Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles have you ever had a rifle fail on a hunt?

DITTO:

In 40 yrs of deer hunting, so very many diff rifles, diff manufact, calibers, cartridges etc.

NOT EVEN a scope failure --

ON or DURING a hunt.

Was invited to a private game ranch. The owner offered a topless ranch jeep that had a gun rack mounted on the hood for the duration of our stay. 3 of us had 4 rifles in the rack which was padded and appeared very secure. I don�t remember why but we decided to drive into town in the jeep. As soon as we hit 50mph the gun rack flew back striking the driver and passenger in the head knocking both out. The guns were catapulted onto the pavement at 50mph. The rear seat passenger saved everyone�s life by leaping forward and hitting the brake with his hands. All the rifles were ruined.

DMc

Nope, I test them thouroughly at the range in field postiitons and off the bench. If they are going to take a crap, that's where they do it........Plenty tested before they go out into the field!!!!! I've had extractor failures, trigger, safety and other issues at my secluded private range.

Which of the three were you?

Driver

DMc

My younger brother and I were hiking to a flyfishing creek a couple years ago. He was carrying our Grandpa's old Marlin 32win special. When we got to the creek he walked out in it and started fishing. I was tying a fly on and looked up at him when he made this grunt/whisper. He nodded to the left and there was a monster trophy blackbear! I slinked over and grabbed the rifle. Went to kick a shell in and... The lever wouldnt come back up! I wrestled it for 30 seconds and the bear had forced his way back into some alders.
I took the rifle home to figure it out. Took it apart and discovered that the ammo was 30-30! I hope he learned from it and doesnt forget. I know I wont.

I'll be damned! There is only one person this could be. Is this Nick? It has to be! I heard this story from your Daddy!

Kinda. Had a Voere O/U 20 gauge/222 magnum that I hunted deer and grouse with. Jumped a nice 4x4 buck and pelted him with birdshot. Selector got bumped inadvertently. Got the blacktail buck a while later sneaking around me. Same rifle failed to fire on a coyote, light strike. Anschutz .17 Ackley Hornet had a failure to eject, but brass separated. Custom 270 failure to fire, excess headspace. 250 Savage failure to feed, needed to wind rotor spring.

Yup!

Small world I guess. I hope you guys make it down for Christmas. If not I send your Dad home with a box of 32 win, and throw a 30-30 in there for a suprise for you. You should change your name to FreezerEmptier. Just kidding.

Buddy's rifle gave him a bit of trouble on a hunt a few years back..

Scope looks good...

Mighta busted that BC cover back..

I'm not sure if failure is the right word but I had a Savage 111 when I first started into hunting and wasn't too knowledgable about firearms or scope mounting. The scope was mounted by the retailer.

The firearm took 1 deer but at the shot, the scope was destroyed internally. I didn't know it as I continued to miss easy shots throughout the hunt. It wasn't until I got back to a target board that we knew the truth.

Now, this wasn't a scope failure, per-se. The holes for the bases were drilled so far off center in opposite directions that the scope tube was being pulled in two different directions by the steel rings that a failure under recoil was inevitable.

The replacement rifle from Savage had a receiver which was so badly warped, shimming the rear base was required just to get it on paper.

I will never touch another Salvage.

While on a pig hunt, I worked the bolt on my Sako 75 7mm-08 and had the magazine fall out. Superbly accurate rifle, but I sold it after that hunt.

Ouch!

Literally added insult to injury when the cobwebs cleared - rifles were junk.

Double ouch.

Worse than you could imagine. Actually it was 3 rifles and a shotgun. The shotgun was a Browning Superposed O/U .410. One of the rifles was a pre-Garcia Forester w/Leupold.

DMc

My old trapping partner shot at 2 deer and neither gun went off. To be fair, neither one were loaded. It was pretty funny to hear a click and then hear his swearing while the deer walked off to survive another day.

My only failure was with my 700, and it was my fault. The ball bearing inside the safety froze up due to some rust and I couldn't take my rifle off safe. I took it home, took the action out and saw what happened and fixed it no problem.

Diein' might have been better.

Nahhhh, but still - that sucks.

I'd remind 'im once in a while too.