For the general first question, is this the first gun you will have shot or the first to buy? And how much experience do you have shooting already? I can already tell you .330 WM and .338 LM are out of the question for a first gun.

Savage axis chambered in .308 Winchester. It's a 300 dollar gun that will do well against any game in North America (although a bit low for brown bears).

No reason to get a Lapua unless you know you're going brown bear hunting in Alaska.

>>27563717
is that some kind of flying pig?

.300 wm and .338 lm are specialized calibers for long range shooting or big game hunting. If you don't intend to do either, choose the most available and cheapest caliber you can find.

>>27563725
First gun I ever shot was a Zastava M48 (8mm Mauser), honestly seemed easy, had no problems handling the recoil. I haven't gotten that many chances since then to go shooting since I live in commiefornia, but I'm supposed to go shooting again soon (try some handguns, ARs, etc.)

>>27563767
>long range shooting
That's what I had hoped to do, although it may seem extremely stupid. (Which is mainly why I posted in the first place, to find out if it is.)

>>27563717
>target shooting and maybe (but very unlikely) hunting
Get whatever .308 bolt gun you can afford. I know you say you want to do long range shooting, but given that miitary snipers predominately train on the .308, I think you'll be fine with it for a while. I only recommend it over other hunting-adequate calibers because the ammunition for target shooting is cheaper than the equivalent in something like .270 or 30-06,

>>27563717
I built a rig in 338lap years ago back when I was 20 and it was the biggest financial mistake ever. Keep in mind, NOBODY hardly makes ammo for it, except Lapua, and those rounds cost more than 50bmg to shoot. They're not even cheap to handload: you have to setup a dedicated press to load them. So unless you have the money to fling at least $4 down range every shot, shoot the cheapest, most available round you can until you decide what's better for you.

Also,because of the cost constraint of 338lap most people just skip over it and shoot 50 because it's cheaper.

>>27563807
Thanks for the advice, I guess I'll mark that off the list then.

>>27563804
The odds of me actually going hunting are slim tbh, and even if I did, I probably wouldn't bother hunting anything besides maybe deer. Only person I even know who "hunts" was someone who went and shot a huge-ass bison in the open with a .50 cal Barrett (he was a typical Texan hick who recently came into money).

>>27563807
>>27563831
>doesn't know about Sellier & Bellot .338 at like 2.50 a round

That said, get a .308. Savage Axis is a fucking joke, at least love yourself enough to get a Ruger American.

If you can, get a Remington 700, a Tikka T3, a Ruger M77, or a CZ 550.

If you really want something nice, get a 700 Police or T3 Tactical.

>>27563717
first question even before budget is do you have a fitting range/private/gov land you can shoot on?

because every caliber is a mistake if you can't shoot it anywhere

>>27563785
Despite what a number of retards who've never shot past 200 meters will say, .308 will definitely work out to 1000 meters, depending on the load you use.

.338 lapua is one of my favorite rounds without a doubt in my mind, but its designed to go past that point, but with long range shooting, its a number of incremented steps.

Getting a Savage Axis as well as s SWFA SS 8X in 308 is a great start. If you get to the point where the gun is whats limiting you and you're experienced enough shooting to know this, you can buy a Savage 10 LR which will be about 700.

>>27563861
Except it isn't, at least when compared to a Rem 700 which I honestly can't believe you recommend.

Stay away from remshit OP, ammo and guns alike.

The savage axis is fine for baby's first bolt.

But if you want to play that same cheapo game, I can find 350 dollar Savage 10's in .30 06 all day on gun broker and armslist.

>>27563861
Savage Axis is just as good as an American.