General purpose bolt gun as a back up to my 308 AR

[Faultline]

I have consolidated my armory to .308 and I am looking for a quality, sub $800.00 bolt gun in 308 with iron sights. This would be a back up to my MWS. The main features I am Looking for are:

<22" barrel
Iron sights
Reliability
3-4 Moa accuracy or better with ball ammo
Light weight (< 9lbs)

I plan to put a medium priced 1-4 variable with capped turrets on it and my application would be 25-400 yds, field positions shooting.

I have looked at the savage hog hunter and the mossberg mvp patrol ( don't really care about detachable mags) but I am curious if there are other options out there that meet my needs? I am pretty new to bolt guns. Any info would be great!

[Bluto]

Ruger scout
http://ruger.com/products/gunsiteScoutRifle/models.html

[waveslayer]

Remington 700

[roadsterjosh]

Mossberg MVP patrol model. It uses Sr25 and m1a magazines, and assuming your 308 ar is an sr25 pattern, not an armalite ar10, it uses magazines you already have in abundance. The action is robust, and stupid simple. It has williams firesights that are easy to pick up, and quickly get on target.
There is also the Savage hog hunter, which my wife absolutely loves. The rifle is pretty sweet, and has very good irons. The only reason I didn't go with it was for the magazines. My wife bought one as her hunting rifle, though neither my mvp nor her savage have glass mounted as of yet. We both shoot them under 3 inches at 50 yards with irons.

[jesuvuah]

Mossberg MVP patrol model. It uses Sr25 and m1a magazines, and assuming your 308 ar is an sr25 pattern, not an armalite ar10, it uses magazines you already have in abundance. The action is robust, and stupid simple. It has williams firesights that are easy to pick up, and quickly get on target.

I would second that suggestion. Maybe not quite as "quality" as some other bolt guns, but I am sure it will get the job done and sharing the magazines is a very nice feature. I held one and it shouldered pretty nice and the sights were very easy to pickup. also has a rail mounted on it already if you wanted to add an optic.

[AverajeJo]

Remington 700

Remington 700 AAC-SD.

[Faultline]

I appreciate all of the input guys! I will explore those options. I have been looking pretty hard at the mossberg and the savage hog hunter. Does anyone make good quality aftermarket stocks for these? The factory ones look to be lacking but I could be wrong. Are the action and extraction types on those 2 rifles reliable? Thanks again for the help all.

[roadsterjosh]

There is a company making a stock for the mossberg, but for the life of me I can't remember which company. I'll do some research and find it.
I like the stock on both, and for my purpose I see no need to replace either.
Both are push feed, which I prefer to controlled feed. Push feed is known to be very robust and able to eek out just a little bit more accuracy. Most guys shooting 1000 yard comps are using custom made push feed actions.
The extraction on both the hog hunter and mvp are claw type, both my wife and I have had no issues with extraction. The mvp has been reliable for more than 1k rounds, and the action has gotten much smoother in that time.

[markm]

Ruger scout
http://ruger.com/products/gunsiteScoutRifle/models.html

Yeah... the OP's needs are just what the scout was aimed at.

[Faultline]

I am leaning heavily toward the mossberg at the moment. It doesn't seem as refined as the ruger but I really like the mag commonality with my MWS and they seem to get decent enough reviews. If I were going for sniper grade accuracy I'd definitely go Remington and the ruger seems nice and I haven't ruled it out but I have read reports of less than great accuracy and for a gun as well put together and a decent amount more than the mossy or the savage on top of more expensive mags, it doesn't seem to offer a whole lot over the mossberg.

Roadsterjosh, thanks for the knowledge!

[Javadrinker]

I'll add my motion to the Mossberg MVP. 18" threaded barrel, use any ar-10 mag(except armalite), comes with a mildot scope w/illuminated reticle, spacers for length of pull adjustment, and the trigger is adjustable though I was pleased with mine out of the box. Scope will do until you can get another, but right now I see no need to upgrade that, and the firesight irons work very well. I think it needs just a good bipod to be gtg out of the box. I've added said bipod and sling. I'm thinking a Lupe 3.5x10 VX-3 is soon to be ordered.

[TehLlama]

I'm borderline astonished I haven't heard about the MVP yet - for that price range it oddly has everything I care about in a .308 rifle, time to give that a closer look.

[Faultline]

The mossberg definitely seems like a well thought out rifle. They seem to be in short supply from my searches too unfortunately.

[TehLlama]

I'll happily wait, and this is the sort of thing I'd be happy to buy through a LGS along with accessories to help them stay in the black and keep doors open. I just want to get a useful comparison of the stocks and accuracy potential (instead of getting search results of goofballs failing at mag dumps on bolt guns).

[Faultline]

Here is an option for the mossberg- http://mdttac.com/lss-chassis-for-mossberg-mvp.html

I agree, it would be nice to see a more practical review of the mossberg.

[tcoz]

I'm getting ready to buy an MVP Patrol 7.62 with the 3-9x32 UTG scope for $675 including tax through Gallery of Guns. It's not a precision long range gun, but it fits the bill perfectly as a low cost, fun to shoot "utility gun".

[MBtech]

I appreciate all of the input guys! I will explore those options. I have been looking pretty hard at the mossberg and the savage hog hunter. Does anyone make good quality aftermarket stocks for these? The factory ones look to be lacking but I could be wrong. Are the action and extraction types on those 2 rifles reliable? Thanks again for the help all.


http://www.savageshooters.com/showthread.php?37689-Hog-Hunter-Stocks-boyds-tacticool-choate-tactical-mdt-lss-chassis

This link has a few options to consider for the hog hunter

[MBtech]

Here is an option for the mossberg- http://mdttac.com/lss-chassis-for-mossberg-mvp.html

I agree, it would be nice to see a more practical review of the mossberg.

I have been looking hard at the MDT Tac21 for my Rem 700 AAC SD myself
I have not had any luck on here with anyone that has experience with the products from the MDT company, as far as quality, durability etc.. has ergos similar to AR10 platform.

[jyo]

Personally, I went a little different---Browning BLR 308 (yeah, a lever rifle!) as a backup to my FAL---totally ambi (I must shoot long guns left-handed due to eye issues)---iron sights for backup to scope---went with Leupold older model 1.5-5X scope in Warne brand QD rings (don't know if they still make Warne products)---light and handy---pretty accurate (1.5" three shot groups). So now I have two rifles that can share the same ammo...