

I don't mean to come off with a "Listen to me because I'm right" display of posts or even think that my knowledge is at par with anyone on this board. I'll try to word my comments better or bite my tongue(or fingers ha) the next time I feel the need to type.

Not trying to stifle your comments, you had not provided the creds in your Intro prior to offering your opinions here.

I would encourage new members to provide any special credentials or experience prior to jumping into a discussion with both feet. In fact, it might be a good idea for new members to search, read, and avoid posting at all for a while on PS.com before offering any opinions.

No one here knows everything, but the difference is that most of the posters on this thread are vetted QP shooters and have considerably more than ten years of firearms experience. In fact, there are a couple of sniper instructors, several long range competitors, and a number of pretty experienced hunters as well as a bunch of QPs who are veterans of the two-way range offering advice on this thread.

Again, we encourage members to post in areas where they have validated expertise, not telling anyone not to post. I learn something new from my gunsmith every time we talk, for example.

For the OP, or anyone else asking for advice, defining your situation and parameters of what you are asking for with as much specificity as you can in your initial request for assistance is much more helpful than dragging it out over several pages. If you want a hunting rifle, a battle rifle, a precision marksmanship rifle, or a survival rifle, say so and lay out the who, what, when where, why, and what experience and resources you have already. This helps frame the response and quickly address the specific question with the minimum of wandering around the issue. It is hard to specify a precision hunting survival rifle and suggest a caliber without a lot of info. There will have to be compromises as you approach perfection for any of the specific needs. IMHO, the original suggestion of a Rem 700 or Winchester 70 in .308 with good optics and some mods and tweaks will be the best compromise of precision, hunting, and survival, with max bang for the buck.

TR

jw:

Any rifle of any caliber will be more inconsistent if the quality of the ammunition and particularly the bullet and or the design of the bullet is poor.

One thing I have found with the .308 is that it is very forgiving in terms of loads. You won't get magical half minute with them for the most part but you will get very consistent 3/4 or one minute with about any decent bullet and load.

That doesn't mean you should expect performance from cheap imported ammo. Only that about any load you use with a decent bullet will give you good consistent performance.

LR1955

I personally like the rem 700 mainly repair parts are readily available as well as upgrades, and we cant forget the 5r

I appreciate the insight. it seems like a good multi purpose round to me. I'm pretty new to rifles/hunting and if I can part w/ a SW 686 that was my first handgun, then I'll order the 700 (there are worse dilemmas;)). Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.

Interesting and JW,

I was looking for a more precise rifle that I could target shoot and hunt with. I wanted something with a heavier caliber, a heavy barrel, light weight and something I could reasonably navigate through brush with .

You might look at a Rem 700 LTR. It was relatively inexpensive and has performed well for me out to 400-500 yds.

If you decide to buy a new Remington 700 please do yourself a favor and take a close look at it before you take it home from the store. I bought a Remington 700 CDL in .243 from Bass Pro Shops and was a little disapointed. The one that I looked at on the shelf was immaculate. When I went to pick mine up after the mandatory ten day wait I just grabbed the box and took it home. Upon close inspection I noticed that there was no "S" stamped at the rear of the receiver to mark the position of the safety, the groove cut into the stock that meets the load/ejection port in the receiver did not line up properly, and finally, the corners of the machined cuts that make up the load/ejection port were off by about .020". After a little "at home" gunsmithing the rifle looks fine but for $800.00 I should not have had to do that.

Anyway, a Remington 700 is an accurate rifle with quality ammuniton. I usually shoot Federal or Hornady factory 100gr BTSPs through it.

Good to know- I was looking at Bass pro too. Thanks for the heads up.