The Common Ten

The 500 and its budget cousin, the Maverick 88, are what people buy when they want a shotgun and not a conversation about shotguns. Ambidextrous safety on the tang, dual action bars, barrels that swap in under a minute. It is the gun that replaces the gun that broke. It will outlive the truck it rides in.

The US military adopted the 500 as the M500 in 1961 and never quite got around to replacing it. The Canadian farm has done the same thing.

Action

Pump, dual action bars

Gauge

12 ga - 3" chamber

Barrel

18.5" to 28"

Capacity

5 + 1

Weight

3.2 kg

Origin

Eagle Pass, Texas - Maverick Arms

The 336 in .30-30 is the rifle your uncle kept behind the kitchen door in Timmins. Short, fast, iron-sighted, made to hit moose inside fifty yards of alder. The 1895 is the same rifle in calibers that will stop a bear. Ruger's 2021 acquisition, and the subsequent 2024 re-introduction of the 336, returned them to the shelves at twice the price and noticeably better fit.

The side-eject design was Marlin's century-old argument with Winchester: it lets you put a scope directly over the bore. The 2024-production guns come tapped for exactly that.

Action

Lever, side-eject

Caliber

.30-30 Win (336) - .45-70 (1895)

Barrel

20" to 24"

Capacity

6 + 1 tube

Weight

3.3 kg

Origin

Mayodan, NC - Ruger (post-2021)

Browning's X-Bolt is what the Canadian hunter who has already owned two rifles buys next. 60-degree bolt lift, three-lever Feather Trigger, rotary magazine. Built by Miroku in Kochi to a finish and fit the Americans stopped paying for. The Hell's Canyon and Pro variants, in particular, dominate the $1,500-$2,500 shelf at Cabela's.

The rotary polymer magazine drops free like a Sako and refuses to bind in -35. This is a small, specific thing, but in a blind at Last Mountain Lake in January, it is the only thing.

Action

Bolt, three-lug, 60 degree lift

Caliber

.308 Win (most common)

Barrel

22" - free-floated

Trigger

Feather Trigger - 1.4 kg

Weight

2.9 kg

Origin

Miroku, Japan - for Browning

The 457, and its 2019-discontinued predecessor, the 455, is the rifle that the Ruger Precision Rimfire crowd in Canada picked once the novelty of the Ruger wore off. Switch-barrel design, 60-degree throw, a trigger that breaks cleanly at 900 g, out of the box. The MTR and Varmint MTR turn up on every ELR-style rimfire line in the country.

CZ's 11mm dovetail is the one part of the rifle that keeps the tinkerers employed. The club shooters at Mission, B.C. sell second-hand MTRs in three days, online, at MSRP.

Action

Bolt, switch-barrel

Caliber

.22 LR - .17 HMR - .22 WMR

Barrel

16" to 26"

Trigger

Adjustable - 0.9-1.8 kg

Weight

2.4 kg (MTR)

Origin

Uhersky Brod, Czech Rep.

More than 900,000 No. 4 rifles were made at the Long Branch Arsenal in Mississauga between 1941 and 1946. A great many of them stayed. The .303 British cartridge is still loaded by Hornady and Prvi, and a sporterised No. 1 or No. 4 remains an entirely serviceable moose rifle, which is exactly what a great many of them quietly became.

The 10-round detachable box magazine and cock-on-close action let a trained rifleman sustain a mad minute - 30 aimed rounds in 60 seconds. The British Army set the standard at 15. Nobody has broken 40 on record.

Action

Bolt, cock-on-close, rear-locking

Caliber

.303 British (7.7x56R)

Barrel

25.2" (No. 4)

Capacity

10-round detachable box

Weight

4.1 kg

Origin

Long Branch, Ont. - Enfield, UK

The Axis is the modern answer to a question Savage has answered since 1958: how do we build the cheapest bolt-action rifle that actually shoots? AccuTrigger on the Axis II, floating bolt head, button-rifled barrel. It regularly prints sub-MOA with factory ammunition. It costs less than the scope it wears.

The barrel-nut headspacing system Savage introduced on the 110 in the 1950s makes the Axis the single easiest rifle in North America to re-barrel in a basement. A Shilen prefit, a wrench, and a 24-hour weekend.

Action

Bolt, push-feed, floating head

Caliber

.308 Win (most common)

Barrel

22" - button-rifled

Trigger

AccuTrigger - 1.1 kg

Weight

2.8 kg

Origin

Westfield, MA - Savage Arms

The pre-64 Model 70 is a collectors' rifle; the post-2008 FN-built gun is the one that still matters. Controlled-round feed, three-position wing safety, MOA guarantee on the Super Grade. The Featherweight in .270 or .30-06 remains the Canadian mountain-hunting default - the rifle you take into the Rockies for sheep and the rifle your father took for the same thing in 1978.

The controlled-round feed Mauser claw extractor means the rifle will chamber a round from any angle, upside down included. Jim Carmichel once demonstrated this by firing a Model 70 held over his head. Do not do that.

Action

Bolt, CRF, Mauser-style claw

Caliber

.30-06 Springfield (most common)

Barrel

22" to 26"

Trigger

MOA Trigger System - 1.5 kg

Weight

3.3 kg (Featherweight)

Origin

Viana, Portugal - FN Herstal

The T3x is, and this is not a small claim, the rifle most likely to be sitting in a Canadian gun-safe built in the last decade. Sako's engineers designed around cold-weather feeding, a glass-smooth bolt, and a factory accuracy guarantee of sub-MOA with match ammunition. The Lite is the working gun; the CTR is what the Canadian precision scene shoots.

The T3x receiver is the only major production action shaped such that a Sako TRG bottom metal bolts directly on. Every PRS hobbyist in this country has, at some point, considered this.

Action

Bolt, two-lug, 70 degree lift

Caliber

.308 Win - 6.5 Creedmoor

Barrel

20" (CTR) - 22.4" (Lite)

Trigger

Adjustable - 0.9-1.8 kg

Weight

2.9 kg (Lite) - 3.5 kg (CTR)

Origin

Riihimaki, Finland - Sako

Over 11 million 870s have been built since 1950, more than any other shotgun in history. The Canadian share is enormous and largely uncounted. Machined receiver, dual action bars, a trigger group you can service with a nickel. Waterfowl, upland, deer slug, coyote: one gun, four barrels, four decades.

Remington's 2020 bankruptcy and the 2021 RemArms restart introduced a gap year in 870 production; Canadian dealers sold through the pipeline, waited, and priced the re-introduced Fieldmaster below the old Express. Market forces, briefly, reversed.

Action

Pump, dual action bars

Gauge

12 ga - 3" / 3.5" chamber

Barrel

18" to 30" - interchangeable

Capacity

4 + 1 (non-rest. limit)

Weight

3.4 kg

Origin

Ilion, NY - RemArms (post-2021)

Over 8 million 10/22 rifles have been made. More, almost certainly, than any single firearm that has ever existed in Canadian private ownership. Ten-round rotary magazine, blowback action, a receiver so copied it has its own aftermarket industry. It is the rifle Canadian kids learn to shoot with; it is the rifle serious shooters use for dry-fire trainers; it is the rifle that sits in the camp cabin waiting for next August.

The rotary BX-1 magazine, Bill Ruger's 1964 design, is the single most-copied firearm magazine on earth. At least fourteen manufacturers build direct clones. None sit as flush.

Action

Semi-auto, blowback

Caliber

.22 LR

Barrel

18.5" - cold hammer-forged

Magazine

10-round BX-1 rotary

Weight

2.3 kg

Origin

Newport, NH - Sturm, Ruger