I'm new to this forum so please excuse any rookie mistakes I make. I'm not a very experienced hunter and am looking to buy my first personal hunting rifle. I would also like to be able to put a reasonable amount of rounds through the rifle in a day at the range without it costing me a fortune. I know I need to keep improving and don't consider myself by any means an excellent shot yet. I am a college student and don't need something breaking my budget. I will be hunting mostly in Alabama so deer is the main and about the biggest animal I need to focus on. I have a list of four rifles that aren't too similar to one another. I've been looking at the FN FNAR, the Browning BAR (mainly safari with the BOSS system), the Benelli R1, and the M1A. I have looked at different calibers from .308 to .338 win mag. A bigger bullet is always tempting but the .338 win mag seems pretty expensive to shoot at the range enough to improve as a shooter. I have shouldered them and thought the Benelli was by far the most comfortable off the shelf with the gel pads. I stubbled on the FNAR Match and I was sold up till the point where the next thread I read on it said it was discontinued. Shame.
Anyways I know it's not narrowed down too far but if you can point me to a good caliber that isn't budget breaking or one of these rifles I would greatly appreciate it. My budget is around $1500 for the rifle thanks to some Christmas cash. Hopefully I'll be able to learn a lot from y'all on here. Thanks
Anyways I know it's not narrowed down too far but if you can point me to a good caliber that isn't budget breaking or one of these rifles I would greatly appreciate it. My budget is around $1500 for the rifle thanks to some Christmas cash. Hopefully I'll be able to learn a lot from y'all on here. Thanks