Written by Daniel Carey
Versatility is a trait which carries tremendous benefits in life, and the same holds true for hunting rifles and shotguns. Whether your reasons for multi-purposing a long gun are for budget, storage space at home or simply ease of use, less can sometimes be more.
While there isn’t any one gun that will meet every demand (even Hank Williams Jr. said he needed a rifle and a shotgun to survive), the game we find afield across our Commonwealth and the terrain in which we find them, allows for a number of rifles and shotguns to meet most of your harvesting needs.
The most important questions you need to ask yourself as you go into in this search are:
- What will I be hunting?
- Where will you be hunting?
- How often do you plan to hunt?
These three questions will really help to narrow your search when looking for a truly comprehensive hunting rifle or shotgun, although this still leaves a vast expanse of guns to wade through when searching online or browsing the racks at your local gun dealer.
This sometimes-daunting task does means you are in good company though, as more than 3.6 million background checks for the purchase of a firearm were run in the month of July of this year alone, the third highest month of checks since they began tracking in 1998. The highest number of background checks with 3.9 million, was just the month before in June, highlighting an excellent example of the exercise of a constitutional right. This exercising of rights most likely means longer waits for pickup and lower inventory though.
Doing your homework ahead of time, could help to alleviate gun store overload and going down the black hole of web browsing insanity. Let’s look at some examples that I’ve found pulling double duty for me in the field over the years and will be a good place for you to start as well.
Shotguns
Remington 870 (Average Retail Cost - $350)
The first shotgun I ever bought was a Remington 870 12-gauge pump with a 26” barrel. The stock, barrel and forend were wrapped in faded camo tape for turkey hunting, but the action was smooth, and it shouldered well for me.
My new to me 870 (after a full breakdown, cleaning and refinish) was now a highly dependable shotgun, that I often still carry to this day.
The beauty of the 870 lies in its versatility and functionality, showing how truly adaptable a gun like this can be. If you check aftermarket parts and accessories websites (here is a popular example, as well as here), you’ll see how a simple 870 can be easily fitted with a variety of barrels, differing not only in length but purpose as well.
The 870 with the 26” barrel I bought all those years ago, can easily be fitted with a longer 28” barrel for waterfowl, higher-flying game birds, as well as target practice by shooting trap, skeet and sporting clays. Your chances of knocking down those fast crossing birds or clays is also increased by the basic choke tubes which accompany your out of the box purchase or can be supplemented by aftermarket sellers as well.
As you’ll see in the links provided above, rifled slug barrels can be purchased and easily integrated into your 870 platform, now extending your Fall hunting season into some whitetail action in early November. Rifled slug barrels are accurate and I’m personally comfortable using mine with a scope out to roughly 100 yards or so for an ethical harvest of whitetail deer. This kind of range with a shotgun meets a lot of the brush busting needs found across the state when it comes putting a shot on target, as we don’t often have the wide open expanses and long downrange shots found elsewhere across the country when hunting larger game.
Lastly, while a 12-gauge may be seen by some as too much gun for squirrels and rabbits, a short barreled 870 with a 2 ¾” load of 6 or 7 shot will allow you to swing easy in the field on a fast moving cottontail on a crisp November morning, as well as navigating the often tangled woods of August when scanning the trees for bushy tailed squirrels.
That’s a lot of boxes to check with simply one gun, which seems like a steal for roughly $350 both online and at your local retail store.
Mossberg 500 (Average Retail Cost - $360)
The reliability of the Mossberg 500 series is one that’s hard to question, especially considering its lineage of reliance and combat tested performance by the U.S Military since 1979.
This pump action shotgun comes in a number of models, with the most popular being the 500 and 590, having sold millions of them to the shooting and hunting public over the last few decades. The 500 itself comes in a few variations that are specifically geared towards hunting, while the 590 is more tactical in nature with a nod towards law enforcement, military and home protection.
A bonus to the 500 line of shotguns is their youth series 500, 505 and 510. With features like the EZ-Reach forend and shock spacers, this is a gun that your young hunter and shooter can continue to use as they grow and find different game to track in fields and woods of Kentucky.
While I’ve not used my Mossberg as often as I have my Remington, my 500 still cycles shells both at the range almost as well today, as it did the day I first pulled it out of the box over a decade ago. The versatility is also just as impressive here as the option for interchangeable barrels is just as varied.
To me, this is the key for these old pump guns. Being able to switch from a duck gun to deer rifle (slug gun) in short order is hard to beat, especially if your short on funds or might not get the use out of a stand alone rifle geared more to larger game and longer distances.
Again, for less than $400, the Mossberg 500 series is worth looking at if you’re in the market for a jack of all trades long-gun.
Rifles
Remington 700 BDL (Average Retail Cost - $800)
My Remington 700 BDL chambered in .30-06 was a gift from my dad almost twenty years ago and has been with me on just about every white tail hunt in the years since. Topped with a Leuopold VX II 3x9x50, it adds more than enough glass for the 200 or less yard shots that I typically find in the woods and fields of Kentucky. This rifle has helped fill the freezer more years than I can count and when I pull it from the case each year for time at the range and in the field, it has almost begun to feel like an extension of my own body.
I’m sure many of you are familiar with the Remington 700 platform, as it is not only one of the most iconic rifles on the market today but has time and again proven its worth to hunters, shooters, law enforcement and the military alike.
Now, I know there are plenty of shooters and hunters out there who swear by their .300 win mag, 7MM Rem Mag or .270 Winchester, and I’m actually looking forward to picking up a new rifle this year chambered in 6.5 creedmoor based on all of the positive reviews and feedback out there on this flat shooting and hard hitting round.
With all of that said, it’s hard to beat the versatility of the .30-06, especially with the advances we’ve seen in modern mass-produced ammunition. Having stepped my ammo game up (no not reloading yet) to the Hornady Superperformance 180 Grain SST two years ago, this polymer tipped round has helped to increase my muzzle velocity at longer Kentucky ranges (300 yards or less), while still providing the down range energy and expansion necessary for a clean harvest.
Knowing you have more than enough knockdown power for whitetail deer, coyote and varmint hunting, as well as if you should be lucky enough to draw an elk tag, this rifle meets a lot of the larger game needs you find afield here. Add to that, ammo is easy to find on most any sporting goods shelf. So, even if you forget your match grade hand loaded box of ammo, your local Wal-Mart should get you through a weekend in deer camp.
While sexier calibers and sleeker looking out of the box rifles might be out there, there’s a reason this caliber has been trusted since 1907 for getting the job done and why the Remington 700 is one of the best-selling rifles in the world.
.223 AR-15
I expect that just about everyone reading this article is familiar to some degree with this type of rifle. While I may not have indicated a specific manufacturer, I do have my personal preferences but with such a wide variety of gun makers building quality rifles like these, I’ll simply leave it with the caliber and rifle platform. With that said, the AR-15 chambered in .223 is an incredibly versatile long-gun, tailored to fit your personal hunting and shooting needs, and can be found at multiple price points for almost any budget (but please don’t become captain tacticool).
With an AR-15 chambered in .223, you open yourself up to a number of different hunting options here in the bluegrass, up to and including whitetail deer. Just like I mentioned earlier with the .30-06, advances in mass produced ammunition have allowed a lightweight round like the .223 to be an excellent option for harvesting deer during modern rifle season. As my friend Keith mentions in his article here, there are a number of options available in the ammunition (Barnes TSX, Nosler Partition, and Fusion) aisle at your local retail store, which will effectively take down a whitetail at ranges of less than 200 yards.
Another added benefit to using an AR-15 in .223 is lessened recoil, especially when compared to a .30-06. The diminished recoil found in the .223 makes this rifle an excellent option for an up and coming hunter, so they don’t anticipate the shot, ultimately allowing them to get more comfortable in the field and behind the gun.
Now that we are over a week into bow season, it’ll be time to break out those shotguns for fall turkeys and those rifles for whitetail. Cool foggy mornings and dwindling twilight evenings spent in the stand and blind will soon begin to fill most of our weekends in the months ahead.
Now, with the options mentioned here, your excuses for not getting afield this year went down by at least four. Enjoy the season.
