Bought the bride a new hunting rifle

arrowdem · Aug 1, 2016

i won a smith and wesson AR .22 over the weekend, and i traded it in on a hunting rifle for my bride, i went with the savage american in a youth frame since she's so little and it fits her awesome, i've heard great things about the rifle and with the smaller framed gun it all worked out awesome! topped it with a 3-9 vortex diamondback, now i dont recall ever even shooting a .243 so now i need to figure out what to put through it that she can shoot, remember she is a pretty small girl so i dont wanna set her down on her ass or get her scared to shoot the gun, but i also want something that should she happen to miss the sweet spot on a deer there is some knockdown power there to do some real damage and kill the deer, what have you guys shot in the past and what has worked well for you? im open to anything as like is said. .243 is a new caliber to the gun cabinet,
Thanks!

KDM · Aug 1, 2016

Hand her a 22 first, then a 223, then the 243. Work her into the bigger gun a bit. I shoot a 100 gn bullet out of my 243 and most of my friends who shoot the 243 use the same. Keep the targets close at first and build on success rather than the frustrations of missing. Have fun!! Hope she likes it.

cornman53 · Aug 1, 2016

My son was about 100 lbs when he first started hunting and he bought himself a Weatherby Vanguard Youth in .243. We used the Hornady Custom Lite with 87 gr. SST bullets and his first two does he shot were one shot kills. Very lite recoil with the Hornady loads.

arrowdem · Aug 1, 2016

they make an sst in an 87? interesting.. i shoot the sst outta my 270 and have had all one shot kills in the 6 years i've had it, granted thats only like 5 animals haha but still! ill for sure look into those, do you get a good exit on those 87gr sst's that you remember?

SDMF · Aug 1, 2016

85gn TSX, for everything.

Tikka280ai · Aug 1, 2016

I loaded up some 80 grain ttsx for mine last year. had a quartering away shot at about 300 yards it went in a little in front of the left hind 1/4 and was between the skin and front shoulder on the right side. very good penetration and the bullet weighted 79 ounces when I weighed it after the shot. as far as the recoil department I am of no help. doesn't seem to be too bad for me or my younger brothers who have shot the same load.

I had some ballistic silvertips loaded before and they seemed like a good bullet on the 1 deer I killed with them

SupressYourself · Aug 1, 2016

Long Term: you should really consider getting a suppressor. Cuts the noise and the recoil. Get the 30-cal can so it can go on her 243 and your 270. Do the gun trust thing with both of you on it and then either can shoot it on either gun. Only problem is once you get one, you'll want two....
I primarily shoot a suppressed AR-10 in 243, and it can only be described as 'awesome'.

Short Term: You don't say anything about hand loading, so I'm guessing we're talking factory loads here. In that case, I agree that the Hornady 'lite' loads are your best bet. Reduced recoil, but still plenty of kill.

KDM · Aug 1, 2016

tikka243 said:
I loaded up some 80 grain ttsx for mine last year. had a quartering away shot at about 300 yards it went in a little in front of the left hind 1/4 and was between the skin and front shoulder on the right side. very good penetration and the bullet weighted 79 ounces when I weighed it after the shot. as far as the recoil department I am of no help. doesn't seem to be too bad for me or my younger brothers who have shot the same load.

I had some ballistic silvertips loaded before and they seemed like a good bullet on the 1 deer I killed with them

This made me giggle a bit..............

SupressYourself · Aug 1, 2016

Ha, I missed that. Those copper bullets are so good they gain weight on impact.

arrowdem · Aug 1, 2016

now we are changin the subject to a silencer convo.. haha but for real i wouldnt probably do that for my deer guns, but possibly we would see, but doing it for the 22-250 for killin yotes.. thats a whole different ball game and would love to put one on the howa 1500. whats it run beginning of getting your permit to having a silencer on my gun, ball parkish?

SupressYourself · Aug 1, 2016

Varminter 3.0 runs about $925.00 for the 30 cal
http://www.dakotasilencer.com/the-varminter-3-0-mack-brothers/
Add another $200 for the ATF stamp (tax).
To thread your barrel add about another $100.
It's not cheap, but IMO the worst part is the 6+ month wait between buying and having it in-hand -- thank you Federal Govt bureaucracy...

Get the 30 cal so you can put it on any of those weapons you mentioned if you want. Once you start shooting it, you'll want to.
There are cheaper options out there, but generally those are going to be steel, which means heavier (vs titanium). You want the shortest and lightest you can get (assuming they're rated for the caliber you're shooting and have equivalent db reduction).

Bed Wetter · Aug 1, 2016

I've bought my wife a whole bunch of guns she doesn't even know about. Perhaps you could say they're "hers" because she's sure to get them in the inevitable divorce.

arrowdem · Aug 1, 2016

SupressYourself said:
Varminter 3.0 runs about $925.00 for the 30 cal
http://www.dakotasilencer.com/the-varminter-3-0-mack-brothers/
Add another $200 for the ATF stamp (tax).
To thread your barrel add about another $100.
It's not cheap, but IMO the worst part is the 6+ month wait between buying and having it in-hand -- thank you Federal Govt bureaucracy...

Get the 30 cal so you can put it on any of those weapons you mentioned if you want. Once you start shooting it, you'll want to.
There are cheaper options out there, but generally those are going to be steel, which means heavier (vs titanium). You want the shortest and lightest you can get (assuming they're rated for the caliber you're shooting and have equivalent db reduction).

$925 is probably more than i would want to pay for one right now.. got any suggestions on something more of a midrange, something easier to swallow, i could do the machining on the gun so i would be saving some dough there but can you get into a decent silencer for 400-500?

- - - Updated - - -

Bed Wetter said:
I've bought my wife a whole bunch of guns she doesn't even know about. Perhaps you could say they're "hers" because she's sure to get them in the inevitable divorce.

haha they would have all been "stolen" before i put ink on a piece of paper!

huntorride365 · Aug 1, 2016

80 grain TTSX for deer. They don't bounce off.

SupressYourself · Aug 1, 2016

arrowdem said:
but can you get into a decent silencer for 400-500?

Not really.
You could probably get a steel one for close to that, but the weight would suck. You'd probably wouldn't like to hunt with it, so what's the point?
If some laws were changed and made it as easy to acquire as a gun, a lot more people would buy them and the price would come down considerably. There's a lot of backwards perceptions that need to be changed before that ever happens.

NodakBuckeye · Aug 1, 2016

I borrowed a .243 last year and used factory loaded 100 grain bullets. My 8 year shot it well and the recoil was next to nothing and the deer was delicious.

stalker · Aug 2, 2016

These have managed to do the job for us for 5 deer. We got them cheap on a close out many years ago. I was really looking for new brass and bullets, but it was cheaper to buy the ammo than buy the components and put them together. Plus we get the added bonus of shooting them and having them fire formed to the chamber. I bet I got these twenty years ago and it is time to start reloading now.

Howler · Aug 3, 2016

Get a 100 grain something or other and go shoot it a little bit. They don't kick much and they're effective on deer.

johnr · Aug 4, 2016

Bed Wetter said:
I've bought my wife a whole bunch of guns she doesn't even know about. Perhaps you could say they're "hers" because she's sure to get them in the inevitable divorce.

haha.

I have a good friend that recently went through the inevitable divorce, his now ex kept about a dozen guns out of his 130+ gun collection.
And as far as I know, she doesn't hunt or shoot...
#stickingittotheman

arrowdem · Aug 4, 2016

johnr said:
haha.

I have a good friend that recently went through the inevitable divorce, his now ex kept about a dozen guns out of his 130+ gun collection.
And as far as I know, she doesn't hunt or shoot...
#stickingittotheman

thats like when mom got the boat when my parents split up, knows nothing about driving loading unloading but she got herself a boat that she just sold anyway bubye lund proV

Bought the bride a new hunting rifle

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