03-20-2015, 01:25 AM
Everyone's trying to achieve the same thing here; accuracy and reliability, but the more specific your question is the more varied will be the answers.
My two cents worth.
There are three things worth concentrating on, in order of importance:
1. Barrel
2. Scope
2. Trigger
If you are looking to spend money in some areas but want to save money in others then if I were you I would buy the best barrel, scope and trigger and look for savings for everything in else.
The rest holds these three together. For more pernickety shooters then sure, consider the pros and cons of all the other parts (I do) but my take is that the majority of the guns accuracy lies in these three, and especially the barrel. Unlike the rest of the gun a barrels accuracy is perishable. Your barrel will be accurate to your definition for only a finite number of rounds so be prepared to swap-out every now and then like tyres on a car. As for a scope, you won't wear it out by looking through it so you may as well 'buy once cry once'.
One last caveat...Scopes can be overpriced compared to others that work perfectly but finding one that works is difficult. We don't have all the truthful information at our fingertips. The criteria that is often missing from all the online reviews and opinions is repeatability. This is something that does not reveal itself until you bolt it on a rifle and shoot it. You can get the clearest, best tracking scope, best reticle, most compact, lightest, etc. but if the reticle erector frame jumps off zero in the recoil it's not worth a cracker. Worse still, you can end up thinking it is something else like ammunition, harmonics, the wind, the shooter and this could go on for months, even years. You might never know it was the scope's repeatability all along. My point is that while I think the barrel is most important the scope choice is more fraught.
My two cents worth.
There are three things worth concentrating on, in order of importance:
1. Barrel
2. Scope
2. Trigger
If you are looking to spend money in some areas but want to save money in others then if I were you I would buy the best barrel, scope and trigger and look for savings for everything in else.
The rest holds these three together. For more pernickety shooters then sure, consider the pros and cons of all the other parts (I do) but my take is that the majority of the guns accuracy lies in these three, and especially the barrel. Unlike the rest of the gun a barrels accuracy is perishable. Your barrel will be accurate to your definition for only a finite number of rounds so be prepared to swap-out every now and then like tyres on a car. As for a scope, you won't wear it out by looking through it so you may as well 'buy once cry once'.
One last caveat...Scopes can be overpriced compared to others that work perfectly but finding one that works is difficult. We don't have all the truthful information at our fingertips. The criteria that is often missing from all the online reviews and opinions is repeatability. This is something that does not reveal itself until you bolt it on a rifle and shoot it. You can get the clearest, best tracking scope, best reticle, most compact, lightest, etc. but if the reticle erector frame jumps off zero in the recoil it's not worth a cracker. Worse still, you can end up thinking it is something else like ammunition, harmonics, the wind, the shooter and this could go on for months, even years. You might never know it was the scope's repeatability all along. My point is that while I think the barrel is most important the scope choice is more fraught.