My idea for the ultimate western rifle

[onpoint]

"To my way of thinking the perfect Western rifle is a single shot and, from among those, almost certainly an 1885 Winchester."

I agree. However the exact 1885 for me was above my price range. So I reluctantly passed on it. Down to two left on Davidson's Gallery of Guns. Still can't talk myself into one of them.
You better get one of the two before it's a done deal - then post your purchase, rubbing it in the face of this cheapskate.....

 

[Rancho Loco]

if stainless isn't an issue i'd opt for the standard m77 hawkeye in either 308 or the 7mmHT. you don't need a 24"barrel for either one. believe it or not when our military was asking for a new cartridge, one of the design specs was that the best velocity needed to be achieved with a minimum barrel length of 18" and max length of 20". the "new" cartridge born was the 308(7.62x51mm). so a 22" barrel would more than satisfy your needs for velocity and you still have the CRF you desire.

You're going to be doing some fair amount of hot rodding if you want to chuck a high BC bullet out of a .308 or 7/08 at 3,000+ FPS.

 

[BrentD]

on point,
I have plenty of Winchesters. Here are three, the top is a competition rifle, the middle is a rimfire competition and hunting rifle that gets configured in several different ways, and the bottom is a dedicated hunting rifle.

I've got three more in various stages of construction. I'll leave that one at Davidson's for you.

 

[onpoint]

Nice stuff, even further out of my range - and you're way more of an enthusiast than I. By a couple levels, my hat's off....

 

[BrentD]

I am an enthusiast for sure, but I do some of the sweat equity and have some other advantages that make some of them possible a reasonable price. However, if you shot around hard, these can be done and built for not a terrible amount. The bottom one was $800, plus a rebarrel and sights. That can still be done today. Of course, they are not built around 3000 fps .30 cal cartridges either.

 

[BrentD]

You could find an older Browning B78 in something like 7 mag and other calibers that might not be too expensive on the used market and be exactly what you want. Just thinking out loud.

 

[RookieHunter]

B78 a fine beautiful rifle you don't mind lugging around...one day I'll hopefully have one in 300win. for elk hunting.

 

[88man]

Why just one rifle? How about a few rifles. No need for CRF for me. I really like .284 dia and 180 grn bergers. so 1-8 twist, 24in.

 

[Don Fischer]

Somehow the idea of a rifle capable of long range shooting and a single shot rifle just doesn't sit with me. I have only seen guy's shooting single shot rifles a few time's in my life and never saw one that could shoot even close to a well bedded bolt action and good handloads. I had a real soft spot for a #1 in 25-06 years ago and when I finally found it, I turned it down. Brand new for $265!

 

[OhHeyThereBen]

Somehow the idea of a rifle capable of long range shooting and a single shot rifle just doesn't sit with me. I have only seen guy's shooting single shot rifles a few time's in my life and never saw one that could shoot even close to a well bedded bolt action and good handloads. I had a real soft spot for a #1 in 25-06 years ago and when I finally found it, I turned it down. Brand new for $265!

I shot my second buck when I was 14 with a #1 in 30-06. Those are some sweet rifles.

 

[MT_Chad]

Not a short action, but I would throw out 280AI as well, sweet shooter. I'm a CRF fan since my first rifle was a ruger m77, but I love my tikka as well, the action is butter. As long as you are right handed there is a pretty good selection of CRF rifles, being a lefty sucks! The top of my list would be kimber, price is comparable to ruger now, which seems crazy to me, i paid like 350 brand new for my ruger. If you're stuck on short action I would probably second the 270wsm.

 

[Steve O]

I've been tossing around the idea of what I would want in the ultimate "working man's" western hunting rifle. My criteria would consist of the following:
Short action
Less than 8# without optics
Controlled round feed
$1000 or less
~3000fps with a respectable high BC bullet
24" barrel to get the most out of the cartridge without sacrificing portability
Light recoil (I understand this is subjective but for me that would be somewhere around 270 like recoil as I'm a bit recoil sensitive)
Versatile - can be used on anything from speed goats and sheep to elk.

I'm a big fan of Ruger rifles and after some experience with their M77 series rifles I really like the FTW Hunter but they don't chamber it in the cartridge is like.

What are y'alls thoughts?

I’ve not read all the responses, but aren’t you describing a Kimber Montana in .270 WSM?

 

[Beanland_fan]

Pondering the whole CRF thing a bit; if you’re laying on your back and need to chamber a round, do you need to hold the rifle upside down to do it?

My ultimate western rifle is a GA Precision Extreme Hunter in 6.5 SAUM. Handles everything in NA except the big bears. Outside your price range, but as the saying goes, “buy once, cry once!”