Marlin 1894 vs CZ 527 for deer

CZ will be lighter and easier to maneuver.
It's the reason I bought a 527 in 7.62x39. Even slung over the shoulder it's easy to get around thick brush and under tree limbs without getting hung up, and light enough to not be fatiguing.
7.62x39 is plenty of power for anything I'll encounter from wild boar to deer. I have a Leupold VX R 1.25-4x scope mounted on mine and it works well.
 
What ammo would be best for the 7.62x39? I was thinking about the 154gr tula SP for this rifle since the bore diameter is not designed to american standards. Im also concerned of the amount of expansion of these rounds. What are your thoughts?
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I've had mixed results with Russian SP 7.62x39. I'll never use it again for hunting. When I pull the trigger, I want to know the bullet will peform 100% of the time, and cheap SP ammo can't guarantee that.

I am a big fan of Hornady's SST bullets and use the following in my VEPR with very good accuracy and the SST bullet is excellent on deer:
http://www.sgammo.com/product/hornady/50-round-box-762x39-sst-hornady-steel-case-ammo-8078

I've also tried the PPU SP ammo. The accuracy is decent, but I've seen mixed results that put the deer down, but not as fast as you would think (in 303 & 7.5x55 Swiss). The PPU brass is nice for reloading with SST bullets though (SST .310 bullets are available if you decide to try reloading).
 
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I would choose the rifle model that you are most comfortable with the action. For me, it would be a bolt (turn bolt).

As far as practicing goes for deer hunting and almost all short range shots.... shoot the rifle enough to be comfortable with it. My deer rifle is a Remington M700 in 270 Win and I break it out in the late summer to fire a few rounds to check the scope and function.... then head to the woods. Never had a problem hitting a deer in the right spot at ranges under 100 yds. Box of ammo lasts me years.... :D

Honestly, I don't shoot my 270 for fun any more. I mostly shoot 22's now.
 
My main goal is to find a caliber that is relatively inexpensive to shoot and can effectively kill deer at close range.
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Have you considered the .357 magnum??

Deer, 50yds and under? absolutely powerful enough. Ammo is cheaper than the .44 Mag (not sure how it compares to the .30 Russian short though, I don't have one, so I haven't paid attention to x39 ammo prices) Plus, you get to shoot .38 special for plinking. And, you're already versed in using a lever gun (.30-30).

Lever guns in .357 are short, light, and very handy. The Marlin takes an optic easily, though the stock isn't perfect for one it works well enough for me, anyway. A low power (3x is the high end for thick woods) scope or a dot sight, while untraditional looking on a lever gun, can be very effective.

Down side? The Marlin isn't common, or cheap. Prices I see on them are what I consider foolishly high. But, I'm still stuck in the past about the price of a lot of things. The last .357 Marlin I got was probably a decade ago a new looking pre-crossbolt safety gun that I gave $300 for. Don't think you'll find that price today though. sorry. Rossi makes a copy of the Winchester 92 that I've heard people speak highly of, but I've never had one, so I can't say from personal experience. The Winchester design is more difficult to scope, if that's important to you.

I was going to comment on the speed of a follow up shot, between lever and bolt action, something that might be important in a brush gun. For most people, the lever will be slightly faster. However, if you practice enough (and it doesn't need to all be live fire) you can get skilled enough with a good bolt gun to make the difference essentially insignificant.

My first deer rifle was a Remington 600 carbine in .308 Win, with half a box of ammo. Knowing I needed to shoot it to learn it, got me into handloading. I probably fired that rifle 500 times the summer before deer season, and practiced working the action, from the shoulder, at speed, a few thousand times, or so. That taught me a number of things. One of them being that a hot .308 in a 6lb rifle will beat the snot out of you, until you learn to handle it.;) Another was that you could be pretty fast if you practiced enough.

We hunted the Adirondacks, mostly thick brush but 100yd shots could happen, and the one time I got one, my .308 carbine with a JC Higgins (store brand Weaver) 2.5x Post scope performed perfectly. If I had it to do over, I'd go with a lighter recoiling round, but I've grown old and wimpy since then. :D

Either of the choices you named would work well, which one are you more interested in trying out? Vs. cost.

A small reloading set up can still be done fairly cheaply, and can allow you to shoot twice as much or maybe even 3x as much (depending on caliber and load) compared to buying factory ammo. It opens up a whole new world.
 
For short range brush gun the 44mag is tops and has been very popular around here for a long time. Nothin to do with ammo cost.

My friend wound a trophy buck with 357 and would have dropped in his tracks with a 44mag. Deer and trophy was recovered with 'legal' assistance from tracking dogs. Hit pretty good, just not hard enough.

You can always add a scope to the 30/30 if not already and shoot the 44 with irons. You will also find the iron site 44 is very good choice in foul weather hunting. Depends where you hunt, foul can be driving snow or freezing rain or light drizzle. The deer are bedded down and you sneak in or carefully drive them out.

While they dont get much respect a pump or semi shotgun can be handy in this situation too.
 
My friend wound a trophy buck with 357 and would have dropped in his tracks with a 44mag.
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How do you know it would have? I have seen deer run off after being hit with bottle neck rifle rounds that have far more power than a 44 mag will ever have. Its amazing what kind of injuries deer can withstand and still run off and be lost.
 
Hi everyone. I am thinking of getting a new rifle for this next deer season coming up. I will be hunting very thick brush (farthest shot would be no more than 50 yards) and am considering a CZ 527 in 7.62x39 and a marlin 1894 in 44 mag. I already have a 30-30 but ammo is expensive (a little over a dollar a round for winchester soft points in my area), so i cant practice as much as i would like to. My main goal is to find a caliber that is relatively inexpensive to shoot and can effectively kill deer at close range. I think the 7.62x39 and 44 mag would be good choices. How do you think these two calibers compare and do you have something else in mind?
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When I hunted I hunted quite a bit in West Virginia and while I believe the 30-30 Winchester is the West Virginia State Cartridge I used a 44 Magnum and a 444 Marlin more than any other cartridge with the 44 Magnum inside 100 yards being the real thumper. I was never fond of the 7.62 X 39 round and saw it about like a 30-30 Winchester as to being a good 200 yard cartridge. That said my hunting buddy in W VA hunted with an SKS and took plenty of deer with that cartridge. I used a 240 grain bullet in both, the 44 Magnum and 444 Marlin never seeing any merit to the heavier 300 grain flavors for hunting.

When buying ammunition for hunting it pays to get premium hunting ammunition with good hunting bullets. If for example if I am buying ammunition to hunt, I will pop the higher price and buy Winchester Power Points at about $28 a box or about $1.40 a round. How many rounds do you need to go hunting? Heck, my buddy's dad in W VA would make a 20 round box of 30-30 Winchester last at least 5 years. I would pay about the same for a box of Barnes VOR-TX or similar so you only suffer once. :) Buying ammunition for light target practice is one thing but for hunting I want premium ammunition made for hunting.

The 357 Magnum is another cartridge I like and is perfectly capable of taking deer out to 100 yards out of a rifle. Between the 7.62 X 39 and 44 Mag I want the 44 Remington Magnum in a short handy carbine type rifle.

Ron
 
thoughts

As noted, buying a new rifle to offset ammo costs is putting the cart before the horse. Same same with ammo, as stated, buy your 30-30 ammo at Wal-Mart, plain jane soft points, you should come in well under $20.00.

Cheap practice, despite ammo costs increasing, still means a .22 lr. Every rifleman should have a .22, and shoot it alot. One option some guys in my area took when .22 ammo became really scarce, and was scalping at ridiculous prices, was to buy a decent pellet rifle. Also, dryfiring is the cheapest practice of all!!!!

That said, if a fella wants a new rifle, why not? I hunt both a 7.62x39 bolt rifle, (Ruger 77mkII) and a .44 carbine (mine's a vintage Ruger semi-auto). I find the x39mm bolt rifle a bit more versatile, in in my examples, certainly more accurate. The x39 round is flatter, faster, providing a bit more reach, and yields higher energy numbers too. I recently switched to the .310 dia SST 125 grain (?) made specifically for the x39mm in my reloads, but this same slug is available at fair prices in Hornady's steel case line as loaded ammo. Bamaboy took the first deer to fall to the the SST slug, and wounding and results were entirely satisfactory, and seemed superior to our previous load that used a 135 gr reload. I cannot advise on the 154 gr Tula ammo, but have had trouble getting velocity much past 1900 fps with 150 gr reloads in my bolt rifle. The 125"s do much better, running 2225 fps.

Finally, regards the SKS comments, back when an SKS could be had for $100 bucks, and a case of ammo for even less, the SKS made some sense as a beater and loaner. But now, most SKS rifles are priced and selling for far more than what they offer as a sporting rifle, which I do not see as much. Far too long and heavy for a "carbine", with dubious fitting and no support net, I cannot recommend buying one for any purpose. And x39mm steel case, though affordable comparitively speaking, is not the deal it was back then either.
 
Cheap practice, despite ammo costs increasing, still means a .22 lr. Every rifleman should have a .22, and shoot it alot. One option some guys in my area took when .22 ammo became really scarce, and was scalping at ridiculous prices, was to buy a decent pellet rifle. Also, dryfiring is the cheapest practice of all!!!!
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I couldn't agree more. A .22 is still the cheapest plinking round you can get without having to reload for it. And air rifles let you shoot at home without a trip to the range. I live right in town and shooting even in the back yard would get the cops called. So I open my back door and shoot at targets I have set up in the back yard. In doing this for over 10 years no one has ever complained. Or I shoot my pump up pellet pistol in the garage. Its good practice. And cheap.
 
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