With so many rifles, calibres, and rifle configurations on offer these days, for the novice buying a rifle, the options can be mind-boggling.
Whether you’re buying a custom rifle, factory rifle or simply wanting to get the most from the rifle you already have, the first thing to consider is what you actually want to achieve from the rifle and what you intend to generally use it for. Sometimes here there will be trade-offs. For instance, you may wish to do a lot of long-range shooting as well as deerstalking with the same rifle.
Now, an ideal long-range rifle might have a stock best suited for prone shooting, a light trigger-pull, heavy contour barrel and high mag scope. None of these are necessarily ideal on a stalking rifle so a compromise will need to be found.
Few of us have the luxury of