How is 45-70 gov. cal., is that for elk? And whats the difference between X-bolt and A-bolt rifles?

The .45-70 is an excellent cartridge but not very flat shooting. It would surely work fine for elk.

It seems to me that you should take some time to do a little reading on the subject of hunting rifles and cartridges. Mine is a little dated but a good starting place might be "Lyman's Guide to Big Game Cartridges and Rifles". If you check the local library you can probably find something similar.

Even Wikipedia has some useful information:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..._(firearm)

The 45-70 is a great caliber but like Pumpkinslinger said not very flat shooting, and does have pretty heavy recoil. My recommendation would be 270, 30-06, or 7mm Rem Mag. These are all easy to find ammo for, and are reasonably priced ammo.

Sage advice Punkin. Its a good idea to do some research on shooting, hunting and firearms in general...it can only benefit you.

Heavy recoil in the 45-70 Wiersay...that is an understatement mate. I carried bruises on my shoulder for 2 weeks after shooting 3...yeah only 3...500gn full power loads from a Ruger #1.

Having said that...the Master of BLOOOOMPPHHH, Gelan, has his 45-70 shooting nice light loads very nicely thank you very much...so apart from the cost of feeding it, it is well possible to make this calibre a beginners calibre.

Cheers, Vince

I have been following this thread for a couple of days. Unless I miss my guess, you do not reload and you do not have access to reloading. That means you need a cartridge that comes in a fairly wide variety of factory loads. You also want a decent rifle without breaking the bank. You asked about the Vanguard in 30-06. This sounds to me like you have done a good bit of reserch already, to come up with that combination.

The Weatherby Vanguard is a decent rifle at any price and an excellent rifle for the money. They are made by Howa of Japan and Howa makes very good guns.

The 30-06 is over 100 years old. It is where it is, on top of the all time best cartridge list, by everyone, because it is what it is, a great cartridge. It is not necessaraly the best cartridge for any single application, but it can do almost anything you can dream up, adaquately, if not done on an excellent basis. Every store with ammo has 06 ammo and every mfg has several loads for it.

I think you will be happy with your choice and anything else will result in a "If I had only" situation for you. Go get the Vanguard 06 and be happy.
Best,
Ed

Well said Swampy.

Thank you Swampfox, well since I've decided what rifle I'm going to get, I'm going to close this thread, but before I do what scope would be good to get latter on or upgrade to, when I can? Well that's all I need to know before i close this thread Thanks every one for helping me out

What did you decide on?!?!? That helps us recommend a scope.

The last few scopes I've bought were Burris Fullfield series or Bushnell Elite series. To me they are a good blend of quality and price.

I don't want to get off track but my son recently bought a 6-24x50 NC Star. It seems to be a decent scope for the money, I think he paid about $100 for it. Does anyone have any opinions on the NC Stars?

Well, I've decided on the Wetherby vanguard package that comes with a scope, but i don't know how good it is, so i was thinking if its not that good then to get anther one.Or should i just get a a rifle without the scope and get a different scope or what? There's the package that's 540.00 or just the rifle for 350.00 and just get a scope?

It depends on what scope the package comes with. It looks like the factory package comes with a Bushnell Banner, which is a low end scope that you can pick up for $70 or so. Personally I'd get the rifle and then pick up a decent scope.

Check Natchez for scope prices. I'd look at this one:
www.natchezss.com/Opti...e=Bushnell Elite 3200 3-9x40mm Riflescope Multi-X Reticle Matte

Okami wrote:

Well, I've decided on the Wetherby vanguard package that comes with a scope, but i don't know how good it is, so i was thinking if its not that good then to get anther one.Or should i just get a a rifle without the scope and get a different scope or what? There's the package that's 540.00 or just the rifle for 350.00 and just get a scope?

I've had a lot of scopes both high end and low end. With 1 exception, the low priced scopes have worked OK. You'll probably be OK with the package deal and that's what you should probably do unless you plan to mount the scope yourself. If you buy just the rifle and then buy a scope separately, you'll probably have to buy rings and either install everything yourself or pay someone to do it.

If you decide to buy a scope separately from the rifle, I would go with Leupold (the Gold Ring series). Leupold scopes have a lifetime warranty that Leupold really stands behind even if you buy a used scope. I've bought the majority of my Leupold scopes used and, being one who puts them on handguns with quite heavy recoil, have had to avail myself of their warranty service more than once.

For $190 you can find a decent scope, I would think the package scope would be on the lower end, but you have to buy a mount, rings, if you decide to go without the scope. Find out what comes on it.

Well I'll just look around and see how good they are and then get one. And what are range finders, and the range finder scopes?

I stopped reading all the posts! too much reading lol!!
some very good advice tho!!

i have to agree with one too,
i bought the Savage 111 rifle with scope, took the scope off, put
a Burris Fullfield II 3-9x40mm with leupold bases on,
barrel deresonator and bipod. um and since its a .300 win mag i bought one of those limbsaver recoil pads! i personally vouch for those and
for the deresonator too
what i want to say is thats its a great rifle for its price! i get 1/2" groups at 100 yards with standard factory ammo!!
nothing to complain about, not too heavy, sits nicely in my hands.
love it!!!
btw heard bad things about the Remington 770 kit, apparently the bolt sucks bad!!
but i have heard the remington 700/70 are great reliable guns!!

dan