Thread: The secondhand rifle market

Fellas

I haven't been looking at the Buy & Sell section for a good while, took a tour through the first 10 pages this morning and noticed a several comments regarding pricing. Sometimes this can get a bit tetchy, but it seems regular forum members are being reasonable and polite. So this got me wondering. What is the current value of a bog standard used hunting rifle in good serviceable condition? And when should we be concerned about barrel life, and how do we test this?

So, can we test opinion and see what the consensus is, if any? Assume the following variables are the same for the listed common hunting rifles: overall "good" condition, therefore no rust, no pitting, crown is clean, rifling is good, throat is clean, in its factory stock which has only minor marks if any, no aftermarket gunsmithing mods other than threaded muzzle (e.g. drilling & tapping or half-cocks), no bases, no optics, no sling, no suppressor. Just the bare rifle.

The round count is of course open to all sorts of lies and trickery - my view is high round count hunting rifles usually have well developed patina and some accidental wear & tear marks and its usually pretty easy to tell. The ones I'm wary of are the hunting rifles used mostly at a range, burning lots of hot reloads. These days with the popularity of overbore cartridges, barrel life can be a big deal, with some cartridges killing a barrel within 1,000 rounds. So for this exercise, assume a couple of hundred rounds max.

The ones I'm most interested in are the ubiquitous... If you feel like playing the game then maybe just copy and paste the list and throw a number next to the ones you've got a good feel for. A price range is good, or be specific, up to you. Cheers.

Tikka T3 / T3x -
Sako 85 -
Howa 1500 (including mini-action) -
Browning X-Bolt -
Ruger American -
Bergara B14 -