Your expertise required

as above, spend 200 more on the rifle and you are into the quality rifle range.
howa and weatherby keep coming up cheep on trademe and they are fine rifles that you wont loose money on if you decide to sell later.
centerfires need a lot more up keep if your not allready aware and allways ask about bore condition before buying a rifle second hand

Howa , houge stock, stainless , threaded for a can, gun bag ,scope nicon vari 3 -9, for $ 875 . Pm me if you want one , it's a great deal I believe . Will put scope on trade me brand new in box prob get close to $ 100 at a guess . Cheep rifle at under $800

Gotta say, those Howas are a hell of a package, I have one as one of the company rifles and we haven't had to touch the cheapo looking Nikko scope since we got it. 2 of the guys actually fight over who's got it for the week, this among rem 700s, steyr, A-bolts and the like. Be hard to find a better endorsement, dunno how many rounds and hunters it has had over the 6 or 7 years we have had it, still keeps putting them where you point it.

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Originally Posted by Bryan

I have personally owned one of those Norinco .223 rifles. They are pieces of shite IMHO. You would be better off getting a Howa, Marlin, Zastava, they are well priced brand new and come up second hand on TM all the time.

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I would take the above advice. Its sells for $499 for a reason and they still need to make money on it.

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Originally Posted by Tussock

Munsey, you got a 6.5x55?Those Howas are, I believe, Sako foresters mass produced on a CNC lathe? Pretty certain that's right. The finish is excelent. I had Gordys one and I was surprised how neat it was. Like my Sako 75. Most of the $1000 guns are very accurate, but not always the smoothest things. Foresters still go for big money on TM. I'm putting options together for the father in law. stick one in a boyds. Trigger job and your looking at a pretty faultless rifle for under 1k.

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223. can't wait Till she arrives .

Savagehunter just be aware that any of your options with supersonic loads still make a decent noise despite a supressor - might be worth noting if you're close to houses and the people are sensitive...

Cheers Garett. I'm hearing spend a bit more for the quality and I will certainly put that in the equation but is .223 going to be too much rifle for bunnies as I take the meat from them for the freezer. I don't wanna blow them apart just get some more range for quality head shooting. Might I be better off in a .17hmr????

Howa in 223 :thumbsup:

Accurate, cheap, shoots Hornady 55gr training ammo ($39/50) nice and accurately, a real point and click interface. Pix and story of it in action here.

If you want to head shoot bunnies with an HMR at 200m you will probably also need to spend extra cash on a rangefinder and a decent magnification quality scope too. They shoot flat but not flat enough to guess at ranges over 150m for head shots on something the size of a rabbits head. The drop from 150y to 200y is more than 5 inches when sighted in at 150 and that's yards. You are talking metres so...., .223 it and you will have a tighter kill zone. Basically you are trying to hit something the size of a tennis ball at 200m so seeing it let alone hitting that takes decent gear and a bit of practice with it.
Hornady trainers for economy and performance or if you want a bit more speed/distance and have cash go the Hornady super performance rounds. We chronyed them last weekend and they do what they say. At least 200 fps faster than the trainers.
.223, If you don't head shoot em and get the body by accident then at the least they will be pre-gutted for you anyway.