rgmuckli

I am new to rifle hunting. Next season I will be going deer hunting for the first time. I have been bird hunting with my shotguns before but I have never owned or shot a rifle. I want to spend up to $500 for a gun and scope. I was looking at the Remington 700 SPS or a Savage package. Can you give me some advice on which why I should go, or any other rifles that would be good? Also if I were to get the Remington SPS I would need a scope, since I have never used a scope before can any one advise me on a good but cheaper one?

GCW

rgmuckli,you have 2 choices here,there are alot of great rifles out these days for under 500.00 limite.The first thing I will say is not to skimp on your scope.I believe that a good scope is money well spent on any firearm.As for a rifle the savages are great guns for the money ,But the scopes that come on the package guns are real low end.You might also want to look at the Stevens 200 or the Mossberg ATR100.Both of these guns can be had for under 300.00 dollars and both shot well for budget rifles.That would give you another 200.00 dollars to spend on a scope and scope mounts.I have personal gotten to were I like fixed 4x scopes on my Rifles for most of my hunting needs.

Crawfish7mm

I would get a Savage rifle and spend the rest of your money on a Nikon scope. This setup should shoot very well....You do your part (practice) and you will be set for deer.

North Texan

There are a lot of good bolt guns that can be had for less than $500. Savages are good guns, and so are Remington700's (NOT THE710). But not many can be topped with agood scope for less than $500. Rings will cost about $45, and a good scope willrun around $200. I like Leupolds and Nikons for scopes. As far as calibers,a .25-06 or a .270would serve you very well. They shoot very flat andrecoil is very moderate.

bigpapa

My advice is to go to a pro shop and look at what fits into your price range and what feels good in your hands. Lot's of variables here. Do you like the feel of wood or plastic. What type of barrel blued or sainless. etc... Shop shop shop. Boil it down to just two and see if you can fire them both (using the same caliber). Find a friend who owns a rifle and fire it to find things you like or don't like. Check out different calibers to decide how much recoil your willing to sacrafice against power. Remington builds some fantastic rifles so does ruger, savage, etc. A lot of it depends on your taste and feel good luck.

TUK101

Dont forget the pawn shops as well. You can find a pretty nice rifle that new might cost you $600-$800 usually with a scope for under $500 sometimes. And dont rule out a good lever action rifle as well. If you are going to be doing any brush hunting at all, you cannot go wrong with a lever gun. Dont let people fool you into thinking that a 30-30 is no good, these rifles have been killing deer for over a hundred years and if you do decide on one there is a cool nostalgia factor there too. If you go with a bolt action you cant go wrong with an 30.06 or .270 or any of the 30 calibers for that matter. Although an .06 is a very universal round. What kind of hunting have you been doing in the past?

seattlesetters

A Stevens M200 in .270 topped with a Nikon ProStaff 3-9x40 scope should come in right around $500..or just a bit more. If you make the scope a Pentax Gameseeker or a Sightron S1, you will make your budget cleanly.

Either will make a nice, inexpensive deer rig that will last for many, many years.

Duckbutter48

I would go check out some new guns at different costs and see what feels\looks best to you. Then if you like the guns that are more then 500$, I'd start looking for a used gun in that model. Either at a gunshop or local paper, even a gun show would bea good place to start. I'd wait until after this deer season to purchase. I've seen a lot of great deals on used guns after the season.

Id prob go with a popular caliber since the ammo is cheaper and easier to obtain. 243, 308,7mm-08, 25-06, 270, 30-06 something like that.

If you like the less expensive Savages then grab one of those with the lower end(of quality)scopes these guys mentioned and you'll be fine. Make sure you dry fire the gun to see what the trigger is like, some of the cheaper guns have horrible trigger pulls. The older and non-accutrigger Savageshave very heavy pulls for the most part. The Rem 7600 pump is a reasonably priced gun that shoots plenty accurate for deer and will have a feel you're more used to coming from shotgun hunting. You can usually pick one of them up used for 300-350$.

If any of your buds haverifle's try to see if they will let you try them out to see what you do and dont like. The more posts you read here the more confusing it gets sometimes. Most of the guns\calibers in question on the site are all personal preference. You just need some experience to know what you like or not.

Lastly if you are mainly doing hardwood hunting(usualy less then 150yards shooting)then don't overlook a good ol' 30-30. I think you can buy a new Marlin for about 350ish$ or so and then have some bucks to grab a nice fixed power 4X scope. The used Marlins are pretty common, you won't have any problem getting of those for cheap if you want to go that way.

zrexpilot

You just named the 6 best cartridges, ever. And aint it odd that 3 are off the .308 case and 3 off the -06 case.

seattlesetters

You can score a new Remington SPS (.270, 7mm-08, .308 or .30-'06) for $429 if you look hard enough.

Topped with a $99 Pentax Gameseeker 3-9x40mm (one tube, waterproof, nitrogen-sealed, fully multi-coated), you're out for about $600 with bases & rings.

If you can somehow swing the extra $100, I don't now how you could you beat that for a great hunting rig.

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=445726&utm_source=yahoo _shopping&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=657