Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Bought my first deer rifle, a Remington 700 SPS.. Need advice on what to buy next.

Congratulations and welcome to a new deer hunter.

I like Remington 700 rifles and the 270 is one of my favorite deer cartridges. You are starting out with a good basic deer rifle.

If that new rifle were mine I would put a Leupold 3x9 scope in Burris signature rings and duel dovetail mounts.

The Remington 130 grain core-lock will work fine for deer. Since you have them already, sight them in and hunt. When you shoot all those try a box of Winchester Supreme with 130 grain Ballistic Tips. I've found them to be very accurate in a lot of different rifles.

Get a good pair of binoculars (I like Nikon for quality at a reasonable price) and pick out a skinning knife to your liking.

After that make sure you have clothing to keep you warm and comfortable while sitting in that tree stand.

You can kill a lot of venison with nothing more than that.

Congrats and welcome to the campfire.
You are getting great advise here. You have a fine rifle to start with. I would recomend you don't do anything to the stock till you shoot it.
Most of the SPS remingtons I have herd about shoot real well.
I woould ask you to take a good look at a leupold scope.
Buy whatever scope you like, but I allways give the american co. a good look.
I have about 8 leupolds, and about 8 various other brands.
Nikkon monarchs are good as are Burris top end weavers bushnell elites and ziess conquest.
But unless somthing comes out as a much better buy, please have a good look at a leupold. Unemployment here in oregon is big ! they make them here)
\ ...tj3006

Ahh. I totally forgot to ask what kind of hunting/gutting knife would be a good purchase?

I just need a solid knife that will field dress a deer.. I have an old Buck 110 but sadly I tried using it for birds and its really starting to lose it's edge.

I don't really need a gut hook, just a strong knife that will rip through the ribs and maybe even the pelvis bone. If going through the pelvis dulls the blade, I can just borrow a sharp hatchet and hammer from the family tool box.

Like to know your recommendations on knives. I can go through Cabela's and look at their reviews but too many knives and a lot of times I can't tell the exact purpose of the knife.

Another thing, do you guys make steaks out of the tenderloins and parts of the back strap only? The thing is, I'm not really keen on paying a guy to make deer sausage for me that will cost more to process than to actually buy beef at the grocery store..

If there are other ways to eat deer meat without it being too tough and without having to pay for someone to process it, what are a good set of boning knives??

Thanks for your input

Swampman????

Get yourself a nice sharp blade that is about 4 inches long and that is all you would need for skining the deer. For cutting bone on a deer any bone saw will do. As far as boning knifes for cutting up the meat check out the Dexter Russel knifes with the white handle, I think they are in the cabelas catalog and they are great knifes for cutting up you deer. I have a couple of them that are about 20+ years old that were givin to me and they still hold a nice edge.

When I cut up a deer I will make steaks out of the backstraps and some of the muscle groups in the hind quarters are good as well. the tenderloin makes good little steaks for stir fry and such. everything else just cut it into little chunks and bag it up to take down to the butcher. Tell him to add a little pork trimmings to it and grind it up for hamburger they are ussually pretty resonable on price for that.

LMAO

Talley Lightweight rings

Leupold VXII 3x9x40

Skip the range finder.

Buy Quality Binocs from Doug at Cameraland.

Buy some ammo loaded with a Barnes TSX. I suspect federal has a TSX load. (It ain't cheap to run a TSX, but is the most important item you'll buy)

Sight it in and practice a lot. Then practice some more. Then go shoot a deer in the face.

I use F. Dick and Forschner knifes for processing. These in the photo and an electric meat grinder are all I need to process my venison. I don't have any need for a saw because I bone all the meat before cutting it into steaks.



It isn't difficult to process your own venison. The larger muscles in the hind quarters can be cut into steaks and cooked just like steaks from the back strap. The shoulder meat, neck, and other trim can be used for stew, chili, or mixed with ground brisket to make burger or mixed with ground pork (I use Boston Butt which is the shoulder) to make sausage. It's all good no matter how you cut it.

I prefer a drop point skinner for field dressing but a Buck type fixed blade will do just fine. Knifes are a very personal preference and just about anything with a sharp blade will work.

My most common go to knife is a Buck pathfinder and I LOVE those little zip saws for deer sized game.

http://www.newarchery.com/products/5-43/accessories/zip-saw.html


For skinning/butchering I prefer some cheaper thin knives that are easily sharpened. I was a supervisor in a processing plant and brought several home with me. A few of my line people taught me how to put and keep an edge on.

As far as butchering goes, your best off having someone show you what to do and than it's not to tough.

We cut steaks outta the loin, few steaks and roasts from the hind qtrs and the rest de-tallow and grind into hamburger ourselves. Some is brought in for sausage and other stuff.

I'm partial to Pentax Lightseeker glass, myself. When it comes to knives, you can't make a mistake by buying a Buck with a shortish (3.5/4.0 inch) blade.

One more thing to do while you practice...keep all the brass! You may want to reload in the future and if not, then you can sell it on here to offset some of the costs of practicing. If you leave it at the range, someone WILL pick it up and sell it.

RH

Congrats. Don't you just love it when a shopping trip comes together. I bought a new Rem SPS-DG in .375H&H this year. I really think that they are butt ugly, but I tend to leave my pretty stuff at home. When buying ammo, also remember Federal and Hornady. All will work just about as well as Rem CoreLokt on deer, and your gun may shoot one of them better. No reason to buy a 4x12 scope to sight in dead on at 100yds. I like 2x7 or fixed 4 or 6 sighted in 1+" high at 100 yds. That will keep you in 3" out to 200+yds. Good luck.

I would get a Burris 2X-7X-35mm or 3X-9X-40mm Fullfield with the Ballistic Plex reticle and mount it Burris Zee rings and Burris or Weaver steel bases. After that I would get a good binocular, something in the 8x42 range.

Buy this:

The Rifleman's Rifle.

Savage,
If you've got an extra one of those, shoot me a PM. My gunsmith took his back away from me and I need one of my own...

WOAH $100+ clams for the book..

John, I bought a used M700 SPS in 270 about 15 years ago. It has been a good rifle, especially considering the price.

Mine currently has Leupold PRW rings/bases and a Leupold 6x36LR. The trigger was lightened and I removed the pressure points and free floated the barrel. It will consistently shoot 3-5" at 400 yards with a couple loads/bullets it likes.

The stock certainly isn't anything special but so far I haven't noticed any problems from various shooting positions. It does get 3 or 4 days in the scabbard each Fall chasing cows but so far nothing has 'rattled loose' and POI remains constant.

As Bob said the Fusions are a good bullet to try.

The Riflemans Rifle

A pretty good free instruction video on processing deer. http://video.yahoo.com/watch/102424/1349395

The full length version is available for $13.00 here - https://secure.kentucky.gov/Mall/St...8/Home/9ed1752ec2f5417282de7dd895c43227/