r/canadaguns • u/General_bacon21 • May 31 '26

Buy recommendations Hunting bolt gun recommendations

Hi everyone, I am looking into getting a 308 bolt action rifle for hunting and some range. I want it to be 20 inches or less and I have narrowed it down to these few:

CVA Cascade SB (Threaded barrel, good price but sort of hard to find)

Tikka T3X Lite Compact (Non threaded barrel, probably the most expensive of all, hard to find and the really expensive mags are a con)

Ruger American Ranch Gen2 (Nice looking rifle, I do have some doubts about a 16 inch barrel and I have heard there might be some issues with the feeding sometimes)

Bergara B14 Ridge SP (Also hard to find and the one I know the least about)

I would like yalls opinion on all of these rifles and if you own them what you guys think of them. Note that I think for this one I would like to buy this gun used and I don't think I would be hunting past 250 meters.

Thank you

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u/Upstairs-Zebra8115 May 31 '26

For what its worth, don't rule out a Steven's 334 in 308. It is an incredibly accurate rifle. Just change out the trigger to a Jard trigger and you're good to go. Great gun.

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u/HappyCan7250 Jun 04 '26

I'll second this as well. The 334 is amazingly accurate for its price. 

By the way, you can actually turn that crappy factory trigger into a very nice one. They are adjustable, but you have to remove the epoxy. There is guided on how to do it. If you adjust it too low the safety will stop working, which is why they decided to start epoxying them.

I also opened mine up and swapped a spring, and it breaks around 1.5lb now, is drop safe, and safety works still.

That thing is genuinely one of my most accurate rifles despite costing half as much as some. I ended up selling my 2 other 308s because I just love the 334 an have been blown away by its value. It's priced the same as an Axis, but is so much nicer than an Axis. I don't know why they even bother making the Axis when the 334 exists. (Savage is the parent company of Stevens if you didn't know, the 334 is sometimes sold as a Savage 334)

I even dropped mine about 5ft down onto some rocks, landed directly on the muzzle crown, then bounced and landed right on the scope. Still shoots perfectly, didn't even lose zero, despite dinging up the muzzle a bit.