I'll cast another vote for shopping pre-owned instead of settling for second-rate with a new "budget bolt action," and yet another for adopting a willingness to use a range of usable cartidges that cover the rifle's intended usage, rather than fixating on a favorite.
Last November, I paid $400.00 out the door for a brand spankin' new c. Late 1948 Remington M-721 bolt action in .270 that I bought at a big gun show. The rifle appears to have not been fired since proof testing. It had the factory rust preservative in the bore and on the metal surfaces. I would have rather had a .30-'06 but I went with the intent of buying a rifle that would handle everything from the occasional coyote shoot through elk hunting, and I think the .270 can deliver the goods across that range of use.
Functionally, I don't doubt that a new "budget bolt action" would do the job as well. But it wouldn't give me the same secondary ownership benefits like satisfaction in use, pride of ownership, and likely wouldn't offer the same return on investment if I do get bored with it and decide to move on.
My rifle spent the last 64 years in the box it shipped in. Yet the action is snot-slick. The fit and finish are clearly superior to anything you'll see in a new "budget bolt action." It has a purposeful, but elegant look about it. Functionally, it has a real sporting taper 24" barrel with open sights fitted to it. The walnut stock is uncheckered, but that makes keeping it looking good fairly easy. Without checkering to deal with, steaming out any dents and dings with a wet towel and a hot iron is easy, as is lightly sanding any light scratches. It feeds smoothly from the blind magazine and if I decide I can't live with a blind magazine, a "700 ADL to BDL Kit" will solve that issue, as the parts all work with a 721. The trigger is crisp and 700 like, as it should be since its the original 700 trigger. And it shoots with the same precision that people expect when they buy a 700. I actually like this better than a 700 because it doesn't have the flattened, checkered bolt knob of the 700 but has a big, smooth, round, Springfield-like knob instead.
I think this rifle is much nicer looking than any new "budget bolt action" on the market. It has old-school cool but modern precision. And being in to old stuff, I appreciate that I am the only kid on the block or the firing line who has one, that you can't just stoll in to Dicks or Academy and walk out with one, and you don't always get the chance to own a brand new 64 year old ANYTHING, much less something that you can shoot and hunt with.
I run in to good deal on pre-owned rifles frequently. So I know those deals are out there. The same Internet that you use to post here lets everyone capitalize on them. I still find them at shows, too.
Several years ago, I bought an as new Savage Model 10 Sierra off a pawnbroker dealer at a local gun show for an out the door price of $200.00. This is a nice, more upscale model with a Kevlar stock rather than a Tupperware one, and if it had been in a more elk compatible caliber than .243, I might not have flipped it as I originally intended to do, because until I got my 721 mentioned above, it was the most accurate bolt action centerfire sporter I've owned. But I did flip it for $400.00 to another buyer who, like me, knew what it was and knew that it wasn't the same rifle as the Walmart Model 10 "package gun." That gun, like my 721, was far nicer in terms of quality than the current crop of new "budget bolt actions" are and it cost me a fraction of what they do.
So the deals are out there, but you have to arm yourself with two things that most who go for the new "budget bolt guns" don't arm themselves with: knowledge and patience.
When I bought my 721, there were some other rifles at that show that were in the running -a rebarreled Ruger M-77 MKII, a Savage M-110 with a checkered walnut stock, a nice sporterized Springfield, and a few others that I don't remember off hand. All presented as new, but the 721 essentially was new in the box and being essentially a 700, if it didn't deliver the accuracy I hoped for for some reason, a little minor tweaking would likely be all that would be required to get it to do so. Oh, and Robert Ruark, who suggest that we "Use Enough Gun" thought a 721 was enough gun for his plains game rifle on his African safaris, so if it was good enough for Bwana Bob, I figured it was good enough for me.
I don't see a Stevens 200 as having that kind of mojo, gravitas, panache, or desireability over the long haul. But there are plenty of other cool old guns on the used market, besides Remington M-721's, that do. And I can think of many that I'd rather have than anything new, without straining too hard.
JP
