What is the best large bore rifle to buy for a beginner target shooter?

Question

What is the best large bore rifle to buy for a beginner target shooter?

Answer 1

Falphil is right on. Obviously, learning the basics of marksmanship and safety is best with a .22 due to cost. Then I would say for just plinking around at long distance a 17HMR or .22 Hornet. I'm a huge fan of the .243, such an all-around great rifle for the whole family. A versatile rifle as Filphil said is the 30-30. With it you can use various types of 30-30 caliber rounds as well as accelerator rounds that actually shoots a .224 at supersonic speeds through the same 30-30. And its extremely accurate.  

Answer 2

Large bores are not conducive to target shooting.  They are very hard to make very accurate, for a variety of reasons I will not go into here.  Or did you really mean 'centerfire'?

It you are going to target shoot, about the largest caliber I would suggest would be a 30 caliber. specifically the .308 Winchester cartridge, which is a medium bore.  That particular cartridge has been studied to death and just about anything you want to know about it has been published on the web, including which rifles shoot it the best.

Personally, I would not choose a target chambering based on bore size.  I would look at what is winning competitions.  And if you do that, you will find that the 6mm chamberings (243 caliber) reigns supreme.  The 6mm Bench Rest cartridge (6mm BR) has got to be the winningest cartridge out there.  There are other 6mm chamberings that do almost as well, such as the 6 PPC and the up-and-coming 6 XC.  The reigning Highpower Champion recently won with a wildcat, the 6mm Hagar.

If you are a beginner, and you have teh means, you might as well start out with something that eliminates as many variables as possible. Either the 308 Win or one of the popular 6mm chamberings should do it.

I might also mention that there is nothing wrong with learning on a .22 rimfire.  You learn the basics and it is cheap to practice.  And practice is everything.

You can learn a lot about target shooting over at http://www.6mmbr.com

Good luck!

Answer 3

By large bore do you mean centerfire vs rimfire?    The .223 is clearly the least expensive center fire rifle to both purchase and to buy ammunition for.  I hope that you already have a .22lr that you can practice with also.   The same basic marksmanship principles apply to a rimfire as they do to a centerfire.  Sharpening these skills with a rimfire will make you a better centerfire shooter.  The primary difference is going to be the maximum range which you are going to shoot at.  

The .308 is very much more expensive to buy commercial ammunition for.    Because of the large number of varmint shooters using a .223, you can find a huge selection of rifles chambered in it.  You can get a Savage/Stevens .223 bolt action for far less than $300.

In High Power Service rifle competition, hand loaded .223 rifles are beating .308 rifles in accuracy out to 600+ yards.

Answer 4

I think Anthony should have explored the 45-70 a little better. If you handload the light 300 grain bullets actually touching the rifling, with modest loads found in a reloading manual, accuracy will be all you can use within human hands vagaries. Plus, you will have a gun you can load up to whatever game you want to go after, including African Big 5. On the downside, the 45-70 is not a long range weapon, so you will often have to actually be a hunter. Oh, excuse me, we're hunters around here, so that's not a downside! Regards, Larry.

Answer 5

For a true "Large bore" rifle, I'd suggest a .375 H&H mag, my dad had a winchester M70 safari rifle that I really liked, and if you reload you can use cast bullets and lower velocities, that make it really nice to shoot.  Even with full power magnum loads the recoil never bothered me, and it certainly wasn't enough to make me flinch. Although .45-70

Govt. and .458 Winchester mag, would be another good choice.  If you mean a centerfire caliber, when you say Largebore, then I'd recommend a .223, .243, .270, or .30-06, all these calibers are so popular that you could probably buy ammo from a gas station if you needed too, lol       But the .223 would be the best choice for someone new to centerfire rifles, ammo is very affordable compared to any other caliber, no recoil, very accurate, and truly devestating expansion if you use good bullets( hornady v-max is my FAVORITE), good luck with your choice, big rifles are a blast to shoot, no pun intended.

Answer 6

buy a 22 ruger or a marlin...for under 200 dollars you can shoot 1000 rounds....then ask about a "big" bore

Answer 7

The 25-06 is a Great choice.*

Answer 8

Large bore target shooting rifle?  You got me there.  To me large bore begin with the .400 caliber dangerous/big game hunting rifles like the .404 Jeffery and .416 Rigby.  Neither one is suitable for a newbie to the shooting sport.  The closest I can guess you mean is the .308/7.62x51 NATO accurized for competition shooting. A Remington 700 in .308 Winchester works for me.

H