destroyed my springfield, now what?

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I HAD a beautiful springfield 1903 NRA sporter. A misadventure in reloading caused the rifle to be damaged beyond repair. I am looking for a new deer rifle in the $400 range. I am right handed but shoot left due to cross eye dominance. I have 30-06 ammo and dies, but I'm not sure I want to go with that caliber again. I also reload .223 if that would be adequate. A scoped rifle is preferred, but not a deal breaker. I'd like a 200 yard gun. Any suggestions?
 
I know you may not wanna go this route but this deer season I have been taking a mosin nagant out with weaver scout scope. I have no doubt it would do 200 yards. I Bought some brown bear 203 grain soft points. scope, scope mount, and gun set me back 225ish. bought the scope used on ebay though.
p.s.
I think 200 yards might be to much for the 223 deer hunting. Theres a plethora of rifles for sale at dicks and gander mtn. in the 400 dollar range. marlin 30-30 I saw was 299, remington 700 400ish and theres the savage and mossberg offerings both well within your 400 dollar budget some coming with a serviceable scope.
 
Just about any rifle will work well for 200yd shots. .223 will do the trick, but I personally prefer a .243 or larger. A lever action 30-30 is lefty friendly, or a Savage Axis in LH would come in under budget.
 
For that price? I'd look at a Ruger American, a used rifle, or a Stevens 200. From those three, a Stevens will give you the most bang for your buck. You can upgrade it just like a Savage. All a Stevens 200 is, is a Savage action with cheaper auxilary parts, so you can buy a nicer, pre-threaded barrel later down the road and a nicer stock than the factory tupperware stock.

Sorry to hear about your 1903, I love those rifles. Hope your next reload is in spec for your own sake!
 
You could browse through pawnshops. My understanding is that they have maybe half or less as investment, compared to their asking price. So offer half and settle at 60%--or walk. :)
 
In some states, using .22 caliber projectiles (like .223) on deer is illegal. Whether it's legal or not in your state, it is common to hear people advise against hunting deer with .223 in particular. It is a varmint cartridge and should be limited to such. I know, I'm sure some people have success stories using .223 on deer, but there are MUCH better cartridges out there for the job. Like the .30-06 and .308.

I'm an 06 guy myself, but I'm sure someone else will come along quickly with another recommendation. Expect this to turn into a lengthy thread!
 
Sorry to hear about your rifle, hope you were not injured.

I think you should get a .30-06 if you already have the reloading stuff for it. Lots of used rifles in that caliber. Try finding a used Remington 700 with a scope included.
 
My current projects are my first two .30-06s since 1974 - a Remington 742 Woodsmaster and a sporterized 1917 Eddystone Enfield. Their combined price is about $70.00 more than your nest egg and I would trust either of them on deer-sized game out to 200 yards.

They are out there.
 
Wait a minute lets keep to the bigger story here. You blew up a 1903 NRA SPORTER? I would give up several body parts for that gun. What happened? Grab a can of 700X instead of 4350?
 
not to reference another recent thread but you could always get a dirt cheap arisaka and convert your .30-06 brass to 7.7x58mm brass and load with .311 bullets (the same ones i use for my 7.62x54R loads) and when you save up a bit more just rebarrel it to .30-06
 
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I'll second the used Mauser approach. The vast majority of which will be found in 30-06. Pawn shops are a great place to find them, sometimes with period correct optics still attached. Also coming off a 03-A3, the Mauser will feel very familiar.
 
If you already load 06 get another one of those. Plenty of used and new in your range. I would without a doubt go for any kind of new rifle over a Mosin or similar. Picked up a Marlin X7 in 7-08 for this year and its an excellent rifle.

While people use the .223, I personally wouldn't. I like anything bigger than a .243. Plenty of cheap 30-06s around if you look and as they say it'll kill anything in North America.. If your'e not sure about it there are lots of others that will work for deer. I personally love the 7mm-08 since I started playing with it.
 
id hunt with .223, i wouldnt have any issues with it, especially if it was something like the hornady 75 or 80 grain SST bullets... 100 years ago people were loading black powder pistol cartridges into a lever action and dropping deer reliably (.44-40), i see no reasons why a more powerful modern cartridge, especially with more lethal projectiles like the polymer tipped bullets wouldnt reliably drop a deer as well
 
While not ideal, within its limitations the .223 is adaquet for deer. I'd keep my shots closer to 100 than 200 yards, but I've killed both big-bodied whitetails and mulies with the Federal Fusion load with 100% success thus far.
 
I have been carefully ignoring a K-98 rebarrelled in .30-06. It's sitting in a local pawn shop with a $199.00 price tag. That price wouldn't even cover the Leupold scope that's on the gun. I have promised myself not to buy any more guns until I land another job. :banghead:

They are out there, like I said.
 
Davek1977 said:
While not ideal, within its limitations the .223 is adaquet for deer. I'd keep my shots closer to 100 than 200 yards, but I've killed both big-bodied whitetails and mulies with the Federal Fusion load with 100% success thus far.
Click to expand...
see what i mean?.. 223 works fine for deer, i cant understand where everyone has this assumption that its bad for it.. why? because its not a massive large cartridge or a giant projectile... psh, use a hunting bullet like you would on anything else and no one ive personally known who uses it has had it fail.. .. remember, 100 years ago so they were usiing handgun cartridges with a high success rate.. so i may hunt with 5.45x39 next year
 
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