Not for me. For my BIL. He is new to hunting, and ready to get his first rifle.

Initially he wanted a Browning (because he has a Browning over-under), but after considering the price decided he might need to wait a bit and get something more budget friendly to start. So we've moved into Ruger/Savage realm (nothing wrong with these rifles).

Of course most important question is what will it be used for. Well right now Whitetail and he wants to use it for Coyotes. Not the easiest dual purpose but doable.
In North Central PA, the land we hunt does have some large fields with 400+ yard distances, but realistically shots will be under 200.

I've made some recommendations on what I think would be best for him, curious to see what everybody else thinks.

Thanks!

Ruger American in 6.5 cm Attached File

I vote ruger for the cheap rifle.  Mine is a 6.5 and a laser.

Lots of choices here...   Everything from .243 Win thru .260 Rem, 7mm-08 and 308 Win.  My choice?  6.5 Creedmoor.  It is a dead ringer for my favored 260, but MUCH more easily available in general and usually available in a very wide variety of loadings, everything from precision grade match rounds thru to premium hunting loads.  Its more flexible and capable than the 243, but also easy to shoot and more than powerful enough to very reliably take coyote and deer.

Rifle?:  Two choices.  If budget is everything, it is VERY hard to go wrong with the Ruger American series.  Buy in confidence and and call it good.  Savage is good, but generally becoming over priced for what you are getting.  inanition, the usual savage extractor design is flat out weak and crappy.  I've bought several virtually new Savage 11 and 110 series that were traded in at a loss because the new owners found them unreliable with regards to extract and eject.  $13 for parts and they run okay, but its still a really really shitty design that uses a sliding extractor, a small metal detent ball and a spring that looks like it came out of a click pen.  No shit, it really is that lame...

If you/he wants a rifle with a bit more finesse, and is still and incredibly value for the dollar, the answer is Tikka T3X.  Yes, its a common answer.  Yes, they are that good.  In my experience, the typical $699 T3X usually outshoots rifles far more expensive....  

A Ruger American or Tikka T3X in 6.5 Creedmoor and a couple boxes of decent ammo are hard to beat.  Do NOT NOT NOT buy a decent rifle, then cheap out an buy a lame scope. The tikka and a decent scope are going to run $1000.   Forget a $700 tikka and a $150 Walmart low end scope.  Better the cheaper Ruger with a decent Leupold VX3.   He can do everything he needs to do with the VX3 2.5-8x or 3.5-10x.....  Optics are usually an afterthought.  In my experience, good optics are MORE important than the rifle.  I've got $400 scopes sitting on top of $200 rifles.   A low end scope WILL let you down....

I convinced a buddy to buy a Tikka T3X Stainless in 6.5 creed.  We equipped it with a 4.5-14x Leupold Vx3 (too much scope to my opinion, but he purely hunts from box blinds over open fields).  We chronographed about 10 shots with his preferred Hornady Whitetail 129 load (which I regard as 'bargain, low-end ammo") and send the info to Leupold for CDS caps.  Once back, I installed the caps and he did some test shooting:  One shot at 100 yards, one shot at 200 yards, one shot at 300 yards, and one shot at 400 yards, all off the bench, all dialed in using the CDS system.  The end result was four shots, all inside the 1" orange circle target stickers he was shooting at.  Can you really ask for more?

Savage ftw. Accutrigger, easy barrel change And you fix the extractor with sball point pen if it breaks.

Savage in 6.5 gets my vote.

He put 4 rounds into a 1" circle from 400 and in?

IF you could find one, I was looking at a Ruger American Ranch in 7.62x39. Compact rifle, that comes threaded (so theoretically it could be suppressed down the line ) and a cartridge that would do just fine inside of 200 yards. Reminiscing back to a time before COVID, you could get the Russian soft points for super cheap. And they seemed to perform great from the gel tests I’ve seen.

He stuck a 1" circle orange dot on the 100, 200, 300 and 400 yard gongs.  Using only the cds ( which was cut using carefully obtained info on his load in his rifle), he was able to hit each dot.  Four shots.  Four dots hit.

Thats freaking amazing....

Ruger American is a great start like Aimless said.

6.5 ammo is getting a bit easier to find online now, but still hard to get in stores and while prices are coming down a bit it's still expensive.

Another good option for a dual role deer/coyote rifle is the 243 Winchester.  If you get a 243 stick to a rifle with a 1-9" twist which the Ruger American has.  That should get you up to 105gr bullets so you can shoot the heavies for deer, and the lighter grain stuff for coyotes and varmints.

With the 243 you can go from 55gr all the way up to 115gr.  1-9 might be a bit too slow to stabilize anything over 110gr, though.

If it’s strictly big game And not dual purpose I’m going to break the mold a bit:

Get a .270 unless you want a short action.  It’s a superior hunting round with amazing ballistics.      6.5 is a good round but it’s main plus is it can fit in a short action.

 Also I recommend a TC Compass. Shorter bolt throw, all 4 of mine shoot well under an inch and generally cheaper than comparable guns and all come threaded from the factory.

Second choice is easily ruger american.

Third would be mossberg patriot.  

I’m REALLY not a fan of the savage axis.  They’re clunky and just seem to have little issues.