Why not consider a .243Win? You say that you only need it for deer and coyote, and the .243 with the right bullet will kill both very well. The .243 also gives you the choice to hunt smaller varmints without splattering them all over tarnation. Factory .243 ammo is also a little cheaper than a .30-06, but the biggest benefit is the greatly reduced recoil of the .243 over the .30-06. I' m pretty recoil tolerant, so the .30-06 doesn' t bother me too much, but a .30-06 in a lighter sporter rifle does kick a bit, perticularly with heavier bullets. The lighter recoil of the .243 will very likely mean you' ll shoot it better, especially if you shoot a lot. You may decide later that you want to go northwest and hunt animals bigger than deer, but consider that by the time you have the time and resources to do so you' ll also likely have enough money to buy a rifle specifically for hunting the BIG game.

Others to consider in the lighter recoil range would be the 6mm Rem, the .25-06, and the 7mm-08 Winchester. If I were buying a deer/predator rifle I' d probably go with the .243Win. It' s accurate, won' t beat you up, is more than adequate for anything weighing less than 250lbs, and the ammo os less expensive, plentiful and easy to find. Of course, the same can be said about .30-06 ammo.

As far as where to buy a rifle, I' d stick with a competent gun dealer and not a pawn shop. A pawn shop isn' t likely to know crap about the guns they have and wouldn' t know a good gun from a bad one. They just want to sell their stock and will tell you anything to move them out the door. A dedicated gun dealer is going to be a far better resource as he should be able to answer any questions you may have, because that is what the do. Most decent dealers are pretty honest as well, and will give you a fairly honest assessment of any used gun they have in stock and the prices will reflect the quality of the gun. The best thing you can do is go to your local gun shop (not necessarily the big chain sporting goods store), tell the owner what you are looking for and what you have to spend. I' ll bet he' ll practically bend over backwards to help you find the gun you need.

I' d also suggest that you save a little more money. $200 isn' t going to buy much even used. The NEF rifles might be a good choice, but you still will need to save to put a scope and rings on it. Look at it this way, you could buy a NEF rifle tomorrow and maybe not be happy with it in 6 months and want a nicer rifle. Or you could save your money for 6 months and buy the rifle you really want. That' s what I did and I just bought a really nice Ruger M77VT MkII and topped it with a top-of-the-line Nikon Monarch target scope. I could have bought a heavy barrel NEF with a cheap Simmons or Bushnell scope a couple months ago, but I knew that in the end I wouldn' t be happy with it. So I saved and waited and got the rifle I really wanted.

Anyway, good luck with whatever rifle you choose.

Mike


Good luck