Thread: Good first hunting rifle?

What ever your budget is spend 75% of it on the scope and binoculars .
If you want to be a hunter glass is your best friend .


Ken

Buy those Deer locating ones.I've been told there cheep on special at the moment

Sent from my HUAWEI Y210-0100 using Tapatalk 2

Get a 7mm08 & a gsp or vizla.. Because a colli cant indercate deer in new zealand any more and a 308 has shit trajectory so u mite miss

One that goes bang and send a projectile with a mass of more than say 100gr into the lungs, heart or head of the deer you want.

Forget about shooting deer for the first 100-150 rounds, just get use to shooting it at any distance. More time behind the stock the better.

Hay on a serious note mate. Who have you been hunting with and how long for. I find it a bit puzzling that the persons that have taught you to hunt can not recomend or even lend you an old shooter till you sort yourself out ,

Originally Posted by 6MMBR

Hay on a serious note mate. Who have you been hunting with and how long for. I find it a bit puzzling that the persons that have taught you to hunt can not recomend or even lend you an old shooter till you sort yourself out ,

I go out hunting with a friend of mine, only got goats so far. We're both new to all this so we've been working it all out as we go so its been a lot of trial and error, but bloody good fun none the less.

Where are you? Be good if you could con someone on here to help you get started with a suitable rifle; make sure you don't get skinned in the shop. Tikka has their great sub MOA guarantee which is worth only the price of the paper it is printer on as pretty much every new rifle seems capable of the same. I'm a fan of the Savages other than the Axis but there are plenty of other good options out there and only a few duds you should avoid. Better quality second hand is generally better than new but you need to know what to look for as far as excessive wear/abuse/damage goes.

Howa 7-08, 308, 270 with Leupold VX1,2 or 3. Might cost you $1500 or less?

Originally Posted by gadgetman

Where are you? Be good if you could con someone on here to help you get started with a suitable rifle; make sure you don't get skinned in the shop. Tikka has their great sub MOA guarantee which is worth only the price of the paper it is printer on as pretty much every new rifle seems capable of the same. I'm a fan of the Savages other than the Axis but there are plenty of other good options out there and only a few duds you should avoid. Better quality second hand is generally better than new but you need to know what to look for as far as excessive wear/abuse/damage goes.

I'm up in Taranaki at the moment but I'll be down in Christchurch by mid February for Uni this year.

Lotsa old .303s on TradeMe which were a favourite of generations past... or past due

But honestly, like other have said, glass is a really important part of the equation regardless of where/what you're hunting but the choice has to factor in both of those things. Do some poking around on here, ask seasoned hunters to see what they recommend and get out as much as possible with friends to figure out what works well for your chosen game in the area you're most likely to hunt. Once you have an optics setup that you think you'll be pleased with you can reach into the piggy bank and see what's left for the rifle as the biggest factor in a person's ability to connect downrange is often dependant on experience rather than hardware - within reason of course.

I don't have any personal experience with the Savage Axis but I have a few of their other rifles, including the Stevens 200, which was part of their budget line before the Axis came out. The Stevens is my go-to gun for deer and with a bit of extra work it has shot just as well as a factory Tikka. However, the fit/finish of the Stevens has never been as good, the increased price point on Stevens rifles in NZ and potential difficulty of finding aftermarket parts could make all of this a bit of a moot point... Having said that, just try and get your hands on whatever you can and pick the one that suites you best.

I'd start with what you want to do and hence the caliber you want, 308winchester ammo is cheap and plentiful, but you wouldnt use it on a bunny rabbit, well not unless you want to puke with laughter over the red stain left...

If you have some mates with gun's I'd suggest trying theirs out on a range and find one you like. Otherwise see if there is a local Deer Stawkers club and join.

regards

While nice glass is nice and all i think some of these comments are a bit misleading.

For instance around a grand will get a nice glass reliable scope that is ten times better than a 250 dollar one while a 3k or more scope may have better glass its not by much, infact very little.
Diminishing returns in the field of optics and dollars.

I think bill999 was selling a fairly cheap rifle on here in two calibers one a brand new barrel.

Yeah glass makes not a great deal of difference in my opinion once you get to the level of "won't break and pretty clear", UNLESS you're shooting long range and need the features/quality that requires. You'll notice fuck all practical difference between a vx1 and vx3 for "zero it and forget it" type shooting, at least I do.

This would be a good start if you got it close to reserve

TIKKA T3 7MM-08 + LEUPOLD VX-3 2.5-8x36mm | Trade Me

I like some of the recent posts re scopes. Many used 4x32 scopes for years and to be honest will do a decent job...

On this site right now are two equally good buys, one is the above mentioned .308 and the other is a Howa .308 with a Boyd stock.
Cheap as chips...?

The rest is finding the right 'feel' of the kit for you and obviously the 'right' calibre for you.



Dan M