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Time is right to buy rifle, shotgun
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Time is right to buy rifle, shotgun
Shop pre-season for best selection and time to get to know equipment
Ray Sasser
The Dallas Morning News
July through early August is the best period for buying a new rifle or shotgun. The pre-season shopping rush is just beginning, and you've got plenty of time to acquaint yourself with your new firearm before hunting season begins.
Shooting time with doves buzzing around you on Sept. 1 is a poor moment to try and figure out how to feed shells into a brand new autoloading shotgun.
Nor is late October a good time to discover there's a problem with the new deer rifle. Discover potential problems now, while there's still time for a visit to the gunsmith.
Timing is also right for gun buyers because new product lines are arriving in stores, and you'll have a full inventory to choose from. Wait until the eve of hunting season and you'll have to take what's left or make a special order that will not arrive in time for opening day.
Here are some things to think about when shopping for a new gun. If you can only afford one shotgun to use in hunting everything from mourning doves to geese and turkeys, opt for a 12-gauge pump or autoloader with a 3-inch chamber and interchangeable choke tubes.
The pump action shotgun is the least expensive and most reliable but I prefer a gas-operated autoloader to take some of the jolt out of magnum shells used for ducks, geese and turkeys.
A pump or an autoloader can be loaded with 23/4-inch shells, low powder charges and small shot sizes and equipped with an improved cylinder choke for doves or quail. The same shotgun with 3-inch shells, large shot and a tighter choke tube works great for waterfowl or turkey.
If you can afford more than one gun, I'd recommend a 12-gauge with 31/2-inch chamber for waterfowl and turkeys and a 20-gauge for upland birds. A 20-gauge over-under or side-by-side double is well balanced and great fun to shoot and offers a different choke selection for each barrel.
Double guns are particularly good for quail hunting. When the covey gets up, you shoot the more open barrel. The second shot is usually taken at a bird that's farther away and is perfectly suited for a slightly tighter choke.
Dealers are reporting a renaissance of side-by-side doubles fueled by a new shotgun from Weatherby. Side-by-side or over-under is really a matter of personal preference.
If you want to start a debate about deer rifles, there's no better place to start than the subject of caliber selection. I've seen deer taken with everything from a .223 to a .338 magnum. They all did the job when the shot was well placed. None of them do the job when the shot is off target.
Heavier caliber rifles have been the rage in recent years, with good sales of .300 Winchester short magnums and Remington Ultra-Mags. Both are extremely flat-shooting calibers that appeal to a deer hunter who might be tempted to take a long shot across a canyon.
You pay the price for flat trajectory by absorbing added recoil at the butt end of the rifle. Hunters must weigh the need for bullet speed against their personal tolerance for abuse.
It's difficult to beat the mid-caliber rifles for 90 percent of deer hunting. Calibers like .25-06, .260, 270, 280,7mm-08 and .308 all do a good job on deer out to 250 yards without excessive recoil. You'll make any whitetail rifle more effective if you buy premium bullets and practice your shooting.
Recent excitement has been generated by Tikka rifles from Finland. Prices start around $470, and that's hard to beat. In addition, they are guaranteed to shoot a one-inch group at 100 yards and no other mass-produced rifle makes that claim. Sometimes the groups are even tighter.
You can argue calibers all you want, but few people will argue against a bolt action rifle as the ultimate hunting rifle. Bolt actions have an inherently strong locking system for accuracy, yet they have a magazine to hold a couple of extra cartridges in case you need a backup shot.
Buy your new rifle now, experiment to find the right cartridges for your particular rifle, spend a little time at the range and you probably won't need more than one shot.
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=080402&ID=s1190770&cat=section.sports
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Shop pre-season for best selection and time to get to know equipment
Ray Sasser
The Dallas Morning News
July through early August is the best period for buying a new rifle or shotgun. The pre-season shopping rush is just beginning, and you've got plenty of time to acquaint yourself with your new firearm before hunting season begins.
Shooting time with doves buzzing around you on Sept. 1 is a poor moment to try and figure out how to feed shells into a brand new autoloading shotgun.
Nor is late October a good time to discover there's a problem with the new deer rifle. Discover potential problems now, while there's still time for a visit to the gunsmith.
Timing is also right for gun buyers because new product lines are arriving in stores, and you'll have a full inventory to choose from. Wait until the eve of hunting season and you'll have to take what's left or make a special order that will not arrive in time for opening day.
Here are some things to think about when shopping for a new gun. If you can only afford one shotgun to use in hunting everything from mourning doves to geese and turkeys, opt for a 12-gauge pump or autoloader with a 3-inch chamber and interchangeable choke tubes.
The pump action shotgun is the least expensive and most reliable but I prefer a gas-operated autoloader to take some of the jolt out of magnum shells used for ducks, geese and turkeys.
A pump or an autoloader can be loaded with 23/4-inch shells, low powder charges and small shot sizes and equipped with an improved cylinder choke for doves or quail. The same shotgun with 3-inch shells, large shot and a tighter choke tube works great for waterfowl or turkey.
If you can afford more than one gun, I'd recommend a 12-gauge with 31/2-inch chamber for waterfowl and turkeys and a 20-gauge for upland birds. A 20-gauge over-under or side-by-side double is well balanced and great fun to shoot and offers a different choke selection for each barrel.
Double guns are particularly good for quail hunting. When the covey gets up, you shoot the more open barrel. The second shot is usually taken at a bird that's farther away and is perfectly suited for a slightly tighter choke.
Dealers are reporting a renaissance of side-by-side doubles fueled by a new shotgun from Weatherby. Side-by-side or over-under is really a matter of personal preference.
If you want to start a debate about deer rifles, there's no better place to start than the subject of caliber selection. I've seen deer taken with everything from a .223 to a .338 magnum. They all did the job when the shot was well placed. None of them do the job when the shot is off target.
Heavier caliber rifles have been the rage in recent years, with good sales of .300 Winchester short magnums and Remington Ultra-Mags. Both are extremely flat-shooting calibers that appeal to a deer hunter who might be tempted to take a long shot across a canyon.
You pay the price for flat trajectory by absorbing added recoil at the butt end of the rifle. Hunters must weigh the need for bullet speed against their personal tolerance for abuse.
It's difficult to beat the mid-caliber rifles for 90 percent of deer hunting. Calibers like .25-06, .260, 270, 280,7mm-08 and .308 all do a good job on deer out to 250 yards without excessive recoil. You'll make any whitetail rifle more effective if you buy premium bullets and practice your shooting.
Recent excitement has been generated by Tikka rifles from Finland. Prices start around $470, and that's hard to beat. In addition, they are guaranteed to shoot a one-inch group at 100 yards and no other mass-produced rifle makes that claim. Sometimes the groups are even tighter.
You can argue calibers all you want, but few people will argue against a bolt action rifle as the ultimate hunting rifle. Bolt actions have an inherently strong locking system for accuracy, yet they have a magazine to hold a couple of extra cartridges in case you need a backup shot.
Buy your new rifle now, experiment to find the right cartridges for your particular rifle, spend a little time at the range and you probably won't need more than one shot.
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=080402&ID=s1190770&cat=section.sports
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878