Hello Campers. I require some help on deciding which gun to buy and thought some of you might be able to help out.
I've been after a light, fast handling and reasonably hard hitting rifle for deer and boar in the woods for a while now.
Originally, I had a Winchester 71 .348 in mind, fitted with a Williams peep sight and when a Browning 71 carbine with a peep sight showed up on eGun I thought it was my time to strike.
Needless to say I wasn't successful in my effort to win the auction. Then a Winchester 94 Big Bore in caliber .356 Winchester caught my eye and a little later I found another Browning 71, this one a rifle.
Which one would you recommend and why? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
I came too late to this party, but congrats on your new 71. When we lived in Germany, some Miroku-made guns were marked Miroku, but they would have been marked Browning in the States. And then the BLR I bought from Frankonia Jagd was marked Browning, but I think I remember they advertised Miroku-marked versions too. That was a lotta years ago, though.
For your purposes, had I been earlier, I think I'd have recommended a BLR in .308. Or maybe a Savage M99 in .300 Savage (or .308). Or maybe a SAKO Finnwolf in .308. I've owned each of those (.300 Savage M99), .243 Win Finnwolf), all good actions, with varying degrees of balance and sighting equipment possibilities and so forth. I used a .308 BLR when I hunted there; would have been fine for boar (although I never got one, good for elk, overkill for gams and reh.
Boar in Germany can be big, but a .308 would be enough. (The guy next to me on a circle drive got the one that went past us, maybe about 500kg IIRC, and he was using a .308.) Rehbok, tiny. Gams, tiny. Rotwild, not so huge. The .358 and .356 would be OK, especially for boar, but trajectory is not quite as favorable for a mountain hunt -- if you might do that sometime. Ditto the .348, handicap compounded by the sighting equipment. I have an original family pass-down M71 DeLuxe rifle (24" barrel), 1937 serial number, with the bolt-mounted aperture and with the optional recoil pad. VERY VERY nice balance, about the right weight for the cartridge (recoil, etc.), VERY fast sights... but for me, they're good for closer work, not so great for a rehbok at anything over about 125 meters... and even that would need the right presentation in the right light... It'd be great for driven boar, can't say as I'd think it useful for other typical game animals over there in typical circumstances.
All that said, the rifle you like is the rifle you need... and you can just work around the other issues.
Mine is mostly used for anti-bear duty, these days. And I don't get out in bear country all that much...<sigh>...
-Chris
