The "one rifle IF game" is fun but not actually very realistic for me or for most hunters.
IF I needed to pick only 1 rifle and IF I had unlimited opportunities to hunt and IF I have enough money to travel anywhere I wanted to and IF I could have unlimited availability of power, primers, bullets and brass and IF I could have 2-3 spare barrels so I would never have to worry about shooting out the bore because I would use that 1 rifles for all my shooting including jack-rabbits and rock-chucks all the way up to elephants..................I would choose my Mauser 375H&H
But BECAUSE I don't have unlimited time and money or availability of bullets powder brass and primers I would not choose just one rifle.
I don't have enough money to travel over the world and I don't have the time to take off work and I only rarely go out of Wyoming to hunt anything anymore. Confined by my budget and lack of time, and with the ammunition I do have now, I could write down the descriptions of about 8 different rifles I have on 8 different pieces of paper and put them in a hat, then have someone pick one out and the results for the rest of my life would probably be the same. From 270s, 308s 30-06s 300H&H, 8X57, 358 Win, 9.3X57, 9.3X62 and 375H&H All would cover all my needs fine. I could throw in the rifles with irons only and they would limit me to closer shots, but I'd still bet my kill rate would not drop all that much. I love hunting with iron sighted rifles and in the last 10-12 years about 90% of my kills have been made with guns with irons only, and it's VERY rare I have a tag for any animal that goes un-punched when the season is over. If I threw in the descriptions of the iron-sighted rifle to the list above I would be able to add additional 30-06s one additional 270, 300 Savages, 303 Brit, 30-30, an additional 9.3X57 and a 35 Remington.
For a "one rifle" question I am sure I would not ever choose a rifle with no scope and as I age I see the need for scopes in dimer light more and more, but even if I only had a single rifle with irons only, I'd still be doing pretty good I think. I average about 6-8 kills even year and some years have been up to 10-12 and as I said, in the last 10 years of so, about 90% of those were killed with firearms that had no scopes at all. Lets call it an average of 8 kills per year and lets say we only look at 10 years. 90% of 80 kills is still 72 kills. In the last 10 years I can remember only 3 tags that went unfilled. Of those that were unfilled I can't remember any hunts where having a scope would have helped all that much because when I didn't fill a tag is was because I could not get to elk which were on ground I was not allowed to hunt, or with one tag I simply ran out of time and could not hut that tag at all.
So I DO enjoy the what-if game as much as anyone else, but I don't believe it's realistic. At least my experience have shown me it's not all that important.
Having friends in Europe I can see a foundation for the game. Many (most) of them can't have unlimited guns. Some countries allow only one. We in the USA may be like them some time because of the lack of 'interest" of the common American to become involved and the short sightedness of the average American. They seem to always wait until the problem is overwhelming to even notice it despite the first 3 words of out highest law.
Plato was correct when he wrote "Those that refuse to be involved in Government are ALWAYS punished by being ruled by their inferiors". Humans are short sighted and largely unwise. American are not any different.
In ALL activities in life (including government) it's easier to stay out of danger then it is to get out of danger.
Last edited by szihn; 09/29/21.
