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The classic bolt action Purdey, which is stocked tightly and has a cross bolt and mostly came with an ebony tip, will not be made anymore. I expect the page for the classic rifle to disappear when they next update the site.

This rifle is an abomination in my opinion. They embed a chassis into the stock, then mount a body with a "floating barrel" on it. Floating barrel is a cheap way to make a rifle shoot well, and that's why you see it on $300 Walmart rifles. It's true that floating barrels improve accuracy, but this is a classic hunting rifle, not a bench rest competition rifle. A classic rifle stocked without gaps is plenty accurate for the purpose. WR, H&W, Theo Jung, Prechtl, and H&H don't make guns with floating barrels, yet theirs shoot quite well.

I've seen this new Purdey in real life, and the gaps between the barrel and the stock made me cringe. Nothing but pure cheapness, and you'll have to figure out how you'll clean the area beneath the barrel since the gaps will allow dust and solid containments to get inside the stock. The price of this new rifle is nearly half the price of their outgoing classic rifle, machines are highly involved in the making with much less handwork, and the specifications scream of cheapness; standard calibres come without iron sights, with a lesser grade stock, a low-cost satin stock finish, and you'll have to pay an extra 3000 GBP extra to get the proper Purdey stock finish with closed bores. The larger calibres will have iron sights, and the high grade wood and stock finish. They also threaded the muzzle for a silencer, but not sure if that will make it to the larger calibres as well. To top it up these rifles come in an "ABS" case. I can imagine the founders of the company turning in their graves upon hearing that some Purdeys now come in plastic cases just like a Benelli or a basic Beretta.

Purdey has been cheapening the brand for years now, and this new rifle joins the half Italian boxlock Purdey Sporter and an upcoming second boxlock O/U model as nails in the coffin. All the talk about accuracy of this new rifle is nonsensical because no one buys a Purdey for accuracy, and if accuracy is the goal then hundreds of other rifles will do a similar or better job from the basic $250 Savage to the very nice $2500 Steyr Mannlicher Classic or the Sauer 404.

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