Buying hunting rifle in 3 hours need advice

If it was me I’d buy 2 palmetto ARs
And grab a 30-06 combo.
I also would seriously consider a crossbow if I were you.

I love my Tikka. But, I don’t see any reason to go to 6.5. I use 308 for everything from pronghorn to elk. Your mileage may vary.

30-06 has more reloading options due to the larger case.

I also use a 7.62X54R with iron sights. Just because. It’s fun to go deer hunting with a bayonet on my rifle. You should see the looks I get.

I love my Mauser 30.06

Buy a .308 rifle. It can fire the higher-pressure .308 round OR . . . . the 7.62 x 51 NATO round.

It will kill whatever you;re aiming at and with things going wild weasel here in the USA, you'll need that kind of firepower to keep safe.

Grab a Springfield M1A-A1 Scout Rifle. .308 caliber.

Update:

Academy didn't have much for higher end rifles so I'll check my local gun store tomo. I did pick up a mp15 tho.

I will get a crossbow due to the silent hunting benefits.

Fyi, asked the sales guy at academy of he noticed any shortages and he said yes but was unaware of China shutting up factories

270 win. magnum

steyr scout 308.

12ga
.308
.270
.22

In that order. You will find rifle/shotgun ammo in these even if doom.

With a 12ga you could live off those darn canadian geese for years.

Last Edited by rolltiderv2 on 02/16/2020 01:05 PM

The AR-15 will serve for whitetail deer and other game animals...


NEED To HANDLOAD Your Ammunition. 75/77 grain match bullets deliver plenty stopping power. Might be illegal for hunting in your state... Well, in that case there are Nosler Partition and other .22cal premium bullets to choose from.

Need a 1:7 or 1:8 twist barrel to get precision results from heavy .22cal bullets. 80gr bullets are doable in the .223 with 1:7 twist. Even 90gr VLD (very low drag) (longrange) bullets with 1:6.5 twist.

The AR-15 can be built with premium barrel and freefloat forend to deliver match accuracy out to 1000yds. Talking single-loading for 80 & 90gr bullets, but they will deliver.

The integral scope base of the flat-top AR makes it much more reliable for scope mounting. With a clamshell fixture and a vise, you can swap barrels with only a barrel wrench or Armorer's Tool. No other rifle is as easy to gunsmith in the field.

Handloading is your most vital capability for making your rifle or handgun serve many different functions. Bullet casting enable you to make your own projectiles. Not every hunting or shooting situation need jacketed bullets. A Lee bullet mould costs about $25 and gives you a degree of ammunition security. It ain't hard to get good results the first time when casting bullets.

Shooting skills come from regular practice. Much easier to learn to handle a magnum revolver by shooting mild loads. Magnum performance is rarely necessary for hunting or defense. With Big-Bore, Heavyweight bullets, about 900fps velocity will take most large game or serve as a defense load. In Alaska, you might need the full magnum performance, but only for bear attack protection.


The Tikka T3 is a bolt rifle which comes in a 1:8 twist barrel. A varmint or tactical T3 makes for a very fine precision gun for longrange applications. The T3 also comes in .308win and .260rem. The .260 is a great all-around choice for the handloader. The .308 is not so much at longrange distances.


Handloading is The Key to obtaining versatility from your weapons. Before you buy your AR, get more fully informed about the capabilities of the rifle platform. With heavy match bullets or premium hunting bullets, the .223 can take most any lower-48 game. Most people will shoot low-recoil cartridges much better than standard highpower rounds. A well-placed round, or several, will take any game animal. Just have to know where to place your bullet....

308 is def the best option.

that IS a gorgious rifle, i like the fact its light weight and has iron sights... ruger scout and mossberg scout are alteratives too that cost significantly less

why are brits always into ass sucking?

must be something they add to water in blighty...

barrett 50bmg will do the trick every time

don't believe the naysayers

Everything about "guns" relates back to your ammunition...

Of course, have to have a gun; but what you chamber and fire in it causes all the good things to happen.


While there's lots of ammo out there to buy; there's not much that's likely to perform well.

If you're gearing up for gunfights, well you've already lost! Avoiding gunfights is how you live a long life. If you choose your weapons so that they will serve you in a defensive action, you can load ammunition for hunting applications.

A defensive application firearm is made to function with rapidfire potentials, for fast-reloading by detachable magazines, and for quick sight acquistion. "Hunting" or "working" guns are not made to function for such fast paced action.

Rifle barrels especially will suffer damage from excessive heat when fired repeatedly without cool-down. Once your barrel has gotten hot to the touch, each round fired thereafter is doing damage to the rifling or throat just ahead of your chamber. Defensive rifles are made with barrels that can endure such repeated firing, often with chrome plated barrels and chambers.

Using your rifle as a "blaster" assures that any accuracy you once had is gone in very short order.

The self-loading or semi-auto rifle's great virtue is not being able to blast-away with mag after mag; but rather the self-reloading feature which means you don't have to take your eyes off the target or shift position to chamber another round.

A defensive rifle can always be used for hunting, but few hunting rifles will function very long if used for defensive purposes.

t/c .460s&w kathadin
you can shoot 460s&w mag, 454 casull, 45 colt and 410
shot from 3300ft.lb down to 350 with 1 rifle

a decent bolt action rifle in

308
270
or
30-06

get a decent scope but no need to spend $500 on glass

a $200 Nikon is more than enough scope for 95% of
the shooters out there.

If and only if you live / bog out / hunt in a dense wooded
area then an open sight 30-30 will work as well.

Re: Ammunition & Handloading


Half or more of the cost of loaded ammunition is in the brass ctg case. Boxer primed centerfire ctg cases can be Re-Loaded. What this involves is (1) driving out the fired primer, (2) resizing the case or caseneck to hold a new bullet, (3) seating new primer and charging the case with smokeless powder, (4) seating the bullet to correct overall length.

For $30 or so, you can buy a Lee Loader tool which will reload your empty cases, or handload new, unfired cases. You'll need primers, bullets, powder and your Lee Loader.

The Lee Loader isn't fast, but it enables precision results.

If you do a lot of shooting, you'll want something faster. Single-stage loading press tools are faster. They operate with 2 or 3 threaded dies which combine several functions with one pull of the press handle... Depriming and re-sizing is one step. Your weighed charge of powder is added to the case by pouring into a funnel. Bullet is placed on top of the case mouth and the round is pushed into the seater & crimping die. Once bullet is seated, your round is ready to shoot.

Progressive presses are the fastest ways to assemble ammo. Each handle pull rotates the case around the press and deprimes/primes/sizes, charges, seats, crimps the round. Most expensive and complicated, but they work reliably and enable 200-400 ctgs to be loaded per hour. Usually a single stage loading operation can deliver about one round per minute.


Handloading denotes more attention to the ammo crafting process. Handloaders don't often buy factory ammo, they assemble their own from new components and apply lots of uniforming control measures to assemble match quality loads. A handloader might weigh and sort his cases, uniform primer pocket holes, trim cases to length after their first firing, and vary powder load and bullet seating depth to get Best Results in his/her rifle.

Handloading enables you to use roundballs, cast bullets, handgun bullets (if same caliber as your rifle), and jacketed bullets of many weights. For example: A .30cal bolt rifle can chamber most any .308 jacketed bullet, and this includes .32cal pistol bullets as they are also .308 dia. .32cal pistol bullets weigh from 85gr up to 110gr and are made to expand at low velocities. Great thing for a .308win, .30-06 or .30-30 to use at mild velocities of 1800fps or less for small game. Regular jacketed bullets weigh from 110gr up to 240gr for match bullets in .30cal. wutg 220gr about the heaviest for round nose hunting bullets which you might use for brush or deep penetration on very large game animals.

Reading a good loading manual will be very eye-opening to any shooting enthusiast. Sierra, Nosler, Hornady, Lyman are great references loaded with information on how to make your rifle etc shoot to full potential and load ammunition safely.

There are many powders on the market. Each has its own burn rate. The powder burns to make pressure in the case and propell the bullet down the barrel. Each powder will have its own precise weight depending on which case and bullet weight are used. Primers are also a factor in the reloading equation, as is bullet seating depth.

Small ctg cases usually take fast burning powders, medium sized cases use mid-range burn rate powders, and magnum or large cases will use slower burn rate powders. Some are more flexible than others. Using cast bullets at low velocity usually means light loads of fast powder. Detonation can occur in large capacity cases loaded with light loads of slow powders. Magnum handgun cases can detonate when double-charged with light load of fast burning powder. A grain scale and checkweight set assures most accurate weight measurement.


A handloader who has a bullet-puller can salvage bullets and powder from ammunition they find or acquire. It's never really safe to shoot another person's reloads or presume found factory ammo is "okay". A bullet puller is very useful to own.

The .30-06 and .308win are the two most versatile cases going for the handloader. If you want a .22cal varminter, pretty hard to beat the .223rem. It ain't the fastest, but it works and is cheap to load for. The .308 & .30-06 are most commonly loaded from .24cal up to .35cal.

To my mind, a survivalist would be foolish to use any proprietary ctg, or ctg that can't be made by necking up/down a .308 or .30-06.


A .30-06 with a full loading tool set, bullet molds, and supply of several powders and cast bullet weights enables just about everything anyone could desire a weapon to do.

Consider that Karamojo Bell shot countless elephant with the .274 Rigby and you will conclude that an `06 is about all you need for anything... aside from cape buffalo or AK Brown Bear, and maybe then with good shooting and luck you would do okay...

Handloading will bring any rifle to life...
Well worth your time and effort to learn this vital skill.

You probably dodged a bullet there, so to speak.

The worst way to buy pretty much anything is 'buying in 3 hours need advice'.

Slow your roll. If you rush out and buy 'something' tomorrow just to fulfill a need for immediate gratification then you are probably going to regret your purchase. Take some to figure out what is going to suit you best. Then take some time to think over your options. Maybe even try to shoot a few different rifles to see if you like how it handles.

The rule I always heard is, what you pay for the rifle pay at least that for glass.

Better than the rifle get the best scope. Any brand of lr.308 with a good scope is a good choice. Heavy long distance range round also you can customize it like any ar15.

This. Buy a Marlin.

Maybe you should try a blunderbuss, Wahlberg.

You suck cock.

Is all they have after major Kahn took their kitchen knives

They only have butter knives now.

Ironic, isn't it.

If you have the money, you can't go wrong with this one.



[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]

Used to be that way, but not anymore.

Optic quality has increased drastically. The high end stuff now is nearly unbelievable modern marvels and has increased in price accordingly, but what was a $1200 top tier scope several years ago is now $550 and they work great for an average hunter.

We are living in the Golden Age of Arms.

browning blr 308

50 bmg

Buy a cheap Remington 742/7400/7600 semi-auto 30-06 rifle. Over time, turn it into a poor man's BAR. There are a number of great articles out there on how to do this. 30-06, while stout for deer, has a number of other perks to consider. Look into modding this into a poor man's BAR. Also, look into the benefits of surplus 30-06 ammo. Trust me.

Last Edited by Twonstradamus on 02/16/2020 05:22 PM