Your opinion?

[Fujicon]

Opening the door to the wide world of opinions here to cull your perspectives...

I have a BLR stainless in 358 Win. One of my faves, but want to match it with a bolt action. As you probably know, 358 Win rifles are very difficult to find, yet there is a new nothing-special Savage available for around $1,100, laminate stock. My ideal gun would be stainless with walnut including iron sights.

So here's the question for y'all, just to see where your thinking goes. Which of three options?
1. Get the Savage for $1,100. Maybe not exactly what I want, but a bird in the hand and all that.
2. Get a custom gun made the way I want it. That would cost me around $2,000 to $3,000, or sky's the limit.
3. Build my own, which will likely cost between $2,500 and up (think up). Probably based on a 700 or Ruger action.
4. Other options?

Being practical is always a driving need and I'm not looking to waste money, but when it comes to guns I've learned the lesson of buy once, cry once. Lot happier in the long run that way, so at least somewhat willing to look at those more expensive options (within reason).

(As a side note Wilson Combat also sells an AR-10 type rifle for $3,400, but that's too much coin for me and not really looking for a semi anyway.)

Ultralight Ranger, .358 Winchester, 16" Barrel, 1-14 Twist, Black

The Ultralight Ranger series of rifles by Wilson Combat combines our lightweight billet receiver set, a Smoke Composites Carbon Fiber Stock, and our Ranger profile match-grade, tapered barrel to create a fast-handling precision AR carbine that is an ideal tactical, defense, or hunting gun where...

wilsoncombat.com

 

[ResearchinStuff]

for a bunch of reasons, i'd never own a rifle in an oddball caliber given the ongoing and persistent ammo and component shortages over the past decade plus. If i did feel compelled to own a 358 win though, here's a few options:

T3x lite stainless 308 win, have it bored out to 358 by JES.
buy any t3x stainless with a standard bolt face and put a new barrel on it for ~600.

both are better than buying a savage, and cheaper than a full custom. ammo availability and ballistics will still blow compared to just doing a 308 or 6.5 creed.

 

[Fujicon]

for a bunch of reasons, i'd never own a rifle in an oddball caliber given the ongoing and persistent ammo and component shortages over the past decade plus. If i did feel compelled to own a 358 win though, here's a few options:

T3x lite stainless 308 win, have it bored out to 358 by JES.
buy any t3x stainless with a standard bolt face and put a new barrel on it for ~600.

both are better than buying a savage, and cheaper than a full custom. ammo availability and ballistics will still blow compared to just doing a 308 or 6.5 creed.

Thanks for the feedback RS. I did consider that option (though looking at a Ruger Hawkeye Hunter instead of Tikka), but getting a re-bore is unfamiliar territory for me so I wasn't looking at that option too hard. Your thoughts have rekindled the idea so I'll look at that option further. As for 358 being an oddball, yeah I guess it is, although as a hunter I think it is dang near perfect for woods hunting. More to the point, because I already have a 358 I'm stocked up with so much that no doubt have far more ammo, brass, bullets, et al than I'll ever need in that caliber, so component availability is a non-issue issue in this context.

 

[Axlrod]

Here is one for sale:

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1040548553

 

[Fujicon]

Here is one for sale:

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1040548553

Dang! That is tempting. Not stainless, but that rifle looks nice, real nice. Six days left. I'm going to keep this temptation page open. Thanks much for sharing, hadn't seen it before.

 

[Axlrod]

Dang! That is tempting. Not stainless, but that rifle looks nice, real nice. Six days left. I'm going to keep this temptation page open. Thanks much for sharing, hadn't seen it before.

No problem. I like a good gun scavenger hunt! There is a 358 Win. Pre 64 M70 on there too...

 

[Fujicon]

No problem. I like a good gun scavenger hunt! There is a 358 Win. Pre 64 M70 on there too...

Ha! I think I saw that one, or at least one like it. The one I saw was over $6k, which rather blew me away.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Problem with building your own is, the cost sometimes gets out of hand. At least for me.

 

[Fujicon]

Problem with building your own is, the cost sometimes gets out of hand. At least for me.

Guilty. Made my own 300 PRC. Accurate as can be, but sure a lot more than I bargained for in the beginning. Would I do it again? Not thrilled to do it again, but glad I did it at least one time for the experience.

 

[Fujicon]

Here is one for sale:

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1040548553

Got to looking at that rifle more closely. Curious thing about it: has a front sling mount, but the rear sling mount appears to have a white dot over it (ivory?). For a rifle that is said to have only been test fired that seems rather curious. Is single point sling mount a thing with bolt action rifles? I seem to recall from my military days there was a way to carry a M16 with a one-point sling mount, but never seen that with a bolt action rifle. And what would be the reason someone would replace the rear sling mount with a patch of ivory or similar? And having only a front sling mount implies the muzzle would be always pointing at your face. Also scratches on the butt plate I suppose could be attributed to vertical storage muzzle up instead of muzzle down. Anyway, curiosities...

 

[Fujicon]

Follow-up: decided on the re-bore option (308 to 358).