New Deer Rifle - Suggestions

[benchracer]

Given that you have set a $4K budget for rifle and optics, I truly believe you should reconsider the idea of beginning to reload later. I strongly recommend that you allocate $500 of your budget to a basic reloading setup. $3500 for rifle and scope will still get you a very nice rifle.

IMO, the words "long range" and "factory ammo" do not belong together. Spending $4k on rifle and scope to shoot long range and then feeding that same combo factory ammo is putting the cart before the horse in a big way. What you are proposing is analagous to spending big bucks on a high performance car and then insisting on putting only low octane pump gas in the tank.

There are a lot of great chamberings that would fit your needs if you handload. The better chamberings for what you want have very limited factory ammo availability under normal circumstances, let alone the current crazy environment. Even the highest performance rounds among them will leave a lot of performance on the table if you stay with factory ammo. For long range hunting/shooting, you really need to be able to control all of the variables where your ammo is concerned. Only handloading will allow you to do that.

 

[benchracer]

If you insist on factory ammo, I would stick with 7mm Rem Mag or .270 Win. for reasons of ammo availability and broad choice of loads that will increase your chances of finding a factory load that your rifle likes.

If you handload, your options open considerably. In addition to the above options, .257 Wby, .264 Win Mag, 6.5-284, 6.5-06, and .280AI would all be good options.

I have a recent production Winchester Model 70 in .264 Win Mag. I like it a lot. If you shop around, you can find one for $700-$800. If you are not happy with the factory barrel you can re-barrel it for another $500 or so and still have enough money left over for a very nice scope.

If you are more of a push feed guy, you can do the same with a Remington, Savage, etc. A better option might be to buy one of the Remington clone custom actions (Stiller, for example), put a quality barrel on it and the stock of your choice. I would expect you to be able to do that for $2k ish, again with plenty left over for a very nice scope. A Nosler Custom Model 48 would get you to about the same place in terms of quality and cost.

 

[Cascabel]

Yeah I'm starting to realize the absurdity of spending big cash and feeding the rifle factory stuff. I have absolutely zero experience with reloading and would like to choose a cartridge that wouldn't be too difficult to work with. I'll put some more research into the calibers you guys have suggested. Thanks.

 

[sourdough44]

If you don't reload I'd get something fairly common, at least with mail order. That said one of my very favorites is the 284 Winchester. Something like the 7mm-08 would be about ideal for TX deer, ammo still easy to get.

I didn't skim back to see your budget & if you wanted to go custom. A common Browning X-Bolt is a solid & easy choice.

 

[Damol]

Nice thing about calibers like 270, 30-06, 7mm Rem mag, 300 Win Mag, and the like is even if you do reload you can fall back on factory ammo if you need to.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Yeah I'm starting to realize the absurdity of spending big cash and feeding the rifle factory stuff. I have absolutely zero experience with reloading and would like to choose a cartridge that wouldn't be too difficult to work with. I'll put some more research into the calibers you guys have suggested. Thanks.

Thats what ballistics charts and reloading manuals are for. Every bullet manufacturer and powder manufacturer publishes a reloading manual and most have step by step instructions showing you just how to reload.

It's all out there for the reading.

 

[JRS3]

If you don't reload but want high performance ammo for your custom rifle, check out Superior Ammo. I used them before rolling my own and they are great. Expensive but if you can afford a $3500+ rifle, then their ammo will fill your bill.

 

[bobw]

I love myEncore pro hunter w EA Brown accuracy barrel in 270Win. 58.5 gr of H4831scw 150 gr ssts' but if I wanted a little more I'd go with 7mm mag and gunworks ammo w burger bullets. they are stretching it out to 1000-1200 yds with obvious success.

 

[GTOHunter]

Check out the Browning Medallion .270 WSM,great looking Rifle,well made and flat shooting....the Savage model 11/111 GCNS 7mm-08 bolt action in the wood stock is another nice Rifle to consider!

 

[harrisjohn07]

Hello im not a super vet at LRS but have been playing with it with more of a tight budget. If u want to custom build your own rifle which I suggest and have done with other platforms not a long range gun. I currently use a 270 remington 7600 with a Vortex Viper PST great scope for under a grand has loads of features but one thing I have heard on here is use your money to buy a good scope and buy a rifle with what is left over lol. I like sticking to popular models like the Rem 700 and 1911's for hand guns because they are easy to cusomise and you can find parts in ever shape, size, color, and quality. Everyone will say go for a night force scope which is one of the best on the market I personally like Vortex and the Razor is a beast of a scope it would be my pick having owned vortex products I love them. You can get custom turrets if you usually hunt the same elevation they work good if conditions vary use other methods like MOA system. Also dont forget to budget a good range finder suggest Leupold or G7 if you got the money to through at the Gunwerks ranger. If you want a great gun out of the box check out Gunwerks. Just do a lot of reaserch and figure out what will best suite your needs. I am not fond of the calibers you named personally check out 7mm rem mag.

 

[boattailed bandit]

I agree with GTO Hunter. I have a A-Bolt Medallion in 270win and talk about smooth. Bit on the heavy side, but you cant beat them out of the box on accuracy and precision IMO. Only issue is if you plan on building off of them, although I don't know why you would. They use fine threads on the barrels so not many people want to work on them, and aftermarket stuff is definitely on the short side. But if you want a rifle that you can take out of the box and be able to rely on then you cant beat them.

 

[snookntarpon]

Cooper Rifle. 280 AI or 6.5-284
Second the superior ammo choice.
Nosler also sells ammo for both of the above calibers.

 

[robgundy]

IMO, The tried and true .30-06 is the best (for me) all around rifle. You can spruce it up with different barrels, stocks, optics or ammo. You can shoot coyotes and other small critters with something as small as a 100gr plinker or go after moose with a 220gr partitioned or anything in between. Yes, there are many if not hundreds of options in both caliber and bullet types. I reload and I use factory ammo. I can load up something specific that my rifle likes and shoots very accurate or if I forget my ammo and am not close to home or something happens to my ammo, I can walk into just about any sporting goods store and even some mini-marts and pick myself up some .30-06 ammo and continue my adventure. Will it be the exact same as I would have bought at home? Probably not but if I had something of the less common variety I would most likely be out of luck. My dad hunts with a .30-06 and so do several other friends and relatives. Even though I use my .30-06 for just about everything, I still bring a backup. My deer backup is an old Winchester .30-30 lever action. I dont like to see how far away I can shoot a deer or any animal. I like to see how close I can get to it before I pull the trigger. If you want to see how far away you can shoot a deer, why not just go with a .50 BMG? Can go alot farther than anything mentioned before. If you are looking just to make a custom rifle for the fun of it, then that is great. If looking for an all around rifle, stick with a common mainstream rifle that is customizable. Say for instance, the Win Model 70 or Remington Model 700. They have several different types of barrels, triggers and calibers to choose from.
Anyway, since you are newer to the reloading, I would stick to a common or somewhat common caliber to start with and see how it goes from there. I can take long or short shots with my rifle on a variety of different game. But, this is all just my opinion. I cant wait to hear how the search comes out for you. The thrill of the chase is always exciting.

 

[Greg Duerr]

I like you thoughts, yes, its a lot more rewarding for me to work up and take a short shot or one within 250 yards. There have been some times when Knowing how to make the longer shots was the only option you had. I hunted with a Muzzle loader for 15 years and shot nothing but patched roundballs and buckhorn sights. I had to get within 100 yards and prefered to get under 80. It was a very rewarding experiance. Someday in the near future someone is going to pass a law that makes ALL sniper style rifles illegal, that being any rifle with a scope and then we will all be hunting again like my grandfather did when you had to be a woodsman and you had to get close enough to make a clean kill. I would guess that there were thousands of Elk Moose and Bear killed with open sighted 30-06's. There is just somthing special about hunting that way.
I worked years ago in Bend, 1983, worked for a plumbing company called, now I cant think of the name but it was owned by Jess Paschall........

G