I am looking for an affordable yet highly accurate .243 to use for culling and hunting in Africa. No stainless steel and preferably out of the box ready to use. It would be great to hear any recomendations and advice that anyone may have.

Tikka T3 would be my first choice for value and accuracy. CZ would be a close second. I own both (not in .243) the bolt action is a lot smoother on the T3 and it is plastic stock. CZ have nice wood for their price range. Both are excellent out of the box sub moa performers for the money.

quote:

Originally posted by Scott450:
I am looking for an affordable yet highly accurate .243 to use for culling and hunting in Africa. No stainless steel and preferably out of the box ready to use. It would be great to hear any recomendations and advice that anyone may have.

Affordable and probably one of the most accurate out of the box rifles....go with a Savage. They are cheap, come pillar bedded from the factory, and have a pull buttoned barrel.

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Originally posted by Doc:
Affordable and probably one of the most accurate out of the box rifles....go with a Savage. They are cheap, come pillar bedded from the factory, and have a pull buttoned barrel.

I'm not much of a Savage fan but have to agree with this!

All thre mentioned so far are good, Tikka, CZ, and Savage. For the money, it is hard to beat a Savage.

If you are using it for culling then being able to reload fast by stuffing shells in through the top would be something I'd look at for sure. I haven't handled a Tikka but I thought I heard they are slow to load because they are not open at the top, Sauer's are that way too. My buddy had a Savage in 300 RUM and I thought it was tough to load but I don't know how they are with the smaller shells (.243).
I'm a big Winchester fan and there are some new in the box ones on Gunbroker fairly frequently, also look at the Remingtons.
CZ's look open on top and easy to load, seem like a nice rifle for the money, I've had great luck with Rugers too and they are nice, 3 position safety, claw extractor easy to load and unload.
Good Luck

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
I'm not much of a Savage fan but have to agree with this!

Despite the fact that you and I collectively agree on Savage, I'm no fan either. But I have no problem admitting the proven positive points on these rifles.

I love my Ruger M77 .243 It is extremely accurate with a wide range of bullet weights. Seems easy to load for me. However, you can't go wrong with the Savage either.

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Originally posted by Doc:

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
I'm not much of a Savage fan but have to agree with this!

Despite the fact that you and I collectively agree on Savage, I'm no fan either. But I have no problem admitting the proven positive points on these rifles.

My 12bvss-s was a terrible disappointment; Mainly the Accutrigger. It still is after a costly trip to the factory for repair. Accurate? Yes; but still a POS. Might be just a lemon but I can't get the sour taste out of my mouth.

My 7 Stevens have all had out of the box accuracy but take a lot of dicking around to make them field worthy. Terrible magazines and feed problems and 7 to 12 lb. triggers. All this with a little effort can be made to work but out of the box??---NO..

Really hate to be negative but also hate to see some one hit a dead end on the yellow brick road. roger

Savage rifles generally make remingtons look good even in the eyes of a remington hater.

Rugers run hot and cold accuracy wise, unfortunatly for me of the three rugers I've had they all shot like shit and every effort to "tune" them was a waste of time and effort.

Of the remingtons I've owned ALL of them were made into precision instruments with a relative minimum of effort.

That all being said if I were in Africa, lived there and was rifle shopping I'd buy a Sako.


BTW, what exactly is it you dislike about stainless steel?
IF I was buying a rifle for hard field use but didn't want a "white" rifle I'd still get a stainless steel rifle, but I'd have it coated to make it black.



AD

I picked up a Remmy CDL in .243 for my walk about varmint getter and have been real please with it. It has the classic good looks and topped with a 4x16 is accurate to use on varmints at long distances when shooting the 55 grain NBT. I'm getting accuracy beyond my expectation for this type of firearm when I use it in a varmint shoot over bags.

Scott450,

I do cull hunting as a semi-pro so I have an idea of what you're looking for. Try looking at a Rem. 700 with maybe a heavier 26" barrel, perhaps their varmint model. There are some aftermarket single stack magazines that replace the floorplate. These only gives you 6 plus one. If you need more than seven, Remington's Detachable box magazine model will work well with extra magazines.

You may even find someone to help mate surplus FAL or M14 magazines to the top end of the Remington magazine to give you at least 20 rds.

Being that you're looking at a 243, you're probably culling animals in the springbok to oryx class.

Geoff

The Tikka is no harder to single load than most from the top. You cannot load the detachable mag from the top, or at least not very easily. The CZ is a Mauser action and claw extractor, so doesn't it have to pick up a round form the mag for the bolt to close easily/properly? The Savage .223 I have can be difficult to load a single round by just dropping in the top, as the tip of the bullet can tend to hit the edge of the chamber and hang up.

The accuracy of the Tikka .243, the CZ and Savage .223s, are comparable. I like them all, for their varied uses.

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Originally posted by Calif. Hunter:
The CZ is a Mauser action and claw extractor, so doesn't it have to pick up a round from the mag for the bolt to close easily/properly?

Nope. The claw extractor is beveled in front and the chamber has a big enough notch so the extractor will "snap" over the cartridge when single loading.

At least mine does.

My vote would be for the tikka. Smooth bolt and great trigger as well as excellent accuracy. Buy an extra clip or two and don't worry about loading a single stack mag in a hurry.

Howa

value & accurace ruger M-77.savage is o k but no resale value

Just picked up a TC Icon in .243. Very well balanced, great trigger, and it will make you look good on paper. Shot sub moa with three different factory loads.

I would say that either a CZ or a Tikka T3 lite would fit the bill, no nonsense workhorses. I don't have either but I do have three CZ's in different calibres, all of which have been good right out of the box, and lots of my pals have T3's, again no complaints only praise. My 243 is a BRNO I got it five or six years ago, can't remember, it was ten years old at the time but, NIB, that would suit you no bother at all. Works smoothly, loads essy and is scary accurate. It even has a set trigger, I will not be parting with that anytime soon.

John