best guns for a new hunter in Tennessee

[raildog]

Ok one of my coworkers has been asking a lot of questions about getting into hunting he has taken and passed the hunter safety course so good to go on that but now the question is what are the best long guns to purchase he has a 22lr and 12 gage I was thinking some kind of 308 bolt-action or get a slug barrel for his shotgun he will only be hunting in middle Tennessee for now and i have already explained to him once he starts they will multiply like rabbits lol

[Omega]

.308 is not a bad choice, but I have used a .270 Winchester for a long time and have found that I can hunt any North American game animal with this caliber.  At present I have a Weatherby Vanguard .270 bolt which is their cheaper rifle but before that one I had a Winchester which was a Ranger Model but again a cheaper version of the Model 70 (cheaper furniture) which served me well for 20 years.  I hunt with both the .308 and .270 at my place since range is no greater than 150 yards which is great for these but not so good for a slug gun, they just have too much drop.  Same goes for that venerable cartridge, the 30-30 Win, it just has too much drop. Anything in larger or in a magnum IMHO is just too much gun, specially for white tail but if that is all you got, they work too.

 

I know I mentioned some brands above but honestly most any rifle chambered in those calibers are good to go, as any brand can have an individual rifle that is either a tack driver or a lemon.  Just be sure to inspect the chamber, bore and crown as defects there can affect accuracy.

[peejman]

There's tons of options.  If he has no affinity for anything in particular, .308, .270, or .243 bolt guns from any of the big names will work fine.

[nightrunner]

Marlin 336 in .30/30. Then once he gets into guns he can get a Winchester :)

A quality bolt gun like a Remington 700 in anything from .243 on up not including magnums. If he isn't used to shooting rifles, a magnum would likely turn him away from it as well as a magnum being completely useless in TN for hunting. A .270 will reach out there and drop anything he sees.

[10-Ring]

I really like .270 as well. There are many great calibers out there but I wound up with a .270 when I was a kid and it worked well. I've killed dozens of deer with it, one required a dog to track because it was dark and in some very thick brush but the deer was only 25 yards from where I shot it, the rest fell within a few feet of being shot. Two were hit and got away, one was a head shot that didn't go well and I learned from that, the other drowned in nearby canal and could not be found. In my book that's a pretty good track record, I have always taken good shots except for the time I tried the headshot. The only thing I wouldn't recommend for Tennessee deer is a magnum because they are simply not necessary, and it's my opinion that small calibers such as .223 should only be used by people who have a lot of experience and know what they are doing, if used at all. Personally I own a couple but don't deer hunt with them.

[DaveTN]

.308 Remington 700; just like everyone else.

[runco]

30/30 Lever action is my vote. 

[Chris]

Go big or go home.

.45-70 lever action.

[gregintenn]

What's he hunting?

 

What's his budget?

 

By "best", do you mean the highest quality gun available, or a good bargain?

[Handsome Rob]

Pretty much the best value hunting rifles available at the moment are the Savage Hog Hunter in .308 or Remington 700 ADL in .308.
Both are well south of $500, both will shoot tiny groups, ammo is everywhere & not to spendy, recoil is manageable & if you can't kill it with a .308, you probably ought not to be shooting at it.

[DaveS]

I need to ask, "what is he wanting to hunt"? It seems like he already has the weapons to take anything that flies and walks in TN.

 

Dave

Edited June 19, 2015 by DaveS

[10-Ring]

One huge benefit of .308 is that practice ammo is pretty cheap, can't say the same for .270.

[raildog]

Thanks guys he has decided to get a .308 I'm going to take him to some of my favorite LGS after work tomorrow and see what he likes as far as brand and model

[Randall53]

I'm getting back into deer hunting after giving it up about 20 years ago. After researching a lot, I ended up with a Remington 783. I couldn't decide on which caliber, so I went into several stores that sold ammo and checked which caliber seemed to be more available. It boiled down to the most readily available, 30-06, and second most available, 270. After seeing how close the 2 calibers were in performance, I bought the 30-06. The 783 was very accurate right out of the box. I got it at Academy for $279. I'm real pleased with it.

[Slappy]

.270 best all around North American cartridge in my opinion.

[Jonnin]

Ok one of my coworkers has been asking a lot of questions about getting into hunting he has taken and passed the hunter safety course so good to go on that but now the question is what are the best long guns to purchase he has a 22lr and 12 gage I was thinking some kind of 308 bolt-action or get a slug barrel for his shotgun he will only be hunting in middle Tennessee for now and i have already explained to him once he starts they will multiply like rabbits lol

 

If you get a 308 bolt or lever gun, you can download your own ammo to be more comfortable -- effectively, you can make it a 30-30 or whatever in power within a wide range of loads and still be accurate at hunting ranges (50, 100, 200 yards etc).

 

slug is perfectly fine for the job but can be challenging to make a shot.  I can't hit jack with a slug past 50 yards, and can't recommend it for a new shooter.  Granted, my shotgun is not well set up for this job, but even so, its just not a friendly setup for a new guy.  On the flipside, slugs are pretty potent and can turn some bad shots into kills in spite of shooter error -- not always, but more often than zero.

 

There are tons of fine deer rifles and calibers out there.  All you need is a moderate cartridge that is inexpensive to reload or purchase, a decent scope that won't fall apart under recoil, and a fairly inexpensive rifle.   My advice is to pick your caliber, then go to a gun show and pick up a used rifle that suits you, find a scope with a full lifetime warranty,  and call it good.