Buying a Long Rifle

Video Transcript

"We are going to talk a little bit about buying a rifle, a long gun, mainly a rifle, center fire or rim fire and the first thing you need to think about if you're going to buy a long gun is what do I want to do with it? What is my need, my desire at the present time. If you just want to start shooting and have something kind of inexpensive to shoot with I recommend you buy a 22 rifle, not expensive to shoot. You can get a lot of shooting for a little money and you can learn all the good habits that will take you into being able to shoot a center fire. We've got a little selection of 22 rifles over here. One of the perennial favorites is we picked it up and we are going to open it and keep it safe. This is called a Ruger, a 10-22. It's a semi automatic. In this case stainless steel, 22 long rifle, a great little gun. They've been making them for many, many years. I was a little kid when they started making them and that was a long time ago. They're a great little gun. You can usually pick up a used one for $175 in pretty good shape up to a little over $200 for a new one depending on what it has. It is a great little gun in a semi auto. Another thing that is a really nice popular little gun is the lever action. This particular one is a Winchester, 22 lever action and we're going to open it up to make sure it is safe. It works just like it looks like it should work, just like that, aim it and pull the trigger and it fires. They're a great little gun. They're getting a little bit more expensive because Winchester is no longer in business but the good thing is you can buy a Henry. This is a really nice looking little Henry Golden Boy. It's a 22 long rifle with an octagonal barrel, super looking little gun, very smooth action, just like a Winchester. They also make it with with a blue, cheaper, great little gun. They make bolt actions as well. They make pump actions. Right now the only bolt action we've got is this little guy right here. This little guy is an old Browning and it is called a T-bolt. The bolt action is on here, shoot it, a great little gun. You can buy some bolt actions and semis for well under $200 brand new. A good gun to start with. If you decide you'd like to go old west style with the lever actions. Marlin makes some great lever action guns. They work just like the other ones, 30-30 caliber, a few others, 440 Marlin if you are after big game, that's a little shy of a half inch bullet, a pretty big bullet. You can get them in 45 Colt, thats .45 inches across the diameter. That's a big old heavy bullet going down in there. Marlin's are a good gun. If you are going to go after varmints such as coyotes, woodchucks, those little critters you're going to need something with a smaller bullet and a whole lot faster. Here are some varmint guns. Just to go quickly through them. This one here doesn't have a scope on it yet but if you are going after varmints you will need a scope. This is a .223 caliber, that's basically the same caliber that is used by our military in the AR 15's, AR 16's. This is a very fast moving bullet, very small bullet, 22 caliber in diameter but a whole lot more powerful than those rim fire 22's we were showing you. This is one possibility. Here's another if you are real sure. This is a great one. This is a Ruger #1, single shot with a nice varmint scope on it, settle down there and shoot varmints all day with this guy. Again very very fast. We have got a 22 - 250, another little gun that is 22 caliber also, even a little faster, with a little lighter bullet, just considered a strict varmint gun. I would not try and hunt deer with these guys just because the bullets is so small and so fast it just doesn't have the knock down power. If you are looking for something and you want to hunt deer, a 243 caliber is a little bit larger diameter bullet, they make heavier bullets for it. Here is an again a Ruger, 243, looks exactly the same just shoots a larger caliber bullet. It has got a good scope on it, it is good for deer and also good for coyotes. It's pretty fast, cartridge. If you're going to go combination deer elk things of that nature, mule deer, bigger critters, a 270, this is a Savage 270 and it is actually a left handed gun. You might notice the bolt is over here. This is again a larger diameter bullet. They make heavier weights that will knock down larger game. A 270 is great for that, that's a Savage. Here is an old Browning, semi auto 270, same caliber. It's a semi auto, it's got a scope on it, works good for any of those creatures. Here is a nice older Remington custom shotgun, 270. Get up from that and you can have 308, 30 0 6, 7 mag, 300 Winchester Mag, 338, bigger, bigger, bigger, all the way up to 500, half inch bullets. This guy here as much as it might look like a huge gun is one of those varmint 22 - 250's. This particular gun was custom made for a downed and dridened old target shooter. He custom made it, had the action, honed, tuned, put a new trigger in it so it is light as a feather, about a pound and a half trigger pull on it which is just barely touching it. It has got a fluted, custom barrel on this. If you know what you are doing and you have practiced like we talked about, talking about practice and shooting you can probably shoot a one inch group at 250 yards with this all day long. You can shoot varmints, very heavy this gun probably weighs because it is a target gun and see it is very thick, very heavy and weighs about eight pounds so it is not something you would want to hike around the woods with hunting for critters to shoot but for setting up on a prairie dog mound or setting up in a stand in a blind waiting for coyotes, calling them in and you won't miss with this. This is a Winchester and it is kind of a unique item. It is an old style Winchester falling block but it is made in a modern 300 Winchester short magnum caliber. Normally you would expect to see this style of gun in a 45-70, 45-90 some of the old time calibers because this is an old time style Winchester. They made this one in a brand new 300 Winchester short magnum caliber. It is a heck of a deer gun you could go out after buffalo with this if you wanted to and be expected to do well. This is a beautiful old gun. Winchester as I said is not in business any more so these are going up in value. They're harder to find, they're a great gun and again a 30 caliber. There is a lot of guns that are 30 caliber that will work good for hunting most anything on this continent unless you get up North and you are after brown bear, then you need something bigger in my own humble opinion, something with a 4 in front of the caliber."