Best beginner rifle (Vanity)

Vanity ^ | 10-18-03 | Me

[dogbyte12]

I am about to finally leave the urban jungle of Los Angeles and move down to both Louisiana and South Carolina. While I do fish out here, I have only gone hunting a few times with borrowed equipment.

I am interested in starting to hunt, and would love for any freepers to give me recommendations on a good beginner rifle, something that isn't so pricey, but reliable, as well as any other gear that I will need as a beginner.

I am not a stranger to handguns, or to military rifles, I qualified expert on both a .45 and an M16, so I am not starting from scratch, but I am looking for a rifle for deer hunting basically that will not set me back too much money, yet still be a decent value. I plan to not spend that much money so it can be economical. I do know how to fabricate a carcass, and would love to hunt for meat, without the cost of hunting making it more expensive than going to the supermarket.

Any help in this regard, web sites, consumer reports, etc, would be much appreciated. Thanks all.

[archy]

I'm good friends with someone who owns a SS Totenkopf Honor Ring. The real thing, not a replica..

I am good friends with someone who wears one.

It was her father's.

-archy-/-

[archy]

Our Poster may not know (YET!) that the .30-30 is the first really successful smokeless powder round...I think first offered with a lead bullet (a beautiful thing)...and "has killed more deer than any other cartridge"...which always hungry Muttlys really appreciate. Under-powered by today's standards...but the sweetest and most useful package that there is...and fast-shooting when the chips are down. I'd just hate to face a southern wild boar with one...but it beats not making it up the tree while shouting last words. May buy a second or two. Muttly grateful for small favors. Which brings us to "the venerable and oh-so-proven .45-70," with which boar can be HUNTED...and deer dropped handily. A short barrelled Marlin is amazingly handy in the deep, thick woods, and with 300gr. bullets, flat shooting enough, certainly. It has a wonderful reputation, can use lighter "Cowboy" rounds, and should generally keep you out of the swamps chasing wounded whatever-it-is, since it doesn't need expansion to do the work.

And the .30-30 is also a particularly sweet little number in a couple of the bolt action and single shot rifles that have been chambered for it. Since they do not share the tubular-feed magazine of most of the .30-30 lever rifles, their ammunition can be crafted with pointed bullets unsuitable in the leverguns for safety reasons, and some .30-30 rifles so loaded are capable of some accuracy feats that would be fairly amazing to those used to the cowboy saddle carbines.

One backburner I've long considered is reworking a .410 double shotgun into a double .30-30 instead. One of these days when I have a couple of nearly matched barrels and the right shotgun to work with, I'll build that neat little .30-30 double gun.

-archy-/-

[SevenDaysInMay]

Season?

[PoorMuttly]

...or a double-barrelled .30-30.

A drilling would be nice, wouldn't it. A 20 or 12ga. underneath would be a sweet package...very handy.

Oh Santa.....!

[I got the rope]

Oh...that's not my site. It was just the only picture of the Belgian Revolver I had that was on the net. I don't have a digital camera so I can't take pictures of my own stuff yet.

[I got the rope]

Mine was made in 1979. It came with a matching lever action .22 mag.

[archy]

"It's good for killing dirt bikes at 500 yards"

Picture in my last issue of the .50 caliber mag of a woman who killed a deer at 895 yards.
Didn't say how much meat was edible.

If you turn the boattailed Browning .50 M33 bullet around and seat it backward, it can serve as a neat little hollowpoint bullet for hunting with the .50 cartridges, perhaps not needed for reasons of terminal ballistics [most 6mm and 6.5mm shooters would be very pleased with bullets in their pet load that reliably expand to .50 caliber; .50 shooters don't have tro worry about such distractions] though needed for game law reasons.

But though the long-range target shooters are more enthusiast users of the .50 rifles than those afield for the hunt, there's also the shorter .50x77 cartridge of the M8A1 spotter rifle as used for rangefinding with the 106mm M40A1 recoilless rifle. It's a little easier on the shooter, there are a couple of short actions that can accomodate the shorter cartridge, and still has plenty of power for heavy meaty targets at 500 yards or more.

I had less than satisfactory results with the .338 Lapua Magnum I assembled on a shoestring budget with leftover parts, but I could have solved most of the deficiencies given some time and a more generous budget, I believe. But I think I can put together a Big Fifty for around $500 or so, and it ought to be great for plinking at concrete blocks the way others shoot discarded soda pop cans.

But not from a quarter-mile. And it would do for dirt bikes too. Do youy have any good recipies; I'd think they'd be a little stringy and gamey.

-archy-/-

[archy]

That's the reason most EOD shop doors remain "locked".......Note the small sandbagged bunker near the door also in many "smart" EOD units. Too many troops and kooks would walk up with a 66mm LAW rocket or Frag grenade they "found" and slap it down on the NCOIC's desk. Asswhuppin was too late to help then .....in some cases........:o) When they knocked on the door we made em show us their hands or drop what they had in the bunker.

Stay Safe !

Someday I'll have to tell you the doghouse story. Thankfully, no canines were killed during the making of this yarn.

But one got pritear deafened!

-archy-/-

[I got the rope]

My best group with a rest and my 30-30 was 3.75" at 100 yards. I was using the 30-30 accelerator rounds. I have tried lots of ammo and they all seem inconsistent. Most of my groups were nearly 5". I just don't get it.

[El Gato]

Amazing how much fear the mere presence of firearms and anything remotely resembling conservative politics scares some people, ain't it?

You should have seen the look I got from my new son-in-law's father, (from New Jersey!) when I showed him the .45 Witness Compact I'd had in the trunk of my car all the way from Central Kansas, where he started riding with me, to Lincoln Nebraska where the wedding was held, back down to Ft. Worth and an overnight stay in their apartment, and on to Waco (the lot of the Ranger Museum) where I showed it to him, while we were waiting for his wife and my daughter to pick him up for their trip back to Ft. Worth, while I came on to San Antonio. You've heard the expression, "eyes like saucers"?

Next month I'll be teaching his son to shoot, probably start with a .22 S&W or a 10/22, depending on which way he want's to go. Then in December, we'll (son-in-law and I) be attending a legal continuing education course entitled "Guns, Money and Lawyers. He's the lawyer, as is my daughter, I'll just be tagging along so to speak, and I might accidently learn something along the way. :)

[Colorado Doug]

I have a question for all of you gun nuts. I have an old flintlock pistol that was alleged to have come from Kieser, Wilhelm's gun collection. I even have a photo of the pistol being brandished by two members of the 94th Aero Squadron (fooling around, dressed as Huns) in front of a Spad in about 1918. I would love to track down the history of this pistol. Any ideas?

[archy]

Oh, yeah, that's a real good beginner's gun...

For beginning a war maybe. ;-)

Not bad. But if it's a war that is to be, I say: Lat on, MacDuff, and cursed be him that first cries *hold; enough!*

[PoorMuttly]

...I know the Kaiser chased my great-great-great...grandfather out of the beer-wagon with one, if that helps.

He was only looking! There could have been a thief...or something. Trust me.

[Squantos]

You know Paco Kelly !?!?!?!?!?!??! Damn that man is my Hero !! His lil Accurizer tools for 22's and such are awesome . I can take trash milk cartons of bargin basement 22 ammo and make it dance like Eley thanks to his ideas.

Give that man a slap on the back from me please......Stay Safe !

[I got the rope]

If it belonged to the kaiser you should have a crown marking followed by a W. If there is a number following the W, then that is the year it was made.

Try writing these guys. Post a pic too. My curiosity is WAY UP!

http://www.germanguns.com/technical.html

[El Gato]

Well, I have a redheaded daughter. Maybe it is a good omen.

Mine are both blonde, but both have more red in their hair than their mother, who is also blonde. Enough difference that I could always tell who "borrowed" my comb, or clogged up the drain. They get it from their grandmother who was well past "strawberry blonde" towards the direction of Ann Margret type redhead

[PoorMuttly]

He wrote me some very nice and thoughtful emails a little while ago...and gave me some VERY helpful advice...which has proven sound, and helped me a lot.

As it turned out...I ended up in some different situations then we had discussed...but his guidance proved incredibly useful, and is helping me a LOT in the circumstances I presently find myself in, and may have to deal with soon.

He REALLY knows what he's talking about...and the more I think about it and live with it...the more sound and wise it becomes to me. I am very grateful to the man for taking the time to thoughtfully converse with me.

BTW...you tuned me up too...and quite a lot. There are somewhat potentially formidable criters where I now reside, and work...some with four legs, some with two...some with none. All bite in one way or another, and Muttly's school of life continues...with the help of some very interesting friends.

[El Gato]

I hope I have time to teach my daughter to shoot. Please, God.

Been there, done that. Their maternal grandfather helped too. Neither is an enthusist, but they know which end the round exits from and are pretty fair shots with a .22 pistol. They get that from their mother's side too. You don't want to get into a gunfight with any of them. Grandpa (wife grandfather that is) might be the best, but he's gone to the range in the great beyond, where I imagine he's shooting flying walnuts out of the air, which I'm told he was quite good at, although I never saw him do it.