WGMarlin39A

Mmmmm....BLR in 308....definitely on my must have list. Either 308 or 243 though, i guess it depends on what I can find. I barely EVER see ANY BLR's at gun stores. I held one when I was 15 and I haven't seen one since. Must...resist...urge to...spend more money....

Congrat's on the purchase!! I love lever guns, learned on one and I've been in love ever since. Uberti makes some fine lever rifles. You will not be disappointed and you'll have an absolute blast shooting it. Please post up some pictures of your new baby when it finally makes it home.

Congrads on your recent purchase of the Savage. I too own a Savage and I'm very, very pleased with it. Its a varmint/target rifle, model 12BVSS in 22-250 so not the same category as your hunting rifle but their qaulity and accuracy carries through all the different models, regardless of price. I've actually eyed up that same model Savage you purchased in .243 Winchester and almost pulled the trigger on it. Don't get discouraged by your first time out with it. It takes practice and a little time to get comfortable with a new rifle. Good, sound advice from Hare Trigger here. Different guns and barrels prefer different bullet types and different bullet weights. Buy a couple different boxes if you can, try 3 or 4 different brands in different bullet weights. Definitely do everything you can to take human error out of the equation when you're sighting it in or testing factory loads. Use a front and a rear rest. I prefer a front tripod rest and a rear bag of some sort. I have two diff rear bags depending on the height I need, one short and one taller. Also you said you shot "only" at 100 yards. Did you zero the rifle before you took the shots out that far? I've found that starting at 25 yards and working up to 100 is the best way to zero or sight in any rifle. If your not doing well at 100 yards step back to 25 and start again. I don't consider myself an expert on anything. But here's something that works for me that may help you, give it a try you're next time at the range. Get into a comfortable shooting position with the rifle on the rests, loaded ready to fire, finger off the trigger, weapon on safe. Position the rifle on the rests so that the crosshairs on the scope are right on the bullseye WITHOUT putting pressure on the rifle. Then apply pressure to your shoulder, not too much, just enough. I've found that being gentle is better than putting a death grip on the rifle. Get a good cheek weld. Make sure your crosshairs are still on target. Close your eyes. Take 2 or 3 good breaths. Open your eyes. If your crosshairs are still on the bull or close to it you're relaxed enough and ready to start shooting. If you're way off and your sights have drifted off the bull rinse and repeat the process till you're relaxed. Thats just an exercise I do at the range to prepare myself and I find it works well for me. Don't be afraid to quit when you get fatigued or discouraged either. Nothing worse than wasting ammo when you know you're not shooting well or you're too exhausted or frustrated to concentrate. Another thing I've found that helps is bring your favorite 22 with you on the rifle range. Set up a target at 25 or 50 yards so that in between you're centerfire groups/sight in (while barrel's cooling) you can stay warmed up and have some fun. Hope this helps and enjoy you're new boom stick.

Thank you. I won't bother with horse farms and ill make note to concentrate on hay and soybean farms. Appreciate the good advice. As I've said before I'm familiar with the licensing and permitting required to Ground Hog hunt. Rifle permit isn't a problem I've gotten one every year in NJ for the past 4 years or so. That is not an issue for me. What I do need tho is a place to hunt them safely. The three farms that you've got permission from, would any one of them have a problem with me tagging along with you one day just to get an idea what it's like and what I should look for as well as maybe do some hunting? Where are you and the farms you've mentioned located? Feel free to PM me with this info, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I'm aware of the licensing I didn't wanna fork out the money to get my license early unless I find a definite spot to do some ground hog huntin (usually wait til deer season). Ill have to check out the Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs. Thanx for the tip.

Thanx S&W I can definitely see how PA would be a better option. Ill try to do some networking on the other side of the river. Appreciate the advice.

Here's my best 100 yard 3 shot group to date. Using Nosler Trophy Grade Ballistic Tip 55gr at 100 yards. All my best shooting I've done from a bench with a front tripod rest and a rear bag. Still practicing my prone shooting. I don't have a fancy digital caliper measuring device, but my tape measure says its roughly 1/4 of an inch. Very happy with that, this was only the 3rd time I ever shot the rifle. The 3 black pasties around were my first three warm up shots, cool to see how once I got comfortable the shots just sucked into the center of the first 3 and made one big hole. Here's my best 100 yard 5 shot group with the same ammo. This was the most recent trip to EFGA last month. Scary to think I haven't been to the range since then. Obviously getting very comfortable with the rifle. Here's my best 200 yard 5 shot group with the same ammo. This was shot at Ontelaunee Rod & Gun Club from a bench on a windy day in March. This was my second time there and second time ever shooting at 200 yards. Didn't take a pic with the tape measure for some reason, but the 5 shots measured roughly 3/4 of inch. If you only count the 4 that were all touching it was a 1/2 inch. Very pleased with it so far, although I know i'll get better with practice. Its just hard to find the Nosler factory loaded ammunition, I have to get it online and it sells out quickly.

I saw you purchased the Savage 11vt. Very glad to hear it, you'll be very happy with it. I just found your post today and I would've chimed in earlier to recommend a Savage anyway. About 2 or 3 months ago I purchased a Savage model 12 BVSS in 22-250 Remington. Absolutely love the gun, stupid, stupid accurate. I don't handload unfortunately so I'm limited to factory ammo, I've found that my rifle loves Nosler Trophy Grade 55gr ballstic tips. I'll try to post up some pics of my groups a little later. But to your comment about the 1:12 Twist rate. That's the twist my barrel has, and for a 22-250 its actually a faster than normal twist. Remington 700's usually come with a 1:14 twist barrel. Thing to keep in mind is the much higher velocity at which the 22-250 operates as compared to the 223. Typically a 55gr 223 moves along around 3200-3300fps depending on the brand of ammo (talking factory loads here), the 22-250 with the same 55gr bullet moves along around 3700-3800fps. The extra velocity allow's for the slower (than 223) barrel twist rate. Anyway would love to see your results from your next range outing. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised once you get comfortable with it just how accurate you can be.

Roger that. I'll see if i can find some dairy farms. The ones I know of off the top of my head didn't look that large from the highway, but I'll give another look.

Hey all. I'm located in Phillipsburg, NJ. Ever since I realized you can legally hunt them on private property in NJ with a centerfire rifle late last year, I've been wanting and trying to do some ground hog hunting. I have the rig for it, I've practiced with it, I'm confident with it. I've had an NJ hunting license for the past 2 or 3 years, haven't purchased my 2013 license yet though. I've been hunting since i was 15 years old off and on. I'm a safe, accurate, responsible hunter. I'm having a hell of a time trying to find a piece of property and or property owner that will give me permission to hunt on their land. I've put the word out to a few friends who know people with farms, I've did the door to door thing a few times at a couple local farms (most people weren't home, or atleast didn't come to the door). I've come up short and need some help or advice. If any of you on here know someone, or are someone that has a piece of property within 30 miles from me that need some groundhog control and has the space for safely taking long shots please feel free to PM me. I'll offer my services as manual labor help on the farm if necessary or whatever I need to do in return (short of anything illegal lol) i'm willing to do. I've spent a lot of money on an accurate rifle and a good piece of glass and shooting paper just isn't cutting it, i'd like to use my rifle and my skills for what I intended to use them for. I'd appreciate any and all help or advice you guys can give me. Thank you. Just as a side note I'm most certainly willing to travel into PA since I'm right near the border if anyone has or knows of property that side of the river. Where 'Murica is still alive and well.

+1 for that as well. Another example of this is dry firing practice at home. Also obviously disassembling and cleaning the weapon. Also at a gun shop If you ask to try the trigger of a firearm you're interested in you must dry fire it If said shop allows it. I guess the importance of safety checking and clearing the firearm before handling outside of a range should be a very valid and important aspect of safety. In addition to the other rules already mentioned.

+1 For the Henry and would also add a Marlin 39A to the list

Thank you JonF again for your recommendation. And you are exactly correct, I really like the EBR reticle, the FFP advantage and the whole scope and rifle in general. Just got it home friday afternoon. Here's some kinda crappy pics after I got back from the range Friday evening. Ran out of time and was only able to get it sighted in at 25 yards. The action was loose and I had to bore sight it myself at the range after spending hours trying to get it on paper at 50. Went back to 25 after fixing those problems and was able to get it punching the bullseye out at that range but ran out of time. Its brand new so there's always going to be kinks to work out of a new rifle, I'm confident my next trip to the range will see me at 100 yards really starting to dial it in. My ultimate goal is to zero it at 250 yards once I can join a range that has the longer yardages I need. At 100 yards the 22-250 is barely breaking a sweat.

Well, I pulled the trigger on a Vortex Viper PST 4-16x50 FFP EBR1-MOA illuminated reticle. I checked out that, the same scope with the mildot reticle, and a Nikon Monarch 5-20x44. After spending alot of time looking through both Vortex Scopes and then back to the Monarch, it wasn't nearly as impressive anymore. The Viper PST's are just an amazing scope, super clear, easy to use, full of features and I liked the reticle much better than the Nikon BDC. The illumination dial even has off positions in between the power settings so you don't have to turn it all the way down or up to shut it off. Vortex thought of everything it seems, and the features far outweigh the cost when you look at similar scopes that cost twice as much like Nightforce, Zeiss, and Swarvoski (sp?). I dropped the scope off at Heritage so they can get some good solid rings and one piece base for it and mount it up and bore sight it. Once I get it home, hopefully later in the week, I'll take some pictures. Very excited to say the least. Thank you everyone on here for all your help and advice.

Thank you SixtyTwo. The MOA video was very helpful. Makes me lean more towards the Viper PST since the idea of using the reticle to range or compensate without having to use a range finder peaks my interest. At this point I believe you're correct, I need to just pick one that I like the most. I don't like buying or ordering optics unless I can hold them in my hand and look through them. I've got Cabelas in PA holding me 3 different scopes. I'll be going on Saturday to try them all out and hopefully pick one. Thank you very much everyone, and wish me luck.