Firearm BS thread

Why in the hell would you have a cache?!!

 

No more in the safe

No more room for another safe

 

no way in hell. not me, no way. find room, not below ground. I'm below sea level down here so its out lol

 

I'm on the hunt for a deer rifle. I grew up with a youth size bolt action .270 for deer hunting. I haven't been deer hunting since I was a teen, but I'm hoping to get back into it this season. On the more pricey end, I'm eyeballing the $500 Marlin 336 in 30-30. For more affordable guns, I'm looking at a $400 Ruger American in either .270 or .308. I handled the Ruger the other day and it was light on the shoulder, but I'm not a fan of synthetic stocks. Still, I don't care as long as it's reliable and gets the job done.

 

Oof. Not a good selling point. Lower Muscogee Creek descendant here.

 

x3 on Lever guns and Marlin 336's!!!!

 

What sort of ranges, realistically, are you going to be shooting at? Do you hunt the woods, where your longest shot is likely to be 100 yards, or do you hunt fields, where you might be taking a shot at 300?

For the woods, you can't beat a lever gun for quick pointing, fast followups, and reasonable accuracy. But if you're stretching your shots out much past 100-125 yards, you should opt for the bolt gun for the increased consistency for shot placement.

$.02

 

Fairly thick woods. 100 year old oak, 20 year old slash pine, and undergrowth. Stands are 8' and 12'. Certainly no more than 100 yards, unless I'm turning over my shoulder to face the cotton field.

 

I didn't wanna be the guy that went against the grain first but now that the door is open, I would like to point out how 1 dimensional the 30-30 is not saying that its a horrible choice by any means, because under the right circumstances it may be all you ever need, and it has taken plenty of deer. But it does pretty much 1 thing to an acceptable level and that's really about it. It's at the bottom of the totem pole for power/performance and even with hornady leverevolutions (which I believe are prolly the best factory ammo on the market, or at least were a few years ago based strictly on velocity/energy) it still falls short of plan jane .243 ammo and shoots no where near as flat or as far. basically any other acceptable deer hunting caliber will do everything a 30-30 will and most of the time do it better, plus you have an added bonus of being able to cleanly take deer out to 300-400 yards if you can shoot it. I'm also a big fan of bolt guns just because they are typically considered more accurate, but in saying that I do have a marlin 45/70 lever gun that shoots some amazingly tight groups or I just happen to jerk just perfect to put the holes right beside each other. I just don't find a 30-30 very practical due to initial price of ownership and, as I said, its simply outclassed by basically every other round

 

i've been drooling over a marlin 45/70 sbl for some time now...

 

True the Leverevolution has improved the ballistics of the cartridge, but apples to apples a bolt action will still pattern tighter at longer ranges. I use the Leverevolution when I hunt with my Marlin 336 (although mine is chambered in .35 Rem), but if I'm hunting someplace where I might be reaching out to touch something I'll grab the Savage 111 every time.

Lever gun should serve you well, then. Worse comes to worst, if you start hunting longer ranges down the road that'll just give you a good excuse to buy a bolt gun too!

 

this is coming from the guy who got one with a .38 spl right haha. I'm not saying it isn't powerful enough, I'm just saying that it is basically the least powerful acceptable cartridge (still acceptable tho). I guess there is a pot for every chicken

 

My first stop is always area pawn shops. I keep some pocket tools so I can break stuff down.

Edit: Also, what year was that?

 

Anyone in here own a Beretta APX? Local shop has them on sale and I was thinking about picking one up.

 

At the ranges that he's thinking of hunting at, the 30-30 is a perfectly effective cartridge, especially with modern bullets/powders. At long ranges, lever gun rounds are plowing dirt unless you're dropping them like mortar shells, so the energy the individual cartridges carry downrange is largely moot. A 30-30 zeroed at 100 yards is around 20 inches low at 200, if I remember right. Same goes for the 45/70, the .32spl, and the .35 Rem.

 

Gonna throw out there that browning used to make a lever .308 you might could find at a pawn shop for a good deal and have a happy compromise of everything