Caliber selection for first rifle.

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ozymandias6

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Hey CGN! In typical newbie fashion I've just got my PAL and have questions. I have access to some private property where I want to take up target shooting. I'll be able to shoot anywhere from 100-800 yards. Curious to hear your thoughts on best caliber selection? I've been eyeing a Howa 1500 in either .223 REM to keep ammo costs lower and get lots of practice in or .308 WIN to have the option to deer hunt later on.

Curious to hear your thoughts or if you have any other suggestions worth exploring! Cheers.
 
OP, if you do not have much shooting experience, get a .22 Long Rifle and about 5,000 or 10,000 rounds - learn to shoot well - then consider a centre fire rifle and get a couple hundred rounds with that rifle. If you are thinking to go hunting - is more than just firing a shot and hitting what you aimed at - you will have to field dress it, often you will have to track it, if it did not drop right where you shot at it, recover the carcass, etc. Think to shoot 50 or 75 rounds in practice, for every shot that you might take at game - once you have the game rifle. You will discover that you will often "tag out" with a single shot, or maybe two shots.
 
Potashminer said:
OP, if you do not have much shooting experience, get a .22 Long Rifle and about 5,000 or 10,000 rounds - learn to shoot well - then consider a centre fire rifle and get a couple hundred rounds with that rifle. If you are thinking to go hunting - is more than just firing a shot and hitting what you aimed at - you will have to field dress it, often you will have to track it, if it did not drop right where you shot at it, recover the carcass, etc. Think to shoot 50 or 75 rounds in practice, for every shot that you might take at game - once you have the game rifle. You will discover that you will often "tag out" with a single shot, or maybe two shots.
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Yeah I've done a fair bit of shooting with a .22 still have my dad's old Cooey that I take out every now and then. I've taken my OHEP and done some duck hunting this season so I'm familiar with the concepts you've mentioned. I'm interested in target shooting longer ranges, I can't imagine a situation where I'd be hunting in similar ranges in my region. I just meant a caliber/rifle that's capable of both
 
ozymandias6 said:
Yeah I've done a fair bit of shooting with a .22 still have my dad's old Cooey that I take out every now and then. I've taken my OHEP and done some duck hunting this season so I'm familiar with the concepts you've mentioned. I'm interested in target shooting longer ranges, I can't imagine a situation where I'd be hunting in similar ranges in my region. I just meant a caliber/rifle that's capable of both
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Certainly what you chose is going to be jurisdiction and game specific - my wife and son took their first deers with a .243 Win ( a Rem 788 rifle) that I did up - my wife got a decent Mule Deer buck and circa 12 years later our son got a Whitetail with it - when our daughter got her first White tail, I had re-barreled that thing to a .308 Win. I bought a Rem 783 in 243 Win for our Grandson to start with - although he was shooting a PC10 in .223 Rem a lot, before he got the 243 Win. As per a guy at Whitehorse and my own experience in Saskatchewan - a 30-06 is never a mistake to go hunting with - use 180 grain bullets and kill stuff. My Dad used to fire 150 grain for deer from his 30-06, and after he passed, I found some 200 grain and 220 grain that he bought for a moose hunt that he went on - years ago. While hunting with me, he took several elk with that 30-06 - was always with 165 grain bullets. But, for every shot fired at game - there had been hundreds of shots taken previously.
 
ozymandias6 said:
Hey CGN! In typical newbie fashion I've just got my PAL and have questions. I have access to some private property where I want to take up target shooting. I'll be able to shoot anywhere from 100-800 yards. Curious to hear your thoughts on best caliber selection? I've been eyeing a Howa 1500 in either .223 REM to keep ammo costs lower and get lots of practice in or .308 WIN to have the option to deer hunt later on.

Curious to hear your thoughts or if you have any other suggestions worth exploring! Cheers.
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I think you are right on the money. If it was out to 350m, I would say get a 22LR, but 800m a .223 would be awesome. Shot with a kid that was shooting 800m with a .223 and he was doing great. You wanna heavy barrel for target shooting, and the Howa 1500 is the cheapest way to get into that and MDT has a bunch of chassis options if you wanna upgrade for Howa Mini Action.

I get wanting a do all rifle in .308 and .308 would be great... but buying another rifle is fun.
 
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