hunting is a primal activity that ties us to the land and our heritage it is immensely rewarding to be able to capture your own food and provide for yourself choosing the best hunting rifle is an important part of the process that relies on your.

Understanding of hunting and your own capabilities a lot of personal taste goes into choosing the perfect hunting rifle your regular shooting environments and local laws will also determine what rifle is best for you advances in machining materials science and.

Engineering have made modern hunting rifles more accurate and less expensive than other times in history and with competition pushing prices ever lower it's a buyer's market in hunting guns there are lots of great hunting rifles that cost less than one thousand dollars all of which are capable of churning out.

Groups under an inch with the right shooter and the right load yet choosing the best hunting rifle for your next hunting expedition can be a daunting task to help you out on your quest we came up with this list of the best hunting rifles on the market we focused on a handful of metrics that.

Matter the most including accuracy ergonomics and durability regardless of how you like to hunt or what you like to hunt for one of these new hunting rifles should inspire you to get out your credit card and get into the woods.

Last year we introduced the long range target in the hawkeye series in three calibers 300 win mag 6.5 prc and 6'5 creedmoor for this year we've got the new lightweight all-weather long-range hunter in 6.5 prc as well as 6.5 creedmoor the 6'5 prc round is hornaday's newest.

Short action magnum round that gives you an additional muzzle velocity as well as downrange energy for long range shots a lot of great features on the hawkeye long range hunter you get a two-tone laminate stock adjustable length of pull and a soft rubber butt pad.

Ruger lc6 trigger with detachable box magazine mauser style action with control route feed as well as a picatinny rail for mounting your optics and a 22 inch cold hammer forged barrel with a 5 8 24 thread and an included muzzle break today i wanted to introduce you to the.

Newest x-bolt the max long range now the max long range has the same great features that you expect from every x-bolt it's got the short 60 degree bolt throw it's got the safety that locks the bolt but with the convenient bolt unlock button you can empty the gun with the while it's unsafe.

It has the the center feed palmer magazine and the feather trigger that's adjustable and comes straight out of the box with a crisp trigger pull the x-bolt has the best production barrels in the industry in in and that's where your accuracy comes from.

And all the barrels are free-floating let's talk about the max and how it's different you can see that this is set up in a long-range configuration with a with a scope with a larger main tube for more adjustments and also on an accessory 20 moa picatinny rail.

We start with the muzzle brake which reduces recoil by about half we also supply a thread protectors if you do not want the muzzle brake muzzle blast while hunting you can replace it with the thread protector it does have an extended bolt handle make a little bit easier operation of the bolt what you're.

Going to notice first about the max long range is the new stock this is a browning stock and it has a lot of great features for long range shooting as you can see it's sitting here on the bipod it has a swivel stud for the bipod and an additional swivel stud for a sling.

Attachment for those that have bipods that attach via picatinny rail we'll have an accessory rail that's specifically made for this stock has the picatinny section also a sling attachment it'll come supplied with screws and it'll be a clean addition to the rifle as it's made.

Specifically for this stock one of the greatest features for long range shooting is the vertical pistol grip and you can see that the the max stock has that the vertical pistol grip has gives you a great feel when you're shooting prone or off the bench and sets your hand up to put your finger.

Nicely on the trigger when you look at the butt stock you can see this is the biggest departure from our traditional stocks we have parallel surfaces here that line up with the bore and that's specifically done so while you're shooting with the help of the muzzle brake that.

Most often you'll be able to spot your own shots traditional stock has a slant that when it's sitting in the bags and under recoil as it moves backward it tips the gun up and you can no longer see your target through the scope so with these parallel surfaces.

The help of the muzzle brake you'll often be able to spot your own shots you can see it has an adjustable comb it's got a wheel here that you can tighten and loosen and move the comb up and down you have about an inch of vertical movement and on the back side there's marks so once you find your ideal location.

To get that perfect eye alignment with the scope if you have to move the stock to like for cleaning or whatever you can get it back to that exact perfect position we also made the back of the stock where the top and the bottom are parallel so that when you if you use the supplied.

Spacers it comes with a quarter inch and two thirds of an inch you'll have a nice clean look to it if you do need to shorten the stock because this is parallel gunsmith can shorten this and reuse the recoil pad you won't have the additional expense of grinding a new recoil pad for the gun hey deer.

Hunters or pronghorn hunters or outcutters or any other kind if you love bold action rifles and who doesn't because they're so accurate probably want to take a look at this new winchester xpr now it's been around for a few years but what it is is a lower priced winchester bolt action.

It has a three lug system full body bolts and it is surprisingly accurate i've been hunting with these now for probably four years when the first prototape came out i hunted elk with it and i was really impressed with that rifle would do last year i got one in a 6.5 creedmoor.

Which is what i've got here and wow it's a mild shooting cartridge and this rifle is extremely accurate i was getting well under minute of angle groups that means three shots under an inch at 100 yards now they're making it in this beautiful walnut the ones that i've been shooting.

Are your classic plastic stock or nylon stock type guns and that's why they're so popular is because they're impervious to weather and they're relatively inexpensive but even with this beautiful walnut with some figure and grain in it this rifle is only listed for about 600.

That's a manufacturer's suggested price so you'll probably pick it up on sale for less than that that's a heck of a price for a rifle that will shoot under a minute of angle i mean i just don't see anything to complain about with these new rifles now they do have plastic magazines but.

You know what i found out about these things they actually work better than the old metal ones i just never have a jam or feed problem with these magazines and you can pull them out of your gun in so many states now you have to keep your magazines out of your rifles.

When you're traveling it makes it really simple but you keep them in your pocket and quickly load up once you get out of the truck i just can't find anything to complain about except for i don't have a walnut one that looks this good yet let's see how well it shoots.

 you might not have noticed that but i shot a little pebble out there about that big at 100 yards guaranteed oh another one actually they're little orange clay targets oh bingo that is really sweet if you're looking for an inexpensive.

Rifle that performs like an expensive one and looks good doing it winchester xpr this is the t3x light stainless it's a great hunting rifle whether you're an experienced hunter or somebody coming into you know hunting for the first time it's a very versatile.

Durable rifle that's got something for everybody i know personally i love this rifle like you said it's extremely versatile it you know no matter the terrain no matter the weather rain or shine you know it's ready to go out it's ready to hunt but isn't this particular model is.

Offered in both right or left-handed isn't it you can get either right i'd say right you know because it is our best-selling model we have it available right hand left-hand uh 13 different calibers a couple of different barrel lengths and some of the.

Calibers to really you know no matter what you're pursuing you're going to find one of these rifles that's going to be you know just right and where's this rifle made out so this rifle is made in rihimaki at our factory which is about an hour north of helsinki in finland you know by a workforce finland is is.

A very uh prevalent hunting country sure so you know everybody at the factory hunts so their experiences have gone into the design of this rifle and so it's a you know really is built by hunter's 400's and that's what i love about tika i mean all of us as hunters sports men and.

Women who get out there and love to hunt and love to love shooting sports i mean when you can take people who are out there after years of experience out there you know trying to figure out how to design a firearm that would they would be comfortable with that's why you're seeing.

Such a top-notch firearm because of just like you said it's hunters designing these for hunters we obviously have those core ingredients that make every teaker a fantastic so things like that cold hammer forged barrel with the hand cut target crown you know it's accurate it's a sub moa.

Gun out of the box but it also has that durability that you get with cold hammer forging that you can't get with other barrel manufacturing techniques and that's coupled to that very smooth action that allows you to get multiple shots off very quickly and you've got that great trigger that.

We both appreciate when you look at some of the features and some of the features under the skin that you might not find out about when you first look done things like steel recoil lug so it's a well bedded gun and even in those magnum calibers you know that recoil lug is really gonna keep the rifle.

Accurate for for many many years even if you're you know even if you're a hand loader we've got things like the interchangeable grip so you can change the pistol grip you can change the four end of the gun to to really customize it for how you're going to be using it that particular day.

And then one subject i love talking about it's the foam-filled stock because we've all been out hunting and we've all banged our rifles oh yeah something whether you're in the deer stand on the rocks out west sneaking through the timber and it always seems like at the moment you're about to squeeze off somehow you made a.

Noise yeah and it's always that moment yeah when nothing else is making it all it sounds like somebody just rang about so really glad to say you know this rifle you won't have that effect it'll be just a dolphin and i know for me the overall reliability of this rifle it's.

Been my go-to the last couple years we've had some incredible hunts with it i love burning powder from the tikka t3x light stainless and i can't wait to bring to the woods this fall i'm looking forward to it  you