First rifle

my advice is get a rifle in an easily accessible (cheap) calibre.
and get a good quality second hand rifle so its cheap.

then in the future when you have experimented a lot with it and shot quite a bit and have a better idea of your needs or you would like something different move on.

but for now i think something like a 308 or a 30.06 would do the trick even a 270win will cover all your needs better than a 243... (what if you would like to get a wild boar for example? or something larger and stronger than a roe?) also those other calibre have a wider range of bullet builds and bullet weights for different quarry.

regardless though remember that once you have your pee shooter its the ammunition that will begin to add up in the expenses column... so factor that into your choice.
 
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OK. Look at a Parker Hale cheap as chips. Get someone who's in the know about them then spend the rest on a 6x42, 7x50, or 8x56 scope. And your good to go. Don't be drawn into the you "must have a xxxxx rifle and xxxxx scope ( much money )
 
OK. Look at a Parker Hale cheap as chips. Get someone who's in the know about them then spend the rest on a 6x42, 7x50, or 8x56 scope. And your good to go. Don't be drawn into the you "must have a xxxxx rifle and xxxxx scope ( much money )

Good advise
 
All good advise about going with a quality, older, common, second hand ( or 3rd ) Parker Hale ( Mauser ), Remington 700, or Howa, in a mainstream chambering (6.5x55mm, .308 Win, .270 Win, .30-06) and SH 6x42mm scope. If you don't have a .22 LR, start there to practice enough and develop good habits and skills. Something like a CZ 452, which feels like a centerfire, will serve you well and forever. A $100 USD 3-9x40mm like a Nikon Rimfire is all you need there. You don't want to jump into a cartridge which beats you and starts you flinching, but you don't want to end up with some 14-lb rifle that is too much to truly roam about and learn stalking skills. Team up with some experienced shooters who will, as iain says, be happy to help you select a proper rifle, set it up, and maybe even provide you with some light handloads for lots of cheap and easy practice. After you have some experience, then you may want to go to a versatile cartridge you can handload, like the 7mm-08, which overlaps the .243 to the .308, with bullets from 100 to 150 grains. 7mm-08 is a great rifle for deer with mild recoil and lots of power, but may be a bit oddball where you live.

Buying an expensive rig now would be like a beginner with guitar buying a Martin DB - a waste of money and instrument.
 
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Southern;. . . After you have some experience said:
Oddball! That makes eight of us locally to me! Both my local gunshops have been stocking 7mm-08 ammo for some time now. I couldn't recommend a better cartridge that covers many bases and remains a very comfortable and easy calibre to shoot.

On to glass. So much out there but a make that I rate highly and is relatively inexpensive and will give the top performers like Schmidt & Bender a run for their money is Meopta, R1 or R2 if you can stretch to it. Also buy Meopta overseas, I use Optics Trade in Slovenia, an authorised Meopta main dealer, very helpful and very competitively priced.
 
Oddball! That makes eight of us locally to me! Both my local gunshops have been stocking 7mm-08 ammo for some time now. I couldn't recommend a better cartridge that covers many bases and remains a very comfortable and easy calibre to shoot.
Well, if the OP has some 7mm-08 owners near him, he is in business!
I have a Tikka T3 Lite in 7mm-08, a Winchester Model 70 Compact, and a BLR - all of them light and wonderful deer rifles.
There will fewer of them second-hand, especially in Parker Hale and BSA, but the new ones in Howa 1500, Browning A-Bolt, and Winchester XPR are all inexpensive and solid.
 
Exactly, at the moment I use a old ZKK in .308 for every game here in Germany. But since silencers are allowed in my state I'm looking for a new rifle because the costs of cutting a thread into it would exceed the value of the rifle. So I recently touched on a big hunting fair in Dortmund every rifle that I could afford as a student, after saving a few months. My favorite ones where the rifles from Savage. Even the better ones with accustock aren't that expensive and precision shall be very good (what I could hear from other hunters).
Now I fell in love withe the Hog hunter in .308, it fitted perfectly to me, the size ist just a little bit more than a meter, so perfectly for silencers and driven hunts. Only thing that I could mention as negative is, that the hog hunter doesn't have a detachable magazine.

I've been looking at the Hog Hunter myself , definitely a solid working rifle . I don't mind the blind magazine myself , one less thing to go wrong . I've seen a number of them in use out here , all shot very well . I was going to buy the 338 Federal version of the Hog Hunter but ended building a 358 Winchester on a short action Savage instead . I'm currently without a 308 at the moment , not good , the Hog Hunter is looking like my next rifle .
That being said , I'd take your ZKK over it in a heart beat , very nice rifles .

AB
 
Here is a nice ZKK600 in 270 win for a good price, very reliable rifle. spend the rest on a decent scope that you can take with you when you move onto a future rifle...
.270 Brno ZKK-600 Bolt Action Rifle - Aaron Wheeler Gunsmith

Very cool . I love the built in peep sight on these rifles , slim , trim and worth it's weight in gold if your scope fails and you're a long way from home .Probably one of the best sights put on a sporting rifle IMHO . I had a 602 in 8X68 , great rifle , really accurate , but at 11.5 pounds , a bit of a heavy pig . Like many others , traded for something else .

AB
 
To my way of thinking your first rifle should always be a .22lr. Go away and practise, practise and practise then when you can shoot get your second rifle which if you want the most versatile should be a .308win. :D
This echoes my immediate thoughts as I first read the thread headline, and then the OP.
 
Very cool . I love the built in peep sight on these rifles , slim , trim and worth it's weight in gold if your scope fails and you're a long way from home .Probably one of the best sights put on a sporting rifle IMHO . I had a 602 in 8X68 , great rifle , really accurate , but at 11.5 pounds , a bit of a heavy pig . Like many others , traded for something else .

AB
The 600 only weighs 3.26kg...7.2lbs
The 602 weighs 4.2kg... why did yours weigh so much?

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Very cool . I love the built in peep sight on these rifles , slim , trim and worth it's weight in gold if your scope fails and you're a long way from home .Probably one of the best sights put on a sporting rifle IMHO . I had a 602 in 8X68 , great rifle , really accurate , but at 11.5 pounds , a bit of a heavy pig . Like many others , traded for something else .
AB
Those peep sights work great for regular hunting, too, and keep the rifle weight down. They are scarce. If I were over there, I would jump on that Brno ZKK 600. I have several, 600 and 22F and they are very well-balanced and accurate. I had a 602 in .375 H&H (8.5 lbs ) which I kick myself for selling, to get a pre-64 Winchester Safari.
 
The 600 only weighs 3.26kg...7.2lbs
The 602 weighs 4.2kg... why did yours weigh so much?

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The 602's in 8X68 had the same barrel contour as the 375 chambered ones , but only had a .323 caliber bore , so they weighed more . The 11.5 pounds was all in , scope , mounts and rings , sling and full magazine . The factory rifle weight without everything on it isn't what I'll be carrying up the side of a mountain lol . When I quote a weight , I mean ready for the field .

AB
 
The 602's in 8X68 had the same barrel contour as the 375 chambered ones , but only had a .323 caliber bore , so they weighed more . The 11.5 pounds was all in , scope , mounts and rings , sling and full magazine . The factory rifle weight without everything on it isn't what I'll be carrying up the side of a mountain lol . When I quote a weight , I mean ready for the field .

AB


hahaha, of course... I guess i will weigh mine fully loaded to see where it comes in at... bloody stupid of me.
 
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