Most accurate out the box rifle, under $1000

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wdallis

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Looking to buy a new rifle, want the most accurate out of the box rifle. Been looking at the Remington 700, but I'm not set in stone on it, what is everyone's opinion and experience? It will be chambered in a .243.
 
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Skip Remington. Current production is spotty at best. For a grand you have plenty good options. I would start with Tikka and Winchester.
 
I have a number of rifles that were all less than $1000 that have shot under 1 MOA, Remington, Savage, Weatherby (howa), TC, CZ...most everyone can make an "accurate" rifle if you feed them decent ammunition.

Feed a custom $7000 benchrest rifle junk and your results won't be any better than a "good" rifle with "good" ammunition.
 
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Tikka. Best rifle I've ever owned for the money. It's every bit as accurate as my Accuracy International, which is a MUCH more expensive rifle. The Tikka will routinely shoot sub-half inch 5-shot groups at 100 yards if I'm doing what I need to do.
 
Tikka, Ruger American, Thompson center... All good picks


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Gotta agree with the Tikka folks here. I have 3 Tikkas, .30-06, .270 Win. and 6.5x55 SE. All are sub MOA rifles straight out of the box. Gotta feed them quality ammo that they like, and when that is done, they generally shoot better than the shooter is capable.

I shoot high power metallic silhouette and accuracy is the name of the game. My silhouette rifle is my Tikka in .270 Win. that shoots 3" five-round groups at 500 meters with its preferred load.

Ah! Got the photos to load on the second try! :)

ETA: Scope is Vortex 6.5-20x50, 30mm tube, side focus in Warne rings.
I hope this helps.
 

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Best bang for the buck

I've owned Remingtons, Winchesters, Savages, Interarms firearms and T/C Venture. The most accurate out of the box was the Venture and the least expensive.
 
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Howa line of rifles seems to be pretty good for the money
My first .243 Howa
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My experience and only includes a couple of brands of rifles.

I bought two Remington 700 and an XR-100 over a period of 5 years about ten years ago. All of them shot ok but improved greatly when I replaced the triggers and did some stock and bedding work.

I bought a Savage Model 12 for prairie dog shooting and it shoots .5 to .75 groups at 100 yards out of the box with a little load development.

I like the Savage so well, I recently bought one of their target actions to build into another varmint rifle.

I have a TC Encore which I am not impressed with. It has improved with some trigger work and replacement trigger springs but the accuracy is nothing like my first generation Contenders that have the adjustable trigger.

I cannot comment on other rifle brands as I have not tried any--yet.
 
Buy one that fits you well and then find a load that is accurate.

All you get by asking what others like is their biased opinions that really tell you not much at all.

There is no one brand that is "more accurate" than others.
Each gun is an individual.
 
Honestly any of the major brand of rifle is likely to be a tack driver with the right loads, and as snyper said were all a little biased.

Personally my suggestion is handle as many as you can, shoot as many as you can, and then chose the one that you like the feel and looks of best. If your dead set on a remington go ahead and get that, yes production seems to have been spotty recently, but most of them are still damn fine shooters....i had bad luck on one, two buddies and my three others on the other hand have shot great.

I own a model 10 in .243 and while its accurate its never been a sub moa rifle, i owned a 110 is 7mm mag that would literally make a 1/2 inch hole with 5 bullets almost every time, and remington, browning, ruger and marlin rifles which did everything from .75"-1.25" (the good remington among them) to 2-2.5" (the bad remington).

Each rifle is a creature unto itself.

I also realize thats not the answer you were looking for, but honestly even if a rifle is the most accurate in existence if it dosent fit you and you dont like it youll never do real well with it.
 
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Slightly used Sako or new Tika! Older Rem. Sendero is OK also!
 
I'm working with a Savage 10 I picked up a few months ago, .308, Accutrigger, Accustock, scope base, threaded fluted barrel, extended bolt handle, all for $630. It's sub-MOA out of the box.
 
I have had excellent results with (alphabetically):

Remington M700P
Weatherby Vangaurd
Winchester Stealth

If I had $1,000 to invest in a new rifle, I would be looking to Savage's M12 single shot. In fact, when I have the funds, that will be my next and likely final rifle. I will select a 6 Norma BR.

JMHO.

Geno
 
I would be looking to Savage's M12 single shot. In fact, when I have the funds, that will be my next and likely final rifle. I will select a 6 Norma BR.

Geno, a couple that shoots at my favorite rifle range have both started using this rifle. Their 200 yard groups are ridiculously small from what I've seen. The rifles are very easy on the eye as well.
 
All rifles will shoot under 1/3 MOA once in a while with a couple of few-shot groups. How often is seldom mentioned.

All rifles shoot group sizes somewhere between zero MOA and some larger size as follows:

40% of the groups will be about average in size.
30% will be a little bigger, or smaller.
20% will be a lot smaller, or bigger.
10% will be the smallest, or largest.

A rifle whose smallest group is .3 MOA and largest is 1.5 MOA is more accurate than one whose smallest group is .2 MOA and largest is 2 MOA. Simply put,rifles whose largest groups are smaller is more accurate than rifles whose largest groups are bigger. Doesn't matter what the size of their smallest group is. Don't forget that the smallest groups can happen when all the variables tend to cancel each other out or everything is perfect; what do you think is more likely?

Smallest groups are seldom the first ones fired; nor are the largest ones.

The popular way to judge accuracy is whatever shoots the smallest few-shot group. If neither one of the first or second few-shot group is not tiny, the load's typically considered inaccurate.

So, beware of most claims for accuracy of a given rifle. The accuracy any will produce is what the rifle and two other contributing parts of the shooting system have for repeatability. Here's what each part of the hand-held shooting system contributes to how close together bullets land on target:

25% rifle. 25% ammo. 50% shooter.

Having watched several people shoot the same rifle and ammo but the targets have a 4 to 5 times spread of smallest groups to largest, 'tis obvious to me that us humans are the biggest variable.

Keep this in mind reading reviews of rifles for accuracy. Ammo, too.

I'd pick a commercial rifle make and model that has a good track record for accuracy in competition wherein the best accuracy is paramount. From what I've gleaned in results, Savage tends to be a good choice.

http://savagearms.com/news/article/?id=2K5nTzegQ
 
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not sure your intended use....

that's tough, there are several quality manufacturers to choose from. What application are we looking at here? I like a faster twist to handle slightly longer bullets. That narrows it down to Rem and Ruger American off the top of my head. As already mentioned, Rem is not the quality it used to be, I have had some recent production 700's and 770's apart and I'm unimpressed (yes 770 is the "value/cheap" model). This leaves Ruger (preferably the Ruger American Predator) staying far enough under your 1000 price limit to start accessories. However if twist rate is not an issue, TIKKA TIKKA TIKKA, followed closely by Savage, and for personal attachment reasons Weatherby/Howa.
 
There is no guarantee which rifle will be the most accurate. But I'd put my money on Tikka under $1000. You'll find exceptions, but the odds favor Tikka. The Ruger American's, especially the Predator version are looking impressive too and you can buy 2 of them under $1000 and have enough left over to scope one of them.
 
That Savage 14 of of TinPins sure looks nice! Most (say 99.9%) of Savages are just too buttugly for me, ha, but that one is nice. But everyone, including me, we all know that Savages flat out "shoot". They are like the Plain girl at the dance who knows all the latest dances! ha
 
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