new hunting rifle

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Stauble

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now most of my long guns are mil-surps that i bought because they were cheap, and most had some kind of historical value to them.
but now id like to get a good ole American made rifle to take hunting with me(sks' and mosin nagants are too heavy to walk around with for 3 hours).
i have narrowed the possible calibers of the rifle to three: 30-06, 308, or a
30-30. of the three i dont know wich one to get, or wat make i should get.
i am on a limited budget, and dont want to spend more then 400$, and i hate composite stocks.
i am sorta leanin toward the Marlin 30-30, but can easily be talked out of it if given a good reason
ill be using it for deer/wild boar hunting here in Florida, and deer/possibly moose in Maine.
any suggestions or info would be greatly apreciated
 
30-06 if you are going for moose. Savage, Stevens, Weatherby Vanguard (oops - that's made in Japan), Remington, Winchester can all be had for around $400 or less if you look around.

The problem is...most new rifles do not include iron sights, so you are talking $200+ for a decent scope.

If you are willing to go used, you can probably find an older version of the above with iron sights or with an older Weaver or halfway decent scope.

I have seen some good deals on Remington 7400s, but many folks do not like these since they can become a single shot only if you do not keep the action clean and the rails get worn. Pump-Action Remington 7600 might be worthwhile.

The Marlin 336 fits the bill for everything but moose.
 
Since we are talking about one rifle all three are great and will kill anything in your neck of the woods. I would fashion your choice around the area you will be primarily hunting. If it is pretty thick and close shots within 100yds you will be fine with a 30-30 open sites used for around $200 in the marlin or winny 94.

If longer shots are in order you are going to want one of the others. Remember that optics extra.

Good luck and good hunting.
 
Dude,

I would skip the 30-30...and bounce up to a 45-70. Used...you should be able to find a good Marlin....in your price range.....out to 200 should be no prob wiht open sights...spend some more and get ghost rings...or a Scout set up...Dandy Rig!

Which will do for moose deer and hogs....and whatever else on the continent ...depending on how you load it....

Shane
 
Polishrifleman said:
Since we are talking about one rifle all three are great and will kill anything in your neck of the woods. I would fashion your choice around the area you will be primarily hunting. If it is pretty thick and close shots within 100yds you will be fine with a 30-30 open sites used for around $200 in the marlin or winny 94.

If longer shots are in order you are going to want one of the others. Remember that optics extra.

Good luck and good hunting.
Click to expand...

I agree. And you can improve the irons by installing a receiver mounted aperture such as a Williams Guide, 5D, or Foolproof. You will have to correct the front sight height, but there's a formula which I long since posted at the link below as a "sticky".

http://rifle-company.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=749
 
shane justice said:
Dude,

I would skip the 30-30...and bounce up to a 45-70. Used...you should be able to find a good Marlin....in your price range.....out to 200 should be no prob wiht open sights...spend some more and get ghost rings...or a Scout set up...Dandy Rig!

Which will do for moose deer and hogs....and whatever else on the continent ...depending on how you load it....
Click to expand...

For Florida deer and hogs, a .45-70's gonna be overkill and besides that, you'll have to put it on wheels and touch it off with a lanyard.:uhoh: .30-30'll do the job very well out to 200yds and life's too short to hunt with a rifle that beats you up every time you shoot it.
 
.30-06 in a Bolt gun... savage is a great rifle for the price. Might be overkill with a 150 gr bullet on Florida Whitetail but with a 220 round nose you can bust a moose.

45-70 Is a big slow cartridge that gets the job done with weight rather than velocity, but those big bullets can kick in the 'guide' sized guns.
 
.30-06 in a Bolt gun... savage is a great rifle for the price. Might be overkill with a 150 gr bullet on Florida Whitetail but with a 220 round nose you can bust a moose.
Click to expand...

I agree about the Savage being good. Their hunter series includes the M111 which can be had in .30-06. I have the M11GL which is the (left-handed, comes either way) short action version in .243Winchester and it's a real good shooter for me. I recommend this series of Savage, and they come with the AccuTrigger.

IIRC, Hornady's 5th Edition load manual shows data to load as light as a 110gr SP in the .30-06 and I agree about loading those 220grainers for moose.

45-70 Is a big slow cartridge that gets the job done with weight rather than velocity, but those big bullets can kick in the 'guide' sized guns.
Click to expand...

Not to mention the high trajectory which may be a problem judging distance and holdover in a hurry in a hunting situation.
 
With a .30-06, you can use the down-loaded ammunition on smaller game.

Last weekend, I used Remington's Managed Recoil .30-06 for my first deer hunt. Result: 3 shots, 3 dead deer.

The week before, I used the same rifle on feral pigs, but with 180-grain soft points. Result: 2 shots, 2 dead pigs.

Kinda nice to have that sort of versatility, I think.

(The rifle I used is a Savage 110 with a Bushnell Elite 3200 3-9x40 scope.)
 
God bless my Marlin 336. Probably my favorite gun right now. Mine's 25 years old, and has NEVER done me wrong. I wish women were as nice to me as this gun :neener: Haha, just kidding. But really, it's one hell of a gun. The 30-30 is a very proven round, which is very capable. If you want a scoped, bolt action gun, then a 30-06 or a .308 will be just fine for your use. But all my shots, here in the Piney Woods, are within 100 yards easily. Plus, they're light and I can easily use them when hunting tree stands.

My first choice, just out of personal preference, would be the 30-30.
 
308 if you want chepa good ammo, stay with american or british or uassie surplus or south african . marlin is better thean winny in 30 30. you can get a Savage package gun with accutrigger for under 400 bucks in 30/06. but it is synth stock, or get a woodstock remmy in 30.06 , they still make with iron sites.
 
30-06 0r .308, although a good number of New England moose have been cleanly taken with the 30-30..........Essex
 
rangerruck said:
308 if you want chepa good ammo, stay with american or british or uassie surplus or south african . marlin is better thean winny in 30 30. you can get a Savage package gun with accutrigger for under 400 bucks in 30/06. but it is synth stock, or get a woodstock remmy in 30.06 , they still make with iron sites.
Click to expand...

I'm going to disagree here. While US, Brit, Aussie, and South African surplus .308 are all good milsurp loading by all accounts I've read, for hunting purposes of knowing your rifle/ammo, you sight in and shoot what you intend to hunt with regardless of chosen caliber/chambering. But that's not the point I'm in disagreement with because you can shoot good non-corrosive surplus ammo in your sporting bolt gun and have good fun with it. The part I'm in disagreement with for sure is the Winchester vs. Marlin debate because I shoot both and like both for different reasons. Way back when, Winchester appealed to the Western market and Marlin appealed to the upscale Northeastern market. All it was was marketing. As to reality, it's Ford vs. Chevy. While Marlin is heavy and sometimes has a slicker action, Winchester is lighter to carry and more streamlined. My experience is one is as accurate and dependable as the other. To judge one against the other as a matter of personal preference, you have to have handled and used both.

That said, Marlin and Winchester both come with crappy rear sights. Accuracy is greatly enhanced by upgrading to apertures.

I like my Savage Model 11GL in .243Winchester which I wound up scoping with see-throughs. Mine is one of the new ones with the AccuTrigger and it shoots very well for me. Savage package deals...:barf: They're really ugly and the scopes aren't mounted to the shooter's preference to begin with so if I were handed one, I'd have to reconfigure, so I'm better off with what I did.
 
thanks for the info
i did some research on the ammo and noticed that the 30-30 is very expensive. does anyone know were i get this ammo at a decent price? (under 50 cents a round)
 
Check Cheaperthandirt.com, but WalMart sells it for $8-12/20rds depending on brand name and bullet weight.

Half of what I shoot is either handload Hornady 150gr SP or cast lead 165grLFP. Handloading cuts the cost in half, but whether it's worth it is argueable unless you just like to reload. The other half is either Remington CoreLokt or Winchester PowerPoint, if not that orange-box stuff Cabela's sells which seemed like a pretty good value at the time.

.30-30 ammo is like any other ammo; there's a range of stuff they hype as being better than anything else when just a regular old Remchester 150gr SP will do the job just fine. The really expensive stuff is that new Fusion round they just came out with. I thought about trying some till I saw the pricetag.
 
Which gun and caliber to choose

I bought a composite stock .308 Savage combo gun. You get the rifle, 3X9 scope and sling for around $400. You can get them in both composite stock and wood stock. I was big on wood stocks for some time, but the quality on the composite stocks have gotten much better so I don't mind them so much now. As for caliber selection the .308 and 30-06 have allways been good choices. The argument for choosing a 30-06 is that no matter where you are hunting if you run out of ammo you can find 30-06 ammo anywhere.

Batmaxwyo
 
one more thing, you can get wolf or barnal or j.c. ammo in 3006 at gunshow or Academy for 5 to 7 dollars a box. you can get wolf 308 ammo at gun show for the same. so this is now just slightly more than milsurp 308 gunshow ammo. you can get 308 or 3030 ammo at Academy for about 8 to 9 dollars a box. as far as marlin versus winny in lever action, you are right the winny is lighter and more handy, but being a lefty , i really need that side eject marlin!
 
I reccomend the Savage package in 30-06. No the scope is no high dollar item but will serve you for a couple of years. In the meantime you could be saving up for a much better scope. This is what I did and the scope that came on the rifle lasted me for about 5 years and it was a Bushnell Sportview 3x-9x-32 mm.
 
rangerruck said:
as far as marlin versus winny in lever action, you are right the winny is lighter and more handy, but being a lefty , i really need that side eject marlin!
Click to expand...

:confused: I shoot my old top eject '94 left-hand/left-eye. Empties fly up and back and roll off my Stetson.:cool: :D

This thing about the Savage package deals... like I said, I really like my Savage M11GL which I did scope. But to me, I've looked at the package deals, and considering the comment that the scope is no high-dollar thing, and considering the mounts may not suit the individual and would have to be reconfigured, is it that good a deal? Another thing I reacted to is the package deals I've seen at Wal-Mart are not finished as nice as the other Savages I've looked at or bought. And, BTW, the ones I bought are about as accurate as accurate gets in a hunting rifle. Would an ugly rifle give any pride in ownership? That question comes up because a rifle can be a really personal thing. I hope I've clarified my opinion on that and no hard feelings.
 
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