Best hunting rifle attribute mix

Game hunting and large prey. Deer stalking, hunting with hounds. Boar, pigs etc., large prey, culling, hunting large feral animals.

Best hunting rifle attribute mix

Post by remnt » 04 Nov 2016, 2:26 pm

Hi guys,

A bit of a spin on the "what's the best hunting rifle" question that comes up now and then. That's obviously a "how long is a piece" type question, and different for different people anyway.

I'm curious what a bit of an average is though. Lets forget about buffalo as most of us will never go near them, but lets say best hunting rifle, in terms of general attributes, for general hunting fox through to deer, which is what most of us do.

Do you prefer ultra-light for carrying or a bit more weight for the solid feel and recoil reduction?

Shorter barrel for pointing or longer for a bit more puff?

Timber stock for look and feel or synthetic for toughness/maintenance.

That kind of stuff, what's the mix you look for.
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Re: Best hunting rifle attribute mix

Post by Oldbloke » 04 Nov 2016, 3:17 pm

Rent,
No such thing as 1 rifle/calibre for everything. Silly question really. BUT if I was forced to make a choice, light weight bolt action in 7-08 with a 3-9 scope.
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Re: Best hunting rifle attribute mix

Post by bigfellascott » 04 Nov 2016, 4:03 pm

The best ones the one I have in my hand at the time - cal not so important to me, shot placement can help compensate for under sized bores quite well depending on distance and cal used.
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Re: Best hunting rifle attribute mix

Post by bladeracer » 04 Nov 2016, 4:19 pm

remnt wrote:Hi guys,

A bit of a spin on the "what's the best hunting rifle" question that comes up now and then. That's obviously a "how long is a piece" type question, and different for different people anyway.

I'm curious what a bit of an average is though. Lets forget about buffalo as most of us will never go near them, but lets say best hunting rifle, in terms of general attributes, for general hunting fox through to deer, which is what most of us do.

Do you prefer ultra-light for carrying or a bit more weight for the solid feel and recoil reduction?

Shorter barrel for pointing or longer for a bit more puff?

Timber stock for look and feel or synthetic for toughness/maintenance.

That kind of stuff, what's the mix you look for.


Due to our poorly-thought-out minimum caliber deer laws, that's going to heavily restrict choices to .270 and bigger. If you only use factory ammo then you're further restricted to full-power loads.
My perfect field rifle would run along the lines of an 800mm bullpup, short action, short-throw bolt, no wood, fully-floated shrouded forend, matt finish, good trigger, max 5kg field weight, medium-weight barrel 22-24", tight twist, threaded, removable non-rotary double-stack-single-feed 10rd magazine, backup iron sights, single-point sling swivel, and a variable mil-dot scope.

7mm-08 - but bullet choice and shot placement on bigger beasts is critical.

If I was primarily shooting Sambar I'd go with one of the short-action magnum-class .308's like the SAUM, RCM or WSM/WSSM and load it way down for smaller game.
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Re: Best hunting rifle attribute mix

Post by bigfellascott » 04 Nov 2016, 5:37 pm

bladeracer wrote:
remnt wrote:Hi guys,

A bit of a spin on the "what's the best hunting rifle" question that comes up now and then. That's obviously a "how long is a piece" type question, and different for different people anyway.

I'm curious what a bit of an average is though. Lets forget about buffalo as most of us will never go near them, but lets say best hunting rifle, in terms of general attributes, for general hunting fox through to deer, which is what most of us do.

Do you prefer ultra-light for carrying or a bit more weight for the solid feel and recoil reduction?

Shorter barrel for pointing or longer for a bit more puff?

Timber stock for look and feel or synthetic for toughness/maintenance.

That kind of stuff, what's the mix you look for.


Due to our poorly-thought-out minimum caliber deer laws, that's going to heavily restrict choices to .270 and bigger. If you only use factory ammo then you're further restricted to full-power loads.
My perfect field rifle would run along the lines of an 800mm bullpup, short action, short-throw bolt, no wood, fully-floated shrouded forend, matt finish, good trigger, max 5kg field weight, medium-weight barrel 22-24", tight twist, threaded, removable non-rotary double-stack-single-feed 10rd magazine, backup iron sights, single-point sling swivel, and a variable mil-dot scope.

7mm-08 - but bullet choice and shot placement on bigger beasts is critical.

If I was primarily shooting Sambar I'd go with one of the short-action magnum-class .308's like the SAUM, RCM or WSM/WSSM and load it way down for smaller game.


That sounds very Tacticool mate :D not sure I'd want to be humping 5kg around the hills looking for big brown Cows though. :mrgreen:
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Re: Best hunting rifle attribute mix

Post by bladeracer » 04 Nov 2016, 6:17 pm

bigfellascott wrote:That sounds very Tacticool mate :D not sure I'd want to be humping 5kg around the hills looking for big brown Cows though. :mrgreen:



5kg would be more a varmint setup with bipod :-)
I think you'd struggle to go under 4kg with a scope though.
Out of interest:
M38 6.5x55mm Mauser (scoped, no sling) 5.05kg
No4 MkI* .303 (no scope or sling) 4.21kg
M91/38 6.5x52mm Carcano Short Rifle (with sling) 3.86kg
M1904/39 8x57mm Mauser (with sling) 4.01kg
Ruger American Predator .204 (scoped) 3.87kg
Ruger American MDT LSS Chassis 7mm-08 (scope and bipod) 4.95kg (4.58kg without the bipod)
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Re: Best hunting rifle attribute mix

Post by Chronos » 04 Nov 2016, 6:34 pm

JESUS 5kg? you can have that :thumbsdown:

When i went looking for a dedicated hunting gun for use on foot in the bush i went for a .308 that weighed 3.2kg scoped. Then when i had the chance i changes the stock for something that brought the total scoped weight down to 2.7kg. perfect to carry all day, quite comfy to shoot off hand, off a tree or off a bipod and kills everything you point it at

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Re: Best hunting rifle attribute mix

Post by tom604 » 04 Nov 2016, 6:43 pm

i know its not a caliber question but a 243, will kill everything :thumbsup: (not buff) see a rabbit,"bang" no rabbit, see fox, ditto. sambar,,big pill,shot placement quite doable, not legal but doable, :unknown:
other deer no problem,goats/roos/dingos/wombats /koalas easy as :thumbsup: . light weight,no real recoil,long barrel, syn stock, range of pills, factory or handload, flat shooting need i go on,, its called the pope for a reason :thumbsup:
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Re: Best hunting rifle attribute mix

Post by bladeracer » 04 Nov 2016, 7:00 pm

Chronos wrote:JESUS 5kg? you can have that :thumbsdown:

When i went looking for a dedicated hunting gun for use on foot in the bush i went for a .308 that weighed 3.2kg scoped. Then when i had the chance i changes the stock for something that brought the total scoped weight down to 2.7kg. perfect to carry all day, quite comfy to shoot off hand, off a tree or off a bipod and kills everything you point it at

Chronos



That's crazy lightweight!
What rifle and scope are we talking about?

I was shooting this arvo in some mad gusting crosswinds (28-45kph) that actually blew my 5kg M38 Mauser off my bench!
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Re: Best hunting rifle attribute mix

Post by bladeracer » 04 Nov 2016, 7:10 pm

tom604 wrote:i know its not a caliber question but a 243, will kill everything :thumbsup: (not buff) see a rabbit,"bang" no rabbit, see fox, ditto. sambar,,big pill,shot placement quite doable, not legal but doable, :unknown:
other deer no problem,goats/roos/dingos/wombats /koalas easy as :thumbsup: . light weight,no real recoil,long barrel, syn stock, range of pills, factory or handload, flat shooting need i go on,, its called the pope for a reason :thumbsup:



Yep, .243 is essentially the 6mm-08 ;-)
I prefer to have more power and load it down as required, than to find myself lacking.
I was shooting some 7mm-08 loads this arvo - 100gn HP at 900fps and 150gn SP at 2600fps :-)
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Re: Best hunting rifle attribute mix

Post by happyhunter » 04 Nov 2016, 7:25 pm

Best anything is subjective, but I really like the Browning Abolt II in 308, specially the 60 degree bolt lift and the fact I can load through the ejector port or remove the magazine. Great build quality and some nice features for the price.

Also really like the Anshnutz 1530, which also happens to has a really low bolt lift and is so compact for a .222 it feels like your carrying around a rimfire.

But, funnest rifle I've hunted with has to be a bUshmaster AR. Shame we can't have them in Australia but if you are O.S and have the chance they are a lot of fun to shoot on a hunt.
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Re: Best hunting rifle attribute mix

Post by Chronos » 04 Nov 2016, 7:43 pm

bladeracer wrote:
Chronos wrote:JESUS 5kg? you can have that :thumbsdown:

When i went looking for a dedicated hunting gun for use on foot in the bush i went for a .308 that weighed 3.2kg scoped. Then when i had the chance i changes the stock for something that brought the total scoped weight down to 2.7kg. perfect to carry all day, quite comfy to shoot off hand, off a tree or off a bipod and kills everything you point it at

Chronos



That's crazy lightweight!
What rifle and scope are we talking about?

I was shooting this arvo in some mad gusting crosswinds (28-45kph) that actually blew my 5kg M38 Mauser off my bench!


It's a Tikka hunter fluted stainless with a VX3 2.5-8X36 in DNZ game reaper mounts, there was a thread on it here somewhere when i got it and it was 7lbs (3.18kg) but it spends some time out of it's walnut stock these days in a carbon fibre stock and sits pretty much on exactly 6lbs (roughly 2.7kg)

the gun shoots 3 rounds of the federal 130gr HP's into about 1" at 200y off the bench and shoots 165gr game kings around 1 moa with no load development so I'm very happy with it

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Re: Best hunting rifle attribute mix

Post by gazza » 04 Nov 2016, 7:59 pm

Rabbits galore right now. My old 22 and a pocket full of subs is all I will use for a while.
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Re: Best hunting rifle attribute mix

Post by bigfellascott » 04 Nov 2016, 8:12 pm

Chronos wrote:
bladeracer wrote:
Chronos wrote:JESUS 5kg? you can have that :thumbsdown:

When i went looking for a dedicated hunting gun for use on foot in the bush i went for a .308 that weighed 3.2kg scoped. Then when i had the chance i changes the stock for something that brought the total scoped weight down to 2.7kg. perfect to carry all day, quite comfy to shoot off hand, off a tree or off a bipod and kills everything you point it at

Chronos



That's crazy lightweight!
What rifle and scope are we talking about?

I was shooting this arvo in some mad gusting crosswinds (28-45kph) that actually blew my 5kg M38 Mauser off my bench!


It's a Tikka hunter fluted stainless with a VX3 2.5-8X36 in DNZ game reaper mounts, there was a thread on it here somewhere when i got it and it was 7lbs (3.18kg) but it spends some time out of it's walnut stock these days in a carbon fibre stock and sits pretty much on exactly 6lbs (roughly 2.7kg)

the gun shoots 3 rounds of the federal 130gr HP's into about 1" at 200y off the bench and shoots 165gr game kings around 1 moa with no load development so I'm very happy with it

Chronos


Got a T3x Fluted Blued Hunter coming in 308 (wanted something light to wonder the hills chasing pigs and deer etc) so this suited that perfectly. What Fed ammo is it mate? I just asked over on AHN about what ammo people were using in their Tikka 308's so your timing was spot on :D Hopefully this one will shoot as well as yours as I will be running factory ammo for a while until I can be bothered reloading for it and still not 100% sure I could be bothered to be honest, it's only pigs and deer and if they shoot fine with factory ammo I might just stick with it yet.

Tell me more about the stock too plz - might upgrade the wood one day if I think it's needed. :thumbsup:
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Re: Best hunting rifle attribute mix

Post by bladeracer » 04 Nov 2016, 8:36 pm

Chronos wrote:It's a Tikka hunter fluted stainless with a VX3 2.5-8X36 in DNZ game reaper mounts, there was a thread on it here somewhere when i got it and it was 7lbs (3.18kg) but it spends some time out of it's walnut stock these days in a carbon fibre stock and sits pretty much on exactly 6lbs (roughly 2.7kg)

the gun shoots 3 rounds of the federal 130gr HP's into about 1" at 200y off the bench and shoots 165gr game kings around 1 moa with no load development so I'm very happy with it

Chronos



Sounds like an awesome piece.
What does a carbon stock cost?
I can certainly see the advantage of light weight, but I don't find my current rifles to be a struggle :-)
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Re: Best hunting rifle attribute mix

Post by VICHunter » 07 Nov 2016, 10:18 am

bladeracer wrote:Due to our poorly-thought-out minimum caliber deer laws, that's going to heavily restrict choices to .270 and bigger.


.260 Rem is a cartridge which I think is very appealing on paper, but you nailed it... Our arbitrary laws which revolved around calibre (instead of something sensible like energy) preclude it.

If the law was different a .260 with a box of 95gr loads for pests and a box of 140gr or 160gr for game would suit me perfectly.
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