How much experience does your friend have shooting high powered rifles and big game hunting?
I have Sig Cross on order. Might look at that as an option. Looks good for the intended purpose, on paper.
Unless he is going to be making very long shots on the deer and elk, I second the idea of the .30-06. I've settled on it as a caliber that can do just about anything I need it to do. If he is going to be taking very long shots, looking at .300 Win Mag might make sense. It can be overkill on some deer species though depending on the range. I give the .30-06 a nod above .300 Win Mag based on cost, availability, and versatility. Availability and cost can be very important. I've used .30-06 for whitetails, bears, and boars. If I ever get out for elk in PA, I'll be using it for that as well.
The environment he will be hunting will help determine what rifle he should be looking at. In addition to the potential range of his shots, the distance he will have to cover to get to his stand and how he will get there (on foot, ATV, truck, horse, etc) will help inform the discussion on how much the rifle should weigh.
How he will hunt (spot and stalk, drives, etc) will also influence the weight discussion. I have a lighter rifle with a lower power variable set up if I'm pushing woods for some of the older guys I hunt with.
Finding a good scope also will help and the type of scope will also be based on where and how he'll be hunting.
For me, the main advantage of a .270 WSM/Weatherby or .300 WM on elk, is the ability to better place a bullet out west where distances, especially on elk, can be long. There are times a range finder doesn’t work because of fog or rain, and the magnum is enough flatter it can matter. That is the reason I stopped using .338-06.
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
My opinion is to go with the Bergara.
I have had a Tikka T3 Lite and did not like it at all. Surprising, with me being a Sako fanboy at heart.
As mentioned, the Vanguard is a polished Howa 1500. My daughters game rifle is a Howa 1500 in 6.5 Creed. It shoots good enough, but the fit and finish is nothing close to a Bergara. A friend of mine has a Vanguard Sub-Moa, and it is quite a shooter.
I have a Reminton 700 Mountain LSS in .270 Win. This is the prettiest rifle I own, and shoots quite well. Even so, my two Bergaras outshoot the rest of them handily with minimal effort required for load tuning. The bolt operation is much smoother. The factory stocks and bedding are worth having and the triggers did not need anything right out of the box.
I have paid more in gunsmithing than a Bergara costs trying to get the same performance out of other factory rifles that the Bergara has right out of the box.
If I needed another bolt gun tomorrow, I would buy another Bergara in a heartbeat.
The only glitch I have had so far is that the bolt release on my .22-250 is a little sticky.
Tikka T3 = Glock 19 of hunting rifles, you may not like it but it gets the job done.
I will shut up after this. But I guess I would consider the Remington 700 to be more of the Glock 19. Plain, utilitarian, infinite support in terms of choices of stocks, chassis, barrels, triggers, scope mounts, etc. Tikka might be a little more HKish.
Just my opinion.
Bergara and Nosler both use M700 footprints.
Edit for correction. Nosler uses a few of the same components as M700, but the M48 is a flat bottomed receiver that is stiffer than the M700.
Last edited by cornstalker; 07-16-2020 at 09:40 PM.