My wife and I have been looking around for a good deer/elk rifle for her for about 3 months now. We have been carefully deciding exactly what she wanted. We have just been waiting to get he money we needed in order to purchase her gun. Today we went into a local second hand store which had several well priceds guns in the calibers we were looking for. She chose a Savage Model 110E series H 30-06. I explained that she could get the gun she wanted in the caliber of her choice as she has to be the one to hunt with it. The gun is a little rough but the bore is clean as a whistle and the action seems quite sound. We have 30 days to try it out and opt to return it if need be. The rifle has a 3-9x40mm Tasco scope on it which appears to be adequate for starters and the best thing about the entire package is that it only cost me $219. She was happy and I was happy and we are taking her out saturday to sight it in and make sure she is happy with it. I am heading back tomorrow to pick up a Mossberg Bolt action .410 which is in amazing shape for $145.

great news. I am very pleased you have found something she likes. that .410 sounds good too you are sure to have a ball with it.
the 30/06 sounds like a good buy aswell and reminds me of when we were trying to find a rifle for my recoil sensitive friend, we looked all over for a reasonably priced .243 or 6.5x55mm with no joy, then we found a very tidy bsa majestic 30/06 with a redfield scope on it for a good price. we got it to try and the salesman knowing the recoil factor gave us 180grn ammo!!!
well it didnt kick and we both bagged wallabies at 2-300yrds with it and my friend has loved it ever since.
the 150grn loads kick less and 130s are a dream to shoot if your gun likes them. keep us posted.

Well done TLO. The 30.06 is probably one of the most versatile calibres out there, so she will have a ball with it hunting.

The little .410 is a dream to shoot too...you will both love it, although the range is a little short, so you have to sneak up on dem pesky wabbits real qwietly.

Cheers, Vince

These guns are our christmas to each other since we could not afford it at the time. I think we will enjoy them plenty.

Vince, when you think the range of a .410 is very short, then I think Elvis will agree with me that you're not using the right cartridge for your gun. I also had to learn that the hard way when I saw doves sitting in a tree going down with a 9 mm Flobert (= rimfire and smaller than the .410) and flying away with the .410. The .410 made more noice but was less efficiant... till you start testing for the best cartridge for you gun...

A mate and I have started reloading .410 and we are having fairly reasonable success with 2.5 inch cartridges. We are loading 11.9gr of Alliant .410 powder pushing 1/2 oz of #6 shot. This load is doing about 1250 fps, so it is reasonably quick.

Last weekend I was shooting clay targets with the .410 from the 15 metre mark and having about a 75% success rate, but I had to hit them with my first barrel. I can't argue with that mate. I am hoping that someone in the US can come across a supply of 2.5" and 3" once fired Winchester AA hulls so that we can develop some reasonable field loads.

Cheers, Vince

Vince, I would suggest to try smaller shot. Number 7,5 or even 8,5 when you can get it.
I'm not reloading shotshells at the moment (but thinking to start again with slugs...), but I've been hunting a few years in the past with reloaded cal 12 using shotsize number 8,5. Even hare crossing at 45 m was no problem.
Later I got the opportunity to use factory cartridges with number 9 and even once with number 10 shot on doves. You would be surprised how well these listen to a full choke and how far you can clean kill doves.
I recently even tried 24 gram (7/8 Oz?) steelshot in a full choke cal 12 on doves and loved it. For your info: these came from NSI (Noble Sports Italy). When you count and compare the number of pellets in steel shot and lead shot, then you see what's happening.

Some advice of my father (died in 1985): you need pellets when you want to hit, so the smaller the load, the smaller the shotsize required.

Good choice. Just be sure to take the time to alter the stock to fit her properly (assuming it is probably a bit too long for her) and add a very good recoil pad as well. It doesn't pay to have a rifle with substantial recoil that doesn't fit the shooter...it just leads to an ex-shooter.

Good luck and all the best. Keep us informed.

3" Vince, dont muck around with the 2 1/2 on game, you increase the payload by 50% .
1/2oz vs 11/16 or 3/4oz. and as Aloy has said pattern, pattern, pattern.

The rifle we got actually fits her pretty well but we will know more when we get it out for her to shoot, it also has a good sissy pad on it already but if needed I will probably shorten the stock and get a limbsaver. We are planning on going out saturday. As for the .410 I have a couple different loads already and have had good luck with them in the past. Also it has a 24" barrel with a full choke.

if its like my old .410 with full choke it should love 3" #4 shot but didnt like #5or#6 at all.

You can always try some reduced loads for practice in that .30-06.

tlo7mm wrote:

The rifle we got actually fits her pretty well but we will know more when we get it out for her to shoot, it also has a good sissy pad on it already but if needed I will probably shorten the stock and get a limbsaver. We are planning on going out saturday. As for the .410 I have a couple different loads already and have had good luck with them in the past. Also it has a 24" barrel with a full choke.

Not knowing how small your wife is, and like the guys said, if you stay with lighter grain bullets in the 30-06, she will not have as much recoil energy to contend with. i.e. 8lb rifle
180gr @2650fps =23.51 ft-lbs
150gr@2920fps = 17.58 ft-lbs

Just have a blast (literally) and enjoy!

I recommend using the 130gr Barnes TTSX (.308). The bullet is extremely effective for its weight and will have a flatter trajectory. They also have a 110gr that also will do the job, even on deer-size targets.

I took my wife out yesterday to site in her 06, its a shooter and she sited it in all by herself. Next I am going to gather up the stuff to reload for it. I also got to site in my .222 and got to shoot my .410, man does that thing have some great range.