Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Allen Day on hunting and rifles.

What? Anachronistic acronyms?

Is there an acronym for fellows who pick arguments with deceased members?

Absolutely... "MORON" (Man Of Rude Overt Narcissism)

WTF?

There's nothing wrong with his thinging. It's a great idea to buy quality products, and use them. It is interesting to me how many "mediocre" firearms people own, and the cash tied into them, when you could have put in ~ $1000-1500 have have a very nice rifle, scope/ mount outfit. I don't view having 8 rifles/shotguns in the sks/mossberg/rossi/NEF/surplus sporterized military as "wrong", but at $200/pop, you could have a truly nice outfit.

That being written, it's fun to acquire a rifle to see how it's made, shoot it, and see what it is like (as well as to to research the history of it). I do it. I bought a sporterized 303 British No 4 mark I Longbranch just because I never had one. I picked it up for $125. Got some used dies and brass, and loaded up a 100 rounds with it. Shot it, and learned what it would do (3 inches at 100 yards with irons). Learned to take it apart/reassembly, and had a good time with it over a summer. Didn't need it and sold it for $175 with dies/brass.

So, no problem either way. Today, I'm paring things down, and keeping "quality". I don't have any fancy stuff, but "keepers" are JC Higgins FN 98 Mausers (2), Sako A series rifles, SW prelock revolvers, and some nice 22 LRs (SW 41, Anshutz 1411, Rem 540x). By "nice", I mean very accurate.

But I do like the idea of focusing on quality. Price points vary to the individual budget, so I'm no snob about that.

Really, there's nothing new about his comments. It works, but so do other buying motives.

With the money I have spent on building/buying guns I could have bought a Legend in 300 win mag that would do everything I needed it to and been done with it. However, it wouldn't have been as much fun and pulling the trigger on the purchase of a 15K rifle is a bit tough for me.

DILIGAF..

GFY...


Travis

[quote=jorgeI]DILIGAF.. [/quote
FOAD!

Quote button kicking your ass is it?

I would say a majority of errors i have seen occur in the field have come from folks just not knowing their own rifle well enough. Whether it be its operation, ballistics, its idiosyncracies or even ability to shoot accurately with th recoil of the weapon. This has lead me to believe most folks, including myself, would be much better of with fewer rifles that they just know backwards and which are optimised for them. And let's face it, most of us get less time shooting and particuarly less time in the field than we might like. So i 'spose i come down on the side of Mr Day. Like Mr Day, i am down to two rifles. I may add one more.

Me too. After this past season, I'm now down to three rifles and that's it: Model 70s in: 270 win, 300 win mag and 416 rem mag.

John: Should not the 416 REM, be a 458 WIN...

Keeping with the Winchester theme..

Of course he is 100% right, and actually mirros the way I now feel. The flip side two that argument is it has taken me probably 30 rifles over the years to realize that there is no magic combination but a lot of perfectly good combinations that one could choose from..

The second argument is like many I spent many years confined by job and family obligations and budget. This contributes in two ways. I couldn't afford to buy the rifle of a lifetime or so I thought for much of my life and second being limited in my actual hunting opportunities as described I bought stuff to fuel my dreams of the hunts I would never go on.

I told my buddy the other day that when we first met I had a 16 ga 870 and a remington 788 in 6mm. That's all I could afford at the time and I have never shot anything that those two guns wouldn't have handled.

When I was younger, in long guns I had an A-5 12 ga, a BAR .30-06, and a .22 Marlin 39. I usually killed a deer or two each year and a few bushels of quail.

Now that I'm old, I have a bulging safe full to overflow with long guns, can't chase quail, and am no longer mad at the deer. One may come along someday big enough to shoot. Something indeed is wrong with this picture.

We have a little over two weeks of deer hunting left. Maybe....., maybe not.

One doesn't have to spend 8K or more for a good rifle. In the eighties, I picked up a custom stocked .30-06 FN with the nicely contoured factory 24"barrel that was lapped. IIRC, I gave $465 for it back then, which would likely translate to more like 1500 today.

Although I am guilty of buying, selling, and trading rifles, I have actually come out ahead. I have upgraded my armory to several nice pieces. The purely gun money stash has grown as well as the numbers of guns.

Meanwhile, I have been and still am fortunate in that except for a few years, have not had to pay for hunting. My bags are not as varied as some, but white tail and desert mule deer are my favorite pursuits. Throw in predators, a few exotics, and I have been pretty happy. I was too "busy" when elk was offered up, big mistake. Also, I let life interfere when Nilgi and alligator were offered. Untimely deaths happen and offers go away.

Bottom line , Mr. day was half right. I have too many guns, but the prices for an Echols are not required to have a good gun.

Jack

Well, you definitely have the dead end part down

Moron

While I didnt know the man as I'm new around here I like the thought of a couple good hunting rifle and the rest spent on shooting, reloading, hunting etc. Im trying to be that way myself...but its a struggle as Im OCD about guns. From the looks of things, Mr. Day was into some seriously spendy hardware! I tend towards custom guns myself but of a much more pedestrian variety.

There are some very wrong things happening in this post gents...ive read it top to bottom and am shocked to say the least.

Why did you resurrect a discussion that is nearly 4 years old?

Particularly a discussion initiated by Don/Savage 99.

Interesting to see this old thread resurrected after so much time. Also interesting to see that the same a-holes back then are still a-holes now. No wisdom gained and the same tired old nonsense being repeated ad nauseum.

I took a very long break from this forum basically for the same reason this thread is so distasteful. Nonsense and disrespect for others and an awful lot of internet bravery being displayed. Even though I was probably one of the first dozen people to start this forum when Rick invited me over and I've made some very good friends on this forum, they are all gone now- chased away by the disrepect, rudeness, and just downright low class actions of so many on what used to be the best forum on the internet, IMHO.

I knew Allen Day but not as well as I would have liked. We both had busy schedules and never quite were able to get together more than once or twice. He was at all times the kind of guy I instantly liked and respected- a straight shooter, hard worker, and knew exactly what he wanted and would work hard to get to that point.
Allen may or may not have had money before his business took off- it matters not. He worked as hard as it took to make his business successful and believed in enjoying the fruits of his work. As is his right.
He could afford an Echols rifle when so many could not, but I believe he meant to convey that he appreciated the Echols for what they were - the very best tool he could find to pursue his favorite hobby. Hard to argue with his logic. He also could afford hunts we all would love to take. He also wouldn't have been the only one to have lost his fortune during the tough times of the 90's. Many of us in this area suffered for many years when the economy and other things went to hell in a handbasket.

I only recently returned to this site to find that not much has changed so I may or may not hang around. But it is still sad to hear of the passing of my friend who I had lost track of in busy days of life and running a business. There is a special place in hell and the memories of men for those who speak ill of the dead.