deerslayer

1. It must run 2. It must run dirty 3. Small enough to carry, big enough to shoot - I despise pocket guns except for the rarest of occasions and even a non-XMacro 365 is too small for my tastes (I can hear the rocks coming at me). I would like to be able to take it to the local IDPA match and be competitive with it (in a non-BUG/pocket gun division). 4. Has to be easy to shoot accurately. Yes, the average gunfight is two shots at six feet or whatever, but average means there must have been higher round count gunfights and longer distance gunfights (see Eli Dicken). The guy who gets hit by lightning doesn’t want to hear about stats and odds. 5. Has to use a legitimate defensive round (at least .38 or 9mm). More rocks coming my way, but I have no need for a .380. Yes, I’m sure somebody’s grandfather once decked a cape buffalo with an 85 grain Silvertip, but that doesn’t make it prudent to buffalo hunt with one. Over and over again, I’ve seen .380s do things that left me unimpressed. I can hide a Glock 43 or a J-frame pocket gun about as well as I can hide a .380 and if it’s my ideal small enough to carry/big enough to shoot gun I described above, a .380 makes absolutely no sense. Don’t even get me started on the .32s. 6. Call me a pansy or a poof, but I see no need for an unnecessarily loud carry gun. No comp or full-house .357 for me. I’m hoping to keeps my wits in a would-be gunfight and I doubt eating a flash-bang will help. These features are what guide my carry gun choices. My carry gun over the past few years has been either a Glock 48 or a Springfield EMP4 in an IWB holster, but I’m about to start carrying one of the smaller Staccatos with (gasp!) a red dot.

As a competitive shooter, I may be guilty of having a carry gun or two with a little race gun DNA, but I draw the line at comps. On the other hand, my race guns are more reliable than some folks’ carry guns.

Agreed. The guys who say “No way, that’s an hour away” can’t be very serious about buying or selling something.

Memphis to Johnson City is quite a haul, but I’ve made the 2.5-3.5 hour trip to Nashville or Murfreesboro for the right gun at the right price on more than one occasion with no regrets.

I have a lot of memories and a few funny stories of deer hunting with my dad, but what is most meaningful to me is that I realized after a few years that he wasn’t really into deer hunting, but he was taking me because I was obsessed with it.

Well that changes things somewhat. I risk ruffling the feathers of the Vortex fanboys, but I am not a fan of them for a couple reasons. That aside, that Strike Eagle is a lot of scope for a deer rifle. Perhaps too much. It is a 56mm, which means you will have to mount it pretty high. It weighs 30 ounces (it’s kind of a pig). It’s first focal plane, which means the reticle appears bigger as you increase magnification and gets smaller as you decrease it. Sometimes on big magnification FFP scopes, the reticle is almost too small to use on the lower magnification (and I suspect nobody cares because the lower magnifications are rarely used on them). I haven’t seen a Strike Eagle 5-25, but I suspect the reticle at 5x (a good general place to put it when hunting) will be less than ideal. A 3-9x40mm is about perfect for a deer rifle, but a 4.5-14 or maybe even a 4-16 second focal plane scope would work and would provide some extra magnification for longer stuff. On a rifle doing double duty in a deer stand and shooting paper targets way over there, compromise is not a dirty word. Also, don’t get hung up on all the hype about bigger objective diameters. Yes, a 50mm will gather more light than a 40mm, but it has to be mounted higher (lower is better IMO) and it’s only beneficial at high magnification. I read an article years ago that explained that you can divide the objective diameter by the magnification and calculate this benefit. In other words, a 50mm objective divided by 5x = 10mm. Your pupil (where light enters your eye) is typically 4 or 5mm in diameter, so it’s overkill until you are at 10x, which kills your field of view. Welcome to the world of getting down in the optics weeds.

Congrats on buying a solid gun! Some people change the trigger, but I bet the Hunter trigger is quite usable. Every factory Bergara trigger I’ve felt was pretty good. Tuning a handload is probably the best way to squeeze more accuracy out of it.

I would buy whatever Leupold 3-9 or 3-10 I could find within your budget range. I would avoid much more max magnification than that on a deer rifle unless you plan to shoot a deer WAY WAY out there. Most competent hunters have no business shooting at deer over 300 yards away.

A friend has one and it's ok, but it struck me as kind of cheapo. If I wanted a red dot with 3x magnifier, I would spend the extra money on a Holosun 510C/HM3X combo.

Agreed. I shot a friend’s comped G48 last weekend and the meager gain in control was offset by the LOUD report. I think most people who claim it’s a huge gain probably just need to fix their grip.

I have one of these on a CZ 455 and it’s a good one. GLWS

I was a driver for the competition.

Are they just starting the team? How has the school treated you? A friend was a coach for a local high school trap team and some of the kids starting shooting SASP. The school freaked out and the team eventually dis-affiliated with the school. Things were a lot smoother after that.

Just got a tax stamp back after 13 days (with a trust). Maybe the Dems/ATF want people like me to forget about the HPA.

This might work well if he runs a red dot: https://savagearms.com/firearms/model/64-fv-sr