Thing about these Tikkas is they are built around a 30-06 length action. Yes they will feed a shorter round, but why? You an buy all sorts of 270 loads from mild to pretty harry, and you can buy Remington's Managed Recoil rounds for when you want to take care of the shoulder, or introduce another family member to the rifle.
Cold barrel shot hunting is a lot different from 3 boxes at the range. But, I do agree taht if there is a bit too much "punch", pull the butt pad and get a limbsaver
This is pretty much the line of though I had. The chances of me shooting 3 boxes at the range through this rifle in any one sitting are pretty slim anyway. That's what the 10/22 is for.
I don't reload (although it's not out of the question down the road). I'm sure I will be prepared with ammo long before any hunts or trips to the range, but it's still nice to know that I can go to any random "Jim Bob's Gas, Hot Dogs, & Ammo" and find ammunition.
The point further up about just going with the .30-06 is pretty compelling. But considering where I will hunt and what I will be shooting at, I don't think the heavier bullet really matters. From what I've read the 270 shoots slightly flatter. I kind of feel like there is no wrong choice here and I might as well flip a coin.
I'm still getting the limbsaver right off the bat. And if recoil is an issue or I find myself developing a flinch, I can always go down to the reduced recoil loads.
I can already tell that this won't be my one and only rifle (although it will probably be my one and only for the next couple of years seeing how I'm not too far out of college and more or less broke). So I'm going to try to stick to the plan of making a great deer rifle for the southeast.
The next thing to figure out is glass. I was kind of thinking about going for something smaller and more lightweight to match the rifle like a 4x fixed or something (or maybe one of the leupold ultralights), but I think I'm just aiming for a great all around deer rifle and the versatility of the variable scopes makes more sense for that.
I'm partial to Nikon because I use their camera equipment. But I'm open to Leupold as well. If I can stretch the budget a little I might for a Zeiss Conquest. I was initially planning on spending around $300, but is the extra hundred or so for the conquest worth it? I've looked through them all at one of the big chains, but they all look great inside so it's kind of hard to tell.
It seems like any of the major brands would suffice, so it will probably just come down to budget and whatever I can get the best deal on.
Thanks for all of the comments. The discussion has been interesting to say the least.
