The Remington 700 action is the one most copied by custom gun builders. That says something.
It certainly does. It says the Remington 700 is the easiest to copy!
For a rugged hunting rifle which can be disassembled and assembled in the field, without tools, and which is most likely to function as it should, the Mauser 98 is still the best. Since the OP specified a modern short action, he is willing to compromise a bit.
The Ruger 77 is a good choice. In the years I was gunsmithing, in a busy store, I saw very few come into the shop because they had a problem. Of the top four sellers, (Remington, Winchester, Browning, and Ruger) they were the least likely to come into the shop. I had one brought in which had been an Eskimo rifle, used for polar bear, walrus, seals, etc. It was rusted on every surface, the stock was beat to hell and the barrel was bulged in three places, but it still worked! I bought the action and I still use it, forty years later. GD
greydog;
Top of the morning to you sir, I hope the winter has been as mild in your part of the world as it's been here and all in your world who matter are healthy.
Thanks for sharing that story and your real world experience. For sure you would have seen a bunch of stuff back in the day. I still recall you were able to help me with a Sako from that era with a bum trigger, when most others said I was hallucinating.
Way back in the day I recall a Ruger advert where they'd bought a .308 back from some Australian buffalo culler or something like that. It had been documented with a huge amount of rounds and was still ticking along just fine.
As some have mentioned, the T3 Arctic is likely quite decent, but again it was partially picked because Berretta would allow it to be built here in Canada and my understanding is that Ruger wasn't interested in outsourcing to anyone, so the Scout was eliminated from the trials then and there.
Thanks again and all the best to you all 4 valleys east.
Dwayne
Hello back to you,
This has been absolutely, the easiest winter we've had in the last thirty years. I don't think we have ever had a year where, at some point, we didn't have at least ten inches of snow on the ground. This year, we might have had five and it didn't stay. 23F right now, so a little cooler but still, not bad.
I have, indeed, seen a lot of used and abused rifles of various types but the bolt actions which stood up to the abuse better than any others were the Mausers; followed closely by the Lee Enfields. Of course, neither of these are "modern" actions. They are just stone reliable.
One thing which has always impressed me though, is how well, in spite of their complexity, the Winchester Model 94's continue to function in spite of neglect and downright abuse.
I know one fellow ,up in Barriere, who has probably killed more cougars than most others will ever see. His cougar rifle was a Winchester 94, 30-30. It had probably never been cleaned, the barrel was rusty and bulged near the muzzle and the rear sight elevator was a matchstick. This thing rode in the back of his Bronco with the hound stepping all over it and, as far as I know, only got taken out when there was a cat to be killed. But it always worked. Another one I saw was at a ranch south of Calgary. This one, a 25-35, was leaned up in the corner of the corral and spent most of the time right there, rain or shine. It was there to shoot any marauding coyote and I would have bet money the coyotes were pretty safe but they were not! They were usually at 100 yds or less but he accounted for quite a few.
One customer of mine flat loved Mausers. He liked them because parts were interchangeable, regardless of where they were built, and he could replace a firing pin with no tools. He admitted he has never broken a firing pin but if he ever did, he was ready! He hunted on horseback all the time a spent a lot of time in some remote camps. He had a kit with parts he thought he might need someday and always carried it in a saddlebag. He never used anything but the cleaning stuff in that kit.
I have another customer who hunts all over the world and he likes his Remington 700's. He has missed out on a big ram when larch needles in the trigger caused the rifle to fail to fire. He has had ejection issues. He broke a handle off. He still likes them. He told me of one incident which was a bit of a cautionary tale.
He was carrying a rifle which I had built for him; built, of course on a Remington 700 action (though that had no influence on the story). It had a Brown Precision stock which I had put on and painted. Like any gunsmith making a semi-custom rifle, I inletted the bolt handle nicel into the stock with, maybe, 1/32 inch clearance all around. He was hiking into a basin when he saw, coming toward him a good sized grizzly. He was carrying the rifle with an empty chamber and rushed to chamber a round. Now, he was using those rubber scope covers which were attached to a rubber band and he flipped this off as he went to chamber the round. The damn rubber band got trapped under the bolt handle and wedged into the nicely inletted slot when he tried to close the bolt. He couldn't close the bolt and, since he had tried mightily, had it wedged in well enough that he couldn't open it either. The bear was just ambling toward him. The breeze was blowing down the hill so the bear had no scent of him but he figured it would have to see him pretty soon. I he struggled with the stuck bolt a little more and finally, with the bear less than 20 feet away, he just stepped uphill, off the trail and stood there. The bear went right on by, in no hurry, until he caught scent, whereupon, he jumped down over the hill and could be heard, still running, for quite some time. There were a few lessons here: Don't panic, stay calm, stay away from rubber bands, and, if you build rifles, maybe a little more gap can't hurt. I don't have rubber bands on any of my own rifles so I should be OK. GD
