Complete Newbie

D

DueceOne

Inactive
Hey guys, like the title says, I am brand new not only this forum, but firearms in general! I am so excited to get underway and have many questions. I know mostly people recommend a .22LR for someone's first rifle so they can practice and shoot as much as they can, but I know for a fact that I will be hunting as much as I go to the firing range. That's why I sort of want to buy a 30.06 rifle right off the bat.

Do you guys think this would be unwise for my first rifle? If it isn't that risky of a decision, is there any 30.06 entry level rifles that you guys would recommend? My budget right now I'm willing to spend currently is around $600-800 including a scope. But definitely when I start making more money, I'd be willing to put in a little more money for aftermarket stuff.

If my budget is too low, I'll probably with a .22LR to get started.

Thanks in advance, and I look forward to being a part of this forum!
 
There is no law saying you must start with a .22 rifle,,,

There is no law saying you must start with a .22 rifle,,,
Except for maybe the law of economics.

Factory 30-06 ammo starts around $1.25 per round,,,
Inflated prices for .22 LR is around 10 to 15 cents per round.

You can't practice without shooting,,,
Can you afford to learn at $1.25 per trigger pull?

It's all about the money,,,
Just like everything else.

Aarond

.
 
You can start with whatever rifle you want. That's why it's called starting. But as stated cost of ammo can be an issue if you really want to get good at the trigger pull.

Some like the Ruger American line or Savage has a bunch of good rifles.

The question then turns into what you want. Remington 700's will cost most of your budget before buying a scope. But for getting in to hunting you don't have to buy the most expensive rifle on the shelf. In fact you don't have to buy new. Sometimes the used market is where it's at.

If you need a 22lr you can get them new or used for $50-200. One of my best 22's only cost me $60 last year.

Have you shot before?
 
What's your underlying long-term goal? To kill deer or to gain proficiency with a rifle?

If the former, you could get a deer rifle as your first, and with instruction and a little practice, you can good enough to hit (but not necessarily cleanly kill) a deer inside 100-150 yards. This may be as good a marksman as you'll ever aspire to if you go this route, though, but it'll be good enough to kill some deer.

If you're taking a longer view and want to gain actual proficiency with a rifle, though, start by getting a .22 bolt rifle, a decent scope, and several thousand rounds of decent ammo. CZ or Savage are good options. Good instruction would go a long way as well. Check to see if there's an Appleseed event in your area.

My $0.02.

And welcome to the forum!! :D
 
As to the 30-06, if you want to buy a new rifle you can get a Marlin XL with scope for about $350. The rifle is fantastic and will shoot just as well as rifles costing MUCH more - it just won't be the prettiest rifle at the dance. The scope they include will be "functional" but you'll want to upgrade later as you get funding.
 
Hahaha I know there isn't a rule, but it was just so widely recommended to start out with a .22lr that I thought it was highly unconventional to start with something else. And I'm definitely staying away from $1.25 per trigger pull, I'm just a college student.

How does one go searching up a used market? I'm in an area where guns in general aren't popular.

As for what my ultimate goal is, although the idea of hunting has been appealing to me for a while and I do want to become a great hunter, I want to become proficient with rifles because I intend to become a police sniper. In general, I will be a part of law enforcement so I want to become proficient with all firearms.
 
The 22lr provides accurate, negligible recoil, low noise, and relatively economical cost shooting. All of these features are important for learning to shoot properly.
 
As for .22lr, I have been leaning towards a bolt action one, and the Ruger American Rimfire seems to have great reviews. A gun most of you would recommend?
 
Glad your here

Welcome to the sport, or hobby ,,, shooting has been my favorite thing to do since I was a kid I have never grown tired of it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
bb
 
How does one go searching up a used market?
Click to expand...
You'd be surprised at what you can accumulate just by keeping your eyes open. An occasional garage or estate sale, ad on craigslist (people use codewords on there to keep ads from getting pulled),etc. Heck, I even got several from people at work from being known as "the gun guy". Most of those that I've gotten this way were not what I wanted to have in my personal collection but I knew values to get them cheap enough to use as trade fodder for later acquisitions.

Let me give you an example. At one time I had a fairly elderly next door neighbor. Nice guy from "up north". He knew I was a hunter. Well, after I bought a new lawn tractor and replaced the stock tires on the rear with "lug" tires (always getting stuck in the ditch) he decided he wanted a set for his lawn tractor. He always had to get the dealer to come out to his house to pick up his tractor for service so he knew that getting the dealer to do it would be expensive. He told me that if I would put a set on for him, he had a nice "deer rifle" that he'd give me for it. Well, I didn't know what he had and I didn't really care since buying the tires on the internet was only about $100 and putting them on myself was free so I did it. He was happy as a clam and I got myself a beautiful Remington 760BDL 30-06 with a Leupold scope.

That is the kind of stuff you can do just by being observant and having others know you are "in the market".
 
I started out at age 7 with a .22. Time went on; I up-graded to a better .22. Then, at age 16, I went into the '06 business and got started reloading. But I still used my .22 a good bit. Been at it for 73 years, now. :)

If I have a point (If I part my hair right, it won't show), it would be to buy both a .22 rifle and some good centerfire rifle.

I'm partial to a tube-magazine semi-auto .22 rifle, and bolt-actions in centerfire. I'm much more of a hunter than a target-shooter.

Centerfire cartridge? Lordy! I guess some thought should be given to what game will be hunted and what typical ranges are common in your own probable hunting area.

Nuff fer now...
 
I live in Long Island, NY. Not too many gun owners that I know of here. Come to think of it, NO ONE is into guns around me.
 
Yuck I don't even want to picture how fun it is to be a hunter there.

Bad enough when I walked out of my apartment a few months back here in Milwaukee with all my hunters orange on and the kid across the parking lot was staring at my case mumbling gun and pointing.

Is there a range nearby within an hour or so? Sometimes those places have people trying to sell their used rifles or at least offer a place where you can rent one.
 
I would get a 22LR to learn with and go small game hunting with it. One of the best affordable and accurate semi-automatic rifles is the Marlin Model 60. My favorite 22LR I my little lever action Henry. It is very accurate and costs around $300. It is also guaranteed forever. Small game hunting has a much longer hunting seasons than big game hunting. I have both rifles and plan on keeping them forever.
 
Can't speak for long island but there is plenty of guns of all types in NY and plenty of them on the used market. Just driving off the island would probably yield a few shops with plenty of old deer rifles on the racks.

I started (in central NY) with a 308 and aside from not being able to shoot it as much for practice, didn't have any issues.

You can also get FMJ ball ammo for practice it'll be cheaper. Won't give you the best accuracy but it's good for getting trigger time. I shot a lot of russian steel case when I was starting out, in 308 it was around 50 cents a round. Wasn't nearly as accurate as say hornady but I also didn't really have the skill level to care haha.

I still keep plenty of m80 ball ammo around for when I just go to plink or introduce others to shooting.

Overall point being if you wanna start with a 30-06 go for it. I'm sure you can find some rifles to suit your needs. I know in my area there are always lots of remingtons and savages in the racks usually in 30-06, 270, and 308

If you can't find something in the used racks you like I would recommend the Savage axis, or ruger american and dropping it into a boyds stock. That'll put you around 400 or so with money left for glass and mounts. You can get a basic Leupold with the money left and be good to go. If you ever make it up around the Syracuse area lemme know I'll be glad to let you try out a few things and take you to some local shops.
 
Last edited:
I'm a fan of starting with a .22 and I'm a fan of used guns.

Keep your eye open for bargains and hunt the used gun shops.

Basically if a gun was good when its new it'll be good when its used. If a gun is rust free and functions then its probably going to work fine. Even a little surface rust or browning on an older gun shouldn't be a deal killer if the bore is bright and the action works smoothly.

One thing to look for is store brands, Sears, Western Field, Pennys, etc. These are guns made by regular gun makers that have the store brand on them. The guns are identical to the Winchesters, Savages etc. but might have a less expensive wood for the stocks and they cost less on the used market.

.30-06 is a fine choice. It's what I've used for almost 40 years. But IMHO inside 300yds cartridge choice doesn't matter much for hunting.
As I said .30-06 is a fine choice, but if you find a good rifle in 7mm or some other caliber, go for it, the deer won't know the difference.
 
You havent given us a discription of you, you have never shot and you want a 30-06 so maybe you can hunt. I would suggest that you find a way to shoot first. Maybe find a NRA Junior CPM program that needs a range helper so you can barter for trigger time or as other have suggested some place that rents rifles and take a beginning rifle course.
 
I have went into a range with a friend of mine who has an AR - 15, don't really remember much about it and I just shot it for a little bit. Sorry about the vague/no description, I've been looking for ranges around me that offer rentals/courses.

What kind of things you need to know about me?

I weigh 210 at 6'1. Anyways, I think from all your responses, I'm gonna put a .30-06 on hold and maybe go for a .22LR or a .243. Any recommendations? And suggestions on how I would go about getting one used?

I checked armslist for sellers in my location, but don't see any offers that fit the bill.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top