Thread: As someone who is getting into hunting, what rifle should I invest more money into?

Got any mates that hunt? Try theirs out and see what you like

Buy well second hand and you will be able to resell later for what you bought it for

Take your time


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Originally Posted by Bill999

Got any mates that hunt? Try theirs out and see what you like

Buy well second hand and you will be able to resell later for what you bought it for

Take your time


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah I do. I plan on reaching out to them later on. They were the ones saying to spend a bit more on a .22

I started out hunting not far down the road from where your in-laws have their land.

My first rifle was a JW15 and the second was a Winchester M94. If I was starting from fresh today and not funding my hunting from firewood money after school I would start with a bolt action CZ in whichever configuration I like the feel of. And the centrefire would be a short accurate suppressed bolt action or single shot at the cheaper end of the scale, maybe a Howa mini in 6.5G. Or a Bergara single in .308. Preferably Stainless but even a good condition .303 would fit the bill.

The logic being that the .22 is pretty easy to look after unless you want to strap it to the front of your quad for when your working dogs inadvertently bail a pig. Something tells me that’s not you. It will loose minimum amount of value (either to you or in the retail sense).

A fair chunk of your formative hunting is probably going to be in the Western Kaimai ranges. Lots of supplejack. If you have something like a Walnut Stock CZ 550 or a Sako that is your pride and joy, it will be exhausting trying not to get it scratched or wet, you won’t be able to concentrate on stalking and consequently won’t see any deer. The experience won’t be fun and you may end up preferring to concentrate on the rabbits and your centrefire will then become what is known around here as a ‘range queen’ or ‘safe queen’. It may even end up in the Buy sell swap.

If you buy a relatively cheap centrefire rifle you can just get on with the hunting, there will or won’t come a time when you need to upgrade, in either scenario you won’t regret having started with your knock around gun which you will probably still keep partly because you shot your first deer with it and partly because it will still be a useful gun.

Hi, welcome to the hunting fraternity. I bought my first 22 over 30 years ago, a S/S Ruger 10/22 with a Tasco 4x32 scope, it now has an old Leupold vari-x 11 3-9x40 on it and is still going strong after many thousands of round and god now's how many rabbits hares and possums! A nice 223 or 22-250 are a lot of fun on rabbits, hares and magpies and a great way to improve your longer range shooting. My first centerfire was a Sako Finnbear 270 with the afore mentioned Leupold kicked a bit but I still liked it and began my love affair with Sako's, now have two Sako 75 22-250s, a varmint and a S/S and a 75 270 rebarreled to 280ai. I think a Tikka with a good 3-9 or 3.5-10 scope in 7mm08, 308 or 270 would be hard to beat for starters. That's my story and personal thoughts, hope thats of some help and I hope you enjoy your newfound hobby and talking with the great bunch of helpful knowledgeable fellas on this forum , cheers Brett.

Originally Posted by longshot

I started out hunting not far down the road from where your in-laws have their land.

My first rifle was a JW15 and the second was a Winchester M94. If I was starting from fresh today and not funding my hunting from firewood money after school I would start with a bolt action CZ in whichever configuration I like the feel of. And the centrefire would be a short accurate suppressed bolt action or single shot at the cheaper end of the scale, maybe a Howa mini in 6.5G. Or a Bergara single in .308. Preferably Stainless but even a good condition .303 would fit the bill.

The logic being that the .22 is pretty easy to look after unless you want to strap it to the front of your quad for when your working dogs inadvertently bail a pig. Something tells me that’s not you. It will loose minimum amount of value (either to you or in the retail sense).

A fair chunk of your formative hunting is probably going to be in the Western Kaimai ranges. Lots of supplejack. If you have something like a Walnut Stock CZ 550 or a Sako that is your pride and joy, it will be exhausting trying not to get it scratched or wet, you won’t be able to concentrate on stalking and consequently won’t see any deer. The experience won’t be fun and you may end up preferring to concentrate on the rabbits and your centrefire will then become what is known around here as a ‘range queen’ or ‘safe queen’. It may even end up in the Buy sell swap.

If you buy a relatively cheap centrefire rifle you can just get on with the hunting, there will or won’t come a time when you need to upgrade, in either scenario you won’t regret having started with your knock around gun which you will probably still keep partly because you shot your first deer with it and partly because it will still be a useful gun.

Thanks for this. Some good advice here. I had never planned on getting a really expensive centrefire due to the fact I anticipate doing a lot of bush bashing due to where I live. I also like the look of synthetic stocks anyways... Whats the deer population like in the Kaimais?