What gun should I buy?

[tncattle]

I've never deer hunt in my life, only rabbit growing up. Anyway, I've got quite a few friends that deer hunt and I want to get into it a little bit. I own two guns, (40 cal. handgun and AK -47). I figured the AK wasn't any good for deer and maybe not legal? It's not terribly accurate but if it hits something it will knock it down for sure. I'm leaning toward a 30.06.

Thanks for the advice

 

[R.T.]

30-06 excellent choice. There are several other
good calibers out there like the 270 and 308.
Good luck and have fun.
R.T.

 

[AngusLimoX]

Whats your shooting going to be like, fast and close or longer range more open shooting?
Gonna scope it? Prefered action type? Like to practise a lot?

Folks put way more emphasis on calibre than they should at the expense of fit and their ability to effectively shoot whatever they carry. But I do have a personal minimum of 100 grains and 6mm.

Once you have seen a deer or 2 with a leg blown off, or missed that trophy you worked so hard for you will understand why the AK is not an option at all.

 

[mtncows]

If you are hunting in mountains or timber look at a Marlin 336 in .30/30 with a 4X or 1-5X scope.If hunting more open land look at a rifle in 7mm/08 Rem.The 30/30 is good to 200 yds. the 7mm/08 will reach out to 400. Sight in the 30/30 at 100.Sight in the 7mm/08 at+ 2" at 100 yards- You'll be on at 200, around -8 inches @ 300 and - 24 or 25 at 400. Scope 3-9 or 2-7 .Try Rem 140 grain ammo in 7mm/08 and 170 grain in 30/30. Remington and Savage make good rifles.If you are on a budget,look at the Stevens 200.This is a Savage with out the adjustable trigger.

 

[skyhightree1]

Where I live now we use shotguns and buckshot for deer when I grew up off the Blue Ridge Parkway in Floyd, Va. I used my Savage 110 in .270 it has let the air out of many a deer.

 

[alftn]

Hey TN. it is easier on small men to use a small cal. , short through actions ie. 5 10 men 175 lbs use 243. 0r 270 on deer quite fine.. If you a big old boy who likes the shi--it kicked out of you the, bigger cal. the bigger the kick. on most deer 243 , 270 ,308,3006,7mag and at least 50 other cals. will do the job fine. The frist 5 I named will all do about the same just a matter of recoil.....

 

[3waycross]

I would think in your country with deer that are not huge bodied a .243 or a 7-08 would work great and neither of them kick that much. Unless you really need a lot of knock down power stay away from the 30cal's they all kick including the 308 and 30-30.

I agree that the 7-08 with a 140 gr bullet is great deer medicine as is the .243 with a 95 or 100 gr bullet. Savage DOES have a good selection and they are VERY accurate out of the box.

The one thing I reommend you do NOT do is buy a package outfit. They are sure to have a crappy scope on them. Spend $250 on a good scope and rings. You will never regret it.

Good Shooting

 

[oscar p]

I like the 308. I have a friend that likes the 7-08.There's a nat hairs different by looking at the shells side by side.But go to your sporting goods store,and look at the ammo price.The 7-08 is around $7.00 a box higher, than the 308.

 

[3waycross]

I like the 308. I have a friend that likes the 7-08.There's a nat hairs different by looking at the shells side by side.But go to your sporting goods store,and look at the ammo price.The 7-08 is around $7.00 a box higher, than the 308.

It also kicks about 40% less than the 308, and if I am not mistaken the 140(.434) gr 7mm bullet probably has a higher ballsitic coefficient than the 150(.387), or 165(.410), 30 cal bullet. Which equates to less felt recoil, and good or better down range performance with the same speed.

These BC's are for Nosler partitions. Other bullets will vary but not much.

 

[oscar p]

I can handle the recoil,a little better and my pocket book can. :lol2: Now a days,you better price the ammo before you buy the gun.

 

[dun]

I like the 308. I have a friend that likes the 7-08.There's a nat hairs different by looking at the shells side by side.But go to your sporting goods store,and look at the ammo price.The 7-08 is around $7.00 a box higher, than the 308.

It also kicks about 40% less than the 308, and if I am not mistaken the 140(.434) gr 7mm bullet probably has a higher ballsitic coefficient than the 150(.387), or 165(.410), 30 cal bullet. Which equates to less felt recoil, and good or better down range performance with the same speed.

These BC's are for Nosler partitions. Other bullets will vary but not much.

BC doesn;t do anything for recoil, strictly external ballistics. The only problem with the 243 is that if you have a less then ideal shot presentation the bullet has a hard time driving through to the vitals. A 6mm Rem overcomes some of that by virtue of higher velocity. The 250 savage suffers the same problem vs the 257 roberts and the roberts vs the 25-06. The 260 Rem would be a real good choice (7mm-08/308) necked down the 264/6.5 mm. For weight the 6.5 has better SD then the others, higher SD equates to penetration.

 

[3waycross]

I can handle the recoil,a little better and my pocket book can. :lol2: Now a days,you better price the ammo before you buy the gun.

I thought he said he was looking for a deer rifle not a prarie dog shooter. How many rounds a year are you gonna shoot out of your deer rifle 3 to 5 to check your zero and 1 or 2 to kill the deer. Federal premium ammo for the 7mm-08 is $42 per box, same cartridge for the 308 win is $40.59. That works out to less than $20 per year for ammo. Good quality ammo costs about the same for either round. Surplus or cheap crap for the 308 is for sure cheaper and for sure crap. Federal premium for the .243 with a 85gr Barnes power shock is $33 per box.

Cheapest and most effective thing is to roll your own or find someone who will for you.

 

[3waycross]

It also kicks about 40% less than the 308, and if I am not mistaken the 140(.434) gr 7mm bullet probably has a higher ballsitic coefficient than the 150(.387), or 165(.410), 30 cal bullet. Which equates to less felt recoil, and good or better down range performance with the same speed.

These BC's are for Nosler partitions. Other bullets will vary but not much.[/quote]
BC doesn;t do anything for recoil, strictly external ballistics. The only problem with the 243 is that if you have a less then ideal shot presentation the bullet has a hard time driving through to the vitals. A 6mm Rem overcomes some of that by virtue of higher velocity. The 250 savage suffers the same problem vs the 257 roberts and the roberts vs the 25-06. The 260 Rem would be a real good choice (7mm-08/308) necked down the 264/6.5 mm. For weight the 6.5 has better SD then the others, higher SD equates to penetration.[/quote]

I know BC has nothing to do with felt recoil but bullet weight sure as heck does. That was my point, Sorry I did not make it clearer. External ballistics is another story. I will take the 140gr 7mm bullet traveling at 3000fps any day over the 165gr 30 cal bullet traveling same speed. Not a huge amount of in downrange performance but the trade off in recoil is definately worth it to me. The older i get the less I like it(recoil) Virtually all my friends who are big game guides tell horror stories about clients who show up with cannons and are scared to death of them or flinch so bad they may as well be throwing rocks.

On deer size game there is nothing wrong with a 6mm but you get into Elk and thats another story. Personally my favorite deer nd Antelope rifle is a 6mm Imp with 85 to 95 gr bullets, lots of speed and plenty of retained energy out to 400yds.

 

[Northern Rancher]

It's not what you shoot it's how you shoot it-we kill moose with a 6mm up here-they are pretty faint hearted compared to a big whitetail buck. I'd stay with the traditional calibres .243,.270. .308 and 30.06. You can buy reasonably priced ammo at any gas station or feed store in hunting country-some of the exotivc new and improved can be hard to find. I get a kick out of the Marlin .308 express mimicing '308 perfiormance in a lever gun-hell why not just buy a BLR in .308 lol. My twelve year old girl can shoot a 50 cal muzzie with 150 grains of 777 she's 5'4 and 100 pounds so I'm sure any man can handle up to a 30.06 with no trouble.

 

[Dave]

Recoil on any of those rifles isn't enough to worry about. A 150 grain bullet out of a 308 or 30-06 will sure kill a deer just as dead as a 165. And the felt recoil wont be hardly any different than a 7mm/08 with 140 grain bullets.
Along the lines that Northern Rancher was saying, my 23 year old daughter who is 5'3" and weighs 110 shots a 30-06 with 180 grain bullets handloaded up to do 2,750 fps. And man should be able to shoot factory load 150's.

 

[jbar]

If your only goning to buy one rifle for all your hunting buy a bolt action 30-06 i perfer an older model 700 remington or ruger 77 mark II but nothin wrong with the savage. 30-06 shell can be bought almost any where and in a verity of bullet weights. If i could only have one rifle it would be a 30-06 .

 

[Oldtimer]

It's not what you shoot it's how you shoot it-we kill moose with a 6mm up here-they are pretty faint hearted compared to a big whitetail buck. I'd stay with the traditional calibres .243,.270. .308 and 30.06. You can buy reasonably priced ammo at any gas station or feed store in hunting country-some of the exotivc new and improved can be hard to find. I get a kick out of the Marlin .308 express mimicing '308 perfiormance in a lever gun-be nice why not just buy a BLR in .308 lol. My twelve year old girl can shoot a 50 cal muzzie with 150 grains of 777 she's 5'4 and 100 pounds so I'm sure any man can handle up to a 30.06 with no trouble.

I agree- if there ever was a real all around round made- its the .308...Good bullet weight choices- find ammo anywhere- will take down any deer you want and definitely reach out and touch a coyote, prairie dog, or gopher....I've seen a lot of elk taken with them too....Light recoil....Nice thing about them is there is still cheap ammo to be found to shoot paper or varmint/rodent hunt with...

Fear the man that only owns/uses one gun.....
the oldtimers theory

I have a Browning BLR in 308- that is very sweet shooting...Only problem is my son "adopted" it several years ago because of that reason- and I fell back on my old standby 250 Savage- that does all I want to do- but has the drawback of harder to find and pricier ammo.....But it still shoots exactly where I sighted it in at 40 years ago- so I don't need to do much paper work with it- just take a gopher or jackrabbit ever so often to make sure its still on...

 

[Mare]

no advice tncattle, just be careful and good luck!

 

[dun]

I fell back on my old standby 250 Savage-

Mine is in a Winchester M70 Carbine, still looking for a Savage 99. Not one of the new "sexy" hyper mags but it does what it needs with no fuss.