I have the original 17 Remington in a rebarreled Sako. Most accurate gun I have ever shot. I swear by Nikon optics. I would look at Savage rifles, they are usually incredibly accurate, and cheaper than alot of others. On a side note I also have a 223 and shot it religiously until I got the 17, shoots alot flatter, and the Sako with the Douglas barrel is just flat scarry accurate! Oh, the 17 Remington is bassically a 223 necked down to 17 cal.

 

Do you reload?

 

Fireball????, my dad had one years ago, is it a rifle or "pistol" style setup.....

 

I've always thought the .243 Win would be a near-perfect varmint rig, especially if you hand load. Bullets as light as 55grs can be pushed to .220 Swift velocities for laser-flat trajectories and most are stunningly accurate. A bonus is the same rig can be loaded with premium 105 grainers with enough sting to anchor antelope or deer.

 

If you are looking for a varmint gun with no deer in mind (not saying it can't be done) but I would go with the .223, very versatile round, cheap and accurate to longer distances than the .17's or .204's.

The .243 is a well established round but due to its low barrel life, 1500rds +-, I wouldn't necessarily recommend if you plan to shoot a lot.

The .223 will give you long barrel life, bullets available from 35-90grn, low recoil, low cost of hand-loading and good accuracy, even out to longer distances. I shoot my Savage model 12BVSS in .223 out to 800m and it does well. If I read the wind correctly, I can shoot .66MOA at 600m. I will be doing testing with the newer 90grn Berger VLD's out to 1000m when I get the next chance.

As for scopes, if you want something high end, you WILL pay for it. You can't go wrong with a Leupold, Nightforce, Zeiss, March, US optics, Schmidt & Bender etc...But for a decent price you can get many tried and true scopes for a much lower price, Bushnell Elite's, Falcon Menace, Nikon(can't say for sure, never tried one but have heard good things) plus some hit and miss Tasco's etc... As long as the scope tracks well, you can see through it and the reticle isn't too big are really the main things.

As for brands of rifles everything seems to be getting more mainstream, there doesn't seem to be any brand now that really stands out to all the others. In reality, you can't go wrong with a Remington, Savage, Tikka, Sako, Winchester....It depends on more what you like and if you have any plans to do any "upgrades" to it later.

If I lived in the states however, I would not hesitate to get a nice AR for a varmint gun. In Canada we cannot hunt with restricted weapons (pistols, AR's etc..), we can only take them to certain licensed ranges blah blah... Anyway, If I had the choice, Heavy barreled AR in .223 would be my choice.

 

Henry makes a really nice .17 in a lever action and a bolt action. and I really like by buddies Savage bolt action .22-250 we were hunting groundhogs on his farm with that thing and we were using ballistics gel bullets it was really accurate and had a ton of power.

 

i will agree with big diesel and saying that to be most accurate you should be hand loading fire formed brass,although it really doesn't matter an if you go with an auto rifle.on you scope choice i have found that for me i like a fixed powered scope for the simplicity of it, it's hard to find a 18'' tall critter at 50yd. when your scope is cranked to 18X and by the time you get the scope cranked down it's already to late,that's been my experience..when i varmint hunt i have two savage 110 law enforcement editions set up for it one shoots 110 grain and the other is set up with 168 grain..both with Leupold 10X scopes. i find that 10x is a good medium for near and far..my 168 gun still has 800 ft lb. of energy at 1000 yards witch is still plenty to roll a yote.

 

nah i dont reload... wish i did though... i do have a .308 savage with a 2X- 10X variable scope for deer hunting... but i was thinkin that it would be to big a gun for varmits... would be nothin left? plus ammo aint to cheap for it and it kicks a little... not a lot but enough to get ya flinchin after 30 rounds... i just found out i need a new turbo for my truck 2day as its only puttin out about 50% of wut it should so im gonna get a scope for my dads .221 an have at it with that for now... should i get a bi-pod for it? and i was thinkin a 2 by 10 or 2-8ish scope.. nothin fancy but somethin that works...

 

i would get a bi pod. i got one thats easy to switch from fifle to rifle. buy the hight that is good for sitting position. prone is easy to be steady as it is. i do wish i had a bipod tall enough for standing though. although learning to shoot good standing is good. had to shoot my antelope at 250yards yesterday standing with about a 40mph cross wind. dang grass is to tall this year ha ha.

 

The 204 ruger in AR15 would be a goody. The 204 comes in at 4,225fps in 32gr version, it is built off the 222 remington magnum. Its the only commercially available round that tops 4,000fps as of now that never was considered a "wildcat" round. Anything in the 22 caliber is gonna be good. The 204 is just super fast, flat, and uses less power so its not a hot load and has an extremely long barrel life.

If you want an AR15 and dont feel like building one, DPMS makes alot of different models for a fair price. They are great rifles!


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