A Dakota .404 is for sale locally. It certain is nice looking as are all the other Dakotas I've looked at. Any comments at to how accurate they tend to be? Do they make their own barrels? Thanks!

FFg

YES!!! I have shot many Dakota rifles and they all are very accurate. However, as with any rifle, you have to find a load it really likes. You cannot expect a rifle to be extremely accurate with all loads fired through it.
Dakota uses Lothar Waltar (I'm sure I butchered the spelling) barrels on their rifles.
I have not heard much about the 404 Dakota, but it does sound interesting.

Thanks Ken, I wasn't clear. The Dakota is in a .404 Jeffery. Thanks!
f

YES. They are!

The .404 is not the best choice as far as accuracy is concerned.

yup they are

i own 2

My friend had a Dakota in 375 H&H, this rifle would not shoot. He sent it back to Dakota twice, and it still would not shoot. He finally sold it at a big loss just to get rid of it.

Not really, I own 3 of them. IMO, for the money, they should be much better. Fine for hunting accuracy(but that isn't all that demanding), but does not meet my standards for accurate rifles. I won't buy anymore unless they are way too cheap to pass up.

I have heard some bad accuracy reports on Dakotas but I have no personal experience with them.

Why not call the factory and ask what kind of accuracy guarantee they provide?

Mitch & Gatogordo - I cannot imagine investing that kind of money and not demanding the gun shoot properly. Dakota's are some of the most expensive semi-custom guns on the market. If I purchased a $5,000 to $8,000 gun, you better bet it will either shoot or the gun smith will be spending huge bucks with their gastrointestinal specialist having it removed from his orifice.

I can tell you from personal experience that some of the earlier Dakotas that I have seen had too much fore end pressure. As soon as it was properly relieved, accuracy became a non-issue. Dakota may not have all the answers, however, their guns are built properly with some of the best machining work that I have ever inspected. Their actions are the best designed and manufactured actions available - period.

Dakota is all about quality and accuracy. With their guarantees, I would not rest until I was satisfied and I certainly would not accept any level of loss if the guns did not perform as billed.

[This message has been edited by Zero Drift (edited 02-22-2002).]

They had a bad accruacy problem at one time, I don't know if it was corrected or not...

The stock deminsion are all wrong for me and I cannot use the iron sights on them as they are strictly scope user friendly, so why the irons?

They are well made and finished for a factory rifle and thats a great action, perhaps the best action ever IMHO..

I believe you can get a pretty nice custom rifle, if your carefull for the same price, thats much nicer.

------------------
Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

My friend is not a very patient man, he felt that he paid over 4500.00 for the rifle and he should not have to keep sending it back to Dakota. This happened about 5 or 6 years ago, the new rifles Dakota makes today very well maybe more accurate.

I can't understand how they can charge $2,500 for just the action from a Longbow tactical rifle. I could get the best Stolle action made out of gold for less than that.

I have had a couple and have shot or seen shot several others. Bought my first, a .270 in 1989 (upgraded wood, cheek peice w/shadow line, longer length of pull for $2,200). I have never seen one that was not accurate. A good friends .416 African will make clover leaf holes at 100yd.s

I too have never really liked the stocks, too thin in the hand. Overall though they are a very good rifle. Very dependable...