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Joined: Nov 2008
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At what point in your hunting life do you stop, step back, and then do a 180 in your likes and needs when it comes to your rifles? For me it has happened at the ripe old age of 43... for years I thought that these massive Alabama deer would laugh if shot with less than the 7 Mag I used for over 17 years. Well it has finally come to that point, bout 6yrs ago I had a friend talk me into my first 260 Rem but I really wasn't ready to totally give in, I still had the 7mm if those little 120gr 6.5 bullets bounced off..skip ahead a year or 3 and with 2 of my soon to be 11yr. old triplets wanting to hunt with dear old Dad I had to pick up a couple more lighter kickers so I picked a couple more 260's and 7-08's. But I still had the 270 and 25-06 if them big bucks fought back,..... well that is until about a week ago when the 25-06 went to fund a 45-70 after we loss our lease that had the long range possibility to an area where only thick pine stands and food plots are the norm and then today came the final nail, I sold off the FW 270 and picked up a 308 Kimber Montana to go along with 7-08 Montana ....and 3 260's and 2 other 7-08's. Don't know how it happened but now I'm here... now what? sorry for the long read.. DD

Last edited by Deputydad; 05/04/12. Reason: grammer

Roll Tide Roll, now lets go hunting!!!
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It happened to me about three years ago when I realized I was too old to continue having the snot kicked out of me when it wasn't necessary for the game I was going to hunt.


If we live long enough, we all have regrets. But the ones that nag at us the most are the ones in which we know we had a choice.

Doug
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I have rifles in these chamberings:

.22LR
.223
.243
.257 Roberts
.270

In the .270 I only use reduced recoil and I do not want to buy anything more powerful than the .257

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from the time I was 17 till around 30, I hunted everything, I mean everything w/ a .338. About then I realized I didn't shoot as well or as often as when I was a kid. Went to a 25/06, and re taught myself the marksmanship skills I had lost.

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DD,

I couldn't help but smile when I read your post... smile In fact, I loved it.

Perhaps about 10 yrs ago, I was sitting in my deer blind contemplating the whats, whys and other pertinent information pertaining to hunting, when I came up with the idea that one really does NOT need a magnum to kill deer. I then realized that a competent marksman needs only to place himself in the proper place, and exhibit reasonable patience, and with one shot can have venison on the table.

If fact the particular cartridge is more than a bit irrelevant. Further, I concluded that proper deer rifles started at 6.5 cal and continued on up as far as on can stand the recoil... (I truly believe that the dual purpose, varmint/deer rifles are better left to varmints. However, YMMV) I also realized that the longest range I've ever taken a deer is less than 125 yds...

If I could only own one rifle, it's likely be a .308 Win. But instead I own rifles in at least 35 or 40 different chamberings. But when it comes time to go hunting, I usually reach for an 8x57, 9x57, .358 Win, or 9.3x62. Mostly just because I like them... blush grin

GH

BTW... I think it's called maturity... laugh


"As you walk thru life, don't be surprised that there are fewer people that you encounter seeking truth than those seeking confirmation of what they already believe!"


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I too have multiple chamberings, all the way up to a 458 Lott. I always reach for my 270 and 130gr. bullets when I go hunting though. Don't find the recoil objectionable and it always kills what I point it at.


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I don't know I have had bouts of it come and go for the last 10-15 years starting when I was about your age but I am firmly in it's grasp now. While I like all of my 4-5 rifles I am now convinced that unless you are a hard core Africa or moose and grizzly hunter that one can pick any caliber from .243 to 8mm in a non magnum cartridge and have all they need to enjoy many good days afield . My advice to any young person starting out is to pick a really nice rifle from the following list of 308, 270 win, 30-06 top it with a nice scope use it but don't abuse it and in 35 years you will have a nicely aged really nice rifle that has a lot of great stories. Spend your $$ on hunts and adventures with your rifle and not for more rifles. I would have been much better if I had bought my remington 700 mtn rifle and stopped years ago it's topped with a var xii 3-9 and can easily handle any hunting I have done or will do in the future.

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I'm convinced that deer can only be killed with .28+ caliber magnums.


Or .223 AIs.


Originally Posted by ingwe
This is a shooting forum, there is no place here for logic.
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It's all fun and games till someone breaks out a .223AI. Stuff is fixin' to get dead when that happens.


"The number one problem with America is, a whole lot of people need shot, and nobody is shooting them."
-Master Chief Hershel Davis

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True dat.

Ive had a similar experience/epiphany to the OPs...turned into a regular small bore whore the past few years...my 7x57 is the "biggest" gun I own, and I havent shot it in five years...shot some deer three years ago with a .243, and that felt a bit excessive...


"...the left considers you vermin, and they'll kill you given the chance..." Bristoe
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not yet.

most likely never

Snake


That which does not kill us makes us stronger

Friedrich Nietzsche
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My first deer rifle was an ancient 32 Special and it served me well until 1978, when I upgraded to a scoped M700 in 25-06. Still have both.

While I have strayed a few times over the past 50 years, killing deer with assorted 30-06s, 8x57s, a 444, 35 Rem and several other choices, there was never really any reason to have abandoned the first two choices. I've even killed deer with the 22-250. Have a 243. Haven't gotten around to using it on deer yet, but I hear they "might work"?

Killed two deer last season with that M700 25-06. Still works well and I can shoot that thing most all day with nary a whimper from my 65 year old shoulder.


If three or more people think you're a dimwit, chances are at least one of them is right.
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The biggest muley I've ever shot was with a .243 when I generally liked a .270/.280/.30/06 for that job. One shot over the heart with a 100 gr factory load did the trick. For about 10 years solid I shot a .338 since that is what Elmer liked. I bonded with that rifle more than any other. At that same time, the only other rifle I owned was my 1948 FN Mauser '06 which weighed about 10 lbs unloaded. Part of the reason I shot only the .338 for those 10 years was to see how it worked and part was because it was 2 lbs lighter than the '06.

To answer the OP.......yeah, sorta, maybe........for me it's like a series of 360's, not a 180. I'd like to get a .223 bolt gun at some point, but I just bought a Weibe bottom metal for a future .375 Ruger/FN Mauser. Never owned a .375 before and always heard everybody should at some point. By the way, I am 56 at this point. How silly is that?

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Somewhere around age 55, The light bulb came on. All the magnums are gone except for a Gd IV Bar (Type I) that favorite cousin left to me (Don't use it and really do not know just how attached I am to that nice rig-he also left a Mountie and an engraved custom 1903 Springfield to me. I am attached to them). I just put a 3-9 Elite 4200 on my 50 year old .243 and got a new supply of 100 grain Partitions. It is likely to see some use this year. Life is good. jack


"Do not blame Caesar, blame the people...who have...rejoiced in their loss of freedom....Blame the people who hail him when he speaks of the 'new, wonderful, good, society'...to mean ,..living fatly at the expense of the industrious." Cicero
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Around 2009, about the time i joined up here at the 'fire, plus I had recently hit the technological wall on weaponry so to speak.

Class 3, select fire, suppressed, thermal/infrared lazered, weather stationed BS drove me clear back to the peep sighted lever action and Sharps rifle era, now I'm thinkin' about Flintlock Fowler's. wink

I have came to the distinct realization that I like hunting rifles.

Gunner


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I love my .375 H&H when I really need it, but that's almost never. I tend to stare at my .300 magnums these days and wonder why I have them. More often than not, I grab a .280 or 30-06 when I go to the field, and that's not likely to change as I get older.

I avoided the '06 when I was younger because I though it was boring. It's only been the last few years that I've realized how truly awesome a caliber it really is. What other chambering can be loaded with bullets over a range of nearly 100 grains -- and work well at either end? Amazing.


Chris
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Originally Posted by jt402
Somewhere around age 55, The light bulb came on...
Ditto here, same age.

At 49 I went to Africa and practiced for months beforehand with a .375 H&H. I'd fire between 50 and 80 rounds in an afternoon, several of those from prone. At 55 I realized that I didn't like shooting it at all.

Now at 59 a full power .30-06 is as much as I want to shoot, and not much of that. I load my ought sixes to .308 levels and my favorite fun load in my .270's is a 7mm-08 clone - a 130 grain bullet with enough IMR-4895 to send it out at 2800 fps.

I'm liking the .308 a lot these days for a "big gun". wink


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When I started killing stuff with a bow, it made the rifle caliber arguments seem silly.

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I am in the process of the same thing at 44.

My heaviest rifle was a 300 WM, but time and use made me realize the .308 did the same job with a lot less recoil and meat damage. The deer drop just as fast. Ditto the 12 gauge slug gun vs, the 20 gauge version. Deer showed no difference when hit by either, but my shoulder sure knew the difference.

Other than the 9.3x57 I just picked up to take hog hunting, my .308 and 7x57 are my biggest calibers. Others are 6.5x55, 30/30, 6.5 Jap, and .223. They are all I really need for the stuff I hunt.

The only guns I do not associate with smaller calibers are my handguns, .40/10mm cal and up are the only way to go for me, especially the .45's, acp and colt are by far my favorites.

There was a time when I was competitively shooting skeet that I was convinced I had to have 3 dram loads to "hit em hard". Through the years the light bulb came on that my scores were about the same with all four gauges even though the under 12 ones did not have as much power or shot charges behind them. Now I shoot a 7/8 ounce light 12 gauge loads instead of the 3 dram 1 1/8 oz. of years past and can say my scores are actually better as my patterns are more even.

They say with age comes wisdom, some just take longer to listen to it.


Nothing is fool proof for a sufficiently talented fool !!

"Keep your booger hook off the bang switch until your sights are on the target".

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Was over 50yrs when I finally gravitated to the 30-06, none of my rifles wears a belt anymore.

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