Need a hunting rifle, need advice

[Justin Franklin]

I personally use a .308, but if I were to purchase another it would probably be a 7 mag. You'll get a better distance shot because of the flatter trajectory with a 7 mag.

[lawrnk]

I think the consensus is largely the 270 is probably the best all around for what I plan to hunt, (mostly whitetails) and I sure appreciate all the advice. I'll pick it up, thrown a 3x9 leupold on it, and report back! Thanks guys.

[.30calSolution]

Once you get your savage check out this site. I know quite a few people including myself who have had work done here. Great bunch of folks. http://www.sharpshootersupply.com/

Disclaimer: I won't be held responsible for any financial or marital difficulties that may arise due to the viewing of the above posted URL.

[duggy]

Let me know when you are ready to sight it in!

[lawrnk]

Let me know when you are ready to sight it in!

If I could just find one in stock.

[dessl]

Go with the 30.06!

[Tregs]

My go-to hunting gun is a Reminton 700 chambered in .270 with a Nikon 3-9x40. Fast, flat round.

[swc007]

i love my 7 mag can't go wrong with it... flat trajectory and knocks down pretty much anything u need to kill with it

[wninja]

I own a Savage Edge in .308 winchester. I can't find my mini-writeup on it from another forum but I'll try to summarize.

A little background:
I'm not a hunter and this is the first bolt action rifle I've ever owned. I've shot bolt rifles that belonged to friends in the past. I am a handgun person, the only rifles I've ever owned were a .30-30 marlin and a .308 caliber DPMS AR (both of which I sold to buy more handguns ). I bought this rifle as a budget hunting rifle though. I always hear "yea we'll go hunting some time" but no one has ever really followed up. That is probably a good reason to own a budget rifle and not invest more into one

I paid around $290 after the transfer fee. The rifle itself feels cheap, the stock is hollow. I used Leupold scope mounts for the Stevens 110/200 (I think) with a Nikon ProStaff BDC 4-12 power on there (got the scope for $175 after taxes at a gunshow).

I've only put about 20 rounds downrange so far, all 150gr Remington cheapo stuff from Walmart (the 40 round boxes). I was about to maintain an average of 1MOA with the cheap ammo. I'm very satisfied with that. Your mileage may vary.

Overall opinion...great budget/beginner rifle. It fits the bill of everything I was looking for when I purchased a rifle.

Alot of people told me the Stevens 200 is better if I wanted to upgrade and all that noise, which is true. But really...I wanted a budget rifle. I wasn't planning on putting any more money into my "budget" rifle other than the necessities (optics and mounts) and ammunition.