first rifle for a newbie

[happyhunter]

22 Hornet is excellent, 22 K Hornet even better but the ammo is expensive so unless the new shooter wants to get straight into handloading I'm not sure the 22 hornet would be the best choice.

Does your recommendation include the fact, that a newbie needs / should, practice A LOT and the report of a Hornet would be somewhat limiting ?

Do you not consider a rimfire, more appropriate for a new chum ?

Did you actually read the post?

[MR. WINCHESTER]

Probably not as well as I should have ...

( am a busy boy. Lol )

[<<Genesis93>>]

I like the blue one.

[Elek]

42 cents per round is more than .223, though

Hope you never have to live with Australian ammo prices there

[Nalla Rehctelf]

Does any one have a stainless Marlin XT 22 TSR.
If so what does it shoot like. Say at 50m to 80m?

[in2anity]

If you want to learn to shoot, I mean really master the art of marksmanship (across all stances), you need something that's super cheap and pleasurable to practice with (a lot). Can't go past a nice 22lr bolt. If you're intent on centerfire, how about 38sp/357? These are also damn cheap to run - you could even splurge and get a nice lever with a tang. Hot 357 hunting loads are effective up to medium-sized Aussie game, so the caliber is pretty scalable. The option of handloading is always there too; carbide dies in a progressive press FTW!

Shooting lead instead of jacketed in these calibers will teach you a lot about trajectories - something I feel is super important for beginners. Is a shame new shooters are so quick to jump into the fast, flat cartridges these days (like the 223) - it makes things super simple, and really hides you from a lot of the nuances of markmanship and ballistics.

[Garth]

22mag good little rifles good for first rifle

[chacka]

Shooting lead instead of jacketed in these calibers will teach you a lot about trajectories - something I feel is super important for beginners. Is a shame new shooters are so quick to jump into the fast, flat cartridges these days (like the 223) - it makes things super simple, and really hides you from a lot of the nuances of markmanship and ballistics.

Hmm, I wouldn't say that. There is nothing at all wrong with the .223 or learning on one.

If you're just plugging away at 100m and never mixing it up then maybe there's an element of truth in what you're saying, but that could be said of anything really.

With a fast twist .223 though you can load up for some long range shooting and it gives new shooters room to reach out further and get better with more challenging shooting.

[in2anity]

Shooting lead instead of jacketed in these calibers will teach you a lot about trajectories - something I feel is super important for beginners. Is a shame new shooters are so quick to jump into the fast, flat cartridges these days (like the 223) - it makes things super simple, and really hides you from a lot of the nuances of markmanship and ballistics.

Hmm, I wouldn't say that. There is nothing at all wrong with the .223 or learning on one.

If you're just plugging away at 100m and never mixing it up then maybe there's an element of truth in what you're saying, but that could be said of anything really.

With a fast twist .223 though you can load up for some long range shooting and it gives new shooters room to reach out further and get better with more challenging shooting.

Well it's all relative to the size of the target isn't it - you don't need to reach out excessively to challenge yourself - take all the Olympic disciplines as examples of this. Scoring consecutive tens at 50m offhand is incredibly difficult. And how many of us have the luxury of being able to plink thousands of rounds at long distances? (In AUS that is) Percentage-wise, sweet f-all I say. Nope I stick by my sentiment; for the vast majority of us, if you wanna really learn to shoot (no I'm not talking bipod shooting), then you gotta pick something cheap (like a 22).

Don't get me wrong - the 223 is a kick-ass round, but for your average joe civilian starting out, youre better off practicing with something cheap and slow. You can always step up to 223 for hunting to simplify things later on; and f***k you'll appreciate it, so much more than if you immediately started on it. There's a reason 5.56mm is standard military - any monkey can point and hit a man sized target over a very long point-blank range without hardly a thought.

Yes, if you have easy and regular access to a variable long-distance range, 223 would be a good start. Unfortunately that's usually logistically a pretty rare convenience.