I'm too young to be such a Dinosaur, but I am. Two weeks ago, I got to my wit's end with the accuracy of my (dad's) Ruger M77 7X57. Bedding and fire lapping had not gotten groups under 3 inches. We went to the best semi-local (hour's drive) gun store to scope out a new deer rifle. My father (77 yrs) and I both liked the X-bolt even though it had a black synthetic stock. I didn't know if it would sit well with such a pre-historic mind set as mine, favoring natural polymers (cellulose) over artificial ones. Everything else about the X-bolt seemed great, except the detachable magazine. (You ever drop anything? I did. Hmmm, Bet it will NEVER happen with a rifle magazine!) Supressing my neolithic tendencies, I bought the "Composite Stalker" model X-bolt in the worlds's 2nd or 3rd most vanilla caliber, 0.308.

Amazing how a rifle can win you over after drawing a 3-leafed clover with 150 gr spire points at 100 meters. I'm jonesing to get it back out on the range. I never felt this way about a rifle. I think it's... no, no, I can't let myself. I've been hurt before. I'll wait until Sunday to shoot. Don't want to be too anxious. I'll take my shotgun for a walk Saturday. Sunday, we will be back to business, me and "blackie" ripping jagged holes in paper at great ranges. Hell, I'm even excited about reloading.

Yeah, I like this rifle. And it's been a long, long time since I've been so uniformly happy with a long arm.

What happened to the Rooger? Too late in the season to use it for its intended purpose, a tomato stake.

Farflung, It never ceases to amaze me that some folks dislike detachable magazines. The X-bolt need never be removed, it will top load, and you can ccycle all the shells out of it just like a Rem ADL...or you could buy a spare mag or two, and keep on in your pack, one at the house, and when you need to empty your rifle of cartridges, just detach the mag, and cycle a round if loaded out of the chamber, and pop it into the mag. Simply beautiful in my mind.

Of course I like military weapons somewhat, and everyone I know of has a detachable mag--but then it's our money that the gov buys the detachable mags with for those guys

I have had a lot of Brownings over the years, A-bolts mostly, and they all shot well, that's one thing Browning knows how to do--build a shooter.

Good Luck with you and your Pops'.

I have been quite impressed with the X-bolt.
It really does not apeal to me cosmeticly , but it sure seems to be well designed.
And in .308 it would be a very nice rifle.
But I am one of theos who don't like detachable mags.
Can't see why a 2 piece rifle is better than a 1 PC.
But, its not a real problem either.As a mayyer of fact I would like to have an X-bolt in .308.
...tj3006

I've tried X-bolt in 270win and 308 win. Both are great rifles and well built. The 270 was too sensitive on ammo choice.