Loren,
You've given yourself quite a task. $650 for a benchrest rifle (including scope) isn't gonna be easy. However, you can build a gun that's capable of some pretty good scores and still stay within your budget.
A few months ago, I bought a H&R M12 from the CMP. It's a nicely built single shot target rifle with a heavy barrel. Price was $225. Midway had BSA 36X Platinum scopes on sale for $75, so I bought one of them. I spent $6 for scope bases and had a friend drill and tap the receiver for $10. The same friend had a used Hoehn tuner (almost like new) that he sold me for $150. The gods of cheap parts shined down on me, cause my $225 M12 has a BEAUTIFUL barrel, the trigger adjusted down under a pound, and is VERY crisp, The cheap BSA scope is fairly clear and bright, and holds point of aim perfectly. Maybe I just beat the odds by having all this cheap stuff work so good, but this gun really shoots well. My Son has fired a best score of 244 so far, in IR 50/50 competition.
The down side is that the gun will not make the 10.5 pound class as it is now. I'll take care of that this winter with a VERY light stock. The trigger will have work done to it also, to get it down to 3-4 oz..
As it sits now, I have about $475 invested in the gun (including the $6 I spent for scope rings) and have a gun that is fairly compeditive. The trigger mods will be $75 and the stock somewhere in the neighborhood of $250-300. That would put it a little over your limit, but you may not choose to do the stock or trigger work. Or, you could leave the tuner off and still be within you budget.
Point is, for a fairly small investment, this gun shoots really well.
You've given yourself quite a task. $650 for a benchrest rifle (including scope) isn't gonna be easy. However, you can build a gun that's capable of some pretty good scores and still stay within your budget.
A few months ago, I bought a H&R M12 from the CMP. It's a nicely built single shot target rifle with a heavy barrel. Price was $225. Midway had BSA 36X Platinum scopes on sale for $75, so I bought one of them. I spent $6 for scope bases and had a friend drill and tap the receiver for $10. The same friend had a used Hoehn tuner (almost like new) that he sold me for $150. The gods of cheap parts shined down on me, cause my $225 M12 has a BEAUTIFUL barrel, the trigger adjusted down under a pound, and is VERY crisp, The cheap BSA scope is fairly clear and bright, and holds point of aim perfectly. Maybe I just beat the odds by having all this cheap stuff work so good, but this gun really shoots well. My Son has fired a best score of 244 so far, in IR 50/50 competition.
The down side is that the gun will not make the 10.5 pound class as it is now. I'll take care of that this winter with a VERY light stock. The trigger will have work done to it also, to get it down to 3-4 oz..
As it sits now, I have about $475 invested in the gun (including the $6 I spent for scope rings) and have a gun that is fairly compeditive. The trigger mods will be $75 and the stock somewhere in the neighborhood of $250-300. That would put it a little over your limit, but you may not choose to do the stock or trigger work. Or, you could leave the tuner off and still be within you budget.
Point is, for a fairly small investment, this gun shoots really well.
