Thread: Good first hunting rifle?

Originally Posted by Ground Control

What ever your budget is spend 75% of it on the scope and binoculars .
If you want to be a hunter glass is your best friend .


Ken

75 percent? that's way to high.Glass will not make any difference in the bush.we don't all hunt the tops and glass clearings so I think you could spend less than 75% and still call yourself a hunter.

Can someone explain why people bag on Tikka? Mine does everything i want it to, Reasnoble glass, Accurate enough, reasnobly light when going bush for afew days, Goes bang when i pull the trigger. I havnt been in this game a long time and havnt shot with alot of different rifles so cant comment much but seems to be alot of ' looking down your nose ' at these rifles..?

Ugly, cheap, not as special as Tikka owners love to think they are. Nothing really wrong with them.

What gimp said nothing wrong with tikkas,but if your a shit shot then buying a tikka means your a shit shot who owns a tikka.buyng it wont turn you into a shooting/hunting god overnight like SOME not all tikka owners believe and that goes for any brand rifle IMO

Originally Posted by tikka 7/08

Can someone explain why people bag on Tikka? Mine does everything i want it to, Reasnoble glass, Accurate enough, reasnobly light when going bush for afew days, Goes bang when i pull the trigger. I havnt been in this game a long time and havnt shot with alot of different rifles so cant comment much but seems to be alot of ' looking down your nose ' at these rifles..?

I'm not anti-Tikka, but the T3 is cheap and a little bit nasty. I've owned and really liked earlier models, being 585 & 595, both in wood/blued .308. Both very accurate and functional rifles. I think it is the plastic magazine and stock which let the T3 down. However, it is undeniably the biggest seller in NZ and is definitely value for money.
I was contemplating buying one recently, but found a well priced 2nd hand Sako instead, so the decision was easy

Don't think it's a matter of bagging the Tikkas as such, more pointing out that there are other options that are just as effective for similar or less money. Would be dull if everyone bought them. I myself wasn't a fan of the bolt release system on them and a few other things.

Originally Posted by Doch

Hey guys,

I'm looking at getting a good rifle that I can hunt with. Right now I've narrowed it down to a Howa 1500 and a Tikka T3, but what I want to know is what is the advantage of getting one of these over something like a Savage Axis?

From what I've heard and read the Axis shoots decently and with the right techniques can give some nice groupings, what does the extra $600-900 dollars on a T3 get me?

is it just a preference thing?

Cheers.

What ever feels right when you shoulder it. try shit loads of different makes new and secondhand. mechanically they all load bullets and shoot deer.

hmmm i guess it comes to personal preference then, and the owner of said tikka not being a douche, I for one know im not a fantastic shot and under no illusion my rifle is going to turn me into a hunting god (in a nut shell i suck). Good to know though, I liked it for a number of reasons as i previously mentioned, weight, smooth action, build quality seems ok on mine, straight forward, goes bang when i pull the trigger. Prior to this i had a weatherby vanguard, in comparisin i think the tikka is better for my purposes

Originally Posted by Doch

I'm up in Taranaki at the moment but I'll be down in Christchurch by mid February for Uni this year.

If you get up to Te Kuiti before you go back to uni Pm me you can have a crack out of my Howa 243 and my P17 rebarreled to 264 Win Mag

Originally Posted by JayColli

Lotsa old .303s on TradeMe which were a favourite of generations past... or past due

But honestly, like other have said, glass is a really important part of the equation regardless of where/what you're hunting but the choice has to factor in both of those things. Do some poking around on here, ask seasoned hunters to see what they recommend and get out as much as possible with friends to figure out what works well for your chosen game in the area you're most likely to hunt. Once you have an optics setup that you think you'll be pleased with you can reach into the piggy bank and see what's left for the rifle as the biggest factor in a person's ability to connect downrange is often dependant on experience rather than hardware - within reason of course.

I don't have any personal experience with the Savage Axis but I have a few of their other rifles, including the Stevens 200, which was part of their budget line before the Axis came out. The Stevens is my go-to gun for deer and with a bit of extra work it has shot just as well as a factory Tikka. However, the fit/finish of the Stevens has never been as good, the increased price point on Stevens rifles in NZ and potential difficulty of finding aftermarket parts could make all of this a bit of a moot point... Having said that, just try and get your hands on whatever you can and pick the one that suites you best.

if i had to pick .303 i would go for the P14 far better rifle function wise and strengh wise

You'd be mad to buy a .303 in this day and age

Originally Posted by gimp

You'd be mad to buy a .303 in this day and age

Oh lord (again !)

Originally Posted by ebf

Oh lord (again !)

I bought one





But when with a little shopping around you can find Weatherby/Howa/Remington 700/Winchester 70 in the 500-600 range used quite easily, I can't see why would you buy a century-old sporterised lee-enfield which is absolutely inferior in every way and not all that much cheaper

I just love these threads

Every guy and his dog wades in with dont buy this or only get that, or this caliber/rifle sucks.

Is it for bush hunting in NZ ? If so, pretty much anything 6mm and above with reasonable case capacity will be perfectly fine, and gimpster that includes "absolutely inferior" cartridges like 303 as well. Anyone telling you a cartridge in the above range is not suitable for hunting NZ bush is talking thru his sphincter

What's the total budget, including scope and other hunting bits and pieces (binocs, pack etc) ? Don't quite see the point in blowing all your money on the latest "super" caliber / flavour of the week rifle, and then not shooting or hunting coz you don't have the other gear.

Not so much the cartridge as the busted ass rifle, if you can afford 300 bucks for a piece of shit sporterised lee-enfield you can afford 500 for a used remington 700



Like no shit it'll work, but it doesn't make any sense to buy it. Even finding .303 ammo is kinda hard these days.