Your first rifle

I guess this would be the best place to ask - what should I get as my first?

I have always tried to resist guns, but I think I should get one now a days. I never owned a gun, but I've shot a few; 12 guage, ar15, hand gun, pretty accurately. Used to shoot flying birds with a pump pellet gun - Sheridon I think it was called.

I have been planning on getting a rifle or shotgun within the next year or so.

What is a good, but inexpensive one?

godservant I think its really depends on what you want to do with your gun. Home defense, hunting, target shooting, sport shooting or just a fun gun to go to the range with.

For just a fun gun to shoot a great starting place is a .22 rifle. They are just really fun plinker guns you can shoot them all day and your arm wont be sore after. They are cheap and the ammo is dirt cheap. A 500rd brick cost like $15

But it really depends on the role you want to use it. A .22 for example while fun wouldnt be ideal for home defense

My first one was a Winchester lever action in .22 caliber. My father bought both me and my brother one when we were kids, I'm guessing 1968. The things jammed too much for my fathers liking so he returned them and got an Ithica semi auto. I don't know the model # but it was a darned nice looking rifle and we had better luck with it.

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
godservant I think its really depends on what you want to do with your gun.

Somewhere between home defense and hunting.

Originally posted by godservant
I guess this would be the best place to ask - what should I get as my first?

I have always tried to resist guns, but I think I should get one now a days. I never owned a gun, but I've shot a few; 12 guage, ar15, hand gun, pretty accurately. Used to shoot flying birds with a pump pellet gun - Sheridon I think it was called.

I have been planning on getting a rifle or shotgun within the next year or so.

What is a good, but inexpensive one?

Honestly, I don't think you can go wrong with a .22. They're easy to shoot and ammo is plentiful and cheap. It might not have a lot of stopping power or have the power to penetrate armor, but it is still good to have.

I'd definately try to get a bolt-action or other type of single shot rifle if you plan to practice a lot with it. It'll help you "make every shot count', which I think helps so you don't waste ammo or time if you are ever in a situation where you need to make that first shot the only shot.

Edit: For home defense, skip a rifle and go for a shotgun or handgun (also see the Home Defense thread). Depending on what you plan to hunt, you have a lot of choices. A 30-30, 30-06, .300 Savage are good choices for deer and the like. For birds, I think you should go for a good hunting shotgun.

[edit on 19-10-2005 by TheSaddenedElf]

Originally posted by godservant

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
godservant I think its really depends on what you want to do with your gun.

Somewhere between home defense and hunting.

Hmm. A 12 gauge shotgun might be a good choice then.The are superb for home defense IMHO They have such a wide selection of rounds to choose from which allows the to fill many roles. You could use bird shot for example for hunting ducks and then load in some 000 buck for home defense.

For good priced ones I would say go with either a Mossberg 500 or maybe a 870 Remington both you should be able to find for about $300. The RUSSIAN IZHMASH Saiga-12 SHOTGUN looks interesting and might be worth looking into. They are semi auto with a detach box magazine but I havent got my hands on one yet so I dont know too much about them. They also seem to be in the 300 dollar range aswell.

Getting back to the selection of ammo you could use. Most people know about bird shot, slugs and buck shot, but thats not the whole story

Heres a interesting link to some of the more unquie 12 Gauge Specialty Ammo. Some of the rounds you can buy

-12 GA. “Flame Thower” -produces an enormous wall of fire for 250+ feet. The incendiary metal compound contained inside burns when fired at over 4000 degrees fahrenheit

-12 GA. "Armor Piercing"-This awesome round houses enough power to penetrate the thickest car doors, commercial steel doors and most objects up to 1/4" steel plate

-12 GA. "Macho Gaucho" (bolo shot) This round consists of two lead slugs connected by a steel wire that whirls and twirls during flight devastating your target
www.firequest.com...

Good, I like a 12 guage.

Is it true, no license is needed for one?

Originally posted by godservant
Good, I like a 12 guage.

Is it true, no license is needed for one?

I'm not really sure anymore. I've been told that you just need to be 18 to buy rifles and shotguns and 21 for handguns. But I think it varies depending on where you live.

Does anybody have any links to gun laws? I think I should read them over a bit.

Its the NRA a good site on state gun laws, just click your state on the map

www.nraila.org...#

Gun laws vary from state to state. Most it seems dont require Licensing or permits for owning rifles and shotguns. Im my state you have to wait 14 days and be 18 years of age.

My first rifle and only rifle is a Mini-14 SS.

Winchester lever-action .22, built to mimic the 30/30, but no hammer. Easy to use, accurate enough to hit a rabbit at 70 metres over open sights while spotlighting and safe as hell.

Also a Remington(?) Wingmaster(?) bolt-action .22. But the extraction pins were no good, so it was a one-shot effort used for killing feral cats.

That was replaced with Brno bolt-action .22. That was a SWEET rifle, especially with a Tasco 'scope. Could knock down Kangaroos with a single chest shot at 50+ metres.

Of course, all of these were my dad's, not mine.

Then there was the Mauser, the SKS, the Lee-Enfield, the .22 magnum that never worked, the semi-auto .22 that's illegal now and the double-barrel 12-gauge that's so old a modern cartridge would rip it apart.

This is a great thread!!! I am a shoot enthusiast.. although I do not get to practice as much as I like nowdays.

I still own my 552 Speedmaster (Remington), 22 LR

I also have a Remington Model 597 .22 LR

A Savage Model 110 in .243 Winchester

Walter PPK Pistol, .32 Auto (Origional German Army Issue)

Tarus PT-92S, 9mm pistol (with pre-ban 15 round magazines, it was my carry weapon when I used to be a part time cop) a Brazilian copy of the Baretta M-92/M-9 pistol.

At another location I own: (My mothers House)

A Pre-1964 Model 70, 30-06 Springfeild.

Mauser KAR-98K, 8mm Mauser, Origional German Army WWII Issue (Dad Brought it home after the war)

Sears JC Higgins .22 LR Bolt Action rifle.

Three shotguns.. but I never have been impressed with them.. one of them is pre-1900 in date though.

Mine was a .22 Marlin.

Please stop this thread right NOW!

I am so jealous of you Yanks. Across the Great Pond, you have brilliant gun laws.

Here in the sad old UK, your not allowed to even own a hand gun unless you belong to the local hunt and can prove that you use it to deliver the 'coup-de-grace' to a badly injured animal!

Even gun clubs & members are heavily restricted on what they can own and the legislation is just getting worse and worse! I am really off!

However - I have calmed down and am back on thread.

The very first weapon (if you can call it a weapon) that was issued to me way back in 196something, was the antiquated Lee Metford, a forerunner of the Lee Enfield. It too chambered the .303 round and was a swine to fire.

One of my all time favs, was the venerable FN SLR (as I've mentioned in a previous thread) complete with SUIT 'scope.

I suppose one of the best weapons I have ever fired - but not in combat, is the L86A1 Gun, Light Supprt or LSW which is the current issued section weapon.

Although IMO it's got the drawback of being mag fed and 5.56mm (bring back 7.62 FHJ!) I think it's a beauty and in the right hands, will do just a good a job as any LMG.

My first rifle was a Daisy BB gun.

I'm not ashamed of it at all, since it helped finace many other purchases through the cash a farmer would pay to rid his tin-roofed barn of pidgeons.
I used that Daisy to great effect and thousands of pidgeons have laid down their lives in the advancement of my arsenal.

I'm fairly certain it had profitted me more than the .22 I used for the elimination of groundhogs from the fields of those same farmers.

Originally posted by fritz
Please stop this thread right NOW!

I am so jealous of you Yanks. Across the Great Pond, you have brilliant gun laws.

Yes we were very very fortunate that the Consitutional Committee placed the 2nd Amendment into our Bill of Rights back in 1787.

But the gun laws you speak of are always under attack.

I always have been amazed how the UK laws were implimented and presented in your Parlament.

The Lee-Medford you spoke of is a interesting rifle design.. I know a person in Utah who has one.

A Daisy air rifle of course. It was one of the ones you cock like a 30-30. I felt like the Rifle Man when I got it. Years of fun. True life joke here. If you take you pellet gun with you to shoot snakes when you go swimming, you might be a redneck.

After that it was a bolt-action British Lee-Infield .303 that was made in 1916. Had the date stamped on the bolt assembly. My dad bougt this gun when he was 13 for $20. He had the wood on the stock and barrel trimmed down and polished so it was pretty nice looking too. They didn't make any efforts to absorb the recoil on those guns so when you fired off a 180 grain bullet the thing would kick you pretty hard.

Lee-Infield .303 One of the first great repeater rifles.

On occasion, the Germans believed themselves to be under machine gun fire, such was the accuracy and rapidity of the rifle fire directed at them.

The British rifleman of 1914 was capable of thirty aimed shots a minute -INCLUDING reloading - which most of us would be hard pressed to duplicate today, even with a self loader. The lessons of the Boer war had been well learned, and the rapid firing, handier, charger loading and supremely reliable Lee was undoubtedly the best infantry rifle of the war.

Sako Finnfire Target .22lr is my first one. Very accurate and smooth, I really like it.

Originally posted by dbates

After that it was a bolt-action British Lee-Infield .303 that was made in 1916. Had the date stamped on the bolt assembly. My dad bougt this gun when he was 13 for $20. He had the wood on the stock and barrel trimmed down and polished so it was pretty nice looking too. They didn't make any efforts to absorb the recoil on those guns so when you fired off a 180 grain bullet the thing would kick you pretty hard.

I share your enthusiasm for the old Lee Enfield 303. I've had one since I was a teenager and will never part with it. You can use it to lever a 4x4 out of a mudpit and it will still bring down a moose at 800 yards. The Canadian Rangers, an elite force of Native Americans who watch over our northern frontiers, will use no other rifle, since it is operable in the most bitterly cold conditions. They are good for clubbing pesky polar bears as well, when you have run out of ammunition.

Bushmaster xm-15 16inch mod. carbine