Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Love / Hate Rifles and Calibers

I've never been completely beat trying to get a rifle to shoot accurately, but I've bruised up a couple of times. A Model Seven in .260 Rem was the worst.

A close second was the wife's other rifle, A Remington Model 7. Found a couple of loads it shot well after a lot of work. The Winchester Model 70 in 243 still has me flummoxed. Got a 308 barrel for it. It's last chance..

Ruger #1 in 243. I like 243's, hated that gun though. Shot horrible.

I harbor vast contempt for the 7.62 x 39. May all my enemies be so armed.

I will never own a 7 Rem Mag or 35 Whelen again, unless it is to flip them, or use them as a donor.

Met an arrogant hunter once carrying a 7 mag who talked down the 270. He went on a wound a deer that we tried to help track. Never found it. While our crew did just fine with our 270's and a 6.5-06.

Had a Whelen in a Rem classic that absolutely beat the snot out of me.

Love to hate on 308 Winchester and the new model 70's made in Portugal. Love the 30-06 and 9.3x62mm and 338 win mag. Love to pick on the puzzys that shoot 243's.... . They seem to cry about everything..

338-06, what a POS. I shot over 300 rounds thru it, and couldn't get it to group under 2". My 35 Whelen shoots into .5, so this had to go.

Ruger tang safety 338WM. Kicked the snot outta me.

Beautiful dense grained stock, but it had to go.

Probably wrecked the 338 for me.

I never could warm up to a .270 Win. I know lot's of people love them but I just can't like'm.

Sanchez

308 Winchester! Ive bought several rifles and tried to like it but just will always prefer the 30-06 it seems.

That was my experience as well with the Ruger tanger 338WM, some 40 odd years ago. Still remember the day

For me it's the 7-08. Oh I've tried to warm up to it. I've had 3 or 4 of them in years past. I've read all the stories,data,and praise of the round. It all works out on paper. I just can't fall in love with it as hard as I try. Makes good sense. Just doesn't fit well with me.

I had one of those "Tanger" 338s as well. Loved that rifle. Right up to the point of lighting one up. That was the worst felt recoil by far of any rifle I've owned or operated. And I've shot some pretty big stuff. (458 Win and 375 H&H). It was a beauty too. Back in the day their bluing was on par with Weatherby,and the wood was pretty darn good walnut. Before everything went all tactical up in here. Matte and plastic. Just kidding. I like my synthetics as well as the next guy. I'm just glad I'm old enough to remember the days of deep high gloss bluing,and good walnut. We killed stuff with them too. Go figure?

The wing safety Ruger 77 mk. II .338 is no better take my word for it!

7.62x54R Russian bolt guns for hunting. I remember one guy telling me he kept the safety off while sitting on his deer stand. I had a nicely sporterized 30-40 Krag when I was younger. It shot great, but it was like carrying a '57 Pontiac axle around all day. I saw a guy pass me during deer season with a MAS 36 slung on his shoulder and the bolt was closed. Maybe there was no round in the chamber?

In this area? 300 Win-Mag. In our hunt club we have two guys that shoot it and one of my coworkers that hunts almost every day of rifle season in SC (Oct.10 to Jan1) uses it too, and while it is a great caliber in some situations, I cannot see where shooting 150-180lb deer at about 100 to 200 yards, and the 200 is stretching it. More lost meat than anything, but I guess some people thing power trumps accuracy

I & my FIL have used an M44 with an LER scope on it, we walk to and from chamber unloaded, we both sit with it with the bolt handle lifted, but neither hunt with it now, as we consider that unsafe. Most of the foreign ammo for this thing sucks, that which shoots well in both cases have had the jacket separate from the core, but good shooting on our part meant it really did not matter.

As for guns, hands down the Remington 742 series guns. What a POS. I could have and have waxed poetic about what a pathetic piece of garbage it is, and time has done it no favors

Tried several different rifles but never got one to shoot very well w/o a lot of fussing at the bench so I would have to say the 22 hornet. I ve had much better luck with the 218 bee

What percentage of 300 mag users for deer have any business shooting at a distance where it would have a real advantage over a 308?

Started with the .270 Win, and tried the 7-08, .280 Rem, and 7mm RM. Keep going back to the .270 Win. I don't hate the 7mm's just they don't do anything better than my .270 in the long run for hunting.

.308 Win is another I can't warm up to, but I have and shoot 2 .300 Savage rifles as well as a .30-06, and .300 H&H. I've shot a ton of 7.62X51 in the military and .308 on the civilian side, but I keep selling off the .308. Luckily far more people are enamored with it than I and I get the majority of my money back.

Started out hunting with a 7X57 and a box of 140 gr Core Lokts. The combination was effective with the furthest run of a critter being 20 ft or less.

After a few years someone introduced me to the 45/70 and explained how a 400 gr slug would readily dispatch of any game on the planet. Hence the 45/70 marlin lever action replaced my trusty 7X57 and the 7X57 was sold.

Unfortunately the 45/70 soon introduced me to my first ever lost animal. It wasn't because of recoil as I routinely printed under an inch at 100 yds with ease. Soon after I lost another near trophy buck at a mere 50 yds. The rifle had double the recoil and was extremely disappointing when used to take lung shots I had been accustomed to taking. The last animal I shot with my 45/70 was a lung shot at about 30 yds. Sure as hell the animal just up and run off. It ran about 50 yds and stopped and looked straight at me. I knew I never missed because I was friggen accurate as hell when practicing with this rifle. At 80 yds I put the open sights right between the eyes and sure enouph put a hole right between the eyes. I'm a hunter who appreciates the lung shot so to me the 45/70 was nothing more than the biggest hunk of crap I'd ever encountered.

Now I'm using a 270 winchester and the first thing I noticed was my affection for my hunting companions had dramatically increased. No worries though because the increased affection was nothing more than me being more sentimental in my older years and was nothing more than completely natural!

Folks just don't understand 270 luv!

Shod