Quote Originally Posted by God's Country View Post
I agree with knight. I'm guessing you are new to hunting/deer hunting? You certainly don't need to spend more than a $300-$400 on a basic rifle plus scope. Hit a gun show and you can get one far cheaper.
I hunted with a marlin 336 for decades and I replaced it with a cheap savage .308. I hunt with guys that walk around with rifles and glass that cost many times what my savage and Leupold scope cost. I shoot more and bigger deer than them almost always because I hunt. Every hunter thinks they're going to drop a deer at 400 yards. Some do. Most can't hit a barn at 200 yds. I dropped nice deer over 200 yds with my .30-30 and .308 Most are 100yds and less. Far less.

If this is your first deer rifle find a reasonably priced gun, put a $300-$400 Leupold or Nikon on it and get some hunting experience. Your success won't depend on the money you spent on your rifle.
If anything, when you have a cheaper gun, you're gonna be less preoccupied with worrying about banging up a more expensive rifle.

Also note: Avoid Nikon. They discontinued their riflescopes. I sent mine in for repair (mine was old enough to still have their lifetime guarantee), and they were like, we can't fix or exchange this, here's a $150 certificate that you can spend on things from us that aren't rifle scopes.