To all those experienced shooters and hunters out there, this is for you as well. I expect plenty of slack from you so lets here it. For all you that are looking for advice, well, here it is. Hunting season is upon us yet once again. Between hunting forums and FB hunting/shooting related pages there are tons of posts about: My kid wants to go hunting, what caliber should I choose? If you have to ask that question………well, I’ll just go on. Now, I typically see deer as the game that will be pursued. The occasional Elk comes about here and there. Age of hunter has varied but typically between 10 and 12yrs of age, both girl and boy. My personal thought is hunt the deer first, then elk. Price of tag mostly, but for some, I understand this may have no bearing pending location. In effort to keep this short, and since everyone has one, I’m simply gonna ring out my opinion on what is the best set up. For Deer: -Remington 700 BDL -243 Win -VX-2 3-9x40 -Leupold rings and base set up. For Elk: -Remington 700 BDL -308 -VX-2 3-9x40 -Leupold rings and base set up. Personally, I’m not a huge 308 fan even though I own several. The above caliber differences are similar to driving a Corvette vs a Mac truck. You can guess which drops like a rock. I prefer fast and flat for accuracy in the novice category. Both choices have a couple very important things in common even though they perform much differently. #1 Ammo Availability #2 Recoil I’ll touch on recoil. I have heard too many times, I bought my son a 30-06, 300WSM or a 270 and it simply kicks the heck out of him. Yep, sure does. How’s the flinch? I simply don’t see the value in high horsepower rigs with the big recoil. Just doesn’t do anything positive for the novice shooter. Put a muzzle break on it. Heck yeah they are typically effective. That’s a positive. Let’s think about that. To a novice shooter, noise=recoil. Maybe this is just me. Why drop the coin? Spend that on ammo with a std caliber. Please put a rifle in their hand that they want to shoot, can learn to be proficient at, and work their way up. I own several calibers, too many actually. I listed two. Only two. Even though the 260, 7mm-08, 257 Roberts, 300WM, etc, etc, etc, are all great offerings I don’t see the big advantage in a novice shooter. Truth be told, I don’t see it in experienced shooters from time to time. Please keep in mind my suggestion is something that I feel is worthy of years of service, retention of value, and options of stock style (to accommodate and grow with the shooter). I own them all, rifle manufactures, optics, etc, etc, etc. Effective range. Here we go. The ethical shot. Whatever you choose to be that shot, consider the trajectory of the cartridge. The “heavier” the round, the more drop=more education to the novice shooter on “holding over”. The flatter the round=less drop in which typically =more positive shot placement. Round selection. Use your head. The lightest round for a 243 isn’t the greatest choice. The heaviest likely is. As for the 308, the moderate round will do the job. Shoot a few offerings of each, pick which is more accurate and stick with it. Once again, simply my opinion. I just have a tough time with the horsepower junkies out there. Guess I look at it like this. If horsepower was really king, we would all be shooting 10ga (handloaded) and 338LM (or improved) as a minimum across the board. If your reading this and have a first time hunter, I suggest bringing them up and putting off that big hunt until they earned the badge. On the other end, if they can out shoot you, hand them your rifle and maybe you should follow the above and go from there. To this day, I still pick up my trusty ol Rem 243 adl ,from time to time, that has nestled in several stocks over time. That good ol 3-9x40 still gives me the no frills (kiss) feel that brings game down. Guess I keep it around as a go to rifle.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 04:20:02 +0000
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