Savage 111 or Remington 710

[Kirk Keller]

All,

I'm looking for a pretty basic, entry level 30-.06 for whitetail in NC. I went to the local sporting goods store and looked at a Savage 111 with a simmons 3x9 scope and a Remington 710 with a Bushnell 3x9. The other alternative is just to stick with my Model 700 BDM custom deluxe in 300 RUM. Kinda seems overkill for whitetail though.

Opinions please and I'm looking for any personal experiences with either of the above rifles.

 

[Jamis]

I'd avoid the 710 like a case of V.D. The Savage is a much better made rifle.

If you feel the 300 RUM is overkill, I'd make a bigger step down than a 30-06. Perhaps .308 or 7mm-08 inorder to get a short actioned compact rifle.

 

[Bogie]

I second this.

Sooner or later you might want to rebarrel whatever you get. You can EASILY do this with the Savage. If you shoot out the barrel on the 710 (not likely, but hey, it's possible...), you'll have an expensive tomato stake.

Get the Savage. Then, at your leisure, get a better trigger for it.

Buy a good scope to start with - You can get a nice "all purpose" 3x9 Leupod for $300 or less.

 

[SHIVAN]

Or find a close to new...used Remmy700

You can get Remmy ADL's for around $400. I just let mine go at a steal...others do too. Some with optics.

Do some shopping on AR15.com and here on these boards.

You can probably do better with $400 spent online than you can with $400 spent at Wally World.

Just my .02.

Ed

 

[Fuzzy]

I have a Savage '06 combo package. I have to say, it's a great rifle. Mine is in '06. '06 is probably the most versitle hunting rounds out there if you stick with factory ammo. You might want to consider a .308. There are less hunting rounds available, but you can get some real cheap practice ammo since the .308 is the same thing as the 7.62 NATO. If you want to take your rifle to the range a lot you should consider the .308. If you would prefer to have a huge selection of hunting rounds go for the '06. There are plenty of hunting rounds for the .308, there are just more for the '06. As for the .300 RUM, it's more then is needed for deer and the ammo is going to cost significantly more. For example, on cheeperthandirt.com a box of Remingtom Core-Lokt 150 grain .300 RUM goes for $29.24 where '06 150 grain Core-Lokt goes for $15.52. Also consider that you can get '06 or .308 rounds just about anywhere that sells ammo. .300 RUM is going to be harder to find.

Some people don't like the trigger on the Savage but it doesn't bother me. It's heavy but very crisp. You know when it's going to go 'bang'. The scope is okay, but not that great. You can get an equivalent scope for about $25.

Another thing to consider is skipping the combo package and getting one with regular sights. Then put see-thru rings on it and mount you own scope. It'll cost a few bucks more, but then you get open sights for those quick shots that sometimes come up. Or, if you going to hunt in a wooded area where the shots are going to be 200 yards or less, you can just forget the scope. My grandfather took a deer every year in PA with a .270 without a scope. He almost invariably went for a neck shot and always put meat on the table.

As for the Remingtom 710, I've never shot one. But Remington is a good name, so it couldn't be that bad.

-This was edited to correct spelling/grammer mistakes, but I probably didn't catch them all.

 

[Art Eatman]

For much less than the cost of any new rifle, you could get into the reloading game. This would let you down-load the Maggie to more realistic levels.

, Art