ORIGINAL: lostprophet454
hey guys, im planning to buy a good deer hunting rifle for the adirondack mountains and the other day i was in a sporting goods store and was looking at the used rifles and two guns caught my eye, one was a beautiful cz 7.62x39, and the other was an older ruger mdl 77 in 30-06, the cz was smaller and more comfortable feeling, it felt like a great brush gun, the ruger was older and more beat up, but a longer bigger gun. they both had excellent bores and neither had really any damge or rust or anything, just alot of ncks and dents in the ruger stock the owner said it was made in the late '70s. i liked the feel of the the cz more, but dont know how well it will hold up on alaskan moose the way a 30-06 will. ( i plan to hunt them in the next few years)..the cz was around $75 dollars more than the ruger..what would you choose?
They are both excellent rifles! The CZ is a very high quality gun, and woiuld do well for you in New York for deer hunting. There are loads for the 7.62X39mm round that are as powerful as a .30/30, and that CZ can be handloaded so it beats the .30/30 at the longer ranges. For example, I have one 150-grain load for my CZ 7.62X39mm that firs a 150-grain pointed bullet at 2350 FPS. At 200 yards, this load still carries over half again the remaining energy of a flat-nose .30/30 bullet at 200 yards. Here's how my CZ shoots with a handload:
However, even though it is OK for deer, the 7.62X39mm is totally inadequate for anything larger than deer. The old '06 is capable ofcleanly killing anything in North America andtotally outclasses the 7.62X39mm as a hunting cartridge. I would hesitate to try to shoot a moose with it, and certainly not a big bear!
Buy the .30/'06!! Don't even consider the 7.62X39mm unless you are willing to limit its' use to game no larger than deer at short ranges.