1st Hunting Rifle

[ef9turbo]

Exactly who are you referring is gay?

Penis

 

[ArealGunNut]

Im gona throw an idea out there, Im not an expert but do have quite abit of time behind a trigger. The best cal is the one you cam shoot comfortably and put that bullet where it needs to go. Focus on what you find pleasent to shoot and practice every chance you get. People will tell you how much better this round is over that round and 90% of it is pure opinion. Realistly will you be shooting at whitetail at 400yrds? Very few, and i mean very few people can shoot 400yrds from a cold bore and hit a pie plate sized vital area of a whitetail!

This is his first rifle so i doubt he is a reloader so factory bullet selection does come into play alittle.

Im recommending a nice bolt gun of your choice around 600 spend 3-400 on good optics and that will leave ya 2-300 for ammo,cleaning supplys and more ammo. Id say 243,308 in SA or 25-06,30-06 in a long action.
Nikon,burris, or a weaver grandslam for the money.

If you decide at a later date to go Elk,bear,moose hunting you probably will be able to buy another rifle at that time.

If the bigger is better crowd really believed it, they would all be shooting 50bmg's!

 

[ArealGunNut]

On a side note the 30-06 has put down every big animal in north america, do i recommend it for bear/moose nope, but then again i will never recommend a belted mag for whitetail either! Its real hard to beat at 243 or 25-06 for varmits to deer within the average persons ability range and recoil tolerance.

 

[RyAn007]

Love my Remington 700, have loved every savage I owned as well, but prefer the 700. If I were you I would look for a 270, or the 30-06 because of versatility as everyone is saying. The 300wm is overkill, although a fun and amazing gun, I cant see you needing it for anything around here. The 7mm remington mag is the only one you stated that I haven't owned, so I have no preference on that, but that will be my next rifle, from what I have heard its amazing.

 

[BulkAmmo]

Given your budget and the what you are looking to do with the rifle. I would suggest getting a Savage and then spending a bit on a Leopuld. I've always gotten better results out of better optics and handload vs a "better rifle" with worse glass.

Caliber is completely up to you. I'm more of a have a bunch of different tools at your disposal type of guy. I don't hunt anything larger than whitetail so the .270 is perfect for me. Given the three you listed I would go with the old faithful 30-06.

__________________
bulk 44 magnum ammo

 

[ArealGunNut]

I will agree with the savage recommendation, fine rifles, not as sexy as say a winchester featherweight or a rem 700BDL, but prob more accurate! I will stir the pot alittle by saying you can get better glass for the money than a new leupold, with the exeception of a few of their high end models and mark4 or LRT's. Their low to mid range models just arnt what they once were.

 

[farmer17]

For $1200 bucks I would buy a CZ 550 Bolt action 30-06 and a Zeiss Conquest 3-9x scope.

 

[MBB]

I'm struggling with a similar decision.

The only advice I can offer is it gets old carrying an oversized rifle chambered for an oversized cartridge. It also gets old looking for hard-to-find (aka not at Walmart) ammo. These two things get even older when, despite dreams of hunting big game around the world, the biggest animal to be hunted is a whitetail deer.

 

[44minimum]

I read one time that the .30-06 is never a bad choice. I think most people would agree with that. Good for deer, black bear, not bad for elk or moose. If you were going to Africa or after the brown bears, then you would probably want something bigger, bigger than the .300 Winchester magnum even. Have you looked at the prices of the ammunition in these calibers that you mention? Have you fired a .300 Winchester magnum? Whatever you buy, if it kicks too much and causes you to flinch then you will not shoot it well. Buy whatever caliber you can shoot well. And get a savage

 

[Deer Slayer]

and put a muzzlebrake on it. My .300 win mag recoils like a .243 with the brake on it. I do not flinch with the brake and the gun groups 1/2" at 200 yds. I am a believer in the brake for the big guns. I, also, have never had a gun to group 1/2" at 200 either but this one does.