Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Another year older and another day dumber

Today I turned another year older and a little dumber.

In the past couple of weeks I've been drooling over some of the Ruger Hawkeye rifles being sold for $499 by cdnnsports.com. Of particular interest were the 20" walnut/blue/iron sight .300 Ruger Compact Magnum and a 22" All-Weather synthetic/stainless .308 Win. Sounded like a good birthday present.

Need had nothing to do with anything as I already have a Ruger Scout in .308 Win, a MKII .300WM and three .30-06s - an M77, a MKII and a Remmy M700. I also have a Ruger All-Weather in .280 Rem. There is nothing I could do with a 22" .308 Win that I can't do with my 22".30-06s and the .280 will shoot considerably flatter with significantly higher retained velocity and energy with similar weight bullets and similar recoil. As a result, and my desire to have a walnut rather than a synthetic .308, the .300RCM was the leading contender. Was, that is, until I verified brass is both scarce and expensive. I found some on Amazon but none at the regular places I shop. The going price seems to be about $1 or a little more per piece and I would want a minimum of 200-300 pieces (a lifetime supply and then some) relatively soon. Then add another $33 for dies, not a bad price but another expense I wouldn't have with the .308 Win. Although I really like the feel of the 20" .300 and.338 RCM Rugers I've handled, the .300RCM couldn't keep up with my 24" .300WM in down range performance. Not to mention that if I bought a rifle I would need another scope. Too bad they didn't have a right hand .375 Ruger or a .223 for $499 instead...

My wonderful wife fully approved my purchase stating we don't always need to be practical. (Love that woman!) Still, I started looking at my other options. One was the Hornady Lock-N-Load progressive press, on sale at Cabelas for $389. That is the best price I've seen and I could get a rebate of 500 bullets of types I already use, the most likely candidate being 180g XTP in .44 caliber. The bullet rebate would be like taking $100 or more off the price of the press. Very, very tempting. I've looked at progressives off and on for a number of years now and every time the opportunity cost has been too high and I end up buying another rifle or handgun instead. Then I started looking at the prices for shell plates ($35 and up) and bushings for my dies and realized once again the cost of the press is just a starting point and that it could/would rapidly become a money pit. I don't do any high volume shooting, my Rock Chucker Supreme keeps me well stocked with handloads and my loading bench really doesn't have room for another press. After considerable thought the opportunity cost once again had me leaning toward another firearm purchase.

The final option was a new scope and I had several options I was looking at. One was a scout-type scope for my .308 Ruger Scout. The advantage would be I could have the factory peep and scout scope (in QR rings) mounted at the same time and free up the Burris 3-9x that is currently mounted for load development, allowing me to replace the Burris 4.5-14x on my 7mm RM and move it to my MKII .223. I considered this to be a win/win/win solution. None of the scout type scopes I looked at did much for me so I started looking at Nikon Prostaff and Burris Fullfield II 3-9x options, both with drop compensating reticles and both $199 at the local Cabelas. I could do a little better on Amazon/eBay/gunbroker, but by the time I added shipping the difference was minimal and I wouldn't be able to swap the scopes and zero the rifles tomorrow. Further, if I couldn't do it tomorrow or next weekend it won't get done for some weeks as I'm due to get a hip replacement in early April. (Antelope and elk hunting should be a lot easier this fall than any time since 2009. This is a good thing.)

In the end I chose the practical route and got yet another Burris Fullfield II 3-9x with Ballistic Plex reticle, giving me seven of the 40mm 3-9x Burris FF-II Ballistic Plex scopes and four of the 42mm 4.5-14xAO variety. While this allowed me to put a drop-compensating scope on my .223, it violated a cardinal rule - never pass up the opportunity to increase the number of rifles in the safe. Doubt I'll ever have a chance at a .300RCM for $499 again. Like I said at the start, I got a little dumber today.

Oh, well, the 3-9x scope is already mounted on my 7mm RM and the 4.5-14 it replaced now sits atop my .223. Tomorrow morning promises to be a fine day weather-wise and I'll be heading to the range to zero both and play with a few other toys. As a friend of mine ("Bestlever" on the old Marlin forums) used to say, "Life is good".