First LR hunting rifle

[Harvey_NW]

Consider mid range Leupold or Vortex for glass to keep price reasonable with good quality performance.

If I were admin, you'd be in time out.

 

[jhoff04]

Sounds like I'm in a similar boat as you and I have spent entirely way too much time going down this rabbit hole the past month (thanks Rokslide). I'm not into the custom builds... just want a nice off the shelf rifle. I currently have a 6.5 CM Browning X-Bolt Speed that I won. I really like that rifle and it shoots well (except the trigger feels cheap). But I won't use a 6.5 CM for elk hunting... enter my 300 WM Tikka T3 Lite. That rifle groups very well, but my god, that thing was not fun to shoot until I got a suppressor put on it. However, way too much gun for a whitetail IMO. So I convinced myself that I want one "nicer" rifle platform that's my go to for any big game animal.

Here's where I landed: Seekins PH2 in 7 PRC (if you aren't going to shoot suppressed). It's not super lightweight at 7.2 lbs but seems to be a happy medium and won't have the recoil of a .300 WM. If you are going to put a can on it, buy it and send it in to get a shorter barrel or poney up and buy the Element for another thousand.... it's only money! If my budget was closer to the $1,000 mark I would probably go to the Browning XBolt SPR. I really like the Xbolts but I'm a big believer of you pay for what you get and you will get a better rifle in the Seekins.

Hopefully, this was helpful!