When shopping for a new hunting setup, should you focus first on what cartridge you want or what type of rifle you want?

Welcome to the Backcountry hunting podcast.

Our rapid-fire episode today is a little different.

We're addressing a decision-making process rather than three top products or techniques.

Now whether to pick a cartridge or a rifle type first may seem obvious to some.

The cartridge of course.

But what if you want to shoot a lever action?

Or what if you need to shoot a lever action?

Or what if you need a left-hand model?

That limits your cartridge selection.

So in that case, the first decision must be what rifle to pick.

Now here's another example.

When my son William was ready for his first dear rifle

at the ripe old age of nine,

I wanted a classic blud steel and walnut stalked rifle with a controlled feed action and

hinged floor plate for him and it had to be left-handed. That narrowed down our

options considerably and we shopped for a Ruger M77 Hawkeye, the only rifle currently on the market that

fit the bill and found a nice 7-M-O-8. Perfect., William was a purist from an early age and has always loved vintage weapons and methods

and the artistic side of firearms.

Plus, I wanted him to develop the good rifle loading skills pertinent to proper

feeding in care of a controlled feed action with a mouser type clock tractor.

My little girl Sophie is now ready for her own big game rifle and

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