Dear Jim and Family,
I have been shooting for a dozen years and I learned some things, going from BB guns and .22s to proper hunting rifles. I got started on .22s, to learn to shoot properly with them, and worked my way up to .223, which is an excellent teaching tool for marksmanship and as a backup firearm since its a milsurp caliber (5.56×45 NATO) and good for taking groundhogs, bunnies, squirrels, and coyotes at range. Mostly, its a [transitional] teaching round, same as a .22 LR. Its also useful in a proper length carbine, but its limitations must be respected.
From there I stepped up to a middle caliber round. The .308 Winchester is great for reloading as it will burn most rifle powders, shoots various weights of projectile in .308 diameter without complaint, is accurate to a reasonable range and will take pretty much any game in North America. Some more messy than others, but pretty much. It really is a good choice for most people.
I understand the appeal of a battle rifle that’s semi-auto, but I must point out that’s a fast way to go through ammunition and brings about inherent accuracy problems as well as legal restrictions, but the most important limit is weight. If the 11-12 pounds of weight isn’t a problem for continuous carry at the ready, you may be able to get by in a TEOTWAWKI situation and just end up with really big biceps and a really sore back.
Own a bolt action rifle in .308 as well, and make that your primary rifle. At 6-7 pounds including an off-the-shelf set of rings and a scope you installed yourself, a bolt action will cycle all 5 rounds in around 10 seconds in a rapid fire scenario and you’ll be aiming every shot. An off-the-shelf hunting rifle in .308 caliber is more accurate than most military surplus firearms, and they’re far cheaper to mount a scope on, and far less attention grabbing in the woods by nosy neighbors or game wardens. OPSEC, folks, OPSEC. Five rounds and five downed invaders is also a rather serious pause in a human wave attack. Or four and an engine block. Or shoot one-load one, as they teach in the US Army sniper training and employment manual, free for download in PDF format. You can do that with a bolt, but its trickier with a semi-auto rifle, or just not possible depending on design.
I strongly recommend all serious rifle marksmen handload their ammunition. Milsurp ammo is notoriously poor quality most of the time. Many people talk themselves into a milsurp caliber thinking they’ll make Hollywood Rifle Shots (like the movies), with captured ammo. This just isn’t true, and its a persistent misunderstanding, even now. Even “match” ammo you pay extra for is usually less accurate than what you can make yourself for a reusable bench top setup costing less than $200. $200 sounds like a lot of beans and Band-Aids, but $200 in reloading gear and supplies will make you thousands of rounds of match ammunition compared to the 10 boxes of “match” ammo you could buy for the same money. A cruddy shooting rifle that flings rounds all over the place at 100 yards can become a passable imitation of a Hollywood rifle with reloaded ammunition.
I just can’t emphasize this enough: RELOAD. However, reloads in semi-auto rifles are much trickier than with a bolt rifle so save your milsurp ammo for the battle/auto rifle and use the reloads for the bolt. The other little perk of a reloading setup is you can load lighter bullets into your cases reducing felt recoil. This will limit your effective range (there’s no such thing as a free lunch) but if your wife or daughter or yourself gets a flinch from full-bore .308 with 150 grain projectiles, 130 grain hunting bullets shoot with 80% of the recoil and still give you high accuracy at 300 yards. You can also reduce the pressure on the rounds (use less powder) and reduce the recoil even further, without adding weight to the rifle. This is not well known for the average rifle shooter at the range sighting in for deer season with their 120 pound son or daughter going on their first hunt. Make it fun for them. Don’t overwhelm them with recoil and cause a flinch that turns them into the next Senator from California.
So, work your way up if you haven’t already, and own a bolt rifle in .308 and know its abilities, train with it, make it yours. That plus a hunting license and a gun rack and you’ll fit right in with the locals, too. I wish I’d known this when I started shooting, but live and learn. Sincerely, – InyoKern