30-06 as first rifle?

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An AR-15 as a practice/range/target gun is fine. But a lot of people consider .223 as a marginal hunting round at best for deer. Many states even ban you from using it on deer. It can get the job done, but there is a lot less tolerance for mistakes or sub-optimal shots (resulting in wounded animals and extended tracking to find them). The AR platform is also relatively expensive unless you require the large-capacity semi-auto features, a manual action will be cheaper.

Given your situation (learning to shoot and wants to hunt), if I were you, I would seriously consider these two options:
1) one multipurpose gun - a .243 or .30-30 or other intermediate caliber rifle.
-pros: only one gun to buy
-cons: a little harder to shoot, more expensive to practice
2) two guns - .22lr rimfire & .30-06 (or whatever suites you) for range and hunting, respectively.
-pros: easier to learn, much cheaper practice, more options
-cons: a little more expensive

Both of which can easily be done within your price range. There is not a "standard" way to do any of this. But there are methods that almost always result in spending larger amounts of time, effort, and/or money to get to the same place.
 
AR-15 it is, now the hunt for one thats legal in NY
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Not as hard as it seems, but you can forget about a collapsible stock or a bayonet lug. It's basically the same requirements as the Federal ban that sunset. Here's a link to read up, scroll down about 3/4 of the way down the page. Your local gun dealer should be able to help get you into an AR with no problem. The local Gander Mtn has ARs on sale pretty regularly. However if you plan on doing any hunting with an AR you will have to use a 5 round magazine.

I would still recommend a .22LR rather than an AR to learn on. .223 ammo (golden bear) is currently $149 for 500 rounds through cheaper than dirt, however, 525 rounds of Federal ammo is $18 for the .22LR, for $149 you can buy 4200 rounds of .22LR. This translates into a whole lot more shooting. If cost is a factor at all, .22LR is the way to go. If money is no object, get yourself an AR and 1000 rounds of .223 ammo.

Stu
 
Could well be a fair number of sniper-competency military guys never shot a rifle before Uncle Sugar got hold of them. But Uncle Sugar's buying the ammo, not them.

I dunno. I'm an admitted cheapskate, and definitely a "most bang for the buck" sort of guy.

One thing for sure, money goes out a lot faster than it comes in, which is why I've never been in a real hurry to run out and buy anything.

You can enjoy school, and have fun, but, still, school is for learning and not playing. FWIW, no semi-auto anything is appropriate for a beginning rifleman. A bolt-action inherently teaches the self-discipline needed in consistent aimed fire. A semi-auto lends itself to the silly childishness of spray and pray.

I dunno. I worked a gunshow table for right at thirty years, and messed around with bunches of good-used rifles from .22 on up to 7 Maggie. I don't really see any real need for brand-new, for all that I've bought a very few. But, I've been the same way about cars.

Me, I guess I'd look for a decent .22 bolt-action with a tube mag, and a decent bolt-action in '06 plus good-used reloading equipment. Anybody who's halfway smart and competent will wind up able to later make an educated selection of "THE" neat-deal rifle and scope and all that stuff. :)
 
Personal experience, a .30-06 is not a good rifle to start with, even if you have a little experience.

Back in 1979, my wife to be and I were good friends with another couple, whom we were going to go hunting with, and he had fallen head over heels for the .30-06. For him it was a good choice. But he was so convincing that the .30-06 was the best possbile gun that (for the only time in her life when it came to guns) that my fiancee didn't take my advice on guns.

She had been a farm girl, and shot a .22, and had shot her brother's AR .223. But never a .30-06. And she bought one, a Savage, and the ammo the clerk sold her was 180gr RN. "Moose bullets", she called them.

I shortened the stock and put on a recoil pad, so the gun would fit her better, but before she had shot that box, she had developed a very bad flinch. It was the combination of the recoil and the muzzle blast. And it was was bad enough that she couldn't even hit a large target at close range. The gun scared her. It was, simply too much gun, too soon. And it went a long way to killing her enjoyment of shooting. It took me years of patient coaching before she got over the subconcious fear the gun was going to hurt her. Eventually I got her shooting a .30-30 and a .243 (both with handloads), tollerably well, but by then, her heart wasn't in it.

Don't be thinking that its only frail girls or wimpy men who get flinch. It can happen to anyone, and sometimes, even experienced shooters. Because it happens on the level below concious thought. And when it sets in, it takes a lot of work and concentration to get over it.

And the easiest way for it to take hold of you is to shoot too much gun, too soon. Seriously, DO NOT START WITH A .30-06.

If you can, go ahead and get the .30-06, and put it away for when you are ready for it. It won't spoil if you store it right, trust me. Get a .22LR and learn to shoot, then, work your way up to the .30-06.

I lived in the Adirondaks until the mid 1970s, and hunted deer and bear there. I'm not certain of the law today, but back then, no .22 caliber rifle (rimfire or centerfire) was legal for deer. So, if you want to get an AR rifle, be aware that in .223 it won't be legal to deer hunt in NY with it.

However, there are "conversion kits" that allow an AR-15 in .223 (5.56mm) to be converted to a larger caliber, which would be legal to hunt deer with, where semi autos are allowed. Back in the 70s, a lot of the "downstate" area was "southern zone" for deer, and only shotguns were allowed for deer hunting. Northen zone allowed rifles or shotguns, and even handguns (with certain restictions). Check the game laws, it would be a shame if you bought somthing thinking you could hunt with it, and find out later its not allowed.
 
If you don't want to start with a 22, a 30-30 is a good choice. It still has plenty of power and range for most shooting and hunting...and it doesn't kick too badly. I am a 308 guy myself...but I'm liking shooting the 30-30 more and more. I can put a lot of rounds through it and not be sore the next day. What's not to like?
 
Cassera,

Welcome to the gun nut brotherhood. I wish I knew more about you. How old are you? What is your height and weight? This information would help make an intelligent suggestion. But, here I go. The .30-06 is arguably the most flexible hunting cartridge on the market today. The thing that helps to make that statement true is the wide selection of bullet weights available for the '06. I started my big game hunting life with .30-06. I've taken coyote, bobcat,antelope, whitetail deer, mule deer, elk, caribou, moose black bear, grizzly bear mountain goat and Dall mountain sheep and Kodiak brown bear all with the .30-06. The fact that I matched the bullet weight to the animal, and put the bullet in the right place made all this possible. Smaller caliber,IE.. .270W, would not have done it. Larger calibers don't handle lighter bullets very well. The .308 W. while it will shoot any bullet the '06 will, it is restricted using the heavier bullets because of small case capacity reduces powder space for the longer, heavier bullets which limits performance..

I happened to have lived in Alaska for awhile and I got to hunt very hard for a few years. Tell me, do you plan to move to Alaska anytime soon? No? Then you may not need to use bullets heavier than 165gr anytime soon. I would suggest that you take a close look at the .308 Winchester. This cartridge will take any game in the lower 48,and do it with less recoil. Because of the lower case capacity it's also cheaper to load. The last few years I've used the .308 for hunting and like it. Now that my hunting days are over due to heath problems I have just one hunting rifle in the gun cabinet. A Remington M-700 BDL in .30-06. I know the value of a dream.
 
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OP,
Consider a few things. First, you will have to take a Hunter Safety Course to get your first hunting license in NYS. Second, consider where you intend to hunt. Some areas, particularly downstate, are shotgun only. Third, you won't find any deer in NYS that can't be taken handily with a .243. Fourth, ARs get to be an expensive proposition and with its .223 centerfire round are a whole different thing from the .22 rimfire mentioned in previous posts. Fifth, you can do a whole lot of .22 rimfire shooting at a reasonable cost compared to other calibers and often in the comfort of an indoor range. I have a shotgun, several centerfire rifles including a 30-06, a couple of ARs, and some handguns. I shoot the Mossberg model 40 .22LR more than all the others combined.
FWIW
YMMV
 
My first rifle was my dad's sportered .30-06 M1903. It took me a long time to unlearn the bad habits that I developed with it.

There's a ton of good advice in the previous posts and I can't add much more to them, other than to say that if I was starting from scratch, I would get a small caliber bolt action rifle and shoot with open sights for a while. Then add a scope maybe.
 
we(people living in NYC) cant buy guns every week or even every month i
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Kinda hard for us that live in America to relate .......

As for buying an AR-15, be careful: Some guy in your area got arrested for selling ARs that had 1 too many "Assault Weapon" features ..... a pinned collapsable stock that could be made to collapse, IIRC.

.223 Remington/5.56x45 costs 10 times as much to shoot as .22lr, even if you buy it in bulk.

You may want to look at this with a car analogy:

You CAN learn to drive in a new Mustang, but that expenditure would be un-necessary....... learn to drive in used corolla: you can afford to drive it more often. At the point your skills are not challenged with the camry, or you need to haul something, move on up to a truck (.30-06)..... maybe city streets are boring for you after awhile, even in the Mustang: Take your Mustang to a closed course track, or Montana or take professional driving courses (Think Gunsite, Thunder Ranch, etc.)..... or maybe you want to do some heavy hauling to Montana (7mm STW)..... there are as many kinds of cars (guns) as there are transportation problems..... they are tools and while you CAN drive a nail with 5lb ball peen hammer, a 16 oz carpenter's hammer is probably a better tool for a beginner learning to drive nails.

Whatever car you choose, a basic Driver's Ed. course is a good idea:

http://appleseedinfo.org/

http://www.nrahq.org/education/training/index.asp
 
I started with a 30-06 as my first rifle years ago and don't recall it being a big deal. It was about what I expected when I fired the first round.

It might be a good idea to shoot a few times without a scope. Seems to me that more people develop a flinch from getting tagged by the scope than the recoil itself.
 
Yeah, I just moved from the bronx to wappingers falls about 2 years ago...only thing thats better up state is gun laws
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Save your breath boys, being from upstate NY (and wappingers falls is hardly upstate) we have to deal with this all the time. They move up from the city, but nothing up here in the sticks is as good as the big cesspool they moved out of

Can you be more humble and read what everyone is saying? They are giving you good advices and you are ignoring them.
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This the exacatly reason they're refered to as Citidiots. In the village of Styveasant NY A bunch of them formed a group and went to a town board meeting trying to get farmers to stop spreading manure on there fields and to ban the use farm equipment on weekends.:confused:
 
You know what they say
"Sometimes they just don't listen"
He thinks he knows better and he wants a 30-06 or an AR-15, I say let him get one. The problem is when he has a number of bad shooting habits and cant hit the side of a barn from 50 yards I am sure he will wound some game and give all good hunters and sportsmen a bad name. I can bet you have seen someone like this before it's always the Gun or the Ammo or some other equipment and never themselves.
I will say it one more time just for fun.
Cassera like most others (in the know) have said you should start off with a .22 rimfire bolt gun and if you want something bigger don't get anything bigger then a bolt action 243. Starting with a semi-auto will only promote "spray and pray" or starting with a big gun will give you bad shooting habits like a flinch. A 243 will be big enough for Deer not a problem and a 22 will be cheap enough to shot alot to give you the fundamentals of good form and accuracy, when you get good with a medium caliber like a 243 then look at getting a 30-06 or some other big gun. Going from shooting nothing to a 30-06 or semi-auto is just asking for trouble and once you have bad shooting habits they take years to break.
 
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i say let him get the 06 and when it wipes him he'll be done with it and some one in NY well beable to buy a good used 06 that has been dropped ones
 
Ok, I just picked up a Savage 16 in .300 WSM w/26inch free floated barrel (lefty rifle of coarse)

I WILL let you guys know how it goes when I first shoot it.

Ammo is really expensive :-) But I can handle it.....Started off with 3 boxes of 180 grain
 
Hey good on you Casera for not listening to all the wimps on this board, especially the dude(dudette?) that told you to be more humble (his favorite gun is a bb gun, go figure)! And then there was the guy whose shoulder hurt for a whole week after he shot a .270, unbelieveable.
I am about the same size as you and when I wanted a high-powered rifle, I too decided on a 30-06. I bought a Browning A-bolt, Stainless Stalker with BOSS. I love that rifle and have run thousands of rounds through it. I can shoot it very well if I do say so myself. I looked very closely at the 300 WSM and would have went with it except for the cost of ammo. Although the 06 doesn't have the reach of the 300, there is a lot of cheap milsurp ammo available for the 06 and that is what ultimately made my decision. I stopped noticing the recoil a long time ago and can shoot it all day.
The 300 WSM is an excellent caliber and like the 06 has a relatively mild recoil. Since you seem to be a man with a pair, I think you are going to love it. Another favorite of mine is a Marlin Guide Gun in 45-70 Govt. Factory loads for it are on the mild side (would still be too much for the wimps on this board) but still produces more recoil than an 06. Hot hand loads can produce noticeable recoil, if one is concerned with such trivial things.
Recoil is a part of shooting powerful weapons and has never been a consideration in what I shoot. I can't believe some of the responses you got from the guys on this board, expecially when they turned on you and started making comments that they hoped you failed because you didn't listen to them. Just because they can't handle a little recoil, doesn't mean that others can't.
Good luck, you sound like a true rifleman and I think you will do very well with your 300!
 
Nightrain, I figured that about 7-8 posts into this thread. You couldnt be more right. I have a Hi-powered air rifle that will have as much recoil as a .22 with same if not even more muzzle velocities.

I was a little disappointed by some of the responses I got on here because it seemed like you guys were straight forward telling me to get a .22 and nothing else.
 
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