The Browning X-Bolt Hunter is a walnut-stocked bolt-action .30-06 Springfield built for deer and elk hunting. Browning no longer makes it, so it is a used buy. The action is bedded at the front and the rear and the barrel free-floats above the walnut, so the wood can swell and shrink with the weather without pressing on the barrel.

It arrives with no sights, so an optic and rings come before the first range trip. Scope bases are Browning's X-Lock pattern, which puts four screws into each base and rules out the Remington 700 rails that fit most of the market. The rotary magazine holds four rounds and drops flush with the bottom of the stock. The Feather Trigger uses three levers and adjusts, and the muzzle has no thread, so a brake or a suppressor means having the barrel cut and crowned.

If you're cross-shopping, the Browning X-Bolt 2 Hunter is this rifle a generation on and has an MSRP of $1,249.99. It weighs 7.00 lbs, 0.12 lbs more, and its DLX trigger comes set at 3.5 lbs. The Winchester Model 70 Featherweight has an MSRP of $1,369.99 at the same weight, holds five rounds instead of four and feeds them off a claw extractor. All three measure 42.75 inches overall, so the choice comes down to the trigger, the magazine and what the used Browning saves.