Ruminating on anti-gun states and scout rifles

[JTHunter]

I'll be a "third" on the lever gun.  This way, you can have rifle and handgun that use the same ammo, be it .357 or .44.

[dogmush]

At the moment I'm leaning heavily towards buying a Savage Axis II and building what I want.  I think I can get the rifle I'm imagining for $650-$700 that way and won't have to give up any of the "wants" I'd have to compromise on with a commercial built "Scout Rifle" at over $1k.  Savage Magazine compatibility is the only bummer there, but I'm still looking into that.

I'll be a "third" on the lever gun.  This way, you can have rifle and handgun that use the same ammo, be it .357 or .44.

I don't practice with any of my wheel guns enough for that to be even a little useful in this application, and I can't have a pistol in the truck anyways.

[dogmush]

Still thinking on this project.

I swung by the LGS at lunch today and put my grubby paws on a couple rifles.  (All they had were right handed bolts) 

I liked the Savage 110 Magpul Hunter (Pretty much what I posted on page 1, but 18" barrel and no iron sites) but it was pretty heavy.  8lbs unloaded, without an optic.  It's also trending a little into "Tactical" precision territory.  They wanted like $850 for one.

I looked at a Ruger American Predator, which was light, but felt noticeably cheaper, both in the action and in the stock. it was only $579, but I'd have to cut and thread the barrel to get the length where I want it.  Any more mods at all really eat into the price savings over a Savage 110. Also the Ruger's mag catch is a chincy plastic POS in an insert screwed into the stock, while by virtue of it's Magpul Stock the Savage's mag catch and well is much nicer.

The Axis II action felt like crap compared to the Ruger American or the 110.  I think that I'd end up hating having gone that cheap on the rifle before too long.

So I probably need to increase my budget if I want any kind of half ass nice bolt action.

Side Note:  The store had a rack of Christenson Arm bolt guns there that were super nice.  Not what I want to pay for what is essentially a whim gun, but super nice firearms.

[tokugawa]

Why not just refuse to vacation behind the lines, and go spend your money in a free state?

[Kingcreek]

I don’t know what the prices or availability is these days but a Tikka would get you a detach mag and the best out of the box action and trigger available. T3 lightweight with a lefty bolt might be a consideration.

[WLJ]

I don’t know what the prices or availability is these days but a Tikka would get you a detach mag and the best out of the box action and trigger available. T3 lightweight with a lefty bolt might be a consideration.

Be sitting down when you price mags. Ask me how I know   :'(

[Northwoods]

Why not just refuse to vacation behind the lines, and go spend your money in a free state?

Aren't you still in Washington?

[dogmush]

Why not just refuse to vacation behind the lines, and go spend your money in a free state?

1. sometimes I'm just going through, and the way milage works out need to camp there. Going around adds time and milage I can't fit in every trip.

2. Wife gets a vote where we go, and she's less libertarian than I.

[tokugawa]

Aren't you still in Washington?

Unfortunately. For the first 30 years it was great.

 I am not convinced that enough i's can be dotted and t's crossed to be OK in some of the states dogmush mentioned, even if the exact letter of the law is followed. Too many horror stories of people getting caught in the system. The rule of law is rapidly disappearing, usually by the draconian enforcement against the political "others" and outright ignoring the most grievous offenses by the politically protected.
No longer a question of "what", but of "who".

[dogmush]

I keep coming back to this idea, I really like the thought, but couldn't come off the money for any of the options I listed here.

First thing to go was the left handed bolt.  I can run a right hand bolt just fine, I just liked the idea.  Besides, if I hate the gun, a right hand bolt will be easier to sell.

That got me to a Mossberg MVP Patrol, but I put my hands on it and it was pretty awful to run.  Just a lot of play in the bolt, enough that I could easily induce malfunctions in feeding from a mag, also a "meh" trigger, and a overall cheap feeling.

After that I came off of the .308.  That cartridge did two things: It made it hard to get the 16" barrel I wanted from the factory, and it made mags expensive and capacity limited (AICS), proprietary (Savage), or proprietary, low cap, and shitty (Ruger rotary mag). 

I reread all your advice on here about what I was *really* likely to be shooting, and I shot my friend Ben's rifle, and decided for east-coast US, .300 BLK will do me.  There's a wide variety of available loadings, it has plenty of range for a human/predator defense rifle, and it really helps the rifle fit into the small, light, and handy idea.

Then after scouring used markets and gunbroker, I found a NOS Gen 1 Ruger American Ranch in .300 BLK for $375 with free shipping. It was the last one this shop had, everyone was buying the Gen 2's now, and he just wanted it gone. The Gen 2 has some nice upgrades but seems to be $600 minimum everywhere I look.  I fondled the American earlier in this journey, and I will have to do a little work to make it work for me, but it is all pretty much DIY work, or cheap to do, and for that entry cost, I can do some work to make this project come together.

Gun should be here this week, and I ordered a LPVO to go on it.  We'll see if I can make this project finally come together.

[Brad Johnson]

Nice!

Brad

[MechAg94]

Let us know what kind of suppressor you end up with.

What sort of scope did you choose to go with? 

[Bogie]

I have thought at length about a "truck gun" to have available... While my "truck" is a 3/4 ton chevy van, I really would like to have it a bit harder to break into/steal... So a lockbox and a killswitch are going to happen before...
 
And then I'm likely to... buy a few more stendos for the Glock 19... Will eventually pop the $400 for a short barreled rifle in 9mm that can take the G19 bags, and make a can for it. I figure the hardware will likely cost around $700 or so...
 
And I will NOT be driving into Illinois unless things go completely Mad Max...

[dogmush]

Let us know what kind of suppressor you end up with.

What sort of scope did you choose to go with?

I went with a Primary Arms SLX 1-6 with the fiber dot reticle.  It gets good reviews for glass hitting out of it's budget class, and the MIL drops should be pretty easy to dial in with supers and subs if I want to.

For the can, I'm going to throw my Nomad 30 or Sandman on it at first.  I'm trying to convince myself that this budget gun doesn't need a dedicated can.  On the other hand since it's a bolt gun with a low rate of fire, a light more hunting focused can like a Jolene S or Harvester Eco might be really nice.  Scilencerco has a military discount program.  I might sign up and see how cheap I can get the Harvester for.

Initially I'm leaning towards the Nomad.  That's a really quiet can.

[MechAg94]

I went with a Primary Arms SLX 1-6 with the fiber dot reticle.  It gets good reviews for glass hitting out of it's budget class, and the MIL drops should be pretty easy to dial in with supers and subs if I want to.

For the can, I'm going to throw my Nomad 30 or Sandman on it at first.  I'm trying to convince myself that this budget gun doesn't need a dedicated can.  On the other hand since it's a bolt gun with a low rate of fire, a light more hunting focused can like a Jolene S or Harvester Eco might be really nice.  Scilencerco has a military discount program.  I might sign up and see how cheap I can get the Harvester for.

Initially I'm leaning towards the Nomad.  That's a really quiet can.

Thanks.  I have one of the PA GLX 1-6 scopes and like them a lot.  I have a Ruger in 300 blackout.  I put a random scope on it that I had available.  I can't remember what it is, but I need a better one. 
Last can I used with it was a Liberty Amendment.  Cheap can that is did a decent job.  A little on the heavy side. 

Mrgunsngear did review of the Jolene.  Caught my attention.  Their Punik is the last can I bought, and seems to work pretty well on a 30 cal. Krinkov pistol.  Nice deep tone.  That requires more shooting to be certain.