Contemplating a long gun

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kmw1954

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I have forever been a pistol/handgunner and own quite a few. Have never been interested in rifles or hunting as my philosophy has always been, " don't kill something you do not intend to eat". We don't have bear or lion to fend off and we don't yet have invasive hogs running around. Besides at my age and advanced P.A.D. there is no way I could prowl thru the woods these days. I might get in but someone would have to carry me back!

Still for some reason as of late I have had a desire for a bolt action rifle. Don't know what I would do with it other than punch holes. With that, the other night I came across a Remington Classic or ADL with a scope in 243 Win that appears to be a nice piece and they had a cash price or Trade? offer.

Now I can't decide if this is a whim or would I really put it to use and shoot it. I have no idea what types of organized sports are out there for rifle shooting.
 
For my recreational shooting I have a Sharps. A quality Sharps, like a Shiloh Sharps, can be very satisfing with the art of shooting from plinking to long range or hunting. Many places have compation of varying types. Loading for accuracy can be developed to minute of angle with home cast bullets and black powder. Or just by factory cartridges if you pick a 45/70 chambered rifle. I have shot them for years and often have groups that fellows with scoped high powers are amazed by. That’s with tang sight and hand loads. History, art, and science combined in a rifle.
 
If you're going to punch holes in paper buy a 223 bolt gun. An AR would probably fit your style since you don't hunt. They can be quite versatile. Set up right you'll get 99% of the accuracy you'd get with a bolt gun and have a viable home defense long gun.

The 243 is a decent round, but for what you want to do 223 is so much cheaper to shoot. And 243 is known as somewhat of a barrel burner. There is a greater possibility that a used one may be just about shot out.

For punching paper out to about 600 yards. Street price about $400

https://ruger.com/products/americanRiflePredator/specSheets/26944.html

A good all around AR. I haven't priced them lately, but I paid $500 for mine.

https://ruger.com/products/ar556MPR/specSheets/8514.html
 
Here's a cheap way to find out if you want to get into rifles. Go get yourself a Ruger 10/22, just the standard model unless you feel the need to spend extra for the target model. Buy a nice 3x9 scope for it, put everything together, buy few different boxes of. 22 Long Rifle ammo and then hit the range.

The reason for the .22 LR is the fact that it's the most fun round/rifle that you can own. They're cheap to shoot, accuracy can be from mild to amazing and you can set up a rifle from mild to insane!

The 10/22 is the AR15 of the .22 world and if asked, I would bet that 90% or more of gun owners either own one or have owned one. If you decide that it's not for you, you could sell it within a week and break even or make money on it.

I would think that this would be a good start before jumping into a big long rifle.
 
Do you have any 357 Magnum Revolvers or Pistols?
If so (and even if you don't) 357 Magnum long guns are wonderfully versatile, fun, and a great mate

Most can be reliably run with 38 or 357
So you can shoot soft, cheap, and quiet plinkers
All the way up to loads that far outperform 5.56 yet have minimal recoil
Cheap and easy to reload for, even with minimal equipment (under $100)
A 357 lever gun makes for an outstanding self defense gun, and even a bolt can be pressed into that role
Use a red dot, scope, or peep if you've got old eyes
They will also likely be legal much longer than semi-autos

If I ever went broke and had to get rid of everything, my lever, pump, and bolt guns in 357 would be the last guns I ever parted with if it came down to it.
They are simply so versatile that you can do just about anything you want, as well as practical, reliable, AND FUN!

Here are just a few of my favorites, everything in pic is chambered in 357 Magnum :cool:
I've since removed the rail/peep setup on the top 1894 and replaced it with a DPP
Also going to add a short rail to the left side of the stock fore-end and add an Inforce WML
Magnum-Force.jpg
 
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I do have a Savage 22LR little rifle that is scoped and is great fun. Guess I am thinking more a center fire.
 
He did say bolt action:

In a bolt action I am going to venture the best overall arm would be a Ruger American in 223 or a CZ527, also in 223.
You say you don't hunt or wander the woods so I assume you have no plans to kill and carry out a dead big game animal. So the standard 223 is going to give you the most bang for your buck and do about everything you want a rifle to do. Ammo is not costly and if you get into reloading (very fun and relaxing) it becomes even less costly. Both rifles are capable of excellent accuracy and for the needs to specified the 223 has all the range you could ask for.
 
Rifles can be as much fun to shoot as a handgun without you necessarily using it for hunting. It is just a question of challenging yourself at various distances. I was thinking along the same lines as "50 Shooter about getting a 22LR rifle. You can get as expensive or as inexpensive as a Marlin 60 for under $200 brand new. I use my rimfire rifles to challenge myself by shooting them at 200 yards and further. Sometimes my scopes cost more than the rifle but that is just me. Regardless if you use a scope makes sure it always has an adjustable objective or parallax adjustment knob. I like to glue paint ball or bottle caps and shoot them at 50 or 100 yards and I like to shoot for small groups at 200 yards. Whatever you do rimfire shooting is addictive and a lot of fun and you can shoot for hours without putting a big dent in your wallet. If you decide that you do like shooting a rifle you could than invest on a .243 or other caliber, or if you are like me you end up with several 22's from various manufactures. The great thing about shooting 22's is that you can shoot a couple of hundred rounds using decent ammo like cci for under $16.
 
No hunting for me with my limited ability walking, besides there really is nowhere local to small game hunt anymore because just about all the farmland and pastures have turned into subdivisions with homes stacked on each other. At night we can hear coyotes but again nowhere to actually hunt them. Even in our small subdivision the rabbits have all vanished after a family of Red Fox moved in. Only real hunting close by is water foul at the bottom end of our lake. When I was a kid we could hunt squirrel and rabbits and a few places with pheasant.

I have thought about steel Silhouette shooting but again the closest venue is over 2.5 hours away. Will have to look more into a 223 bolt gun.
 
I have no idea what types of organized sports are out there for rifle shooting.
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That’s one of the benefits of target shooting: you can compete with yourself, the endless quest for the smallest group possible.
 
With the criteria that you put together, get something that you can share with the grandkids. That is what I have my 22 Hornet for. A left handed Browning Micro A-Bolt. My oldest grand daughter is left handed like I am, so we have fun sharing that one. Of course, they all like outings with the handguns. My only grand son is getting to be a dead eye dick with the 44 Mags.
 
So I spent some time on Gun Broker looking though the lists of 223. Not a lot of used but sure are enough New ones. Will have to give this more thought.
 
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