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.

Pink Floydish Referance - Anybody out there?

I was there but I showed up too late, I thought the rally started at 12 noon, not 10 AM. It was extremely frustrating to spend all that time making signs in the morning and driving out there only to find everyone was gone and I had missed my opportunity to support the 2nd amendment. I can only blame myself for having the incorrect information. Although I could've sworn I read a 12 noon start time somewhere on this forum. Either way, I'm disappointed in myself but very glad to hear that the rally was a success and there was a great turnout despite the weather. I'm making a promise to myself never to miss anything this important ever again. Its also appalling that the Trentonion article insists that there only 300 people there, more falsification and lack of truth and honesty in modern news media. I hope there's another rally or demonstration soon, there's nothing on this earth that will keep me from attending the next one.

Depends where you're trying to go as to whether or not its out of the way. If you're trying to go to EFGA its really not that big a deal. Hop on 22 at Exit 3 from 78 and before the toll make the right to South Main St, follow the other cars (very few people that take this exit don't go over the free bridge) and you're golden. If you're taking 78 to Cabela's from somewhere other than the Phillipsburg/Easton area it probably is out of the way. This is in regards to the PBurg/Easton free bridge, there might be other free bridges nearby that I'm not aware of.

Sorry for not replying til now, been a busy weekend and got tied up during the week every time I'd try to come on here and respond I totally agree with you, I'm pretty much a newb when it comes to long range scopes. I've never shot past 100 yards at a target or an animal, atleast that I can remember. Thats why I'm trying to look at all aspects of the scopes I'm considering. Thank you very much for explaining that for me, after reading that and also watching a video on Vortex's website explaining it, I feel I atleast somewhat grasp the concept. Heres where I'm at so far with my decision making/research. I'll try to highlight things in individual findings/facts/observations I've made along the way. - First Focal Plane reticle scopes sound like a great tool to have, but unfortunately most versions in any manufacturer I've found are far north of my price range at the momment. So all my choices will have to be Second Focal plane from here on out. -I'm not too familiar with using a reticle alone to range a target or for bullet drop compensation, did research it somewhat and found that there are two units of measurement. Mil-dots and MOA's. I'm certainly more familiar with MOA's being that it relates to inches, and obviously I'm familiar with its value's at 100 yards from sighting in my other centerfire hunting rifles. Not so much at anything over 100 yards. My research has found that more precisely actual MOA equates to 1.047 inches(i think), and Shooters MOA is exactly one inch. I know there are some high dollar scopes out there whose reticle subtensions are measured in actual Shooters MOA, not actual MOA, but unfortunately again they fall out of my price range. Maybe someone on here can explain to me how to properly use an MOA reticle scope with MOA adjustments for ranging and bullet drop compensation from 200 yards and beyond. -Bearing in mind that my experience using reticle subtensions to range a target and allow for bullet drop is minimal, after using Nikon's Spot on software, I find that it appeals to me on multiple levels. Ease of use and convenience come to mind as the two biggest highlights. The ability to plug in my exact factory load, the yardage I have said load zero'd and get yardage points in relation to the BDC reticle at each magnification setting on my particular scope, multiple print outs of bullet drop and path in inches, trajectory, etc, seems almost too good to be true. I can see a few down falls with it though. You HAVE to know your targets approximate range before hand to use the yardage marks on the BDC reticle as the spot on software indicates. Shooting at groundhogs/woodchucks in a field (or multiple fields) without trees or any reflective objects to use my rangefinder, acquiring targets and ranging them quickly could be a crap shoot. Unless of course I've already ranged pre-determined area's and studied the area that I'm hunting for quite some time before setting out on a hunt. Thoughts and opinions on this observation would be greatly appreciated. -I really like the Nikon Monarch line, I'm looking at either the 5-20x44 SF w/BDC or the 6-24x50 SF w/BDC. I have two issues with either of these scopes though. One of which being the 1/8 MOA click values instead of 1/4. I could see that taking twice as many clicks to reach the same value at extended ranges. The other is will the larger objective bells prevent me from mounting my scope low enough to the barrel to acquire a good cheek weld without trying to rig up a cheek rest on the stock (the Savage BVSS is a laminate wood stock without a built in cheek rest) or having to use high mounts to clear the objective bell. -I also really like the Vortex Viper line. There's two scopes from them I'm interested in. There's the HS LR model in 4-16x44 or the regular Viper 6.5-20x44 PA. Vortex has similar software and reticles as Nikon, they offer something on their website similar to Nikon's Spot On and also have their Dead hold BDC reticle which I like as well. Not sure exactly how to use their "LRBC" software on their website, seems a bit more confusing than Nikon's Spot On stuff but still its there and a nice feature, much easier than going in blind trying to figure out their Dead Hold BDC reticle. I'm on the fence, either the Vortex Vipers or the Nikon Monarch. The Nikon's have the Spot On software which I like and was able to understand very quickly. I've actually looked through the 5-20x44 SF model and really liked it (haven't looked through a Vortex yet). Not sure if I like the idea of the 1/8 MOA turret adjustment tho. I like that the Vortex's are all 1/4 MOA click values, I like that they offer a similar BDC aid with their LRBC software online. The Vortex's LRBC seems a bit more complicated and harder to understand, but I'm sure I could figure it out. As far as magnification I'm still undecided whether to go with a 4-16 or a 6 or 6.5-20 scope. Maybe you guys can chime in as to which you think works best for a mix of target and varmint/woodchuck hunting. All thoughts, opinions, concerns and advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much everybody.

Pops kitchen is the actual name for the gas station/deli that everyone is talking about. From the PBurg free bridge go like you normally would towards 78, go over 78 on Morgan hill rd, make a right at the light next to the fireworks place and its down on the right maybe 100 yards or so. I actually go this way to the range until I recently found out I can take canal rd to Glendon and get there faster.

Wow, didn't mean to start any conflicts with my topic. I'm at work so I'll have to answer everyone individually later, but I just wanted to thank everyone for their input. Still keeping in mind that my budget limit is the 550-600 area I'm giving serious consideration to the hawke sidewinder 30 line and the Nikon monarch line as well as any Vortex scopes that fall within my price range. As of yet tho I still need to do more research and try to physically put my hands on some of these scopes.

I was merely trying to voice my good experience as compared to everyone else on here who seems to have a problem or bad experience in dealing with him. He's never creeped me out or been rude to me, on the contrary he's actually helped me a few times so I try to return the favor. It is what it is I guess. You're all entitled to your opinion, just trying to stick up for someone who seems to be getting a lot of negative attention on this forum.

My point here is that he's not sneaky, nor is he pissed off all the time. But don't take my word for it, try asking him a legitimate question sometime and I'm sure you won't get a sneaky or pissed off answer.

JonF - looking at that scope right now, whats the difference between a first focal plane reticle and a second focal plane?

I appreciate that JonF. I'll definitely look into that Viper PST. With regards to the ranges I plan to shoot, right now in NJ I can see myself shooting 2-400 yards maybe. 600 yards could be possible If I'm on a larger farm. But within a couple years I'd like to be packing my bags to Montana and as I'm sure you're aware, 800 yards plus out there is not uncommon. Bottom line is I'd like to purchase this scope once and be done with it. It seems the 6-24 gives the magnification range necessary to satisfy most all ranges presented to me. I will definitely look into the specifics of that particular scope and reticle, thanks very much.