I noticed on gunbroker an $1100 .243 DPMS Panther with all the extra goodness for target/varmint shooter. Has a flat top, floated barrel, sniper grip, bipod, etc  and I am close to buying it to use for 100 target  shooting, varmint hunting, and also deer hunting.

I was thinking about putting  good optics and trigger on this gun, do you think it would be a reasonable compromise to  to hunt both varmint and deer with the same gun? It makes a lot of sense to me, instead of a .223 that I could not use for deer, or a .30-06 or .308 that would be too expensive for much plinking, and inappropriate for varmint hunting.

I see that a person can get the rounds for about $ .75 each from good brands, but you can get Ballistic Silver Tips (with the wicked chrome shells) for about $1.10 when you’re stalking some trophy bucks. I figure that so long as my optics let me take the shot precisely, shot placement will compensate for caliber.

Your thoughts?
Larry, and thanks for the invite..

So I spend the weekend driving around my local pawn shops and found an excellent (condition) Marlin Mdl 60 .22lr with 4×15 scope for $100. If I wanted I think it would be possible to sell the rifle to a guy at work for $160….but I’ll probably keep it for awhile….I will put a 4×32 scope on it I got sitting around. It did have a couple scuffs on the buttstock. I’ve bought 3-4 of these for $80-$100 and always sold for $50-$60 profit.

Took a pic…