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Bought my first rifle today

Horn said:
Those suppressed 22 are supposed to be the cats meow. I've thought about putting one on mine for squirrels and pest control around the house. - then I discovered archery :sweatsmile: . Also thought about one for my 350 just to be a little more discrete but I don't know if I'll pursue it
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Airguns for home pesting and plinking are the bees knees....simply because you can throw a good silencer on them with no paperwork and much cheaper! Get a good accurate brand and you'll so much fun shooting just around yr house!
 
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4090Sharps said:
Just commit and buy one now if you think you might like to have one in the future. It'll be a year before you can use it anyway :unamused:
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This is true. Currently researching purchasing directly vs opening a gun trust. This stuff is strangely complicated and simple at the same time.
 
thedutchtouch said:
Found a used savage mkII in 22LR at a local gun store and brought it home this afternoon. Nothing crazy but it's my first gun purchase so it's special to me! My first trip there to "see what they have" and I did the same thing I hear many people telling stories about, walk in just to look, walk out having bought something. I was planning on buying a Ruger 10/22 or a synthetic stocked gun to beat up/not care about, but I kept turning around and looking at this one instead, and for what I paid for this one we're still in a similar camp but it is a bit prettier. Still has the stickers and not much sign of use as far as this newbie's eyes can tell, and it came with a cheap tasco scope that will get the job done. Time to sight in the scope and start practicing, 350 legend and muzzleloader are next for actual deer guns, but the bow isn't going anywhere either.
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I remember my 1st gun purchase. I just turned 18 walked into a gun shop and bought a Winchester 190 22 caliber semiautomatic. I had to wait 7 days to get my hands on it. After that I shot many of rounds through it. Never cleaned it until about 3 years ago. After 32 years and getting beaten up. It shoots like it was new.
 
Well I've just learned that having my hunter safety card should exempt me from training requirements for HQL, but I'm somewhat on the fence. Part of me recognizes that I am a handgun beginner and thinking it might be a good idea to take the class anyway, however am not sure if it would be a good use of time, already having general firearms safety knowledge, just not as much time with handguns (I've shot a few, but by no means an expert).

I've been encouraged on MDshooters to just pursue the wear/carry permit and get my training for that, as it'll save me some money.

One other wrinkle is I took my hunter safety course in NJ quite a while ago, I'm told that it shouldn't be an issue, since Maryland accepts it for hunting safety it's accepted for this purpose too.

Maryland guys, is this accurate? Is the HQL course a waste of time if you've held and shot a handgun a few times and have basic safety down? It looks like some of these classes you fire a gun only a few times so It doesn't seem to be a huge experience bump unless I'm missing something?
 
Congrats! I say get a shotgun next or buy a AR-15 lower, shotgun because its honestly the only hunting firearm you need (Father-in-law would disowned me if he saw me type this) with 3 different chokes, and an AR-15 lower because you can switch out the upper and shoot a lot of different calibers!

I say just go the process of getting your W&C permit because you can automatically apply and get approved for the HQL by a few clicks. Since the law passed/revoked about needing a 'justification' for getting a W&C permit, TONS of people are getting the W&C permit, which result in the government adding a lot of resources to get the applications approved faster. Before it usually take 6-12 plus months to get your W&C permit, now its barely a few months.
 
HuumanCreed said:
Congrats! I say get a shotgun next or buy a AR-15 lower, shotgun because its honestly the only hunting firearm you need (Father-in-law would disowned me if he saw me type this) with 3 different chokes, and an AR-15 lower because you can switch out the upper and shoot a lot of different calibers!

I say just go the process of getting your W&C permit because you can automatically apply and get approved for the HQL by a few clicks. Since the law passed/revoked about needing a 'justification' for getting a W&C permit, TONS of people are getting the W&C permit, which result in the government adding a lot of resources to get the applications approved faster. Before it usually take 6-12 plus months to get your W&C permit, now its barely a few months.
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The whole AR lower being the gun but shooting different calibers based on the upper thing is wild. I mean it makes complete sense, pieces bolt together, but it's just a lot of details. Glad to be learning, I'll have to admit that 10-20 years ago I thought AR stood for assault rifle and weren't needed outside of the military. Thankfully I was able to research and learn myself out of my indoctrination and I no longer have those opinions, growth is good. I may have some PM questions for you in the near future
 
Congratulations! I wound up going the 10/22 route myself but the Savage is a fine rifle.

Just because I've got to be different... take a look at the .280 Remington in comparison to the .270. .280Rem AI, handloaded, is dang close to the 7mm Rem Mag. The 7mms - 7mm-08, 7x57 Mauser, .280 Rem, 7mmRM, 7STW, etc., all punch way above their weight.
 
thedutchtouch said:
Starting to really understand the reason why people say visiting stores in person is both a good and a bad idea. Went in to get fingerprinted ONLY and after that I spotted something I just couldn't walk away from again...
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After a couple (beer-motivated) bids on Gunbroker, I can safely say it's cheaper for me to visit a store in person than peruse online....
 
@thedutchtouch A muzzleloader hunter thinking of branching out to centerfire hunting rifles might consider the T/C Contender and Encore families of rifles. I started with a .30-06, and have since acquired .50x209 and 7mm Rem Mag barrels for it. It's got an excellent trigger and I really like the ergonomics, and the aftermarket is really good.

That said the .350 Legend looks awfully similar to the .357 Maximum, which has done well on whitetails and black bears, out of single-shots and leverguns. I picked up a wildcat "Moleman" .357 AR MAX AR-15 barrel a year or two before the Legend came out, and it's an excellent tree-stand rifle.
 
time for me to severely slow down the purchasing, and lean hard into the practicing. next deer season will be here before i know it, and i have a rifle, crossbow, and recurve to get much more proficient with if i want to try to point any one of them at a living thing this season.
 
I'm a new shooter myself so take this with a grain or 20 of salt.

Practice with the .22lr until you have a good process/sequence whatever. Until you're consistently accurate. Consider mounting a scope if you don't have one since you've got one and will be using it ( I assume) on the 350L. I found that the 350 doesn't hit back hard enough to change my process enough to matter much, i.e. I'm not gun shy with it, so you can practice more with the less expensive ammo.

Also as a fellow new shooter, realize the limits of the cartridge. From what I hear and my extremely limited experience ( 1 @ 130-150) 350L doesn't expand reliably at any significant range so accuracy is paramount if you're willing/ wanting to stretch your range.

That all said I love mine! It gets called a "lady gun" at every opportunity. I can shoot comfortably for 40+ to practice. I'm not scared of it. AND I hold the farthest and fastest kill at my good friends farm :p
 
Oh, if I can ramble a bit more...

Plug your info into a ballistic calculator and sight in so the kill zone/ range allow you to shoot like its point blank for the entire range you're willing/ plan to shoot. Takes a whole lot of factors out of the equation in the heat of the moment. Just aim and shoot if it's in range. Worked for me, once anyway :)

Congrats your new weapon! I'll shush now lol
 
Horn said:
I'm a new shooter myself so take this with a grain or 20 of salt.

Practice with the .22lr until you have a good process/sequence whatever. Until you're consistently accurate. Consider mounting a scope if you don't have one since you've got one and will be using it ( I assume) on the 350L. I found that the 350 doesn't hit back hard enough to change my process enough to matter much, i.e. I'm not gun shy with it, so you can practice more with the less expensive ammo.

Also as a fellow new shooter, realize the limits of the cartridge. From what I hear and my extremely limited experience ( 1 @ 130-150) 350L doesn't expand reliably at any significant range so accuracy is paramount if you're willing/ wanting to stretch your range.

That all said I love mine! It gets called a "lady gun" at every opportunity. I can shoot comfortably for 40+ to practice. I'm not scared of it. AND I hold the farthest and fastest kill at my good friends farm :p
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that's pretty much my plan, the .22lr is a savage mkII with a fixed tasco scope on it already, seems to be good enough for now scope wise and i went with a bolt gun to increase similarity/sequence muscle memory between the two. i'm heading into it with a bit of a bowhunter wanting to make a slightly longer poke strategy as well, ive passed on quite a few deer that were a bit past my self-imposed bow range so think it shouldnt be an issue doing the same with different tools.

the biggest issue is a place to practice, I havent joined a private club or an IWLA yet so i think i might head out to western MD tomorrow to try to find the green ridge state forest range as there's not much in the form of public rifle ranges wise to me apparently. that's about 2 hours away though, so a bit of an all day commitment.

edit: just checked the weather forecast for out there - "West to northwest winds 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 65 mph expected." so i dont think im going to drive anywhere to shoot/camp in that wind, looks like its a projects areoudn the house day.
 
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Iron_llama said:
@thedutchtouch A muzzleloader hunter thinking of branching out to centerfire hunting rifles might consider the T/C Contender and Encore families of rifles. I started with a .30-06, and have since acquired .50x209 and 7mm Rem Mag barrels for it. It's got an excellent trigger and I really like the ergonomics, and the aftermarket is really good.

That said the .350 Legend looks awfully similar to the .357 Maximum, which has done well on whitetails and black bears, out of single-shots and leverguns. I picked up a wildcat "Moleman" .357 AR MAX AR-15 barrel a year or two before the Legend came out, and it's an excellent tree-stand rifle.
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@thedutchtouch if you ever go that route let me know, I can give you a jumpstart
 
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