Best range rifle for fun and budget?

[Ike85123]

Im sure the 22lr will make the list for budget target shooting. And the 223 will be a favorite also.
My favorite is a old Winchester 70 in 308 bolt gun and a marlin 336 in 30-30 i got at 8yrs old.
Fun to shoot and dont break the bank too much!

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

Marlin 30-30 or even smaller cal if it is made. Pure fun to shoot.

 

[Ike85123]

Marlin 30-30 or even smaller cal if it is made. Pure fun to shoot.

My son loves his beretta m9 and his ar15.
Funny that my sw 44 and my 308 can shoot circles around them both.
I like the newer stuff, but no real world use except war or competition.
I have nothing against his guns.
I was thinking of getting a beretta m9. I do like the pistol.

 

[curtism1234]

17hmr used to be my go to. Ammo quality from cci and winchester are how terrible. 3/4" groups went to over 2" with lots of duds and wild velocity differences. At this point would go with a 223 or 22 hornet

 

[Newboomer]

223 or 6.5CR bolt gun. Keeps the practice of running the bolt for hunting. No recoil with 223 and a little for the feel with 6.5. Both are in the 7-8 lb range for weight familiarization and ammo is reasonable.

 

[fourfive8]

Right now- whatever uses cheap, available ammo. Also, if you reload, if you have enough components! Can’t shoot what you can’t get.

Thinking back, maybe a Marlin lever carbine in 357.

 

[BeeMaa]

Having a rifle that fits you the same as your hunting rifle is important. If it were to mimic the weight and balance, that would be even better. Truthfully, I believe dry fire practice with your hunting rifle is almost as good as live fire. Except to say that the immediate feedback and fun factor are not quite there. It is still a less expensive alternative to throwing lead downrange for practice. Then your time (and money spent on cartridges) at the range is used in an efficient manner.

@Ike85123 You mentioned the most common calibers that I'd recommend of .22lr and .223REM. Also mixing in a few shots each session of your chosen hunting cartridge. When you are approaching your hunting trip, scale up the hunting cartridge shots and scale down the .22lr/.223REM shots.

 

[YancyW]

Tikka T3 in 223. Use 77gr Bergers, you can shoot well past 500 pretty easy and it is pretty easy on your shoulder and wallet.

 

[sestoppelman]

Every gun I own.

 

[Ike85123]

Having a rifle that fits you the same as your hunting rifle is important. If it were to mimic the weight and balance, that would be even better. Truthfully, I believe dry fire practice with your hunting rifle is almost as good as live fire. Except to say that the immediate feedback and fun factor are not quite there. It is still a less expensive alternative to throwing lead downrange for practice. Then your time (and money spent on cartridges) at the range is used in an efficient manner.

@Ike85123 You mentioned the most common calibers that I'd recommend of .22lr and .223REM. Also mixing in a few shots each session of your chosen hunting cartridge. When you are approaching your hunting trip, scale up the hunting cartridge shots and scale down the .22lr/.223REM shots.

I love shooting big bore, its so so expensive. I practice alot before a hunt.
But mostly at the range, I just try to have fun and shoot the rifles that have cheaper ammo.
I use a 300wm amd a 500ne on my hunts. Thats the only 2 i use.
I just like to get to the range as often as possible. So my old marlin 22lr gets alot of use. Haha

 

[Rimshot]

I've just "discovered" the 22 Hornet and it is quickly becoming a favorite range toy.

A 'full power' load costs 6 cents worth of pre-panic priced primer and powder (say that 3x fast), topped with the very accurate 55 gr Speer spitzer available for 9 cents ea., so I'm shooting it for 15 cents per round. With it's decent ballistic coefficient and using Lil Gun powder, hitting small targets up to 250 yards is easy. At ~900 ft/lb muzzle energy, it's suitable for larger varmints like coyotes too.

Now if times are really tough, a bucket of free wheel weights and a couple grains of shotgun powder has you shooting for 4 cents per round. Even if you had to buy the lead alloy, your costs are at most an extra 1 or 2 cents since the projectile is so light.

 

[C.W. Richter]

.22 LR target rifle of your choosing ('had a WWII era 26" bbl .22 single-shot target gun that I shouldn't have sold long ago.) Super accurate and its extra heft was perfect for practicing field shooting. Used to shoot Anschutz and RWS target rifles in college, which prepared me for many challenging field shots. Like the .22 WMR much better, but the ammo is much more expensive.

 

[Viral_SIGness]

I like my sons Ruger American "Go Wild" in 7-08. Right now it's as cheap as anything else, and is a lot of fun.

 

[Rob404]

My Savage heavy barrel 22LR and my 6mm Rem on a Ruger platform.
Doing my own reloading helps keep the price down no matter what I shoot

 

[Longwalker]

Aside from a .22 rimfire, I believe the best range rifle is your best hunting rifle. And you have the benefit of practise for more serious activities later on.
The best budget decision is to refrain from spending more money on a range rifle, and shoot cheap handloads in your hunting rifle. You don't need premium bullets, or full charges of powder to have fun and gain muscle memory and skills. If you want to shoot as cheaply as possible, melt discarded lead wheel weights and cast them into bullets = almost free bullets. Shoot them with a small charge of a pistol / shotgun powder, and you will have a useful load that costs the same per shot as a .22 magnum rimfire.