Not your usual "first rifle" question

Rexman

FNG
Joined
Dec 2, 2020
Messages
7
Location
Colorado
I had a similar debate when buying my first rifle a few months ago and ended up going with a Tikka Roughtech 308. My reasoning was it can be used on deer and elk, I can find ammo and the ammo seems less expensive than larger calibers. With that being said I seem to always see 270 and 300 win mag at my local Murdoch's...along with 308.
 
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Bobrunner06

Bobrunner06

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jun 10, 2019
Messages
136
Location
MI
I had a similar debate when buying my first rifle a few months ago and ended up going with a Tikka Roughtech 308. My reasoning was it can be used on deer and elk, I can find ammo and the ammo seems less expensive than larger calibers. With that being said I seem to always see 270 and 300 win mag at my local Murdoch's...along with 308.
Tikka 308 is one of my top choices. I too will be mainly using it for deer and some elk. I'm also looking hard at Weatherby Vanguards. 7mm rem mag is also looking good to me. 7mm does seem harder to find though
 
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Bobrunner06

Bobrunner06

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jun 10, 2019
Messages
136
Location
MI
Like the others before me have said.
If you are worried about it then dont buy one of these calibers that was made just to fill a spot in the market. Stay away from em.

243, 7mm-08, 270, 308, 30-06 or 300 Win Mag

You should have no issue with the above. Factory or reloading. This to shall pass then you can go get a 28 Nosler or 6.5 of the day.
Hope that helps.
thanks Slugz
 
Joined
Jul 24, 2017
Messages
326
Location
AR
Buy the tikka in 308 and never look back.

Well maybe when ammo becomes available again look jealously at 6.5 creedmoor and join the club of calling it a fad. A flatter shooting, lower recoil fad.

I wouldn't touch 7mm mag unless I was reloading it because I think most factory ammo options are really missing out on the potential of the cartridge, and even then the tikka twist rate is a bit slow for the super slippery bullets
 
Joined
Mar 2, 2021
Messages
73
Location
Scottsdale, AZ
I believe this will pass faster than people think it will. When all the toilet paper hoarders get enough stuff, you will see things creep back on the shelves sooner than later. If you see 4 boxes of a caliber you need, you buy 4 boxes now even though you only need 2. As soon as that goes away, we will be on the road to recovery.
 

Dioni A

Basque Assassin
Joined
Mar 29, 2016
Messages
1,534
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Nampa, Idaho
Ammo manufacturers were caught with their pants down. The pandemic drove unprecedented gun sales and then lead into the election and it's been a year of craziness. Remington was shuttered until vista bought it. Even then they had no materials on hand to produce. The bottlenecks of the supply chain are getting worked out and we will probably see a flood of components and ammunition being produced this summer. It will take a while and the hoarders will hoard, but stuff will get available again.
 
Joined
Nov 29, 2017
Messages
506
Location
SE Idaho
Ammo manufacturers were caught with their pants down. The pandemic drove unprecedented gun sales and then lead into the election and it's been a year of craziness. Remington was shuttered until vista bought it. Even then they had no materials on hand to produce. The bottlenecks of the supply chain are getting worked out and we will probably see a flood of components and ammunition being produced this summer. It will take a while and the hoarders will hoard, but stuff will get available again.

A great time to be shooting a 6.5 PRC eh Dioni?
 

Beendare

WKR
Joined
May 6, 2014
Messages
8,247
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Corripe cervisiam
I also vote .308, a decent do all cartridge with b better than avg availability....and its usually cheaper.

Re ammo $$;

I use my Glock 20 pistol as a backup while bowhunting and I have run over 700rds of 200gr hard cast through that pistol.

Yep, that ammo was worth more than that gun itself....but the training with it is priceless.

__
 
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
5,824
My local gun shops have ammo. Not 2-5 flavors of each caliber and they are missing a few but they have ammo. I would keep it pretty common and you should be able to find ammo but not cheaply.

I don’t know what your skill level is but if you know how to shoot, 20-40 should be plenty to zero a scope. Call it another 20-40 to test it out at different distances and you ought to be in business For 100-300 yard shots.

if you are learning how to rifle shoot, you may want to think about a trainer. Pellet gun or 22lr. It will be a much cheaper way to learn.
 
Joined
Nov 29, 2017
Messages
506
Location
SE Idaho
I sure think so. I bought enough components to wear out the barrel when I got the gun. Most of the components to wear out the next two barrels also.

Ahhh gotcha. I knew you had one but wasn’t sure if you had enough components. I was looking to get one but just decided to build a 7 saum instead since so much is non existent at the moment
 

chasewright15

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Apr 25, 2017
Messages
117
It's interesting to me how many of us are having completely different experiences through this ammo frenzi. Some people say go with a traditional/super common cartridge for a new rifle based off ammo availability (through their experiences through all this).

But I'd suggest the exact opposite from what I've seen. No, I'm not saying stores get more 28 nosler than 30-06. They don't. But hundreds of .06 shoppers come in for every one 28 nosler shopper.

My point being the common cartridges get gobbled up the second they hit the shelf. So your timing has to be lucky. But I've been staring at the same 300 plus rounds of 6.8 western collecting dust for weeks lol. Plus a significant amount of 28 nosler and other more less common cartridges.

But every town and store could be different.
 
Joined
Nov 14, 2020
Messages
1,002
My local sportsman’s has all the Noslers 26,28,30 and lots of 300 WSM as well as few other oddballs. $40-50 a box. No thanks ma’am.

They also had one box of .416 Win mag. For $125. I almost bought it for the powder.;)
 
Joined
Mar 2, 2021
Messages
73
Location
Scottsdale, AZ
I like to bow hunt as well and put in for archery elk every year. Not as easy to get a tag as it used to be. Hell I didn't even get a leftover tag down south this year. Gotta love youtube sharing one of our used to be prized possessions. Never killed a coues deer with my bow, but it's on the list. A lot of other things have taken their last step with an arrow here in Az.
 
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