Three scope failures, two at the range and one on the hunt. I got a shot at a nice fat cow elk at about 350 yards I held for a lung shot and she went down. My guide said good shot and when we got to the elk, there was no bullet hole in the chest. WTF? The bullet had hit her in the neck at the base of the skull. My buddy who had already shot his elk was along for the ride and thought I was a great shot. Never did tell him it was a scope failure and one hell of a lot of luck. The .35 Whelen Mauser has always been a very lucky elk rifle for me.
Many years back, I'm thinking around 1974 I acquired a JC Higgins M50 chambered to the .270 Win. in a trade. Seemed to shoot OK when I checked the sights and took it hunting. Jumped a deer and after the shot the bolt would not open, this a factory round no less. Winchester 150 gr. load. I'd missed the deer o and thanks to the now locked up bolt had to go back to the truck and home to get another rifle. Back then I could hunt a few miles from the house. Seems the guy I got the rifle from must have shot a few way too hot handloads in that rifle. The bold apparently doesn't always lock up, just when you least expect it I guess.. I stuck that rifle in the back of a closet and forgot about it. A few years back I commissioned my gunsmith to build be a light 7x57 sporter in the prewar European fashion. I'd always wanted one. So what gun did I grab for the build? You guessed it, that long forgotten .270. I didn't even remember why I'd put it away. So, with the trading od more than a few Benjamins I got the finished rifle. Gunsmith test fired it with Federal factory ammo without a problem. He gave me the fired case. So now I'm at the range doing my load work ups to find a good hunting load I might try on elk and bingo, locked up tighter that a tick on a hound dog. WTF? Now I remember why I stuck that rifle way in the back of the closet. Big question now is which if my nice Higgins 50s in my small collection will I sacrifice to fix the custom? My handloads are fairly warm but have proven safe in an M70 Featherweight and Ruger#1A. The rifle in question was originally a .270 Win. Just have to find the time to take it to my gunsmith and have him check it out.
The only other problem I've run into is the extractor on a Remington 660 apparently wore out and had to be replaced. Gunsmith couldn't get on and Remington had made a change for the ones used on the M700. Gunsmith had to use one and cobble up a workable solution. All I can say is it's still working.
PJ
