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  • Jevaughn

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    Trying to help a friend of mine with finding a more suitable hunting rifle. Where he goes is a lot of thickets and a few long 300ish yard clear-cuts. Right now he's using a Ruger .25-06, which has served well for the longer shots but in the thicker areas, it's not great, primarily because it's a long rifle. It's a tack driver, but doesn't handle brush at all.
    I hunt in the delta with a .30-30 Winchester 1894, but I know from experience that while great in the brush, it's not a 200+ yard gun.
    My brother has excellent luck with a .30-06 Remington 760 carbine and hunts a variety of areas, swears by it. I've been with him when he took down a 260lb hog through a bunch of palmetto at 60 yards, so I'm convinced it's a solid brush gun, and I know he's popped a white tail at over 300 yards so it's decent for range, even with an 18" barrel.
    My question is, were you to buy a single rifle to hunt in both brush and 200-300 yard clearings, what would you choose while trying to keep a budget (without including optic) of $600 or less?

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    Fear21

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    I’d take a 16” or 18” .308. It’ll punch through brush well enough and get you out to 300 for the longer shots. For the budget, Ruger has their Predator line that come with 18” barrels. That’d leave you enough cash for a decent Vortex or PA optic, or whatever you’d prefer in the $200 - 300 ish price range.

    Academy has a ready made setup for $600 here. You can upgrade the optics later, and there are plenty of stocks / chassis systems coming out for these rifles now if you want to upgrade that later too. It takes standard AICS pattern mags (Magpul makes cheap and reliable 5 and 10rd mags).
     

    John B.

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    Three oh hate

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    fl57caveman

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    2nd vote for the old reliable 30/06


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    hard to beat in the 200-300 yard range...commercial loadings galore, unless you want to get exotic.
     

    Jevaughn

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    Yeah. 30.06 was my first instinct. Any decently priced carbine barreled rifles on the market that you'd recommend? Looks like the Savage and Ruger American are all 22-24" barrels

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    Snake-Eyes

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    Chopping and recrowning a barrel is fairly easy for a gunsmith. I doubt it would be an expensive modification to the otherwise "too-long" rifle you want.
     

    John B.

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    Ruger American all weather compact in 308... 18" barrel, synthetic stock, and non blues barrel. (I'm personally not a fan of the non locking bolt on the RA, though I do own one)

    I saw a used one at Jim's on Sorrento last week with some junk scope for $400.

    Another short barrel option would be a BLR in 308, or the magazine fed lever gun from Henry... both are at the upper end of your price range however.

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    Stagman

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    If you get a light weight 30.06 it's going to kick like a mule. I had a 30.06 Remington 700 wood stock that kicked and I hated that gun, I got rid of that gun stat.
     

    Viking1204

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    If you have to stick with one gun for both brush and the occasional 300 yard shot it's hard to beat the Ruger Predator in .308. Personally I would stick with my Marlin 30-30 with the Hornady 160 gr FTX if I was limited to one gun. Great bush gun and still kills at 300 yards with a good scope.

    https://www.hornady.com/ammunition/rifle/30-30-win-160-gr-ftx-leverevolution#!/
     

    RackinRay

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    I would go with the .308 Winchester. Ammo performance between it and 30-06 is so close with today's factory loads that there is little difference, but 308 is a shorter case/round , possibly resulting in shorter rifle The Ruger in .308 is a solid pick IMHO!
     

    Jevaughn

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    I appreciate all the input. I love this forum. I relayed everything to him, the ball is in his court now.
    I honestly learned something new as well. I'd never considered .308 a viable brush gun, but after reading here and doing some further research, I've learned that with the right ammo, it's very viable. If I ever decide to get a new deer rifle, that's probably the route I'll take.

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