Thread: Make me a recommendation

Need to buy a rifle. First one locally. But just before everyone thinks this is an easy question and the usual calibre war, it's slightly complicated by firearms I own abroad that I'm trying to import (probably worthy of another thread, another time, seems the logistics to do this has become all sorts of interesting with Qantas suspending flights, we'll see).

So the rifle I buy needs to not overlap directly with anything I own that might (or might not) be arriving yet still be a bit of an all-rounder that can tide me over until I have the importation question answered one way or another.

Rifles coming over as follows:

1. My custom .404 Jeffery with a Leupold VX3 1.5-5x20. I love this rifle and will probably press it into service where I can get away with something much, much smaller. The .423" 400gr is overkill for all critters here although the low muzzle velocity means meat damage isn't as bad as one would expect. (I've hunted Impala with it several times, just because I could)

2. 7x57 Mauser, got a Swaro Z3 3-9 on it. Probably my most "suitable" rifle for NZ. Although the calibre is slightly odd-ball here, it'll do the same job at short to medium ranges than a 7mm-08 or 308 would. The rifle, although beautiful, is from first part of 20th century so not a long range candidate. Not that the calibre is either. Might become my go-to sub 150m range rifle if it gets here.

3. .30-06 Brno ZKK600. Not much to be said. Has a suppressor fitted, needs a new scope after I fell from a horse with the rifle.

My thinking on the rifle to be bought here:

1. Howa or Remington 700 of some sort in 6.5 Creedmoor. Probably in heavy barrel profile to facilitate me pushing it into dedicated long range service down the track. Not the ideal bush rifle but can work. But what scope to fit on this now and in future? Also, see the Tikkas are all the rage here. Really worth the extra dough?

2. Marlin 336 in .30-30. Pretty serviceable bush rifle perhaps, plugging a gap in the low recoil, short and handy end not covered by my others. Allure is also that I have never owned a lever action before. I've rarely come across one too, lever actions are not really a thing in South Africa for whatever reason. Mount some 2-7x or similar lower end magnification scope on it?

3. Anything else, motivated appropriately.

Other considerations:

Given I've mostly hunted bushveld conditions in South Africa, most of my shooting experience is of the closer range variety. I'll likely stick to a similar sort of shooting range until I'm more proficient in longer range shooting and know the local hunting scene better. Given I'm based in Auckland and the likely hunting options around probably feeds into that but I might be wrong. Also, given wife is looking at a redundancy at work, I probably have limited funds to work with now. A .22LR will be a mandatory addition at some point, priority now is to have something that allows hunting of the fridge-filling variety.

So, please help me decide how I spend money.