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Rifle Straightwall

R

Rutty

Member
Guys,
I am looking to buy a rifle for Iowa shotgun season now that they passed the new straightwall law. I will be the first to admit that I do not know a lot about guns other than they go bang when I pull the trigger on a deer. I have always used a muzzleloader in the past shotgun seasons. I will mainly be sitting over Foot Plots during shotgun season (don't do much pushing). I am thinking of buying a bolt gun over a lever.

What are the advantages of a straightwall rifle over a muzzeloader besides having mulitple shots?

What kind of Gun would you guys buy if you were me? Want a good quality gun but don't wanna get carried away on price. Thanks for Input!
 
The biggest negative for muzzleloader are the smoke and not knowing where you hit and sometimes even the best bullets don't leave great blood trails. If only hunting the shotgun seasons I would look at a good slug gun or a 450 bushmaster as much as it pains me to say it. There is one for sale in the forum here. They are tack drivers.
 
Hottest ticket in town here lately is the 450 Bushmaster in an AR-15 platform - we are selling both complete rifles and complete uppers like crazy.
Those that had them last season are very happy with performance and accuracy
 
Whether it's a bolt, lever or AR I'd keep in mind the ammo cost. Some of those oddball straight wall cartridges are pricey; although they're all way better than the price of sabots!
 
meyeri said:
Whether it's a bolt, lever or AR I'd keep in mind the ammo cost. Some of those oddball straight wall cartridges are pricey; although they're all way better than the price of sabots!
Click to expand...
Factory ammo can be expensive. I got set up to reload 44 Mag and would encourage anybody to consider buying the equipment. A person would probably shoot a lot more, which never hurts being comfortable with the gun.
 
I like only having one shot, but the muzzle loader is a pain to reload and clean. CVA and a couple others make break action single shot rifles that look pretty nice and good price point.
 
I don't have a straight wall rifle yet but have been researching. Rugar's bolt action 450 Bushmaster looks hard to beat for price and performance. If only stand hunting this would be my pick for sure. If going on the occasional deer drive I would lean toward a Marlin or Henry in 45-70. Marlins cost a little less but Henry has better reviews. A few qualifiers here. This would be for my and not my kids, so not too worried about recoil. Ammo cost and availability is not a big consideration because it won't be any more than the 12 ga sabots I currently shoot. If I buy one of these it will have to be more accurate and lethal at a longer distance than my 12 ga, which is an easy 150 yard gun now and has taken a couple over that. One at 198 yards, but I probably should not have taken that shot. So any new gun here will need to be a decent 250 yard gun to get me to part with the money.
 
I would just stick with a muzzleloader if sitting on plots (smokeless if it was me). If you really want a straight wall i'd go 450.
 
meyeri said:
Whether it's a bolt, lever or AR I'd keep in mind the ammo cost. Some of those oddball straight wall cartridges are pricey; although they're all way better than the price of sabots!
Click to expand...

I went with the 450 Bushmaster and ammo is half the price of Sabot shotgun slugs.
 
20" .450 bushmaster with a Leupold VX-6 2-12×42 firedot reticle shoots awesome. You get something similar to a red dot on 2x with the firedot on but can crank it up to 12x for longer shots if needed...
Zeroed at 150yds it shoots about 3"high @100 and about 3"low at 200

5 shot 150yds group with factory Hornady 250g FTX ammo... Not the best groups its shot but I was just leaned over the tailgate on a leadsled
But I've got a buddy working up some handloads for me to try out in 250g and 275g Barnes XPB bullets
5331a41c82cb946135fc848a1b7e0930.jpg
38a19ee174af0195b88196e7b50bf2ce.jpg
6b66a2615f6b86e75ff57bc83ce31a1f.jpg


Sent from my LG-US996 using Tapatalk
 
rutnstrut said:
20" .450 bushmaster with a Leupold VX-6 2-12×42 firedot reticle shoots awesome. Ya get the something similar to a red dot on 2x with the firedot on but can crank it up to 12x for longer shots if needed...
Zeroed at 150yds it shoots about 3"high @100 and about 3"low at 200

5 shot 150yds group with factory Hornady 250g FTX ammo... Not the best groups its shot but I was just leaned over the tailgate on a leadsled
But I've got a buddy working up some handloads for me to try out in 250g and 275g Barnes XPB bullets
5331a41c82cb946135fc848a1b7e0930.jpg
38a19ee174af0195b88196e7b50bf2ce.jpg
6b66a2615f6b86e75ff57bc83ce31a1f.jpg


Sent from my LG-US996 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Not the best sighting in/shooting conditions but better than most real world hunting scenarios
1230492eb0468a9c2468a5d1ca389786.jpg


Sent from my LG-US996 using Tapatalk
 
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