Woods gun.

[30mag]

What would you recommend for something that would be easy to carry in the woods, in a medium caliber (.30-30, 7.62x39), and quick handling?
Excluding a .30-30 lever action or an AK variant or an AR.

 

[MachIVshooter]

in a medium caliber (.30-30, 7.62x39), and quick handling?
Excluding a .30-30 lever action or an AK variant or an AR.

So you want the cartridge that these rifles were designed around and the handling characteristics of these rifles, but you don't want these rifles?

That pretty well leaves you with guns like the Ruger Mini-30 and a handful of older pump actions.

Something like the Remington model 14 in .30 Rem. might fit the bill. But they haven't been made in over 70 years, so you'd have to cruise the used shelves. I have one in .32 rem, nice gun.

 

[257x50]

Remington 799

 

[Barker45]

CZ 527 carbine in 7.62x39!!!! Super accurate, light, handy, beautiful, and cheap to feed!!!

 

[AStone]

Excluding a .30-30 lever action ...

And your objection to that is ____________.

Just to be clear what the parameters are here.

 

[jmorris]

in a medium caliber (.30-30, 7.62x39), and quick handling?
Excluding a .30-30 lever action

If you want a .30-30 but not a lever action a lot of your choices will be single shot.

 

[Carter]

mini-30 would be the best bet for 7.62x39

other than that I don't know what you could use. An XCR would be a really good option, but that sounds a little bit out of the discription of what you want.

 

[dakotasin]

marlin 336 in 35 rem...
ruger frontier in whatever...
remington m7 in whatever...
remington r-25...

 

[chains1240]

I will second the Marlin 336 in 35 remington

 

[R.W.Dale]

you want light check this out! i have one in 357 and it's quickly becoming one of my all time favorites

http://www.uberti.com/firearms/1871_rolling_block_hunter_carbine.php

yes you read right a 4.5lb 30-30........the 45/70 might be a bit much

 

[AStone]

^ That is a beautiful rifle.

 

[Abel]

CZ 527 carbine in 7.62x39

Exactly. Get the CZ, you won't be sorry. That would be my choice if there were no Marlin 336's left in the world.

 

[KodiakBeer]

Your requirements are kind of vague, but if a bolt rifle fits the bill, there are any number of short action carbines available in .223, .762x39, etc. Remington Model 7 is the one that comes to mind first. The Ruger Hawkeye compact (16" barrel) is another, Winchester, CZ...

I question your choice of calibers. You can get better results, longer shots and a larger variety of cartridge styles from the same package in .308, .243, 7mm08, etc.

 

[AStone]

I question your choice of calibers. You can get better results, longer shots
and a larger variety of cartridge styles from the same package in .308, .243, 7mm08, etc.

I don't disagree, but he (?) did call this a "woods gun", not a woodland gun.

Woodlands are open, like Ponderosa woodlands or pinyon juniper.
"Woods" usually means closed in, heavily forested. Long shots are not common there.

His location is specified as where west meets south Texas. It matters if he's in open woodlands or the thickets of southeastern Texas.

The OP should specify what ranges he's interested in. If he wants to take long shots on edges, that should be made clear.

 

[Abel]

The OP was clear I thought.

 

[sarduy]

mini-30....?

 

[Carter]

mini-30....?

ruger mini-14 but chambered in 7.62x39

bad little rifle.

 

[Greg Koziol]

I would say any gun with a barrel of 22" or shorter handles good.

What do you plan on using it for?

For self defense/anti personnel and deer/black bear hunting I would go with the following,

Ak-47 in 7.62 x 39... you can put a forward mounted red dot or ghost rings on it for faster target acquisition

M4 in .223 or 6.8mm with 16" barrel and red dot on it as well

Marlin 336 in 30-30

For big game hunting (black bear or larger) and dangerous game or self defense while in dangerous game country:

Marlin 1895 guide gun in .45-70 with a box of buffalo bore 430 grainers and/or garrett 540 grainers

M4 with .308 upper reciever or .50 beowulf upper reciever... both rounds are not as powerful as .45-70 BUt they offer semi-automatic capability which can be a plus

Pump shotgun with 18-20" barrel, smooth or rifled barrel. Rifled barrel if for defense against big game... use 3" 1oz through 1 3/8oz sabots ... brenneke makes some good ones called BLACK MAGIC . Or if you plan on using it for home defense I would use a smooth barrel and have an extended magazine tube and put some 000,00 or no 4 buck shot

 

[Greg Koziol]

Sorry didn't read your post about needing it to be medium caliber

you can get an Armalite AR-15 with a .308 upper reciever at various barrel lengths from 16"-24" .. this is something I might be getting down the road. it costs $1500, and i'd recommend getting one of those recoil pistons that you can put into the stock.

Armalite .308 ar-15 style... they called it the "ar-10" which is in 7.62 x 51 NATO or .308
they sell a bunch, if this link doesn't work just go to armalite.com and click on Ar-10

http://www.armalite.com/Categories.aspx?Category=f4bd4a13-55d1-41aa-aea0-49488ec48776

You can also get an FN FAL .. which is in .308, this gun was tested during numerous wars I think it was used heavily during the gulf war and some other middle eastern wars so its definately tough

here's one in 16" but you can get longer barrels up to 24" if you think your gonna do longer range sniping
http://www.impactguns.com/store/DSA-SA58C16-1.html

 

[KodiakBeer]

Nematocyst: I don't disagree, but he (?) did call this a "woods gun", not a woodland gun.

The cartridges I mentioned will outperform those named by the OP at woods ranges also. I'm thinking in terms of versatility - maybe he'll want to hunt elsewhere some time and he'll be better equipped.
Of course, you can buy .763x39 plinking and practice ammo for dirt cheap, and that may be what he has in mind. I couldn't argue with that reasoning. There's .762x39 hunting ammo that will perform just fine on deer sized game, and cheap ammo available for general fun and practice.

 

[Abel]

The cartridges I mentioned will outperform those named by the OP at woods ranges

Who cares if they outperform? A sledge hammer outperforms a framing hammer if you happen to be crushing walnuts.

 

[ThomasT]

The OP clearly stated that he didn't want an AR or an AK or a 30-30 lever action. I wondered how many post would be made before those three were recommended. Now I know. Post #18 and #19.

 

[jeepguy]

+1 ruger mini 30 or m1a if you want a 7.62/308.

 

[broken]

i think the ultimate little brush woods"auto would be the little ruger .44 magnum that looks like a .22 ruger,cant remember the name"deerfield or something,i know its a little heavier then 7.62x36 or 30/30 but not by much.

 

[XxWINxX94]

if you like the 7.62x39 and are looking for somthing other than an AK, you might like an SKS. Whether it be russian, chinese, etc. A speciman in working order can usually be had for under $500.

As far as 30-30 goes... Thats really a lever-gun caliber, I haven't seen anything else in that besides levers. I own 2 Winchester model 94's, and I must say the carbine is one of the easiest handling rifles I own, but other than that, not sure what else in 30-30 is out there other than the levers.