Officially confused on choosing my first and maybe the only one for a long long time.

To the OP.... sounds like you really need to do a lot of reading and have more of an understanding of hunting rifles in general before you buy anything to go out and shoot at any animals.
Do you have a PAL or have you successfully completed a CORE
 
southlandrise said:
Thanks for every one's help. I think I really need two of them. A rimfire and a center fire. I believe that .270 should be good enough for even a black bear.

Here is another question, soft point ammo will wound and kill the animal quickly so they don't suffer too much. What about the lead in the tissue? I believe that lead is a heavy metal and will cause serious problem. Once the bullet expand, small amount of lead will spread out by the blood circulation. Is that totally safe to eat, or it is bad but ok in a small amount?
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You really need to look up lead poisoning.

No. The meat is 100% safe to eat. The biggest injury i've gotten is maybe biting down on a piece of lead that made it through the grinder... could have been a piece of bone though...
 
southlandrise said:
Thanks for every one's help. I think I really need two of them. A rimfire and a center fire. I believe that .270 should be good enough for even a black bear.

Here is another question, soft point ammo will wound and kill the animal quickly so they don't suffer too much. What about the lead in the tissue? I believe that lead is a heavy metal and will cause serious problem. Once the bullet expand, small amount of lead will spread out by the blood circulation. Is that totally safe to eat, or it is bad but ok in a small amount?
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I really think you should be looking at a shotgun, if you can afford it, get one that comes with both a smooth barrel and a riffled barrel.

This is the swiss army knife of guns, you can shoot anything from a squirrel to a buffalo. The ammo is cheep and you can get it anywhere.
I love my 20ga, but unless you load your ammo its next to impossible to buy #1buck shells (which is the minimum size shot for animals the size of deer), so you have to use slugs in the smooth barrel. But if you can afford a shotgun that comes with both a smooth barrel and a riffled barrel then it opens your options up to Sabot slugs which are the cats ass for large game.

If you really want a rifle, understand that varmit and small game aren't the same thing. a 7mm rem mag will make a great varmit too buffalo gun, but by varmit they mean explode. You wont have any meat left to eat.

Oh ya and the idea is to kill the animal not wound it. Lead cant get in the blood stream if the animal is dead. And you don't eat the damaged meat where the bullet tears apart the tissue anyway. So no lead poisoning possible.
 
Look at a Tikka in 270 or 308 if you want a good all around rifle. You can take elk with a 243 but shot placement and bullet design are crucial for clean kills. In some areas a 270 is the minimum caliber for elk and some larger game. You can get a tikka for around 700 bucks which on a budget is not cheap but overall they are good guns that shoot quite well out of the box . I would not recommend fmj bullets for hunting as they lack the terminal performance of a soft point or other hunting type of bullet (they will pass through with little damage if you hit a soft part, eventually the animal dies but it will probably be many miles from where you shot it and possibly days later . )
 
Go to the Tradex website and look for a mildly used quality hunting rifle in 30-06 or the like. They seem to have alot of nice Husqvarnas for less than a new lower quality rifle in a similar calibre.
 
EcoHeliGuy said:
Oh ya and the idea is to kill the animal not wound it. Lead cant get in the blood stream if the animal is dead. And you don't eat the damaged meat where the bullet tears apart the tissue anyway. So no lead poisoning possible.
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Actually it has been shown with various medical scams of processed deer meat that lead fragments can be deposited in almost any location of the animal.
Most invisible to the naked eye.

But I will x2 for the shotgun being a versitle hunting rig...for short ranges anyway.
 
Calum said:
Actually it has been shown with various medical scams of processed deer meat that lead fragments can be deposited in almost any location of the animal.
Most invisible to the naked eye.

But I will x2 for the shotgun being a versitle hunting rig...for short ranges anyway.
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So a venison will contain a small amount of lead! This really makes hunting less fun
 
OP, you should buy 3 guns. All of good quality. An accurate bolt action .22 (s/a sprayers are only fun for a while), a 12 ga shot gun of your choice and a centre fire rifle. I would suggest a 308 for you with the info that you have provided. Practice and become real good at it before you go hunting. Have fun and don't let the lead worry you, it is no where near as bad as you think it is!
Start off with getting the .22, then decide if you will make more use of the shot gun or centre fire rifle. Get the one that you will use more and then finally get the last one. Since you have bought all quality items, you are now set for life. You can add more as your addiction and piggy bank grows. Good luck. No wounded animals, aye!
If you're real worried about the bear from day one, then you may want the 12 ga first. You can use slugs in it and shot for small game. I'd hate to see you miss out on all the fun while learning to shoot with an accurate .22, though.
Yes, as mentioned, the .17 HMR is a great option to the .22, more expensive, but a lot of fun. I sure wish there was such a thing when I was growing up.
 
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If you're that worried about lead, consider shooting Tipped TSX or similar all copper bullets. Not only is there no lead, they tend not to come apart on impact either. They just peel back into a nice big X.
 
Do you have your firearm license yet? How about your hunter safety certificate? Start there. Then start thinking about what rifle you want.
 
No love so far for a savage rimfire or hunting rifle? The mark ii in 22lr, 17hmr, or 22wmr is a great shooter. I hit a quarter the other day at 70 yards using cci velocitor's. Throw a good vortex scope on it, and you are good to go. But yes, learn to shoot off of a rimfire. a 17hmr is nice, but the ammo is more expensive than a 22lr; but cheaper than a .223 centerfire. You can stretch your supersonic range out if you practice with a 17hmr. It's good for small game as well. The savages come with the accutrigger and so you get a very light trigger pull, but do not compromise safety. You do need to practice with them though, because if you don't depress the blade on the trigger, and just pull the trigger, the rifle does not fire. You need to depress the blade and pull the trigger for the rifle to fire. Once you get the hang of it, and practice lots, it is no concern at all.

I bought a savage 300wm package gun for $450 and with reloads, I have gotten 1/2 inch and 1/4 inch groups at 100 yards off of a harris bipod lying prone. And that's with the cheap scope and rings it comes with. I took a moose with it using the federal version of the barnes tsx and that moose is still dead. Didn't make it far either: ran 20 yards and was down.

Another option is to go on tradex canada and buy one of the swedish mausers in 6.5x55 swede. At around the $300 mark, they are a steal of a deal. Very accurate and gives you more money to buy more ammo. The 6.5 calibers with 140 grain bullets and their monstrous ability to penetrate due to their high sectional density, you can take a range of big game. I would not take one for a bear, but that being said, I don't think that they wouldn't work on a bear, it's just I would rather take a 300wm for a bear (a 300wm to hunt a bear that is; bear defence the 12ga, and any of the centerfire calibers mentioned would stop a bear).

The calibers like .308, 6.5x55 swede, .270 are easier to shoot better as they are 'soft' recoiling. Less flinch development. But the tradeoff is less hitting power. The .30-06 is very versatile and can take any game on the continent. But there is more recoil and that can lead to flinch development; especially in a light hunting rifle.

To be able to shoot accurately, at some point consider reloading. Reloads tuned to a rifle make for great accuracy. If you do reload, Lee collet dies are cheap ($50) and they work just as well as my redding competition dies ($300).

Good luck!
 
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Lots of good advice here. To the OP, it seems you have little or no practical knowledge of firearms, and less of hunting. Please, please, PLEASE listen to the people here that are kind enough to try and help out. Here's my .02 cents:

You need a .22. Get one from CanadaAmmo (I got the semi-auto Norinco copy of the Browning SA-22) for $200. Look here: https://www.canadaammo.com/product/detail/norinco-jw20-22lr-takedown-rifle/

Then, I'd suggest something like this: https://www.canadaammo.com/product/...-xp-223-rem-22-rifle-w-bushnell-3-9x40-scope/

The Savage isn't pretty, but it'll be accurate as hell. For $600, you've got 2 decent rifles that will let you shoot cheap (the .22), small game and large game. Upgrade later.
 
"...can do small game..." Hi. There's no rifle that is legal for both small game(no cf for small game in most places. Read your Provinces hunting regs) and big game plus save you(you'll never be fast or good enough anyway) from Yogi.
You need to do the CORE or whatever it's called in B.C. first. Then look at a 12 guage pump shotgun with two barrels. One with changeable chokes and the other a rifle sighted barrel(rifled or not).
"...you may legally only have 3 bullets/shells loaded..." That's for shotguns only. However, if you can't humanely kill a deer, bear or whatever with 4 rounds you shouldn't be hunting.
 
Oh, and practice until you can do it with one shot, and one ready just in case... Otherwise it is unethical to wound an animal only for it to die where you can't find it; and you don't want to gutshoot any animal. Ruins the meat even if it dies where you can find it. Good luck!
 
It doesn't sound like you have done either your PAL and in BC your CORE...both are required before buying a firearm and hunting. Do both of those first then decide what caliber firearm to buy. Please post when and where you plan to hunt...so I can avoid that area.
 
The magazine holding only four rounds will be enough when hunting big game. If you don't hit the animals with the first shot they rarely stick around long enough to allow you a second, even with a semi-auto. After you have missed four in a row you take some more ammunition out of your pocket or pack and reload the magazine and carry on hunting. (Or go the range to practise.)
 
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kolik1 said:
A .270 or .308 are both fantastic hunting cartridges, and soft point ammo is readily available for both. Canadian Tire or Walmart should have all the ammo you need for a hunt.

As for magazine capacity, you can not have more than 5 rounds in a center-fire firearm for hunting (4 in the mag, 1 in the chamber), and it is more than sufficient for hunting. By rights, you should only need 1 shot anyways.

Keep in mind, I live and hunt in Saskatchewan and these are the regulations here. Your province may be different, go online and grab the BC Hunting Synopsis, or visit your local hunting license/tag issuer to pick up a copy. Read the regulations to make sure you don't get fined/imprisoned for poaching.
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Keep in mind you live and hunt in Saskatchewan and that is not the hunting regulation in Saskatchewan.

Federal firearms regulations prohibit possession of magazines of more than five rounds capacity if the magazines are made for a semi-auto centrefire long gun regardless of whether you are hunting with the gun or sitting in your basement cleaning it. Or even if you don't own the gun, the magazines themselves are prohibited. Saskatchewan hunting regulations don't prohibit such magazines for hunting because those federal firearms regulations make them illegal to possess anyway. Firearms regulations do not prohibit larger capacity magazines for manually operated repeating rifles and the Sask. hunting regulations do not limit their magazine capacities for hunting. Fill a Lee Enfield magazine with ten rounds and go hunting like that if you wish, it's legal.

You are right about hunting regulations varying between provinces, and regulation of hunting is under provincial jurisdiction. But magazine capacity for shotguns when hunting migratory birds is limited by federal regulation because the U.S. and Canada agree to enforce the same limit as part of joint conservation policies for migratory birds.

A province can set a hunting regulation to be more restrictive than a federal firearms or hunting regulation, but it cannot make a regulation to exempt anyone from federal regulations.
 
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