im looking to get a new gun its primary use would be as a truck gun but i would like to be accurate enough out to 300 yds or so,and probably gonna get it in .243 "Ive got a AR .223 and a .270 any suggestions on what to buy?

thanks

Steven's Mod. 200 roger

Well Sir, since I'm bein' asked to spend your money,,,,

Since you posted this on the Varmint forum, I'd get something in a 204 Ruger.

Ruger stainless/synthetic......... Tougher than nails, you could drag it BEHIND the truck , and it'ld still come up shootin' . You pick the caliber .

New or used? Short barrel or long barrel? I don't have much use for any thing longer than 22" for the pickup. The 700 ADL/SYN in any of the short actions would be good. I can't imagine anything being a better pickup gun though than the Model 7 Stainless Steel/ Synthetic; and it comes in .243, among others. Light, fast, stainless, 20" barrel. Oops, didn't mean to make this a commercial. There are others out there as good, just my take on it. jp

Blakeroth: For a 300 yard truck gun I would not hesitate to recommend a Rifle in caliber 204 Ruger!
Reasons being, the low recoil of the 204 and the ease at which you would be able to "hold on hair" with a 204 at those ranges on most any Varmint due to the 204's superior ballistic attributes!
With the proper sight in you could virtually forget about hold over out to 300 yards on most Varmints.
The low recoil of the 204 would allow you to spot your own hits (and misses!). With a 243 Winchester type truck gun that would be very difficult!
The accuracy of the 204 Ruger is just about universally great from all I have seen!
Maybe the shorter barrelled all stainless Varminter by Remington (the 700 LV SF) in 204 Ruger would fill your bill of needs.
Good luck with whichever you choose!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I'm rather surprised that you are not getting many recommendations for the Stevens 200 in .243. Mybe it's because it isn't widly used yet or not thought of as an accurate rifle; whatever.

For a truck rifle I can not see anything that fits the bill near as good. It has a Tupper Ware stock that will take a lot of punishment. A knick here or a scratch there and you are not terribly upset.

Of the four I can atest to ,all were sub MOA out of the box ,three with factory ammo.These, by constuction, are not varmint rifles. They are light weight, 22 inch barreled hunting rifles.The calibers were .223, 22-250, .243, 7mm-08.

At a sales price at that time of $259.00 they were a steal. Even today you can pick one up for > $300.00. The only poor feature was the hard trigger pull. I was able to reduce it from 7.5 pounds to 5 pounds, which isn't all bad for jumping out of a truck and shooting.

If I choose to put a better trigger on a Stevens I'm sure the performance would be superior to my CZ 527 which is of similar weight. In fact my Stevens 22-250 already is more accurate and repeatable.

The original idea in acquiring the Stevens was to be able to easily change barrels which facilitates my wildcating tendancies. I,however, was completly surprised in the inate accuracy of the fire arm. I hope this helps in making your decision. Buy two. roger

Roger

I was just looking at one of those little Steven's 200's a week ago. Can you verify for me are they pillar bedded from factory? Appeared to be a nice light little rife. The synthetic stock had a good feel to it.

quote:

Originally posted by Jay Johnson:
Roger

I was just looking at one of those little Steven's 200's a week ago. Can you verify for me are they pillar bedded from factory? Appeared to be a nice light little rife. The synthetic stock had a good feel to it.

Jay, They are pillar bedded.I forgot to mention another small short coming. Only the 22-250 would not feed from the magazine. with a little reforming it could have been made to do so but even before I got it I was thinking single shoot as most of my rifles are. I modified a mod. 98 single shot follower with little problem.The four actions I've seen are almost as long as a Mod. 98. Nothing wrong with that but you might want to know.

best truck gun I know of is the t/c encore. They're accurate, trigger is OK and most of all they're short & handy and broken down they can be loaded in a second