First rifle purchase... looking for opinions

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Going on case dimensions alone, it should fall somewhere between the two. Should be a good hunting round if you can find suitable ammo for it. I have never owned one in that caliber but have read good things about them. I am sure there are plenty on this forum who can give you more info on it. I would say that if you do get the 7.62x54R, you may want to learn to reload while you are at it.
 
The Mosin is an adequate rifle and the round it fires is ok to. You can find commercial ammo for it.

Get a good shoulder pad.
 
If you do end up with the Mosin, be aware in many states you cannot hunt with the surplus military FMJ rounds. Also many of them are Berdan primed and corrosive...and not able to be reloaded. Like I said, maybe for someone as a cheap target rifle but definitely are better choices out there for hunting. The Mauser 7x57 in a surplus 1898 gun would be a much better choice.
 
went from .22lr marlin 795 to 30-06 M1 Garand

Here's some directly comparable experience. OP has not been shooting centerfire rifles for a lifetime. Neither have I. I started shooting the .22LR in August, and attended 1 and 1/2 Appleseed weekends, qualifying on the second Sunday. Then I got a chance to shoot an M1 Garand belonging to one of the instructors. (Thanks again, Shadowman!)

I think the shooting skills I picked up (mostly via Appleseed) on the .22 helped me when I got my grubby mitts on the M1. The M1 requires adding one mental instruction to the shot sequence: pull that bad boy tight into your shoulder. You might say shooting a .22 could develop bad habits in that area, since you can get away with a loose hold. I'm not sure. Overall, the skills transferred. My groups were a little bigger with the M1, but that's probably the difference between iron sights and scope.

Bigger bangs are big fun. I'll still shoot about 100-1 .22lr-centerfire though.
 
After looking into it a bit more, it's probably not a good idea to go for the Mosin. It looks really cool, though, and the bayonet would be really handy if the Kaiser invades while I am deer hunting.
 
horse pucky

The nagant is a fine rifle, there accurate and the serplus ammo is cheep. B e shure to always clean the barrel after shooting surplus ammo , most of it is verry corosive and it will rust your barrel out fast. The 7.62x54 is capable of killing any bg game in our neck of the woods.
 
his wife sounds like she might put him in the garage for the weekend if he went over $450 on his rifle, could you imagine the fallout if he told her he was buying a 'practice rifle'.
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Sometimes, "Forgiveness is easier than Permission." ........ and a weekend in the garage is over in 3 days. The rifle will last lifetimes. My advice: take your wife shooting, thus making her co-dependant......

How could you get nearly the same power from a case that is nearly a half inch shorter? Yes, you could load heavy loads in the .308 to match light loads in the 06 but, talking factory ammo I have to disagree with both of those statement.
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The 308 (7.62x51) was cooked up by the military to replace the 150gr 30-06 loading .... same velocity, smaller, more efficient case (quicker powder).

In rifles of the same design and weight, firing similar bullet weights at similar velocities, recoil should be roughly equal.

The only problem with the Mosin is that you are generally limited in ammo availability for the specific purpose of hunting.
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If you can't find soft point ammo for a 7.62x54R, then you are not looking very hard......

http://www.ammunitiontogo.com/product_info.php/cPath/24_101_127/products_id/3964
http://www.ammunitiontogo.com/product_info.php/cPath/24_101_127/products_id/3964
http://www.ammunitiontogo.com/product_info.php/cPath/24_101_127/products_id/3964
http://www.luckygunner.com/7-62x54r-180-gr-sp-sellier-bellot-20-rounds
http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/hornady-custom-762x54r-150-gr-sst-20-rds.aspx?a=606393

Cabela's in LaVista had soft points in 3 flavors, IIRC ..... the LGS had 2 .......

It's never going to be as popular as the 7.62x39 short Russian,
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Because it is not $6/box of 20, and is not attractive to knothead kids spraying down the countryside with cheap ammo.....

....and it has less power than several more commercial available and affordable cartridges.
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The 7.62x54R out of a Mosin 91/30 will launch a 150gr SP at about 2800 f/sec, roughly what a 30-06 or .308 WIN will do....... PPU Privi Partizan 150 gr soft points are 15 bucks a box at Cabela's ...... which is cheaper than you can buy either of the above.....

After looking into it a bit more, it's probably not a good idea to go for the Mosin. It looks really cool, though, and the bayonet would be really handy if the Kaiser invades while I am deer hunting.
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I'll bring the Mosin, w/bayonet- don't worry about the ammo, I have it.....
The nagant is a fine rifle
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..... ummm..... er .... yeah..... in the same sense that a pit bull is a fine dog .... effective? Yes ...... tough? In Spades. Well designed? Certainly. "Fine" is the wrong adjective, I think. Wyosmith makes fine rifles. I don' think anybody ever made a "fine" 10 lb sledgehammer ......
 
Jimbob, I'm guessing you are in favor of the Mosin. After your response above, I am really looking forward to giving it a whirl. Looks like it may be back in the list of possibilities...
 
The 308 (7.62x51) was cooked up by the military to replace the 150gr 30-06 loading .... same velocity, smaller, more efficient case (quicker powder).

In rifles of the same design and weight, firing similar bullet weights at similar velocities, recoil should be roughly equal.
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OK so are you telling me that if I buy a box of commercial 150gr 308 and a box of 150gr commercial 30-06 I am going to have about equal velocity and equal recoil?

Hornady lists their 150gr GMX Superperformance round in .308 at 2940 Muzzle velocity and 2878 ft/lbs energy, while the same round in 30-06 is 2940 Mv and 3159 ft/lbs energy. At 300 yds the 308 has 2296velocity and 1755 ft/lbs energy while the 30-06 has 2399 fps velocity and 1945 ft/lbs energy. So with the two rounds loaded to the same muzzle velocity, the 30-06 still has more energy at the muzzle and retains more velocity and energy out to 300yds and beyond.

I guess my point is, you can load a 30-06 to the same power level as a .308 but, you can't load a 308 to the same power level that a 30 06 is capable of. Also like I said with the .270 vs 30-06 if you load a bullet of same weight, regardless of diameter, to the same velocity, you will have the same recoil, with all else being equal. I can see that would be the same case as a .308 vs 30-06.
 
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For anyone who is still looking at this thread, I just found my .22. Remington 597 on sale for $100.00! Gonna pick it up today after work. Will post first shooting results when I have 'em.
 
Late on this butgo find you a good named used gun and scope that walley world carrey's cheep ammo for and shoot and have fun. I have killed deer with 22,s up to 300 ultra. They get a little technical on here. On budget get something cheep to shoot that way you can afford to shoot it. By the way the ammo around here just went up.
 
I am shocked people think they need a 30-06 for hunting deer!

Something down in the states got loose from the Ice Age (Saber tooth deers?)

30-06 is maybe the finest all around cartridge ever.

Alaska its a good gun as you can hunt caribou, moose and need Grizzly bear defense (or even shoot one if you are inclined in that direction, its been used for that since the cartridge was invented). As we have small deer up here and if you only have one gun, you can use it for that though its way too much.

Its way too much just for deer though. 270 is too much though better (not a lot of difference between the two other than the caliber as 270 is a 30-06 cartridge necked down).

For just deer and not foreseeing a need to more capability (Elk) I would use one of the lighter offerings.

If you want to expand it for lower 48 use, 270 would be more than adequate for anything down there (including moose).
 
Have fun with the Remington. Don't get trigger happy and spray lead down range. Do take a basic rifle class.


.308 vs .30-06, do a search of this forum and you'll find scads of threads discussing that issue.
imho the advantage for the .30-06 only applies to large bullets that most people don't use and long barrels which most people don't use. Except for that it's a coin flip.
 
So, just for the sake of accuracy, there was some confusion over the model of the .22. I called and asked about the Remmington 597, and the guy at the store quoted me the price of the Marlin 795. It is a bit smaller (and I am a big guy, so it makes some difference), but a brand new .22 for $109.00 after tax is just a good deal, and it will more than pay for itself in ammo savings. Also the smaller size fits my wife better, and I think I may have talked her into learning to shoot, too (hoping she gets hooked - it will make it easier to convince her about future purchases:)).
Assuming I can find my camera, I'll post some pictures of my new rifle along with the results of my first outing.
Thanks again to everyone who has weighed in and provided some guidance for a newbie.
 
Definitely get a .22 first - you won't regret it.

As for hunting, any rifle made by a good manufacturer (Ruger, Remington, Weatherby, etc.) will get the job done. .243 is a fine round but then so is .270 and all the rest.

I smiled when you wrote about that guy saying 'anything more than a .243 means you're just a killer. I've shot deer and feral hogs with everything up to and including a 7mm Mag, which a couple people sneered at as 'overkill'. Whatever, it certainly gets the job done. :D
 
Unless I missed one, every last cartridge mentioned (and a lot that weren't mentioned) will do fine for deer hunting. As for recoil, I've recently shot the 7.62X54R and the 308 and the 30-06, the 270 and the 260. I'll say that the 260 had the mildest recoil of the bunch, which isn't surprising at all. Recoil from the rest of them felt about the same, though that Russian round seemed to have a bunch of muzzle blast. I don't own a 308, though I do have the grandson's 308 on hand. I suppose, for the sake of available ammo that you can buy at any Bubba hardware store, the 308 would be the best choice for a non-reloading deer hunter. The best cartridge for deer might be the 270, but if you want to shoot something bigger, go with the 30-06. If you want something that's close to the 270 but a bit milder, get the 260. You can get about 2900 fps with a 120 grain bullet, and that should do it for you. And...I've become so fond of the 260, that I wonder if the best all around deer cartridges might should include the 257 Roberts and the 6.5X55 Swede. I'm beginning to think that we've all been hunting with more horsepower than we really need, though being overgunned is always better than being undergunned.
 
Jimbob, I'm guessing you are in favor of the Mosin.
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It matters not what I am in favor of: I have my deer rifle. You, on the other hand, are looking for yours.

Nearly any of the calibers mentioned in this thread can be used to kill a deer. The task at hand is to find one that you like- recoil that is tolerable and well ..... one that you like. I don't have a huge variety of guns to choose from, but I have some basic bolt actions..... we'll know more in 10 days......

Hornady lists their 150gr GMX Superperformance round in .308 at 2940 Muzzle velocity and 2878 ft/lbs energy, while the same round in 30-06 is 2940 Mv and 3159 ft/lbs energy. At 300 yds the 308 has 2296velocity and 1755 ft/lbs energy while the 30-06 has 2399 fps velocity and 1945 ft/lbs energy. So with the two rounds loaded to the same muzzle velocity, the 30-06 still has more energy at the muzzle and retains more velocity and energy out to 300yds and beyond.
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Slappy, your numbers are funky: You can't tell me, or the laws of physics, that if you start two .308" diameter bullets of the same weight off at the same muzzle velocity ..... that they will have a different velocity and retained energy at 300 yards, unless these bullets have different ballistic coefficients (kinda hard to do when they are both made of the same material and are of the same weight and diameter!) or were fired under different conditions (sea level and 10,000 feet, or one was fired with a headwind......) .... it is just .......unpossible.
 
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