New member from Longmont CO

[DonnaCam]

Greetings, esteemed members,

I am a mom from Longmont,CO just getting into rifle hunting and shooting. I have shot firearms all my life, but mostly pistol, shotgun, and iron sights. I am new to scoped rifles.

I have taken a 15 or so year break from deer hunting, as I have been busy with our two girls. My oldest is now old enough to go big game hunting, and wants to do so before she runs off to college and gets too busy. I just recently scoped a Win 94ae 30-30 with a Bushnell Elite 3200 3x9 and I have a Remington 760 30-06 with a Leupold Vari X II 3x9. We are bootstrapping our way back into big game hunting, and I know it's nothing fancy. Wish I had different rifles, but gone are my days of having all the cool toys. Thought my daughter would like the 30-30, but she hates the heavy and long trigger pull, and much prefers the 30.06 with the light trigger.

We have been shooting lots, working on our distance and accuracy, and trying to determine what loads we will use for antelope season. We drew Wyoming unit 32. My daughter also drew a deer (doe) tag for Colorado GMU 96. We are super excited to finally be making our dreams come true.

I am self employed and work out of the home with my husband. He is a structural engineer. I do pretty much everything but the engineering: web site design and maintenance, technical and software support, network troubleshooting, checking drawings, running prints, bookeeping, laundry, cook, clean - well, you guys get the picture! But we love it and are so fortunate to have work to do.

Look forward to learning from you all.

Donna

 

[permaculture]

Welcome from Castle Rock.

 

[WyoElk2Hunt]

I would sure look at getting a smaller cal than 30-06 for the girl I like the 25-06 or 243 for a starter gun for a child.

 

[WyoElk2Hunt]

I would sure look at a 243 or a 25-06 for a young shooter to start with as far as learning trigger squeeze and flinching.

 

[DonnaCam]

I would have loved to have gotten a .243. I thought of trading or selling both my rifles to get one dream rifle, but then I would have less to work with for elk hunting if we had to share a smaller caliber rifle. My daughter has been shooting the 30.06 with Rem Managed Recoil 125gr loads and is pretty accurate (2" group) at 100 yds right now. This week, we are working on 200 yards. In a perfect world, I would have a 7mm-08 for me, a 6.5mm Swede for her, and .223 for prairie dogs and general all around fun, etc., but it is what it is for us right now. Some day we will add to our collection when the economy gets better. She has been small game hunting for quite a few years, and is a very good pistol shot with my 9mm Sig as well as my 20ga shotgun. Thanks for your thoughts, believe me, I have thought long and hard about what to do. When she handled the 30.06 well, that was when I knew it was possible to return to big game hunting.