I have a soon to be 18 year old son that shoots and hunts with me from when his social schedule allows.

He shoots left handed and has been using my right handed 788 and 98 Mausers.

I have been reading a lot on this board and others about safety features designed into action and several accidents. Heaven forbid, but if something went wrong and the case let go or the action let go, what's going to hapen to left handed shooter with a right hand bolt action?

I'm thinkng I need to find him a left handed gun ....or maybe not.

He would really likes a 7mm Rem mag and likes stainless. Although, It's my $ and a gift. I make the final decision. He has no idea that I'm considering this.

I load all my own ammo. He will likely never load his own ammo, so I need to stay away from these Ultra Mags and Short Mags. I need somthing that shoots ammo that Wal-mart carries.

In my price range, the choices are few in left hand stainless bolt actions. Basically the Ruger and the Browining A-Bolt.
I leave the Rem 700 out because its only offered in the Ultra Mags in stainless.

Open up to blued actions and we add the Remington 700 BDL the Win model 70, the Savage 110 and I think the Tikka. Charles Daly may have the new Mark X (don't know what it's called) in left handed now.

Another thought is a VZ24 (it's ready for a barrel) in left handed stock.

I do not have the money for a Dakota or Copper, etc.

Given all these choices. What is the safest alternative.

I'm leaning toward the Ruger at this point.

My recommendation would be a TIKKA they are more accurate than any factory gun I have fired. And they are a tad more then Remington. I am left handed myself. All my guns where built because I could not get what I wanted from the factory. All my guns have Winchester style safeties on them It was not cheap but I had them put on my rem and Sako They have never failed me. The rem safeties would always get pushed on while hunting in the brush. plus with the 3 position you can unload in complete safety, this is where most accidents happen when unloading.

get the Savage, all mine have been very accurate.

Ruger or M-70 is the only choice IMO...The rest are less than suitable...The VZ24 is a great action but if the bolt is on the right side, your at a disadvantage..

Check out the left handed short action thread, and seriously consider the Montana action. Or the barreled Montana action with an aftermarket stock.

chuck

P.S. The 7mm rem mag would be an excellent choice.

Check into the deal on LH actions by MRC. Do a search on this site, there's lot's of posts on it. You'll end up with a stainless, true LH, improved model 70 type action. - Dan

I have been following the 1999 threads. I think they are great, but it looks to me that we are at least 6 months away from having a left handed actions. Then I have to wait on a gunsmith for several months to put a barrel on it. Then we have the issue of finding a stock.

I would like to have something by mid August.

Hello Trigger, How's Roy making out these days?
Sorry - could resist it.

Have a look here http://www.truvelo.co.za

- they know a little about hunting and sniping too. They make left handed actions.

Also rifles with calibres up to 20x83 for tickling elephants out to 1600m!

cheers edi

Trigger,

Remington 700's enjoy an excellent safety record. When used within the pressure ranges they were designed, their LH models are every bit as safe as their RH models. You would be hard pressed to find anything off the shelf better or more capable.

Malm

I can speak from experience: the Savage action is unbeatable when it comes to handling ruptured case gases. Done that, been there, and I am very impressed.

Take a close look at the design of the 110 / 10 series. The bolt head baffle works, very, very well. The second baffle pretty much takes out anything that passes the first.

Accuracy is very rewarding, too, and the heavy barrel methods now have the best trigger of any factory rifle.

Finally, Malm, the question is NOT "how does it work when everything works as designed". The question is, what happens if the $hit hits the fan; when you fire with a clod in the barrel, or whatever. There is comfort in over-engineering. FWIW, Dutch.

Dutch,

I'm pretty sure that Remington is every bit as capable as Savage at handling a ruptured case, but, if we're talking about which design will best handle stupidity, the kind that blows actions, then that is a different matter altogether...

Malm

"if we're talking about which design will best handle stupidity, the kind that blows actions, then that is a different matter altogether... "

That is what I'm interested in. The worst case.

Thanks