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For the CRF Legions and keeping a Theme.

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Wichester M70 Classic in any configuration, or any Sako (I prefer A series).

For me it will be my Kimber 84L Montana in 270WCF..... whenever they get to making them. Right now the same version in 30-06 will do just fine. The glass will be a 3.5-10x40 VX3 (Duplex) with Talley LW lows and a lightweight Butler Creek sling.

I've got a nicely sporterized SMLE but I wouldn't bet on one to be dead reliable. Mine has broken two extractor springs in the 20 years I've owned it and it hasn't been shot all that much.

My dad would wholeheartedly agree with your .308 rig. He shot deer and elk with his. He didn't need variable scopes or fancy bullets. A straight 4x scope and Hornady Interlocks or Remington Core-lokts was all he used. His was a 1950's vintage Savage 110L. The only changes he made was to cut the barrel back to 20 inches and put a recoil pad on it. The stock metal buttplate even on a .308 would really bruise the shoulder.

I never did act on this concept... but there is 15" of snow outside and it got me thinking about it again. Fast forward to the present, I am thinking a 20" barreled Steyr Pro Hunter, in 308 or 7mm08, with Uncle Mike's mountain sling, and a handloaded 120 TTSX (7mm) or 130 TTSX (.30)... scope it with a bulletproof 6x42MQ...

It was fun to re-read through this old thread.

My stone-nuts reliable go-to rifle for many years was a tang-safety Ruger 77 in 7x57 that I bought brand-new, with a Leupold M8-4x. It killed a lot of critters with factory ammo during a very busy period of my life when I lived in the big city and didn't have a good range to use. Later when I got serious testing it and loading for it, I found that it was truly about a 2 MOA rifle, no matter what I tried with the rifle or load. It had one of those poor barrels that Ruger put out a bunch of back in those days.

I liked the rifle enough that if I had it to do over again, I would have simply re-barreled it. I wound up trading it in on a customized Rem 722 in 257 Robts that was a much better shooter.

I missed the rifle and the 7x57 cartridge enough that, fast forward many years, my current dead-nuts go-to rifle is a:

Win M-70 pushfeed Featherweight 7x57 in a McMillan synthetic stock, wearing the Weaver K4-1 scope that came on it and keeps working so well that I haven't bothered replacing it.

The rifle is a very good shooter preferring almost any bullet of the 140 grs. range, and has held its zero for years now without being touched. And I do like this rifle even more than the early Ruger M77 I had, so now I don't really miss the Ruger like I did for awhile.

It is fun, and necessary, I think, to go through using many different rifles to learn what one really likes the best. And to find what works the best for an individuals specific wants and needs.

There are alot of other great rifles to consider, at much lower prices.

The Howa Lightning in .308, (not the new ones with a Hogue stock, but the ones imported up to about 10 years ago, with the standard weight barrel and the heavy duty black synthetic stock.) Can be had with some looking for around $425 in VG+ condition.

Uses the same mounts and rings as the Remington 700.

I nice big two-position safety, that has very positive clicks.

Scope: One of the newer Weaver "Classic K" scopes, in either 2.5 power or 4 power. Built like tanks, great eye relief, utterly reliable.

No, the rifle is not controlled feed, but I can honestly say after 50 years of hunting with push feeds, that I have never jammed one, and never feared for my life from a charging whitetail.

Or, if you simply must have CRF, then one of the 1960s made Mark Xs or FN commercial grades. The price of these have really dropped in the past 10 years,as younger hunters and shooters just don't give a rats-butt about mauser actions. Just saw a beautiful 1950s, FN Deluxe, in 98% condition, in .308, go unsold for $550.

Mannyrock

It was.


Boxer was actually comprehensible.


If I can get a 270 MT cycling cartridges as smooth as an ADL it will become the new fave.

6x36LR's on both, 140 AB's, H4831sc(which is right there with H4350 in stone cold temp reliability).

I'd still think that the better option is a Ruger stainless 308, and either a Leupie 4x or 6x.

Your first set-up was better....

Im just not a 308 fan. I Rather have 7-08 or 270.
Lighter bullets with ttsx as other said speed kills using those.
They don't shed weight like lead. Plus with 308 I wouldn't go heavier.
130 ttsx in 270 and you can go much flatter and longer
Or 708 in 120/140
Also get a tikka if you really want practical and reliable.

factory corelokt 150's will suffice in that gun for anything that walks in the east out to several hundred yards. i'm not a fan of the high end factory loads for eastern game. its pretty much a waste of money. but other than that, looks right to me.

Make it a Ruger American Compact Stainless and Fed 150 Hi-Shok w personal favorite scope and it would come closer to Dogger's thrifty original proposition.

But where's the fun in that?

Currently mulling .308 v. .270 Montana for my approaching dotage...

Actually, what I've noticed is that the rifle need not be a CRF design to be "practical and stone nuts reliable."
What I've come to appreciate are other features which are usually found on such rifles.
First of all, almost all of "rifle reliability problems" have occured under only certain hunting conditions that I suspect aren't encountered by alot of hunters.
My favorite hunting area by far, is a very unusual area with much different hunting conditions than most encounter.
It can be very dusty driving around off road in my very open Jeep. Much of this dust is very fine and has a habit of finding it's way into a rifle's action. Since my hunts run 3-4 weeks of this, it can easily accumulate in the action.
Second, all of my good bucks had to be taken on the run, ducking a dodging through cover. The rifle needs to feed and eject with complete reliability.
Last of all, I hate having to clean the insides of my rifle daliy or close to it. I've got lot of other camp chores to do at the end of the day, and I'm often exhausted from a combination of off roading, eating dust and hunting on foot over very unstable desert ground.
While it is true that the military does well with the Remington 700 based sniper rifles, I simply don't follow their constant maintenance and testing procedures. It's not practical for me.
The rifles/action that I've found completely reliable are my old tang safety Ruger, which is a push feed action BTW, my M70 Classic and my M98 Mauser. All of them have claw style extractors, all of them have open trigger designs for easy cleaning, and all of them have safeties which don't allow the fine dust to gum them up. And they all have bolt stops which don't jam open, which then means you'll have the bolt out of the rifle the one one time you need to get another round into the chamber in a hurry to hit that buck. E

While you didn't act on the idea, I did.

Ruger Scout, .308 Win, 16.1" barrel. Mounted a 3-9x scope for load development, then removed it and replaced the peep sight. should be good for 300 yards with the peep.

Ran through the ballistics for the 130g TTSX 150g AB and 208g A-MAX loads I developed and was surprised by the results, which are available here:

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...8_Win_short-barrel_hunting_#Post10885215

FN Winchester 70, 270 winchester
3-9x40 zeiss conquest
Uncle Mikes Padded Sling
130 Nosler Partitions - factory or hand-loaded.

Outside a Grizzly hunt or the trip to Africa, this would handle everything I will probably every hunt for my life in Idaho and other western states.

Steyrs are interesting, but DMs are out for me in the dead reliable catagory. Just one more thing to break or lose. Price a replacement sometime.

I understand the losing a mag routine (have done it with 22 rimfires).... but don't want to rule it out...as long as I don't lose it, the rifle and mag can be dead nuts reliable.