# help my buddy buy a rifle



## stainless (Dec 2, 2005)

Buddy from work doesnt own and has never owned a centerfire rifle. He wants to stay on the cheap side and he wants it to be an "all purpose rifle", Im not sure such a thing exist's. The closest thing I thought was a .243 stevens since stevens are cheap and a .243 is the closest to all purpose I could think of. He wants it for deer hunting, varmint hunting and occasional casual plinking at the range. any suggestions other than what I mentioned to meet his request's or is that about it? Thanks for any ideas.


----------



## Savage Rookie (Oct 10, 2006)

Stevens is the way to go, cheap, reliable, easily upgradeable...all around good gun.

For caliber i would say .243, 6mm, or .257. But .243 would be the cheapest for ammo when plinking.

Paige


----------



## Sin man (Jul 25, 2006)

or even a 223 would do well. cheapest ammo but not the best choice for a deer rifle but still if hes a good shooter it would work good.


----------



## Horsager (Aug 31, 2006)

Sinman, they can't use .224 cal rifles for deer in MN. 243, 25-06, 270, 30-06, 260, 7-08, 308, take your pick, they'll all get the job done.


----------



## Waterspaniel (Oct 10, 2005)

Almost all deer rounds will blow holes in yotes bout the size of a coke can. 223 isnt much good for anything in my mind. Too small for deer, and it cant match true varmint rounds. It can blow a good hole in a yote as well. So..... in my humble opinion, if he doesnt care about fur, go bigger on the scale. 243 will kill deer, but not well. 240 weatherby is a screamer and will crush yotes and whittails, with super flat trajectory. 25.06 six might be the cats pajamas for his needs. 270 will kill elk, deer, etc- but its still flat enough for varmints. What I am getting at is this---You cant get an ethical deer rifle that wont destroy pelts. So get the flattest shooting deer rifle you can handle and use it on varmints. This of course depends on wether or not someine is reloading custom rounds for the gun. I would tell him to spend a little more, since he is only getttting one rifle. Get a 240 or 257 Weatherby. If he can find one used, even better.


----------



## Sin man (Jul 25, 2006)

In sd its legal to use .224 rounds to shoot a deer.


----------



## Longshot (Feb 9, 2004)

As always I like the 260 Rem. for an all around caliber. The problem being it is not always easy to find factory ammo with premium hunting bullets and not always the cheapest for plinking. If I had to make the same choice I would go with the 308 Win. You can find ammo anywhere, can be used on everything from coyote to elk, ammo is many times less expensive then most others, and bullet choices can't be beat.


----------



## Jiffy (Apr 22, 2005)

Longshot said:


> As always I like the 260 Rem. for an all around caliber. The problem being it is not always easy to find factory ammo with premium hunting bullets and not always the cheapest for plinking. If I had to make the same choice I would go with the 308 Win. You can find ammo anywhere, can be used on everything from coyote to elk, ammo is many times less expensive then most others, and bullet choices can't be beat.


Oh you're so smart.  8)


----------

