for the practicing,i would get someone to lend you a .22 or something low calibered like that.if you practice your butt off(i think shoulder would be the correct term)it is gonna really kill your shoulder.the .22 has no recoil and like $50will provide like a week of ammo at the range.the cheapest iv seen was $7.26 for a brick of 500.im pretty sure thats much cheaper than .30/.o6.

I would def. agree with buying it seperately, Find the gun you like then go get a scope the previous ones metioned are all good although the Bushnell 4200(4300is a typo) are very expensive. You can get a nice Burris Fullfield or Bushnell 3200 3x9x40mm off ebay for under 200$ shipped. Id go with Leupold or Burris rings and bases.

The brand rifle youchose, well its been argued here forever what to get but it has to be comfortable for you. If your on a budget you cant beat a Savage. When you go and shoulder some guns try to have on a jacket or at least remember itll prob be cold when you are hunting.

After you purchase the gun/scope do yourself a favor and buy or borrow a half-decent rest to sight it in with. Its very hard to geta real taste of how a gun can shoot resting on a half assed book bag or a gun case with the xhairs moving around before you shoot especially a high power rifle thats new to you.

Well, I will go against the grain here and say buy the package. What is to lose. Usually the package deals are less expensive than buying the same exact rifle without the scope. I bought a savage .308 package deal and the scope has been great. Taken deer with it already. Only needed a minor adjustment to get it sighted in where I wanted it.

The sling was crap though and I bought a comfortable sling from wally-world for 10 bucks.

I will eventually change out the simmons scope and mounts on it but that will be this summer. I have a burris sitting around doing nothing. Then again I might just leave the simmons on it until it starts giving me grief then change it.

Have you thought about looking on the used market? The 30-06 is so common that there are literally tons of them in gun & pawn shops around the country. I've seen some really good deals at gun shows also. Often you can buy a used gun in very good condition with a good scope on it for just a little over what the same gun new costs without a good scope.

If you are set on the Savage they are good rifles. I would however go to a local shop and handle a Remington, Ruger, Winchester, & any others they have in 30-06 and buy the one that feels the best in your hands.

One great thing about the 30-06 is that there is now low recoil ammo available for this round. Since this is your first rifle I would buy at least a couple boxes of this ammo to do your initial shooting with. This will ease you into the recoil of the rifle. After the first 2 boxes if everything is going well then move onto conventional factory loads. The 30-06 is a great round and will handle all of the game you listed in your initial post with proper bullet selection and placement. GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!

Reily:

For a first big game rifle, it is hard to go wrong with a bolt action chambered in .30-06. What is nice about this selection is that if you add more specialized rifles later -- a .25-06 for pronghorn antelope hunting, a .338 Winchester Magnum for elk/moose hunting -- you can still take the .30-06 along on these hunts as a back-up in case the preferred rifle becomes disabled for some reason (when you drive 1000 miles to hunt out of state having paid several hundred dollars for a non-resident tag, it is better to NOT have your hunt scuttled because you only have one gun and it fell out of the truck in the dark unloading things at the hotel when you arrived exhausted after your long drive -- didn't happen to me, just an illustrative scenario -- it is a very good idea to bring along a back-up gun).

If you have no rifle shooting experience, I would have some reservations about having you start out with the .30-06 or other powerful centerfire rifle. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it seems there are better approaches. For example, a lot of people get to powerful centerfire rifles by way of first shooting BB guns, second shooting .22 LR rifles, and then the centerfire rifle (maybe with some shotgun shooting experience with 12 gauge 2 3/4" shells also). If you are totally new to rifle shooting, it may be beneficial to get some experience with a BB gun to learn the fundamental rifle shooting positions (standing, kneeling, sitting, prone). You can even improve your most basic marksmanship shooting a BB gun at targets at 5 yards range. The sweet part about this recommendation is that you can pick up a Daisy "Buck" BB gun for about $18 and you can practice inside. This may seem a humiliating practice for someone chomping at the bit to be pulling the trigger on the .30-06, but if you are a rank beginner it will pay dividends. I would guess that a large number of rifleman have extensive BB gun experience in their past, before shooting their powerful centerfire rifles. I'm getting my youngest daughter started right now shooting just such a Daisy "Buck" BB gun, and I can tell you that it is a challenge for her to shoot well and that -- thankfully! -- I shoot better than she does (the point here is that up to a certain level, marksmanship can be trained and improved with such a simple, cheap tool). Something to think about. I mention this because you did not indicate any prior experience.

I think you've done your research well and the savage in 30-06 will make a fine choice and last you a lifetime.

Go for it!

Why would you buy the package if you know your going to switch out the crap scope anyway. Unless you cant afford any better buy just the gun. The bases and rings in the package are junk also and they are pretty important part of the gun as well.

I have used my dads savage .270 that he got about 5 years ago, it came with scope, rings, bases, sling, and case.

After we got it sighted in, at has been an outstanding rifle, the scope is not the best, but it holds its zero like any scope that i have ever used,

I dont think you can go wrong with the package deal from Savage and i have to reccomend it, the Savage has been an outstanding rifle for the both of us and they are great rifles,

good luck with your decision

I'd say to do a little homework on what the scope in the package is. It wouldn't take long to get a number of opinions on this forum concerning its quality, durability, etc. If it gets bad reviews here, then I'd definitely go with a separate scope. The sling is not a major expense, so if the scope isn't a decent one, it won't cost that much more to get a good sling.
I agree with superpig on starting out with reduced recoil ammo. Not that an '06 produces a huge recoil, but as a beginner, it would be good to start with something less than full power.

IM jaybe