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The county I hunt deer on in NY (at my parents farm-I have a lifetime NY hunting license even though I'm a VA resident now) may soon allow us to hunt deer with rifles. Currently we can only use shotgun slugs, muzzleloaders and handguns. It has to work its way through the state legislature, but it seems it will, as several neighboring counties have gotten this done in the past 2 years. So with that being the case, I'm now considering buying a good deer rifle. I won't buy until the bill is actually signed into law, but am thinking about what to go for.
As of now the leading candidate for me is the Savage 111 Trophy Hunter XP series package in .30-06. Reasons are:
1) it's a bolt gun that comes in left hand version, which is important to me as a southpaw. Yes I could make a right hand gun work, but I just don't want to.
2) I like the caliber. .30-06 will give me plenty of accuracy, range (I'd be shooting 250-300 yards max), power and the versatility to hunt other big game in the future like elk, mule deer and even black bear (all of which I plan to do). It's also has a good variety of loads available for it.
3) I like Savage's quality and accuracy. I've shot a model 10 series owned by a buddy and was very impressed by it, especially the Accutrigger. My brother has an Axis in .223 that is pretty good too, but the trigger in it sucks. I figure for a little bit more I can get the Accutrigger and not have to worry about it.
4) Price. I can save up and spend what's needed but I don't want to go hog wild either, especially since I won't be using this gun that much (1 week per year for deer at most right now). I'm seeing these on gunbroker for around $450-480 or so.
5) Simplicity. By that I mean it already will have a scope out of box, a Nikon ProStaff 3-9x from my research. Not the best scope in the world, but for my use it'll be fine and it'll save me time of having to buy and mount one.
So with all that said, does anyone have any reason why I SHOULDN'T get this gun? any experience pro or con that you can share? I'd also be willing to entertain other suggestions if they meet the above criteria.
Thanks guys!
As of now the leading candidate for me is the Savage 111 Trophy Hunter XP series package in .30-06. Reasons are:
1) it's a bolt gun that comes in left hand version, which is important to me as a southpaw. Yes I could make a right hand gun work, but I just don't want to.
2) I like the caliber. .30-06 will give me plenty of accuracy, range (I'd be shooting 250-300 yards max), power and the versatility to hunt other big game in the future like elk, mule deer and even black bear (all of which I plan to do). It's also has a good variety of loads available for it.
3) I like Savage's quality and accuracy. I've shot a model 10 series owned by a buddy and was very impressed by it, especially the Accutrigger. My brother has an Axis in .223 that is pretty good too, but the trigger in it sucks. I figure for a little bit more I can get the Accutrigger and not have to worry about it.
4) Price. I can save up and spend what's needed but I don't want to go hog wild either, especially since I won't be using this gun that much (1 week per year for deer at most right now). I'm seeing these on gunbroker for around $450-480 or so.
5) Simplicity. By that I mean it already will have a scope out of box, a Nikon ProStaff 3-9x from my research. Not the best scope in the world, but for my use it'll be fine and it'll save me time of having to buy and mount one.
So with all that said, does anyone have any reason why I SHOULDN'T get this gun? any experience pro or con that you can share? I'd also be willing to entertain other suggestions if they meet the above criteria.
Thanks guys!