Well, deer season is about wrapped up. What (in your esteemed opinion) is the best factory hunting rifle?

I’ll admit, my hunting guns are pretty much stock. My favorite ones that I have/had are:

TC venture 30-06. This one is very new but has great accuracy potential; a rigid free floated stock; and a somewhat user adjustable trigger.

700 ADL .223 Walmart special. A little sandpaper to the barrel channel, poor boy bedding job, and my handloads delivered 3/4” groups at the most. The trigger is kind of heavy for my liking.

So, what’s the “best” factory hunting rifle?

Right now for the money, I’d say a Tikka T3. I got a Christensen Mesa, but from all I’ve heard Tikkas are the best bang for your buck!

agree Some flavor of Tikka . I started with a T3x in 308 and now have t3 in 22-250 & 223 to go with it.


Add scope Adjust trigger to what ever you like & your pretty much done

Since you didn't mention price, I would say a Weatherby.

Barrett Fieldcraft
Legendary Arms Works


And I agree Tikka for a budget minded (not cheap) buy. I own one in .260.

Tikka, no contest.

+1

The guys on here have me believing in Tikka but I don’t own one but I do believe them

There are just so many good choices these days

I mean for $450 sometimes less, a budget Ruger American will lay down an inch group and there’s many more that will too

Heck my DPMS LR 308 I paid $600 for will flat out shoot

It’s more a what do you like I guess anymore because a bunch of them shoot good

Tikka T3x and Weatherby Vanguard.

From personal experience I’d say tikka is the best value. It’s not a budget rifle but they’re not that expensive either. T3x lite SS MSRP is $750, you can do better especially if you look for a lightly used one.

A Remington 700 SPS stainless retails for $600+ and is going have a poorer stock, trigger, general fit and finish and may have worse issues like seriously crooked scope base holes. I really like a worked over 700 but it’s just not worth it to mess with one anymore if starting from scratch IMO. It’s Different if you’re setting out to build with a prefit barrel or something and plan to upgrade triggers etc. m700 still way ahead in aftermarket parts availability, but even then I think it makes more sense to spend a little more for a custom action like a bighorn origin

Savage is savage. I wouldn’t

Other good rifles for less than $750 would be Ruger American, Weatherby Vanguard, Howa. But I would and have gone tikka over all these.

Browning Xbolts are said to shoot and function well, but they cost more than tikka. $800-1050

No price limitation factory hunting rifle, I’d look at Barrett Fieldcraft.

There are nicer and fancier factory rifles than Tikka, but I'd put Tikka's action, barrel/chamber, and trigger against any factory rifle out there. I think Tikka has the best factory trigger ever made.

Will let you know how my new Bergara B 14 Ridge in .308 does when I can get it to the range. Looks and feel are great. Trigger came set a 2.5 lbs.

Tikka. Hunted with a CTR (.308) for three seasons, just bought a T3 Lite in 6.5 Creedmoor. Both have great triggers that are easy to adjust and stocks that are rigid enough for a bipod and required no modification to the barrel channel, plenty of clearance. They both shoot 1/2" groups, (sometimes less) with Hornady off the shelf ammo.

Since we're talking hunting rifle here, I did take my CTR to the THF hunters rifle challenge last year and would have taken my new T3 lite this year were it not for a scheduled hunt. I only scored 30, but learned that my all factory set up with off the shelf ammo was plenty good for the hunting I do. On the shots that I would take on deer, my misses at the challenge would have been kills on deer. The dot drill comes to mind.

Buy what you like. Almost all modern rifles are plenty accurate with good triggers.

With no price range I would say Sako, then Tikka and Weatherby

Of the rifles I’ve owned or otherwise been familiar with, I’d put Sako in first place and Tikka in second place. And recently I traded into a Bergara B14 Hunter in 6.5 CM that is very impressive. The synthetic stock is better than the Tikka stock. Action is almost as smooth. Trigger is excellent. And, if it matters to you, the Bergara is a Rem 700 clone, so Rem 700 stuff fits the Bergara. My brother hasn’t come to get his Bergara yet, and I hope he forgets.

Tikka hands down for an all arounder....

I was all in on the Barrett Fieldcraft for a LW packing rig. Loved the ergos, 3" mag box with appropriate twists per caliber, etc, etc. Both had HORRIBLE bolt lift on a dead bolt and were sent down the road.

Best factory hunting: Tikka, best bang for your buck: Ruger American. Sure, the Tikka action is nicer, but you can buy 2 Rugers for the Tikka price (maybe) and their
accuracy is more than adequate.

Cooper

Love my Cooper, wish I had more of them

Winchester 70 featherweight or remington 700CDL, either of them in 3006 cause it is the best hunting caliber

Gotta shop a little, I paid $589.00 for mine new from Grabagun. Granted I don't pay ffl xfer fees or shipping since it's convenient for me to pick up at their location.

Best bang for the buck is Tikka. I've yet to see one not shoot sub-MOA.

I believe it is a better rifle than some that cost more.

I have four custom, semi-custom rifles (whatever you want to call them) built on T-3 actions. One is the right hand rental rifle, three are rifles for my use as a lefty. They are one of, if not the best option for a lefty to build a rifle. The only extra cost associated is that they only come available in stainless, not blued. But a left hand stainless costs the same as a right hand stainless. They are usually an order item, which is what I have done twice. And they arrived in a week or less.

I have handled but never shot a tikka. While it may shoot well, the ones I handled the action seemed janky, loose, just not right.

I know it’s a lot more money than a tikka, but when I picked up my cooper for the first time I knew it was a good rifle. When I shot it I knew it was a winner. It doesn’t cease to amaze how easy it is to shoot really well with factory ammo.
It came in a box, so I would say Cooper is my answer.

If we are talking best bang for the buck, we’ll thats a whole different ballgame. And the question was best out of the box rifle; we all could take just about any action and customize it to be a good shooter. That wasn’t the question @fireman. Cracks me up how folks take a question and make it their own.