I think I wanna start Hunting

[kroberts2131]

If your purchasing a .22 maybe deer hunting isnt the right choice. Maybe some varmint hunting. Better deal is to pick up a 12 guage you can get them pretty cheap and you can use slugs for deer, or other shells for different animals. you will get more out of a shotgun than a .22

I'm not getting a .22 to deer hunt with. I just want something cheap that I can shoot the hell out of with out going broke. I did realize last night that I have a friend who's dad passed away awhile back. His dad was a big hunter and has several hunting rifles. He told me I can borrow any I want so thats taken care of. I'm starting a new job soon so I'm hoping maybe I'll meet some deer hunters there and get started that way.

 

[Tele-Caster]

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Studies show that's mostly myth. Any obstruction is very likely to deflect about any rifle bullet. And, if you decide to get something in .30 cal, consider something more energetic than the time honored 30-30. .308 or even 30-06 is vastly preferable to the romantic little lever gun. Very best deer calibers are probably .280 Remington or 7mm-08. CB

I"m with ya' on the whole obstruction thing, as the idea of "brush busting" calibers has been proven to be a myth.

However, the "vastly superior to the romantic little lever gun" comment is one that I am not on board with.

It isn't popular to admit this, but the .30-30 is probably one of my favorite hunting calibers. Recoil is mild enough for kids to handle, and I know this first hand because I was a kid when my "romantic little lever gun" was gifted to me. Report is also mild. In 35 seasons of use, I've come to understand that the .30-30 is a FAR more effective killer of game than it's paper ballistics would suggest. The "secret," if there is one, is the modest velocity, coupled with bullets of respectable sectional density, pretty much ensure deep-digging penetration. Weight retention is high, even with standard cup and core bullets. When sighted in for maximum point blank range, the .30-30 with standard 170 gr. fodder shoots flat enough to score reliable killing hits on game out to 200 yards. That's already about two times farther than the average whitetail kill. Hornady's LeverEvolution ammo adds even more effective range -like an additional 50 to 75 yards + in the hands of a practiced shot.

And speaking of practice, factory .30-30 rounds are among the cheapest centerfire rifle rounds on the market, so you won't go broke developing skills and keeping them sharp.

As for accuracy, my Marlin was a solid 2 M.O.A. rifle when I first got it. $100.00 worth of gunsmithing later, it'll shoot 1.5 M.O.A. with Hornady LeverEvolution and 1 M.O.A. with Federal 170's, and that is with me shooting though peep sights.

Combined, Winchester and Marlin have produced over 12 million of those "romantic little lever guns" like mine, so they are plentiful on the used market. They tend to be carried a lot and shot very little, so most will have plenty of life left. And since most people feel the same way about them that the quoted poster does, supply on the used market exceeds demand, making them very cheap to buy.

And no, .30-30 bullets aren't going to bounce off your big ol' buck any more than they bounced off the scores of feral European-strain hogs I've felled with mine, or the elk I've killed with it. I seriously doubt if there has been a whitetail born that is more bulletproof than an elk or a feral hog.

I've had a lot of rifles come and go over the years, but I still have the Marlin .30-30 and I still use it -and successfully, too- without feeling undergunned. It isn't pure sentiment that keeps me clinging to that rifle, either. It works for me, without a lot of fuss and bother. And it works well. Nothing rides in a saddle scabbard like a romantic old thutty-thutty, and nothing carries like one, either.

Cheap to buy. Cheap to shoot. Pleasant to use. Effective on game at reasonable range. I don't see a lot of negatives here, but plenty of positives. Maybe if I thought I needed to shoot a whitetail at over 300 yards, or if I thought they were somehow more bulletproof than ever before, I might convince myself that I needed more gun. But I haven't yet needed to shoot that far, even when hunting pronghorns in Wyoming, doubt if I will ever need to shoot that far here in Oklahoma, and I remain steadfast in my belief that whitetails are far from bulletproof.

T-C

 

[Tele-Caster]

I have never been hunting a day in my life.

That's okay. We all have been in that place. Some just get out of it sooner than others. In other words, we all had to start somewhere. None of us were born deer hunters. We all had to learn how to become deer hunters.

I had never even fired a firearm until I joined the Marines.

Well, you had the opportunity to get trained by the best in the business, and I suspect you mastered the fundamentals of marksmanship during your tenure in the USMC.

For some reason I have been wanting to give it a try.

You think you'd enjoy it and if you think like that, you probably will. It really is a lot of fun.

Something about it just appeals to me but I dont' really know how to get started

Step One: Find a hunter's safety course and attend it to get your certificate so you can get your hunting license.

or even where to hunt.

I can show you some spots around Tahlequah that I hunt. I've got other spots in Southeast OK, too. I've been looking for a hunting buddy since moving out here three years ago. Haven't hooked up with any yet.

I have no idea what types of gun are best.

If I were you, I'd get an AR-15 -the civilan version of the M-16 A2 or M-4 that you learned to shoot and maintain in the USMC. I'd get it in .223 which is basically the civilian version of the 5.56mm NATO round that you used in the Corps. These days, you can get .223 rounds loaded with bullets suitable for deer hunting -bullets that expand reliably and penetrate deeply to take out vital organs. Keep the range reasonable, pick your shots, and the .223 can have you dining on venison backstraps like the rest of us. I shoot a .30-30, but killed most of my deer (the majority being California blacktails) with the .223 and it worked as good as anything else. Federal makes a 60 gr. Nosler Partition load in .223 that kills far better than most folks would imagine. There are other suitable choices, too -like 64 gr. Winchester Power Points, etc.

AR-15s are a heck of a lot of fun to shoot. The rifles are very ergonomic and the recoil is as close to nill a you'll get in something capable of killing deer reliably. Ammo is relatively cheap for the stuff you'd practice with. And because AR-15's are so much fun, you'll probably want to get plenty of range time in. Deer in general, and whitetails in particular, really aren't that tough to kill, provided that you can put your bullet where it needs to go. That is really easy to do with a decent AR.

I probably won't have a chance to even go until next year with all the stuff I got going on right now but that'll give me a year to get ready at least.

And that time will fly, believe me. I start getting ready for next season as soon as the current one ends. You're just getting a little head start on me.

Any suggestions?

1) Take and pass the hunter's safety course as soon as you can.
2) Don't fret over the gun. Whitetails really aren't bulletproof and most are killed less than 100 yards from the hunter shooting them. As previously stated, I think you might find that a good AR-15 is all the deer rifle you'll need. A bonus here is that an AR is fun whether you hunt or not, and if you decide for whatever reason that hunting really isn't your thing, after all, you'll still have a fun, enjoyable hobby in target shooting with your AR.
3) Look over the wildlife department website and pick a few public land hunting areas to visit. Then visit them. Wander around them, get a feel for the lay of the land, and try looking for deer while you do. The more time you spend in the woods, observing deer being deer, the faster your learning curve will be. Seeing deer in the off season helps prevent one from getting overly exited upon spotting a deer while packing a rifle when the season is on.
4) Prepare for success. Get your trigger time in at the range. Do your off season scouting. Make sure you've got the means to store the meat you'll get and have the tools and knowledge you'll need to render the deer you shoot into food. You've got to plan for field dressing, getting your deer to your vehicle, and butcheing it once you get it out of the woods.

I think deer hunting is what interests me most.

Yeah. But that could be because you've never experienced a decent covey rise on quail. There's other game besides whitetails to pursue. I have just as much fun shooting squirrels in season as I do deer hunting. I'd rather shoot quail, personally, but we don't have many of them around Tahlequah, it seems. That's what highways are for -to get me to the game that I want to pursue, even if it means going across a state or into another to do it!

T-C