NE Hunter

Welcome Starboy,

All the calibers you mentioned will get the job done, but the one you didn' t mention the 7mm-08 has me real tempted too. From the articles about it and from the posts on here it' s ..." the perfect deer caliber" ( if that realy exists)

I can' t say enough good things about the Ruger 10-22 you wont be disapointed.

If the .223 dosen' t have to be a semi then there are lots of choices

TREEDOG

All ive heard on the mini 14 has been negative. But i have no personal experience with one. The ruger 10/22 i love for a semi-auto .22. I have one and my brother HAD one, great accurate guns and a blast to plink and hunt with. For the calibers u mentioned (and some u didnt) they will all work well. If u ever plan on hunting anything larger than deer id opt for the 30-06 lots of loads available for it and ammo is cheap and the recoil isnt bad (not that it is in the above mentioned calibers). When u go for the deer gun or the .223 id look a http://www.savagearms.com www.remington.com or http://www.winchester-guns.com i think these links are correct.

paulyseggs

starboy, as a fellow conneticut resident i must send out a word of adivce, don;t expect to use rifles for deer hunting unless you have private land, the entire state is shotgun/muzzleloader only. and as far as rifles go nothing larger than a 22LONG RIFLE is legal. i don;t know how this changes your options but i would personally get

one good shooting 22lr
one t/c encore with 12g slug barrel. and 50cal muzzleloader barrel. then you can buy any other barrel you want in case you plan on hunting other areas. get your 223 barrel for shootin, your midsize deer barrel,

as soon as my tax refund comes in thats what i;m gettin
and another good thing about using this setup, you only change barrels the rifle stays the same, so you;ll be oh so familar with it,




where in CT are you? drop me a line maybe we can do some huntin/fishin

Starboy

First, I do prefer a semi for the .223, which I know limits my options.

Pauly, I was looking over the laws again recently and I saw that. What a bummer. Is there really any private land to hunt on in CT anyway? I grew up there and I thought that all the non-industrialized areas were pretty much state parks or some such. As I am sure you know more about CT hunting laws than myself, do you know the laws about rabbit? Most of my rabbit hunting I was planning to have take place in my grandmother' s garden. She gets some really nasty rabbits with attitude tearing it up so I figured I' d kill two birds with one stone and handle the problem with the .22. This way, she gets rid of her pests, and I get rabbit.

So I need to get a shotgun instead? That' s a bummer too. Most of my target shooting was with pistols. I don' t know much about, or have too much experience with, rifles (except the AR-15 and a .22), but I have no experience at all with shotguns. What is a t/c encore and who makes it? Some combo deal with different barrels sounds like a (financially) reasonable idea.

Also, I' m not back in Connecticut yet. I will be in May. I' ll be somewhere in Windham/Tolland county (not totally sure where yet) for at least the first couple months. I' ll be working to get my teaching certification, so eventually I' ll be living wherever the job is. Though I hope to god it' s not Bridgeport or New Haven.

paulyseggs

on hunting rabbits all you need is your small game license, season is usually from third sat in oct, to sometime in mid jan. squirrel goes to last day in feb. ya need atleast 500feet from an occupied building that is not your own to shoot, if ya don;t well check out bows, or good pellet rifle(althouhgh this is under the same area as rifles but are silent)

the t/c encore is made by thompson center, it;s a really good gun. it;s a single shot but everyone i know that owns one loves it. their around the same price as a good hunting rifle

i think the area your gonna be in has few good state forests around,

email me if ya got any more questions, i got IM too if ya catch me online

TREEDOG

http://www.tcarms.com heres a link to the thompson center page.

Starboy

I heard that it was legal to get supressor (not a silencer, but from what I gather it has the same effect) for a 10-22. My grandmother' s house isn' t 500 feet from another occupied building, but the direction I' d be shooting is clear more than 500 feet in at least a 160 degree arc. I figure with the supressor, I could take care of the rabbits and nobody would know. Would an air rifle work on a rabbit? I would think it would either just injure it or cause a really slow death (on a good shot).

As for bows, I don' t think I have the upper body strength to accurately handle one. I don' t have any experience with a bow also, so it would take me quite a while to get accustomed to one enough to use for hunting. And would an arrow be overkill on a rabbit?

Thanks for the info on the encore both of you. I' ll have to check it out. Were I to go with just a shotgun, any good recomendations there?

TREEDOG

If u dont mind a single shot get a NEF (new england firearm) in 20 or 12 gauge. They are 85$ or less at wal-mart. i dont know much about pumps and semi autos sense ive never messed with one. But for rabbit hunting i just always used a 20 or 12 gauge nef.

James B

Be sure to check out the 280 Remington. A GREAT all around caliber for all Noth American game.

Starboy

I should mention, I don' t want to damage the pelts/hides so I don' t think I' d use a shotgun for small game. As for the deer, assuming it' s legal, I' m figuring my best bet would be to learn how to use a bow well and/or use a shotgun with slugs. The friend I mention in the first post uses shotguns with slugs and occasionally a muzzleloader.

I know I' m new to hunting, but I have to say, there are an insane amount of laws surrounding this. Pauly, CT laws are just plain crazy, I' ll have to go to law school just to fully understand them. Would I be better off getting a permit for MA or even the VT/NH region?