Best readily attainable rifle with light optics for under $500

Realistically. I would like to know. As stated, light optics and all inclusive. Don't need half mile accuracy or anything. Reliable, reasonable calliber, and durability. Looking at hunting and mild defense. Ammo readily available or cost to buy equipment to make my own ammo. Price to performance ratio very important. I am not interested in bolt action, or lever acion, prefer semi autio. Also not interested in an AR15. TIA

reply to post by elston
Good luck with that one. Other than weapons chambered for the .22 long rifle, there is only one weapon that i can think of for under $500. High point carbines. The model 995-b is chambered for 9mm at around $230, the 4095-b is chambered for the .40 smith and wesson for about $250.


www.hi-pointfirearms.com...

What about the Saiga 308? Used would be fine as well. I suppose if the iron sights are good then optics not necessary. Does used open the mark a little?

reply to post by elston
The only problem with used is you don't know how the weapon has been maintained or treated. It does open your options though. For under $500 you could get a Ruger mini-14 or mini-30.

reply to post by elston


I was just going to suggest used. A well made, well cared for rifle can last good amount of time - just be sure to give it a good check if you buy used. But honestly, considering used would open up more doors in that price range.

you can alwase go with the good old shotgun. There is a wide variety of diferent types of shotgun shells, everywhere from shreders to flame trowing rounds, to the slug (if you need the stoping power) check out a local gunshow they alwase have the best toys. And nothing says get out of my house like chambering a round in a pump action.

SKS

less than 500 for the rifle, a nice folding stock(if you want black rifle looks)

and optic system with mounts.

SKS@ impactguns.com

uber reliable and accesories out the yin-yang.

also can be modified to take detachable AK mags


[edit on 1-3-2009 by hotrodturbo7]

My 11 year old kid recommends the Remington 700

www.remington.com...

He says the army uses it and it is excellent if you want to snipe.

Sorry, but I am munitions illiterate.

[edit on 1-3-2009 by SphinxMontreal]

[edit on 1-3-2009 by SphinxMontreal]

It used to be, that the SKS and AK-47 were sold for pennies on the dollar. The 7.62X39mm bullets were a dime a dozen, and anyone who wanted a cheap, well built, battle-proven rifle could buy and shoot one of these for hardly any money.

But, since the ban on importing these guns into the states, the prices were driven up to incredible ranges.

About 10 years ago, I bought my first SKS for $80.00. About 7 years ago I bought another one for $100.00, both were so new they were still in the packing grease. At the time, you could buy an AK for between $150-$225.00. 500 rounds for $85 bucks. Well folks......Not any more.

Today, you are looking at about $350-$400.00 for a basic SKS. $650.00-$750.00 for a decent AK-47. 500 rounds of crap ammo for $250.00.

BUT STILL! If you are looking for a NICE, rugged, battle proven semi-auto rifle, one of thes two guns are your BEST bet.

If your price range is $500.00, I would watch your local gun shop for a good deal on a used AK, and you'll likely eventually find one for around $500. You could also just spend an extra $150 and buy one straight away.

You can LITERALLY take an AK-47, throw it in a mud puddle as hard as you can, drive over it with a pick-up truck a few times, then pull it out, slam a mag into it, and it will fire pretty much flawlessly. Not too many other guns can do stuff like that.

Hope my post helped you out!

Originally posted by treemanx
It used to be, that the SKS and AK-47 were sold for pennies on the dollar. The 7.62X39mm bullets were a dime a dozen, and anyone who wanted a cheap, well built, battle-proven rifle could buy and shoot one of these for hardly any money.

But, since the ban on importing these guns into the states, the prices were driven up to incredible ranges.

About 10 years ago, I bought my first SKS for $80.00. About 7 years ago I bought another one for $100.00, both were so new they were still in the packing grease. At the time, you could buy an AK for between $150-$225.00. 500 rounds for $85 bucks. Well folks......Not any more.

Today, you are looking at about $350-$400.00 for a basic SKS. $650.00-$750.00 for a decent AK-47. 500 rounds of crap ammo for $250.00.

BUT STILL! If you are looking for a NICE, rugged, battle proven semi-auto rifle, one of thes two guns are your BEST bet.

If your price range is $500.00, I would watch your local gun shop for a good deal on a used AK, and you'll likely eventually find one for around $500. You could also just spend an extra $150 and buy one straight away.

You can LITERALLY take an AK-47, throw it in a mud puddle as hard as you can, drive over it with a pick-up truck a few times, then pull it out, slam a mag into it, and it will fire pretty much flawlessly. Not too many other guns can do stuff like that.

Wanna sell one? JK. I am fine with spending a little more and have realized that the optics will not come with my budget. I am a confident shooter as I have a lot of hunting ecperience as a kid, but have not shot in years. Last rifle I was shooting was a Marlin 30/30. I would be okay with the AK but which one? The Saiga is not a true AK and seems to have accuracy issues. What about the Romanian model?

Hope my post helped you out!

Originally posted by Anuubis
reply to post by elston

 

The only problem with used is you don't know how the weapon has been maintained or treated. It does open your options though. For under $500 you could get a Ruger mini-14 or mini-30.

I was just about to say the mini-14. Contrary to what others on here will have you believe there is a ton of them out there so parts are easily had there is lots of ammo around and best of all it is any thing other then a AR or AK. They are dependable accurate and solid.

Originally posted by treemanx
It used to be, that the SKS and AK-47 were sold for pennies on the dollar. The 7.62X39mm bullets were a dime a dozen, and anyone who wanted a cheap, well built, battle-proven rifle could buy and shoot one of these for hardly any money.

But, since the ban on importing these guns into the states, the prices were driven up to incredible ranges.

About 10 years ago, I bought my first SKS for $80.00. About 7 years ago I bought another one for $100.00, both were so new they were still in the packing grease. At the time, you could buy an AK for between $150-$225.00. 500 rounds for $85 bucks. Well folks......Not any more.

Today, you are looking at about $350-$400.00 for a basic SKS. $650.00-$750.00 for a decent AK-47. 500 rounds of crap ammo for $250.00.

BUT STILL! If you are looking for a NICE, rugged, battle proven semi-auto rifle, one of thes two guns are your BEST bet.

If your price range is $500.00, I would watch your local gun shop for a good deal on a used AK, and you'll likely eventually find one for around $500. You could also just spend an extra $150 and buy one straight away.

You can LITERALLY take an AK-47, throw it in a mud puddle as hard as you can, drive over it with a pick-up truck a few times, then pull it out, slam a mag into it, and it will fire pretty much flawlessly. Not too many other guns can do stuff like that.

Hope my post helped you out!

You are wrong ..... I bought 2 Yugo SKS's at Cabella's about two months ago for $243 a piece...

I think this post was about cheap battle rifles ...... I don't think a min 13 or mini 14 would qualify as they are under 500 bucks ... I would go with a SKS or a AK but if You were willing to spend a little more You could possibly find a FAL for about 600 .

good thread, many of you seem to have a good amount of knowledge,

this is a little lazy of me

but at the moment im in nys, probably will be for a few years, and i want to start getting into guns for target shooting with friends, maybe some small game hunting

but laws out here are really strict

and the sites i find on my own are full of contradictory or out of date information

especially for rochester, all these kids in the city are shooting everything that moves so laws are really a grey matter, it seems no one that you ask know what the truth is on the laws


so basically if anyone has 1st hand knowledge of gun laws in ny, and the procedure to do everything on the up and up about getting a handgun and a rifle, registering them, the info would be appreciated

my friends and i think it would be a great time to find a place in the woods to go out camping and just set up some targets for sniping and stuff like that

but basically we dont know the actual procedure to get the permits and all that goes into owning a gun

nor do we know prices of some of the cheaper yet decent quality guns and ammo

we dont want to get ripped off when buying, but we are young, and everytime we go into a gun shop they look at us like we're going to rob the place or something so the guys arent real helpful in dicks and places like that

on top of that, when i was little, i had a lot of war vets in the family, so when there were riots, they would be the ones out on the porch defending the house so no one would try anything, but now, its me and my 2 elderly parents, we really have no defense

if anything happens now, we're pretty much screwed, so my friends and I are looking for the self defense part of it also

but we dont exactly have the kind of money to stock up and do all that kind of stuff, just want something we can go out and have some fun in the woods with and use as self defense god forbid we ever need to

sorry if this is off topic, but thanks in advance for any info


ps, we know very little of the models or ammo or anything so that also makes it a bit harder to do the research on our own as we basically have no base knowledge of any of that

reply to post by angryamerican
I've been trying to tell people that for a long time. I have a
MINI-14 and i grew up hunting with my dads. I am 38 and have never had a single malfunction of any type.

reply to post by jkm1864
This post is about cheaply priced battle rifles. The mini-14 and mini-30 were designed off of the springfield m-14 in hopes to meet military needs of a small caliber carbine. General Curtis LeMay made a mistake in rushing Eugene Stoners design into service in 1957.

Mini-14s are great rifles, but they have their reliability problems as well. Im sure there are plenty of people that have owned one and never had a problem, but the fact is Ive known them to have some problems.

To the poster above that said he bought a Yugo SKS for $243.00 recently, good for you man! I never said you couldnt find deals. I said the average prices that IVE seen. Ive seen some with all the bells and whistles(Tapco stocks and scope adapted upper-reciever plates) sell for $450-550.00. But thats not to say that you couldnt find a cheap basic Yugo for a little less than I quoted, maybe missing the buttstock cleaning kit, cleaning rod, and bayonet.

elston: you said youd like an AK, but dont know what to buy.....and said the Saiga is not a true AK and seems to have accuracy issues. Well, unfortunately, your trade off for reliabilty in an AK, is accuracy.

The reason the AK can be full of mud and sand, driven over and thrown, and still fire reliably is this: AKs were made with VERY sloppy tolerances in there fit. There is alot of "slop" in the action of an AK, and it was made that way on purpose, to function in spite of debris like dirt or sand in the action. But because of that slop, you suffer in the accuracy department. Thats not to say that the AK cant be accurate, but it will never be as accurate as it's American counterpart, the AR, because of the tolerances in the designs. An AR has VERY tight tolerances in it design, therefore it's usually accurate to 1 MOA or even sub-MOA. You'll never be able to fill the action of an AR with sand and fire it, though, like you could with an AK. Here is a good link for the comarison:

en.wikipedia.org...

(Not recomending you try it, just telling you it can be done.)So its a trade off in that department.

As far as WHAT kind of AK or SKS to buy......I can only HIGHLY recommend ONE......The Russian model. The Russian man Mikhail Kalashnikov designed the AK-47 and the SKS was designed by famous Russian arms designer Samozaryadnyj Karabin Simonova, also Russian. So I would HIGHLY recommend their model. Second best in my book are the Romanian AKs and SKSs, only because I can vouch personally for their craftsmanship and fit and finish.

Any questions????

reply to post by treemanx
Another decent AK are made by DSA, but they are a little spendy compared to foriegn jobs. And absolutely stay away from the Chinese model AK's and SKS's.

Conversely, the comparison between the AK and the SKS is also different. (I realized I didnt make that comarison yet...)

I have found the SKS to be a highly reliable and highly accurate rifle. They just arent as 'popular' as the AKs because of the COOL factor! Although nowadays there are so many aftermarket goodies for them, you can dress them up pretty cool.

Hope these posts helped.

reply to post by treemanx
I'll stick with my MINI-14. If i had to choose between an AK or an SKS it would definately be the SKS. Much more accurate and reliable than the AK.