Thread: Hunting rifle

I looked at all sorts of different calibres and ended up with a 308 due to being the most readily available factory ammo, although I will be reloading for it very soon.

Originally Posted by kukuwai

Just put an @ in front of Kelton like this @Kelton if you want him to see your post mate

Personally I would stay away from 7mm08 as it is not popular internationally so potentially less components in the coming years....

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oh come on..he might enjoy a soy latte in the morning!!!!!

Ok you have definitely just changed my mind completely I will be going 308 for now untill I sort reloading my own ammo in the future that is some crazy prices!

I have a mint Bergara HMR 6.5 Creedmore that might suit you. 60 rounds through it so barrel just broken in. A hunting/match rifle, extremely accurate and would certainly get the 0- 500m distance.

This rifle would help you learn to shoot well - capable of down to 0.2" and 0.3" groups at 100m. PM me if interested.

Thanks for the offer mate but already know the rifle I'm buying just trying to figure out the calibre ill be purchasing a tikka roughtech ember and after reading the posts it will either be a 6.5 or a 308 now so thank you all for your help and @Kelton be very keen in the future to contact you about ammo so be prepared for a mail haha

Originally Posted by Bill999

A 708 pushing 154sst is what I’m running for what you are looking at
Iv stepped down from 7rm to 280rem to now 708
Avoid magnums unless you need them, they are long loud and kick hard. The bullets also cost tons more as do reloading components for magnums


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Valid point some magnums do use just about twice the powder of the 08 based cases and brass can be expensive

Originally Posted by joshlidz

Thanks for the offer mate but already know the rifle I'm buying just trying to figure out the calibre ill be purchasing a tikka roughtech ember and after reading the posts it will either be a 6.5 or a 308 now so thank you all for your help and @Kelton be very keen in the future to contact you about ammo so be prepared for a mail haha

Yea mate absolutely no worrys both great cartrisges to load for iv got .308 dies already

you know...with that amount of coin to spend..buying a cheaper .308 as spare rifle wouldnt be silly..set up short and light (as oh so many are and then onsold) it would do all your bush work and muck around plinking allowing you to look after the long range slayer a bit more and still be able to get out and have fun in shitty weather etc
you can have best of both worlds then...you already have your long range/tops scope sorted but could also have something lots better for up close..lots smaller and lighter too.
if the idea of 2 .308s sounds daft.....buy a 223 for all the same reasons...... and perfect for goats and fallow.

It's a great feeling having some money to spend on your ideal rifle, but your first rifle won't be your ideal rifle for long. Put as much time as you can into learning how to shoot, maybe pick up a shooting instructor or tag along with more experienced guys. You are going to have bad habits, they just happen when learning.

You aren't going to learn everything all at once, and you can't force experience or time, so take a step back and make a plan with realistic goals. Learn safe handling by yourself and around others, repetition is key, you need to train your muscles to form the muscle memory you will rely on when it matters.

Videos and forums are great, but they can't help with the feeling of recoil, the effect your environment has on your shooting, the breathing requirments, the trigger pull and so on....

Join a club, do range days and have a think about what you want out out of your shooting. If it's hunting, the shot is the last piece of the puzzle, you need all the other pieces in place and they are many.

It may be an option to go to a store and feel out what they have on the shelf, ask questions and take notes. Maybe buy a cheapo .308 and cheapo ammo and start putting holes on paper at realistic distances and take it for a few good long walks, where it's legal obviously.

It's a sport measured in years, not weeks or months and as nice as it is to have instant gratification, that feeling will disappear in a heartbeat if you drop your 6k rifle down a slip or if you take shots at an animal only to have it live out its last hours or days badly injured hiding under some bush...

You can't force things to happen, they will happen naturally as you progress, it really is a boots on the ground scenario. If you rush it you will make mistakes and always remember to never point your rifle at anything you aren't ready to kill.

Sorry for the essay, but if you rush it and things aren't happening as fast as you want them to happen you might end it packing it in out of frustration, and we need more responsible shooters on our side. The shooting community always want to learn, teach, grow and have a good story to tell.

Be safe, think slowly and let it happen naturally.

Cheers.

@PadLo thanks for your information bro and definitely agree with what you said I'm lucky enough to have my brother that was in the military for a long time and has been a keen hunter for years so will be going under his wing and learn along with him I'm sure he's still learning on every hunt also! My long range dream is Definitely just a dream and I think your 100% right I will be needing to build and keep a long range rifle and building a bush basher for my first one ! Very happy I joined this forum alot of amazing lads in here!

All the above advice is all very worthy, you want get really comfortable & confident with your rifle, confidence in a rifle makes a huge difference to your shooting, to the point your shot placement is spot on. 308 is a very versatile cartridge

it sounds like you have your rifle choice sorted and cal possibly 308 good choices - I do like Micky Ducks idea of a .223 as well - nice to practice with especially if one shopped around for something that really shoots and you may get onto fallow areas - 308 can be a little shall we say disconcerting after 10 or so rounds especially in a very light rifle on target work - or maybe a good .22 target rifle for practice - lots of good candidates around - the biggest mistake I see a lot of hunters make and yes I used to be guilty of it is to keep changing rifles and never really getting used to one -

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

oh come on..he might enjoy a soy latte in the morning!!!!!

Come on MD, don't tar us all with the same brush. I like trim iced Latte

Im a chai latte man myself......shoot a .270w pure class and a fat arse LOL

Hmmmmm...

Josh - a thought or two from a veteran. 60+ years since I shot my first animal. No idea how many taken since then, plus years of competitive shooting.

Am quite often helping new hunters and have to say (kindly) I'd never suggest spending $6k on your first rifle setup. Good luck if you do this, but it is certainly putting the cart before the horse. I would not recommend buying a particular rifle/scope setup for you to grow into over the years. Rather I'd suggest take the years to learn your hunting and shooting skills with perhaps a variety of arms, gather experience, grow your capabilities first, then buy the right rifle to suit those.

And I suggest you are spending at least 4x more than you need to for an efficient hunting setup for northern (or most southern) hunting conditions (Palmy?). Some like to spend on big name brands but it NOT a necessity, and is certainly not needed for 0-500m hunting. There are excellent, very accurate rifles you can buy and have scoped for $1500 or less - Savage, Marlin XS7/XL7/, Howa, Browning, some Remingtons etc. These are the arms I'd recommend for you - and all (with right loads) will be far better than you for some years. Many every bit as accurate and more so than your proposed Tikka.

And I agree completely with Micky, Padlo above - I'd drop the one big purchase idea. Go buy a 22LR, join a club and begin basic learning process to shoot accurately. Do this for couple of years at least - learning positional pressures, techniques etc. And take that 22 and go shoot rabbits - this is great training for centrefire. If you can drop rabbits at 100m with a 22LR, you'd hit a deer in the head, though heart/lower chest shot of course preferable. A 223 might be an excellent next step for added range, and for medium frame targets eg wallabies/fallow etc. Then join a good centrefire club (NZDA etc..), learn rifles, loads, and over time gather experience/understanding with bigger caliber options. Be prepared to try a hunting centrefire or three - and spend good time in that northern bush and out on range learning to use them. I've never seen anyone shoot an animal or win a competition with a laptop yet.

Acquiring good hunting and shooting skills is often the product of decades of experience, and becoming a competent match shooter also takes time, takes the years. At this newbie stage, gaining good training, and building good personal experience are far more important than acquiring an expensive brand rifle/scope setup. In our own team there are past club, provincial and NZ champions, but aside from competition use, none of them buy their hunter rifles for high price/brand name kudos etc. None. Almost all rifle setups are $1500 or under - but they are deadly effective for purpose.

Find a good club or two, a good team with guys who can teach you, and have some fun years growing into your firearms. Then - at the right time - you'll make the right Josh decision on that special setup.

All the best, Mike.