I've had good Savages for years, but the ones I had costs about
what a Remington 700 did..I now have a L/H Rem SPS w/26in. hvy.
varmit wgt bbl and it shot about 1in groups w/handloads, but I
did'nt care for the SPS stock so I changed it w/a Sendero I had
in LH 22-250 and put it in a thumbhole I'd built..and they interchange now..I think the SPS w/$465 from Bandera Gun Club thru Jerry's Catalog when I purchased it..and the trigger is great..I set it at 2lbs crisp..If you are around SA or Bandera
have JM look up the price to order it for you..he gets Savages
Howas,ect also..Don Dial, Pipe Creek, Tx.

All interesting comments, what does the 11 yo boy think about the subject. Is he the one who decided on the 308? Ever shot a 308? Does he want a bolt action? How far away is his target? Does he need a scope? Hard to imagine needing a 308 with a 4X12 scope when he may be hunting in the E. Tx. pinewoods.

All thanks for the input, love to talk guns. After much thought he decided to go with the Howa ranchland because of it's short barrel and feel, including very nice hogue stock. I think all the guns mentioned above are great and could not have gone wrong with any of them.

Blackcoal..... Good question. He has shot the 7-08, 243 and 308 and all at normal loads kick little hard even the 243. For hunting they are ok but for practice little hard. We loaded the 308 down a fair amount and used the sierra 125 gr FNHP and have gotten good results and he liked shooting it. Actually we hunt in SC so little different, we do hunt woods and fields so a good scope is needed. I think the adults decided on the bolt action......our normal shoots are 30 to 100 yards where we hunt.