Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Rifle choice

Over the years I have developed a bad case of sticky fingers. Every gun I ever sold there has come a time when I wished to hell I had it back for some reason or the other.
I quit selling them off.
I will use my four or five top of the heap ones usually pick one and use it that season.

I have ten that I have killed deer with. I don't own any "safe queens" and I don't consider a rifle "broken in" until I have developed a good load and killed a couple of deer with it. I can't kill ten deer in a season but I do manage to carry each of them to the field every season.

I sold one rifle that I had killed a deer with. I regretted it latter.

I have no plans to sell any more of them until I get too old and stove-up to use them.

I find the older I get,the less guns I need. The .06 does evrything I need for elk and the 6.5 does it for antelope and deer. The .308 hasn't been out for years and I am looking to get rid of it.The others are just fun guns used mostly at the range or ones I have inherited.

I've never had a need for more than 1 gun for varmints (22-250), 1 for big game(300 WSM), 1 for birds (Win 1300), etc. Leaves more money for other things I can't live without.

there are not many guns i can't find a need for...

for these last 2-3 years i grab either a 270 or 06'. they do it all.

I have a Marlin 1894 41 mag in the safe. I keep thinking it would be fun to kill a deer with it. But I have never carried it for fear it would not be appropriate for the shot I might be presented.

I, most often, have to take advantage of a 300 yd shot opportunity or go home empty handed.

My problem is I have just too many nice rifles and too few hunting days. With my job and home demands I am lucky to get in one weekend a year during deer season so its a matter of building up a history with my rifles as for me it's nice to pull them out during the off season and think about the hunts they have been on and deer collected, For me that takes a while.

Sometimes I have found myself running late because I spent too much time standing in front of the gun safe trying to decide what rifle or revolver I was going to hunt with that particular day. Now I make up my mind the night before and have it cased and ready to go with my hunting clothes.

I might use anywhere from two or three to six or seven different rifles/revolvers during the course of our deer season here. (It runs from mid-October to early December and I usually go four or five times a week.)I try to choose based on the day's weather and whether I'm hunting in the woods or just field watching.

Yup, me too. And when the years start to add up you realize there may be more rifles in the safe than seasons left to hunt. Staying in shape to hunt, avoiding health issues and just plain staying alive are more important than adding a new rifle. A few rifles have been sold and more will head off to new homes this coming year. There have been seasons lost to work, family and injury. I recently injured my knee for the first time in thirty years and have a long rehab route before there's even a day chasing pheasants. The .270 will stay in honor of who owned it first and a handful more will be chosen from the herd.

I have the same story. I have killed at least one with most of them. It has come to be so easy to shoot a deer or pig, that I have started going backwards. No scope, for modern, side hammer 54 for MZ. U/0 22/410 for small game. I have been lucky enough to loose my job a few times to enjoy deer season, but I had a three year stretch that kept me away 325 days a year. Thank God it's over an am getting spun up for the next one in Feb. or March no hurry. can't get to Iraq to fast. In the past years out west, with an array of guns when I couldn't decide it was my go to gun, FN 98 284 Win. never let me down!

The older I get, the less I worry about the "buck of a lifetime". I enjoy hunting with my old 30-30, as it was my first rifle. I'm more than willing to let something walk when hunting with it. Same goes for when I only have my blackhawk.

Now, if it is a hunt that I definitely want to take a long shot if presented, I take the appropriate rifle. Out of state hunts are ones where I usually take the "better" rifle, but I'll still take my blackhawk to Wyoming to chase pronghorns.

My first moose was killed with a Marlin 336. I wanna kill one with my Dad's 1927 manufactured Win 94. Last time I shot it for group from rest, with the Lyman peep, it grouped 3 in just over an inch. Hell - I can't even see that good!

So far, there are 19 moose taken in between with a variety of calibers, including with a 12 ga. slug. There's a .260 bullet nitched for a moose, also. Gotta throw in a ML somewhere too. I've carried all three while moose hunting, but the buggers can be difficult...

+1

Older 1894(44Mag) that sits in safe more than it should. Most often it stays behind due to it's limited range. And ironically I most often shoot deer with my "longer range" rigs at relatively short ranges anyhow. I do love how the 44 hammers deer.