Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Plastic, aluminum, wood, and detachable clips

Have any of you had any real issues (not mental "naggings") in the field with plastic, aluminum and wood components? To my knowledge, I've never missed an animal due to wooden stocks causing POI shift. I have a buddy who claims that he has. I've never broke a plastic trigger guard. I've never lost a detachable clip. I did lose a feeding tube rod off of a .22 (that still boggles my mind). I've never dented or broke any aluminum receivers or parts. My Dad broke some old Weaver bases and rings from dropping a gun. I try not to beat the crap out of my rifles. I've never hunted for a week solid at a time, nor have I subjected a gun to a couple of days of constant rain or snow. (I'm not counting all the mental safaries that I've been on....I've also owned lots of guns to take to all of those places that I never actually went to.)
Is all the stuff that you read about on this forum and other sources really that big a deal, regarding what a hunting rifle is made of.
? I waffle back and forth; and my gun purchases reflect this. I like Tikkas even though they have plastic detachable clips. I like A-Bolts though they supposedly have "over-engineered triggers". I like Rugers even though I don't care for their factory triggers. I like Savages 110s and 10s, even though they seem to have a lot of "not so robust" parts. I like BLRs even though the current ones have aluminum receivers. I like M70s (what's not to like). Mauser 98 variations (repeat Winchester statement). This list is getting too long. I'll stop.

Last thought.... Years ago, I went hunting a couple of times with this older cowboy that used to work for us. He had one big game rifle. His Dad gave it to him when he was 15 in 1966. It was a push-feed M70 Winchester in .270 topped with a Weaver K-6 scope. That gun has spent most of its life in a saddle scabbard or behind a pickup seat, and it shows. I've never seen a better game shot with a rifle. That guy with his gun made from inferior components and workmanship, protected livestock for years and is still filling his family freezer.
What are your thoughts?
[bleep]

basically its eliminating possible problems. ive never had an issue with plastic parts and wood shiftin POI. i dont use detatchable mags other than for my 10/22 and SMLE. but also like you ive never been on any extended rough hunts. im generally hiking less than 5 miles as the crow flies on any trip though following a winding creek bottom can lead to a few extra miles on foot. i hunt with Savages(99's and 110's), Rugers, Marlins, P17's basically what ever i feel like taking on a particular hike as my wife and i carry back up guns in the truck so between the 2 of us there are generally atleast 3 different rifles in the truck. if i was going on a long expensive hunt i would want to take out as many possible "Murphys Law" type possibilities as possible

I think rattler hit on it�

It�s not that these things always fail, but that they could fail when you need them the most. I have 300 acres behind my house and when I�m hunting on that land, it really doesn�t matter what I�m hunting with. If for some reason I have a failure, I�ll just run back to the house and get another gun. But, if I were in Alaska on the hunt of a lifetime, for which I plucked down a couple months pay, then I want the most consistent and reliable rifle in existence.

Ditto rattler. When you're a million miles from nowhere, and paying very large dollars to be there, you want to eliminate Murphy as much as is humanly possible. The last thing you want to find is that you lost your detachable magazine, or that the constant rain or snow HAS swelled your stock, and you really don't know if the POI has shifted, and the only way you're going to find out is when you have to shoot something with it. Or the horse has rolled on the rifle and broken the stock, or leaned against a tree while it's in the scabbard and bent or cracked something, like a scope. The CRF v. pushfeed issue is basically a nonissue, UNLESS you're going after something that has the potential to bite you, in which case I personally wouldn't want to be without a positive feeding rifle, that in the heat of battle should I screw up and short stroke, won't jam up on me. The majority of hunters in the USA, myself included, will never need any of these gee whiz options, because most of us, as has been stated previously, aren't out for weeks at a time in the middle of nowhere. But when I do go to that place, you can bet that I'll have the most Murphy proof rifle that I can afford, with all of the aforementioned features.

if you are due a failure it will happen. guy I used to hunt withhad a remington 700 jam when he tried for a second shot at a buck. seems the follower had mysterysly got turned around..you can have a failure at any time with any firearm..