shtf/hunting rifle, best on a $400 budget?

Status
Not open for further replies.
W

Wadesauce

Inactive
I'm looking into a good rifle soon, something I can reliably hunt deer with and count on in a shtf situation. Preferred a semi auto, but I'm open to bolt/lever action. What do you guys think do I take on a project mosin? What's a good anti-deer caliber for shtf? I'm new to rifles so I'm ready for all opinions and general info. Me personally I have a budget of $400. I like the idea of a project rifle. Something I can make mine. Thanks all.
 
Just from the sound of this thread I would make the asumption that Your not an experienced Hunter, and somewhat of a firearms enthousiest who is looking for justification to purchase a Rifle of sorts. In this case given Your requirements and limited budjet I would look for a lever action 30 30 or an sks. If You just need a good Deer Rifle and dont really need a mall cop toy I would get a Stevens 200 in 30 06.
 
im going to agree with tx on this one, imo its hard to find a rifle like you are contemplating for the price level. Lever action carbines were the goto shtf hunting rifle for years and years, not tactical but would get the job done.
 
You'll get more gun for the money buying a bolt rifle in 308 or 30-06. Even over a lever action 30-30. At $400 I'd look used, but the Stevens 200 or Marlin XL-7 would be at the top of my list. I'll throw the Ruger American in the mix as well, but don't like it as well.

At just over $400 if you can squeeze a bit more into your budget, look at the TC Venture, Weatherby Vanguard or Howa 1500.
 
I agree that $400 total does not leave much room for optics, if any.
I tried going to mosin route. $150 for the rifle, $100 for a good stock+a couple hours for proper fitting, add another $150 for a decent bent bolt and scope mount(STAY AWAY FROM ATI KITS) and you no longer have enough money for a decent scope. and that still doesn't leave any room for trigger upgrades, barrel cut+recrown and glass bedding, things that are necessary to offer good accuracy in a MN, which any survival rifle needs.

a sporterized mosin nagant, no matter how much money you put into it will never be as good as a factory new model of any make of equal value invested. a factory model like a weatherby vanguard or Ruger american but then neither of them still offers anything for a scope once you get rings. me thinks thou must spend more dollars if thy wishes to have a decent survival rifle.
 
No question in my mind, if I wanted a general purpose rifle on a $400 budget, it'd be one of the Savage 10/11/110/111 combo deals.
 
Last edited:
Ok. As I said, new to rifles. I have hunted before, just with shotguns. I grew up on shotguns. I can see what you are saying about the mosin. Realize, I'm not trying to be tacticool, I'd rather buy something milserp or used, refinish the wood. The sks was something I was considering.

Another question though, what is a 30-30? Sorry if I should know, but I've never seen that round, what can it do ballistics wise? Could I reasonably find it shtf?
 
The .30-30 has, I suspect, taken more deer than any other single caliber. It would certainly be in the top three. Not a long-range round, but at reasonable distances it'll get the job done. May not be as versatile as what you're looking for, but a good .30-30 lever gun would be one I'd like if the manure impacts the ventilation equipment.
 
Ok. As I said, new to rifles. I have hunted before, just with shotguns. I grew up on shotguns. I can see what you are saying about the mosin. Realize, I'm not trying to be tacticool, I'd rather buy something milserp or used, refinish the wood. The sks was something I was considering.

Another question though, what is a 30-30? Sorry if I should know, but I've never seen that round, what can it do ballistics wise? Could I reasonably find it shtf?
Click to expand...

I for one don't buy into tacticool as much as practicool. I don't need 4 rails, flashlights, lazers and forward pistol grips but adjustable stocks and pistol grips have their advantages and uses. I recently tried out an SKS, it's one of the U fix ems that you get for fairly cheap and I fixed it up to make a very nice STHF rifle. here's the thread I made detailing the modifications I made and how they work as well as the legal requirements when modifying SKS rifles.

as for 30-30 it is one of the most popular sporting cartridges in the US. it is rarely found in bolt actions as it is a rimmed cartridge much like 7.62x54R and it's difficult to design a non-tubular magazine around such a casing design but single shots and lever actions do very well with the 30-30 cartridge. it is very similar to 7.62x39 ballistically only 30-30 holds little faster velocity and is better suited to heavier weight bullets. a marlin 336 lever action in 30-30 would not be hard to find in your budget range and 30-30 is affected less by hoarders in the face of impending disaster.
 
Wadesauce said:
Another question though, what is a 30-30? Sorry if I should know, but I've never seen that round, what can it do ballistics wise? Could I reasonably find it shtf?
Click to expand...

Nope, you won't be able to find it if that happens. Ammunition of all types could become scarce. So buy something you can stock up on, and learn other skills to help you just in case.

Ammunition is a finite resource, and even if you reload what happens when your powder and primer supply run out? Best bet for that to be able to use a firearm long tem when supplies are scarce is a rimfire of some sort. You can pack around several hundred to several thousands rounds of ammunition pretty easily. Take down any small game that you may want to hunt to eat. I still don't know anyone who wants to get shot by one so it will work for HD, but you might have to use a few extra rounds on a BG to get them down.

If you want to buy a hunting rifle, buy something in a popular cartridge like .30-30, .243, .270, .308, or .30-06 and forget about the rest of the stuff. Plenty of good rifles out there that will get the job done and several of them were already mentioned. Getting anything in a semi-auto for less than $400 is going to be tough right now as well as finding any ammunition in stock for the popular semi-autos. If $400 includes scope I'd look at single shot rifles that had iron sights as well as used lever and pump action rifles as these usually have iron sights as well and forget the optics.
 
Last edited:
I suggest going to one of the larger gun stores--Cabela's or Bass Pro Shop--and just look. Same for browsing around at a gun show. That will give you a feel for what's "out there".

You can enter cartridge labels (.30-30, .30-'06, 7mm08) at Wikipedia and see a good bit of explanatory material.

As far as prices? Good bolt-action hunting rifles are a drug on the market at this time. Pawn shops are commonly loaded with them. They usually have at-most half of the asking price as their cost. If you are any good at all in bargaining, that's a likely place. In general, any rifle that's not obviously bruised and abused is likely a good shooter.

As far as "advice", the usual offer to a newbie rifle-shooter guy is to suggest the old stand-by, the rimfire .22. However, with today's panic in the marketplace for ammunition, odds are that the present least-cost (if available) would be .22 Magnum. (Just a guess, anyhow.)

Nothing at all wrong with a lever-action .30-30. Plenty of power for any common use, and skill will allow rapid and accurate fire if there is a need for "social work" in a self-defense situation.
 
As most others have pointed out, semi-auto for $400 is a tall order, unless you can find an SKS deal out there. With quality ammo, the SKS will bring home dinner reliably as well as help protect your home.
A good bolt gun can be had with a scope for that price, if you shop around.
A lever-action .30-30 is also a great option to consider!

And to all those that think they need to sink an extra $500 into a $100 Mosin to make it "adequate"... seriously? If you can hit a target the size of a paper plate, you can bring home dinner (or stop a threat in a defense situation). No one needs sub MOA 5 shot groups to bring home a deer. In a hunting situation, after the first shot your target is NOT going to be standing in the exact same spot and therefore the ability to put a second shot within 1/2" from the first is completely irrelevant.
"Minute o' Vitals" is all you need.
:D
 
IMO a savage .308 win. with accutrigger bolt action. Maybe learn how to bed the action yourself.

You would have an accurate rifle with a popular round at a resonable price.

Just an opinion and I'm no firearms expert...thats for sure. Plenty of people here with way more knowledge than me. But I've seen a cheap gun out shoot plenty of guns that cost twice or three times as much in the same hands on the same day with the same ammo.
 
thanks all. yea, i seen a lot of sks at the gun show in my area last month. im not worried about optics just yet, like i said, project gun, i can add optics later. for now the sks seems like the best semi auto, and i can find it in my area for under $400 im pretty sure. im either going to get that or if i can find a good deal on a nice lever action.

you guys really helped me out today.
 
And to all those that think they need to sink an extra $500 into a $100 Mosin to make it "adequate"... seriously? If you can hit a target the size of a paper plate, you can bring home dinner (or stop a threat in a defense situation). No one needs sub MOA 5 shot groups to bring home a deer. In a hunting situation, after the first shot your target is NOT going to be standing in the exact same spot and therefore the ability to put a second shot within 1/2" from the first is completely irrelevant.
"Minute o' Vitals" is all you need.
Click to expand...

nobody said anything about sub MOA and this isn't just for a hunting rifle. the OP is asking about a possible STHF(which is a banned topic here so I paraphrase it to be survival) rifle. a 4 MOA rifle in a situation where you have to survive off hunting is a horrible tool. you want every shot to go where you need it to. a paper plate doesn't move and if you try to hit that same paper plate when it's the same color as it's back drop then guess what, it's a lot harder to guess where to place your shot and when you are barely able to hit a paper plate by aiming at the center while it's stationary, what makes you think it'll cleanly kill an animal when you misjudge holdover, windage, leading, ETC?

if you are stranded somewhere and all you have is a pocket full of ammo and no food in your belly and all you can find are grouse and rabbits, what makes you think that that paper plate sized group is enough to bring home dinner?

1.5-2 MOA is the absolute minimum amount of accuracy you should accept in a STHF/survival situation. hunting by itself is a completely different matter. if you go hunting and you wound a deer and it gets away and you have no more ammo left because you have been blasting away all day then you can just hop in your truck, grab a hoagie at the gas station on the way back into town and grab a box of ammo at your local sporting goods store. if you make that same mistake while trying to survive in the wild you now have no food, no way of getting any and most importantly no way of defending yourself should you run into a bear, large cat, wolf or other potentially dangerous animals.
 
I agree that $400 total does not leave much room for optics, if any.
I tried going to mosin route. $150 for the rifle, $100 for a good stock+a couple hours for proper fitting, add another $150 for a decent bent bolt and scope mount(STAY AWAY FROM ATI KITS) and you no longer have enough money for a decent scope. and that still doesn't leave any room for trigger upgrades, barrel cut+recrown and glass bedding, things that are necessary to offer good accuracy in a MN, which any survival rifle needs.
Click to expand...

I'm gonna argue against this statement, a bone stock mosin nagant is more than suitable for pretty much anything other than +300 yard shots. I've rattled oil drums at 150-170meters with no problems, not even really focusing on shooting technique. I would argue that a lever gun would be a better choice (my survival/truck gun is a 1895 45/70 with the XS scout setup, 45/70 is in the same range as a 458 SOCOM, 450 Bushmaster or 50 Beowulf for you AR guys), but a mosin in off the rack form will suit all your needs. Just another two cents, 30-30 is comparable in ballistics to x39. If you want something with a bit flatter trajectory, go with the .308 Marlin, in a 336 I have yet to hear a bad thing about them.
 
Few weeks ago walked out of a pawnshop with a nicely-sportered 1917 Eddystone 30.06 bolt action, with sling, smooth action, good sights, mint bore, for $330 out the door.

For SHTF, a $400 SKS is a good bet, but when the SHTF, you'll need both. One to hunt, the other to defend.
 
I'd get a 30-30,after some practice you can get pretty good/fast with them. I have several Winchesters and they are excellent and have never failed me in the field hunting in snow and mud.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top