Thread: rifle

The choice depends on MANY factors:
What are you primarily targeting? Pigs, deer, elk?
How far away are you planning on taking your longest shot?
Are you sensitive to recoil, or are you willing to handle a little more?
Are you right-handed?
Do you have any experience with rifles?
Do you want a caliber that can keep up as your hunting skills progress?
Does your budget allow you to expand your collection to fill gaps if you stick with hunting?

One of the more important questions already addressed is, what ammo is available? This issue can be overcome if it's legal to have ammo shipped to your house. It's not legal in California, but I still buy online and have it shipped to a local firearms dealer. This saves me a lot of money, and I get the ammo that works with my rifles. Keep that in mind. Not all brands of ammo work well in one rifle, so you'll need to test out a few.

That being said, your choices will probably narrow down to .308 and .270. I have both of them, and prefer the .270, as it's flatter shooting. The cartridge is larger, so it has quite a bit more recoil, but I'm fine with it now. I can pretty much take any animal from small to large, but use a 300 WM for larger animals. It can also reach out and poke a bit farther.

You should research MPBR (maximum point blank range) as this will help you determine the capabilities of your rifle with a given cartridge. In simpler terms, it's the farthest distance you can shoot with a given rifle/cartridge without having to holdover, or adjust your elevation. My .270 has a much larger MPBR than my .308. In a situation where the animal is moving, and you have less time to deal with ranging, it can make all the difference.

Whatever you choose, try to get hands-on help from someone with zeroing, testing ammo, handling, and proper maintenance. It's hard (but possible) to learn all you need from the Internet. Having someone help you out will drastically reduce learning time and frustration. It's also a blast to go out shooting with friends.