Hunt Rifle Priorities

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fisherman66

New member
Please list your priorities in a Hunting Rifle in order from most important to least important.

Example:

Balance/Pointability
Length of Action/Rifle
Fit/Finish
Weight
Technology - not your preference for bolt action/lever/singleshot, but your ranking of significance; how salient it is.
Accuracy

The above is in order for me.

Feel free to add.
 
Accuracy is first for me, I'll carry a heavier rifle if I'm more accurate with it vs a lighter one. 1.5" at 100 yards is accurate enough for me, anything better is gravy. As long as I don't go over 2" I'll consider it if I know the ranges I'll be hunting at will be around 200 yards or less. For me I've found that a rifle that is accurate for me usually balances quite well and points easily, and the length of pull isn't outside what I find usable.

Luckily I have several rifles that are accurate enough for me to take hunting, so after that I just decide on what calibers for the game I'll hunt. I have a .243 and .270 for deer and pronghorn, and I'll use the .270, .30-06, .338-06, .35 Whelen, and .375 Ruger for elk. I have several other rifles I haven't found the right load for yet, and one of them is my Savage 99 in .358. I'd sure love to hunt an elk with that rifle.
 
Fit is pretty much all you have to worry about imho.
You have to look for a rifle that "isn't" accurate and reliable. Some rifles are better than others, but there are really very few bad modern rifles.
 
I agree with the accuracy part Buzz. A 3" at 100 yard rifle that's well sighted in with have a POI variation of 1 1/2" from POA. That's good WAY, WAY out there on medium and bigger game. At 500 yards one is still inside an 8" circle assuming groups opens up linear. (I'm not dredging up field stress here). That's between 4 and 5 times the distance of my average shot.
 
#1, far and away the MOST IMPORTANT thing is using a big enough, but not too big of a caliber. Use the right caliber for the job.

Second comes accuracy. How much is needed is completely dependant on the game being pursued and the terrain one is hunting. You don't need a MOA gun if you are shooting deer at 100 yards but you do if you are shooting gophers at 300.

All other issues which will come down to personal preference. Looks, actions, handling, etc are all nice but not required. #1 and 2 are.

As for personal preference issues.....they all tie for me and there is no one perfect action or weight rifle that will do every job I need. There is always compromises.

Fisherman, I think your math may be a little fuzzy today. A bullet that starts off a 1.5" left at 100 yards will be 3" left at 200 yards and 7.5" left at 500 yards. Thats a 15 inch group. No 3 MOA gun should ever be shot at a critter 300 yards, let alone 500.
 
Fisherman, I think your math may be a little fuzzy today. A bullet that starts off a 1.5" left at 100 yards will be 3" left at 200 yards and 7.5" left at 500 yards. Thats a 15 inch group. No 3 MOA gun should ever be shot at a critter 300 yards, let alone 500.
Click to expand...

How big are deer lungs?

At 300 yards a 3 MOA rifle has a POI 4 1/2" from the POA (at it's worse). That's WELL inside the spread of a deer's lungs. I'll back off the 500 yard premise, but 300 is a gimme if the shooter maintains the 3 MOA.
 
Hunting is not a generic thing. My rifles must satisfy the specific mission.

Western hunts I look for accuracy first and foremost. It's got to have a flat shooting round going out the muzzle exactly where I need it to go. It must be less that MOA for me. Weight is next and fit & finish doesn't really enter the decision much.

Woods and thickets call for quick employment first. This is a combination of short length, quick acquiring sights and balance. Weight is second, silence is next (talking about rattles and squeaks here, not booms) and accuracy next. Again, fit and finish don't mean as much as the other characteristics.

My definition of fit and finish for a hunting rifle applies more to the ability to withstand the elements in which it is used. Hunting rifles get knocked around a lot and if you are worried about the looks of your pride and joy, you aren't fully immersed in the hunt. They must be able to survive moisture and mitigate rust.

A 3 MOA rifle is not a 300 yard deer rifle; you are 1 heartbeat away from a crippled/lost or missed deer. There are a lot of deer and elk missing or dragging a front leg as a result of hunters taking Hail Mary shots with insufficient rifles and skills. You may think it's ok but, I'll make an attempt to disabuse other readers of this notion. Too many new or less experienced shooters look at a ballistics chart and a 100 yard group and think they are ready to snipe deer at long range. 3 MOA is a risky and reckless shot at 300 yards. There are many things working against hunters in this situation: adrenaline, shortness of breath, a rapid pulse, heat waves, altitude, elevation, movement, wind, poor and unstable rifle rests and blades of grass. Even with a 1 MOA rifle, many folks are not up to the task. I'll wager that the majority of riflemen with the skill and experience to consider humane shots at distances of 300 yards and longer will recognize the need to have adequate equipment.
 
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1. Portability, I'm a big fan of carbine length rifles for most all my hunting.
38-42".

2. Suitability, utilize enough bullet and sufficient caliber for the job. Not one that "should" be fine.

3. Set-up, Using proper optics, properly installed, for the game/terrain/range

4. Action type, I use all types and it's not normally an issue, but can be a consideration in specific instances

5. Looks, Life's too short to huunt with an ugly rifle, period
 
priorities

weight
accuracy
balance
length
finish
tecnology


weight,lenth and balance all come together- they are interconnected.

For hunting accuracy must meet a standard.
If I get one inch groups at 100 yards it is great. 2 inch and it is ok for most all situations.
Tecnology is the same-most every gun will load and shoot reliably enough to hunt.
Fit and finish are just "looks". I have only seen a couple of weapons too ugly to carry hunting (ie High Standard)
Weight is one that I feel at the end of the day regardless of weather I shoot it or not.
 
I think too many people are laboring under the misassumption that one rifle fits all tasks - even for the same game animal. I believe nothing could be further from the truth.

If I'm sitting in a tree stand in the middle of heavy cover watching a feeder, primary for me is something short and light. If I'm sitting at the edge of a large field or pasture, then I want accuracy. If I go hunting in bad weather, I want a gun that I won't cry over when it gets tarnished.
 
Doyle:

I couldn't agree more. My old hunting patch had some large fields (800 yards) and 700 acres of forrest. I had a half mile hike back in so I took 2 rifles to the stand in the morning. I sat with a 270 or 30-06 (my sub MOA flat shooter) till it was time to still hunt and then grabbed my 30-30 Marlin for the forrest. The field gun sat quietly and serrenely by the stand waiting for the dusk watch.

Some days I took them at 300 yards and some days I took them at 10 feet.
 
$$$$$$$$$$

#1 buy the most accurate gun you can afford. # 2 practice with it until you are 100% sure that you can hit your target at whatever range you plan to shoot an animal at. What good is it for hunting if it points well, weighs less than 9.14#s, points naturally and all the other stuff if when it comes time to shoot, you can't hit your target?? Good gun designers have already worried about the feel, weight, looks, balance for years, and have made guns that work well for most people. The ones that did the best job (overall) charge more money for their guns than makers who just did an o.k. job ( Again overall) If you can afford a Sako, buy it, if not and you can afford a Weatherby then buy it. Same goes for Tikka, Remington, Browning, Ruger, Savage, Mossberg, Howa, whatever. Take it from someone who usually over thinks purchases, when it comes to rifles, you can feel very good about simply buying the best one you can afford. Sure there are those out there in cyber-world that would rather have Ruger over a Weatherby, or Stevens over a dang Winchester, but the best handling, most accurate and best balanced rifle will come with the highest price......
 
I hunt (on foot) in pretty rugged mountains, so my priorities are a bit different than many hunters.

Weight
Balance/Pointability
Accuracy
Length of Action/Rifle
Technology

Fit / Finish don't apply. If I don't like what I see; I don't buy it.
 
For me, it depends on what the use is going to be for the firearm.

For calling coyotes, I want a small caliber bolt action, with a shorter than standard barrel (18-20 inches is what I prefer), and accuracy is very important for the occasional long range shot.

For deer in open country, I want a longer barrel (26" prefered), flat shooting meduim caliber cartridge, and good accuracy.

For deer in closer cover, I want a larger diameter bullet, quick handling (16" barrel is great!), and fine accuracy is mostly irrelevant as long as it shoots half way decent.

For elk and larger critters, I mostly use the same 7mm mag I use for open country deer. The same criteria apply.

So, without knowing the specific use, it's hard to say what I'd want. I have and use several flavors of firearms for hunting, including handguns.

They all work for their intended purpose.

Daryl
 
A couple things.

Name a modern rifle that won't do better than 3" groups at 100yds. If you feed it the right ammo the odds of one getting worse than 2" groups are pretty low. We aren't talking Mosins.

This comment bugs me a bit because it seems to echo a lot of the threads.
#1, far and away the MOST IMPORTANT thing is using a big enough, but not too big of a caliber. Use the right caliber for the job.
Click to expand...
Most rifles come in a variety of calibers from .22 centerfire on up to big game guns. For example the Stevens Model 200 isn't what you'd call a top class rifle yet it comes in ten different calibers from .223 up to .300win mag.
So in short no matter what rifle you pick it will most likely have a caliber that will do the job just fine and dandy.
Picking caliber is way down the list imho.
 
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