New Deer Rifle

[TomInMN]

2 hours ago, pop pop said:

My grandson, Son In Law and I are bound for Bass Pro on Friday morning and both of us want the Savage Axis. We will see how we come out. Hope they got a bunch. I have decided on the 6.5 Creedmoor, or 308. They said they had 8 calibers in the add.

Which caliber would you get if you were in the market?

I am kind of a 30 06 man at heart, and this will be a stretch for me.

Are you already set up to load .30-'06? If so, you already have projectiles for .308. You can think of the -'06 as a .308 magnum (or the. 308 as an -'06 short). Both are very capable rounds and certainly enough for whitetails as far as the average hunter is capable of shooting from a field rest.

If you don't already stock projectiles for .30-'06, you'll probably find the 6.5 slightly more pleasant to shoot than .308 as well as a bit flatter. It's also capable of taking deer as far as most hunters are in a field situation.

But for my money, I'd be picking up the Savage .260rem in the classifieds.

I actually have -'06s and a .260, thinking that I have the horsepower and pleasant target shooting ends covered well and don't need to compromise with the .308. So I guess there's that...

Edited November 26, 2019 by TomInMN
Additional thoughts.

[Garufa]

If the rifle is primarily for deer hunting go down to the local WalMart, big-box sporting goods store, or whoever sells the cheapest ammo more than capable of  taking a deer, or anything else, at any distance.  Note the availability and prices.  

I bet what they have starts with 30. 

Edited November 26, 2019 by Garufa

[pop pop]

Starts with 30.

Probably right Garufa, but have you ever pondered going down an unknown direction? For me that would be 6.5 Creedmoor.

Don't know what I will do for sure, but plan to "do", L/w if possible. Does not seem to be a large difference between the Creedmoor and 308 with a slight edge to the 308. The Creedmoor sure is getting publicity for now, although it has been out for multi digit years, fell from grace, but recently found again with gusto. 

Is fun to consider. My deer hunter Grandson is saying Creedmoor all out! He has killed with 270 and 06 I gave him last year. I will need to see the selection and decide then. May just come home with the old tried and true 308 or 30 06 in the Savage Axis XP flavor.  Friday(29) is D day for us. 

[tacops]

My duty had me spending a lot of time over several years on the butt of custom built bolt guns with high end glass.  Most all were .308.  I did have a personal rifle at the time which was a budget Remington "Sportsman" in .270.  My buddy and I bedded the original stock and floated the barrel and this was my deer rifle.  It really cranked our armorer when my budget Remington matched groups of our custom duty rifles.  Eventually I no longer was on the bolt guns for work and sold my Remington.  Recently I finally decided to pick up another bolt rifle.  I really didn't need to spend a ton of money so after talking around I saw an ad on Armslist that was nearby a couple of weeks ago. I picked up a Ruger American .308 with a 3x9 for just under three bills and am very pleased with it.  There is probably no more than a half inch or less difference in three round groups from the groups I had on my previous rifles.  In my opinion only, unless you are doing some serious competitive shooting, a Ruger American, Savage, Mossberg, Howa, Remington 783 etc. are fine for hunting and pleasure shooting.  Granted there are smoother, nicer finish, sexier rifles out there for more money if that is what you want, but these will certainly get the job done.  But then I am also pretty fond of Taurus revolvers, product may settle during shipping. 

[KahrMan]

I just recently picked up a Kimber 84 in 6.5. Going to put a Vortex on it and then get it sighted in. 

[Chucktshoes]

2 hours ago, tacops said:

My duty had me spending a lot of time over several years on the butt of custom built bolt guns with high end glass.  Most all were .308.  I did have a personal rifle at the time which was a budget Remington "Sportsman" in .270.  My buddy and I bedded the original stock and floated the barrel and this was my deer rifle.  It really cranked our armorer when my budget Remington matched groups of our custom duty rifles.  Eventually I no longer was on the bolt guns for work and sold my Remington.  Recently I finally decided to pick up another bolt rifle.  I really didn't need to spend a ton of money so after talking around I saw an ad on Armslist that was nearby a couple of weeks ago. I picked up a Ruger American .308 with a 3x9 for just under three bills and am very pleased with it.  There is probably no more than a half inch or less difference in three round groups from the groups I had on my previous rifles.  In my opinion only, unless you are doing some serious competitive shooting, a Ruger American, Savage, Mossberg, Howa, Remington 783 etc. are fine for hunting and pleasure shooting.  Granted there are smoother, nicer finish, sexier rifles out there for more money if that is what you want, but these will certainly get the job done.  But then I am also pretty fond of Taurus revolvers, product may settle during shipping. 

I have a great fondness for expensive guns and expensive glass. At the end of the day, they won’t do any better in my hands than any budget rifle and optic bundle from Walmart. Modern manufacturing techniques have made mass produced budget guns the equal of the custom guns from the days of yore. The high level guns require a high level shooter to see the differences they bring to the table on target. I’m not a high level shooter, and I don’t have the time available to become one, but I do love my fancy guns. 
 

I’m so fancy, you already know...

[TomInMN]

9 hours ago, Chucktshoes said:

I have a great fondness for expensive guns and expensive glass. At the end of the day, they won’t do any better in my hands than any budget rifle and optic bundle from Walmart. Modern manufacturing techniques have made mass produced budget guns the equal of the custom guns from the days of yore. The high level guns require a high level shooter to see the differences they bring to the table on target. I’m not a high level shooter, and I don’t have the time available to become one, but I do love my fancy guns. 
 

I’m so fancy, you already know...

I make this point frequently, though I disagree a bit about the glass. I think most people see a difference (and so would benefit) upgrading from the package optic into the $300 range, and often even from that into glass in the $400-$500 range. (Just regular optics here, not talking about anything with a lit retical or tactical whatnots.)

Together with something like a Ruger American or Savage Axis type rifle, I think that's about the best use of budget for most shooters.

 

I'm sure we don't know the half of it!

[Chucktshoes]

50 minutes ago, TomInMN said:

I make this point frequently, though I disagree a bit about the glass. I think most people see a difference (and so would benefit) upgrading from the package optic into the $300 range, and often even from that into glass in the $400-$500 range. (Just regular optics here, not talking about anything with a lit retical or tactical whatnots.)

Together with something like a Ruger American or Savage Axis type rifle, I think that's about the best use of budget for most shooters.

 

I'm sure we don't know the half of it!

You are right about the glass. That was a bit of an oversimplification. Then again, I am a fan of NF optics and that’s overkill for your average deer rifle. Still, the main point stands. 

Edited November 28, 2019 by Chucktshoes

[Chris]

37 minutes ago, TomInMN said:

I make this point frequently, though I disagree a bit about the glass. I think most people see a difference (and so would benefit) upgrading from the package optic into the $300 range, and often even from that into glass in the $400-$500 range. (Just regular optics here, not talking about anything with a lit retical or tactical whatnots.)

Together with something like a Ruger American or Savage Axis type rifle, I think that's about the best use of budget for most shooters.

 

I'm sure we don't know the half of it!

I agree. The gun is less important than the glass. My rule of thumb is the glass on my rifles is as or more expensive than the gun. It makes a huge difference in target acquisition, low light shooting, accuracy and my confidence as a shooter. 

One of my best outings as a hunter was done with a borrowed old p.o.s. Remington that had to be held together with zip ties. However, for some reason they had strapped a $2k Zeiss scope to it and that more than made up for the shortcomings of the rifle. I was knocking down running antelope at 200+ yds in low light conditions.... couldn't have done that w/o quality optics that let me peek back into the deep shadows. 

So moral of the story... buy the best glass you can afford. 

[DaveTN]

If the gun doesn’t repeat; no amount of money spent on a scope will help. However, if the gun is quality; the more you spend on a scope; the better experience you will have. But that doesn’t mean a low cost scope won’t put you on target on a deer. Plenty of $200 scopes are helping hunters take deer.

What bothers me is that there are guys out there that can hit targets with open sights as accurately as many of us with high dollar scopes. 

[Moped]

Never been much of a scope guy and in East Tennessee, your lucky to get a 100 yard shot. When I have hunted with a scoped rifle, I’ve usually had it sailed back to its lowest power. 
 

Now all that being said, I have a Vortex mounted on my Savage 10FCP-SR .308, which has never been in the woods. 

[quedz]

On 11/25/2019 at 3:46 PM, pop pop said:

My grandson, Son In Law and I are bound for Bass Pro on Friday morning and both of us want the Savage Axis.

How did it go? What did y'all end up with?

[pop pop]

Ended up with 2 each. Tell more later. Had a blast, but it was an all day thing(4 AM-12Noon). Got to eat our big Thanksgiving  meal tonight (Friday)  here at "Reed Manor". Go to families house on Thanksgiving day. Post more tomorrow. 

[Garufa]

42 minutes ago, pop pop said:

Ended up with 2 each. Tell more later. Had a blast, but it was an all day thing(4 AM-12Noon). Got to eat our big Thanksgiving  meal tonight (Friday)  here at "Reed Manor". Go to families house on Thanksgiving day. Post more tomorrow. 

Sounds like a great day.  So you got a 6.5 and a .30 something.  What did everyone else get?

[pop pop]

Well, after a morning long outing we ended up purchasing 4 Rifles. The one I purchased was a Savage Axis XP bolt action in 308, and we got another for a grandson(11 Y O), a Savage Axis XP in 7MM 08. Another grandson (15) and his dad both purchased 243's. All have detachable magazines and Weaver 3x9 40 MM scopes on them. All have camo composite stocks. They are nice rifles for what they cost. Quality off assembly is fair, as two of the rifles has the scopes mounted crocked. Grandson 1 has already had his out, but not sighted in, yesterday afternoon. By the way both went hunting, yesterday afternoon, and one got a small buck also, but not with the 243 they just purchased. He said he needed to check the scope zero before he trusted the new rifle. Very Wise!

We arose at 3:00 AM and was in Bass Pro parking lot by 4:30. Too our surprise, there were about 500 people already there. By the time the store opened (5:00 AM) the were about 750 people in line to get in the store. They had 110 of these rifles for sale. They were gone in 15 minutes. It took up until 11:00 AM to get all the paperwork complete and on our way home.

We ended up purchasing the 4 rifles for 169.99 each. The Rifles were regularly 349.00 with a 75.00 markdown by the store. Also all of them had a 75.00 rebate from Savage. We were also able to purchase 2, 600.00 gift certificates for 540.00 each (60.00 savings), which we used to pay for the rifles before we left. That amounted to another 30.00 per rifle off. That is how we came out with he 170.00 cost + sales tax, for each of the rifles.

Have plans to get them out and look them over soon. Will go sight them in and see how they shoot. All in all we had a great day, with 2 grandsons (who will never forget this day) and their fathers out for a large Black Friday shopping spree at the Bass Pro (Man's Store my granddaughter call it).

Slept like a baby last night! What-A-Day! The Creedmoor's were gone in the first 5 minutes.

[DaveTN]

2 hours ago, pop pop said:

We arose at 3:00 AM and was in Bass Pro parking lot by 4:30.

[TomInMN]

@pop pop it sounds like you guys did really well then!

I didn't want to mention it before since it wasn't on the list you were already thinking about, but the 7-08 is a great round as well. Ammo is a bit less common than the other two calibers, so make sure to find a couple reliable local sources and double check ammo before any outings.

[pop pop]

We have been ordering ammo from on line sources for a while now.  Most times cheaper, even with shipping, and can just order about anything you want now a days. 

Edited November 30, 2019 by pop pop

[pop pop]

If Wal Mart dries up on ammo, we will not have many sources locally. If we do it most times is much higher. 

[Quavodus]

2 hours ago, pop pop said:

If Wal Mart dries up on ammo, we will not have many sources locally. If we do it most times is much higher. 

But, we should feel prouder.

[DaveTN]

16 hours ago, pop pop said:

If Wal Mart dries up on ammo, we will not have many sources locally. If we do it most times is much higher. 

Correct. You will need to either look ahead to your needs and order online, or pay more locally. 

I’m hoping that Sportsman's Warehouse here in The Boro will take the place of Wal-mart for ammo. Their prices seem to be pretty close to WM, from what little I have seen.

*******************9mm****************************

WWB 9mm Luger, 115 gr, FMJ, 200 round Range Pack, $44.99

WWB 9mm NATO, 124 gr, FMJ, 150 round Value Pack, $34.99

Remington UMC, 9mm Luger, FMJ, 115 Grain, 350 Rounds with Range Bucket, $79.99

******************40S&W*****************************

WWB, 40S&W, 165 gr, FMJ, 100 round Value Pack, $36.99

WWB, 40S&W, 165 gr, FMJ, 200 round Range Pack, $72.99

Remington, 40S&W, FMJ, 180 Grain, 100 Rounds with Range Bucket, $32.99

MAGTECH, 40S&W, FMJ, 180 Grain, 50 Rounds $15.99

Remington UMC, 40S&W, FMJ, 180 Grain, 250 Round Mega Pack, $79.99

******************38SPL*****************************

WWB, 38SPL, 130 gr, FMJ, 50 rounds, $19.99

MAGTECH, 38SPL, 158 gr, FMJ, 50 rounds, $17.99

Remington, 38SPL, 130 gr, FMJ, 50 rounds, $16.99

Aguila, 38SPL, 130 gr, FMJ, 50 rounds, $19.99

[Ray Z]

Time to start thinking about reloading. Better , faster, cheaper.

[E4 No More]

17 hours ago, DaveTN said:

I’m hoping that Sportsman's Warehouse here in The Boro will take the place of Wal-mart for ammo. Their prices seem to be pretty close to WM, from what little I have seen.

I like that place too. They also seem to care about giving a good customer experience whereas Walmart does not.

[pop pop]

I have never made it to this new store (S W) here in the B'oro. Have plans to do it soon as I get over this bronchitis. 

Mailed in my 2, $75.00 rebates to Savage this afternoon. Each rifle had one. A healthy little chunk of change coming back.  

[deerslayer]

17 hours ago, Ray Z said:

Time to start thinking about reloading. Better , faster, cheaper.

No kidding.  I would go broke or have to quit competitive shooting if I paid the prices quoted above for 9mm and .40.