Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters If you could Start ALL over - and ONLY own 1 Rifle + Scope ???

LOL

If I had to start over, The first rule I would break would be the one Rifle rule.


Too Friggin' funny!

+1 I could kick myself in the rear for not being satisfied years ago. I can think of a half dozen rifles right off the top of my head that would have handled every hunting situation I've been in but I traded them off on something else. Never did find that one gun that was gonna make me content. Think I was probably looking for something that didn't exist

Which stock pattern is that?

Winchester Compact.

I skimmed every post. I think I only saw 2 people mention 99 Savages. Doesn't seem odd to me at all seeing as though most suffer from matte, plastic, and boltitis. If I could start over, the year would be 1961. I would be 16 years old and my dream would come true. It would be one of those "fancy" 99's I used to see at the barber shop. Yep, that's it. The barber I went to as a boy was a Savage dealer. The gun I would have bought would already be 34 years old. It would have been produced in 1927.

After many years of lusting, I FINALLY own that rfle.



It is now 87 years old, and trust me. If I had had the opportunity in 1961 to buy such a rilfe it would NOT look like it does today. It would have the same Stith mount on it but a much earlier Lyman scope. A Savage 99 in .300 Savage caliber will suit "most" north American hunting needs.

I would have gotten a 308 bolt, stainless, McMillan stock, gap camo, midrange scope.

Like this one:

A Blaser R8 Professional with three barrels- .223, 30/06, .375.

Cheating?

You guys don't know frugal from the Dutch.

A few years ago, I got a Blaser R-93 with a .270 (Leupold 2.5-8) and a .22-250 (Burris 3-9 USA Burris Plex), both barrels wear Blaser saddle mounts. I thought about selling the others, except .22 rim fires, but it just did not fly. I could not mentally pull it off.

If forced, I could live with that one. I like the rifle. It is plenty accurate. I choose the nicely European Walnut stocked and coin type engraving Prestige model. It is not lacking in pride of ownership. It works.

Perhaps I was warped as a kid. We survived WWII with only one gun, a single shot .22 and sometimes ammo was not available and if it was, perhaps only five or ten rounds. Not fun times for lots of more important reasons reasons, but it did impress me to try and have plenty of guns and a well stocked ammo closet. I do not want just l rifle.

Jack

The rifle I bought in '74 after getting out of the Army: A Parker-Ballard, Mauser-actioned .30/06 with a 4x scope. I hunted groundhogs with it, deer, and would feel well armed anywhere in the world.

You need to drop into the front leaning rest position and start knocking out pushups until I get tired for getting rid of that beauty!

Still kicking myself on occasion, it was a shooter too.

BDT, need more details Nice stick.

1276, giving me a visual, have a Light Palma being screwed on an action very soon...last minute stretched to 22.5, was going to do a 20-21.5 - Yes, that is a nice carbine length/contour, looks highly capable of many chores, paper thru big game.

Mackay, so those SGK HPs must open very well I take it. Long ago talked to a fellow who took a drill bit to 220 MK HP and ran in an '06, said it put BIG holes in deer! Lol

That's a great do it all rifle!

I have another being built but it's on a new ruger SS hawkeye action. Build is the pretty much the same but it will have NECG express single leaf rear site and banded front sight.
Mcmillan classic stock,GAP camo, dark green metalwork, 1-11 lilja in a light palma contour finished @ 20", palma 95 chamber in 308.

Scope will be different, night force 2-10x32 for a do it all package. Pics will post when the project is complete.

Sounds sweet. Look fwd to update. I know it will be a shooter.
Curious, the LP n #4 are close, what broke the tie?

Any decent .280 Rem; maybe a Sako 75 or a Kimber or Cooper. My present .280 is an A-Bolt I've used as my go-to for 20 years; if I could only keep one of my centrefires that would be her.

Pretty damned close to what I'd grab....with the bolt handle on the other side.

Ruger 1A 35 Whelan Leupold 3x9

I guess this is to be expected, but more than half of all choices were for either the 30-06 or 308. In my fast and dirty analysis, the 30-06 was chosen 43 times out of 106 total with the .308 chosen 20 times. Every other cartridge choice totaled less than 10 votes.

As far as scopes, Leupold was the big winner by roughly 14 to 1 over every other brand, and even though every current scope maker seems to be touting their extra-high magnification scopes, the vast majority chose something in either the 2-7/3-10 range or a fixed 4x or 6x.

My own favorite 7mm-08 hit the charts at only 7 out of 106 votes.