Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles expensive lessons---what have you learned

All the drama, DOPE, handloading, etc, etc, etc, doesn't matter much under 300 yards and is easily handled with a 48 year old rifle, 30 year old scope, and a shiny box of Corlokts....

This is true^^^

I spend all my time and money working on rifles that will perform beyond this range.

As far as expensive lesson's this is my hobby and passion , so the few dollars I have lost along the way don't matter, I learned from each and every one.

With tags becoming harder to draw in the best trophy units in the west, time spent developing a perfect system is time well spent.

If you live in the East and can shoot multiple deer a year, hell it doesn't matter, use a 30-30 sight it in at 100yds and rock on.

That's the point, one doesn't need to spend much to make long shots. Some years back a bought a Weatherby Vanguard and a used scope on the 'Fire. I put it all together, loaded some rounds before the rifle arrived. Got it dialed in at 100 yards and a few across the screens for velocity check.

6th round through it, I plugged a 5x8 inch Crown Royal box at 700 yards. No magic, no pixie dust. One don't need to live back east to shot a 30/30. Some folks just enjoy getting close.

True. I'll add that through all that I did learn quite a bit regarding the in's and out's of rifles, ammo, trajectory, reading wind, etc. Obviously did a pile of shooting and certainly a better shot because of it.

But realized I don't need a F1 car for my morning commute.

"Passion" is all but gone, not sure I've fired a CF round in 2017. Probably poke a few flat heads and maybe a dink buck for groceries. Other than that, it's just about family...

Steelhead,
I get it, it's more the indian than the arrow.
Maybe I am behind the curve and a slow learner?
But I love the confidence a fine rifle and accurate load give me.
And I do know this, it doesn't hurt and i picked up some skill along the way.

Common cartridges are common for a reason! I progressed through a whole lot of cartridges over the years to find out that I like cheap, low recoil rounds best because I shoot them a lot more and I shoot them better. To me, a do-all (well) gun collection would look like this: 22lr, 223 Rem, 270 Win, 45-70, 9mm, 45LC and 12 ga.

I could kill everything with a .284 Savage 99. Wish I had it in me, life would be simpler and I believe I'd be happier.

My lessons:

Cartridge overlap is out of control, I don't need that many rifles

I like custom, but customs are about the fun of building what you want and working with a great builder OR spending ridiculous amounts of hours searching the internet for the perfect find. For function, I would recommend that anyone buy a current model model 70, put a quality scope on it, and go hunting. As much as it pains me to say it, the results will likely not be different than mine with a custom mauser or model 70 that costs many thousands of dollars.

If you want to go custom, shoot a lot to know how you like calibers, weight, etc. This can be done with factory rifles. Then take your time, spec out the rifle of your dreams, spend the money, and plan to give it to your kids. Never do a custom build with the expectation you will sell it in the future - might as well go in your backyard and light 100 dollar bills on fire for fun.

After playing around with lots of rifles, like many on here, I find myself consolidating around the standards. Have custom rifles in 30-06, .375, etc. There is a reason they are the standards, you can find GREAT factory ammo in the standard calibers, and if you are in Africa you can get more ammo in a crisis. I bought all the reloading gear, then started shooting Barnes Vor-Tx and it was great. Reloading gear is still in the closet.

I've hunted more africa than in the US - figure out your bullet and load and be done with it. Lots of discussion, but for me, could not see any reason to go outside of a-frame or tsx and I chose TSX. For my 06, its the JJ hack load - 168 grains going around 2900 - barnes vor-tx. Standardize, standardize, standardize. I got tired of messing around with different ideas - like the idea of having a few rifles built right, with loads I know perform, and I'm good to go. There was a great guy on the fire, had a couple of echols rifles, and hunted the world - Alan? Drawing a blank on his name, but read some of his posts and they made a lot of sense to me. I went with Gene Simillion.

If I want to mess around, then I can buy factory rifles, play with different calibers, and sell them for close to what I paid when I'm done. I do have a couple of smaller projects on the list and expect I will always go in and out of some stuff "on the side", but for my core set of tools, I'm keeping it simple and high quality.

My mistake was spending too much money and time thinking I could find that perfect rifle on the resale market - unethical dealers, guns with strange problems you can't identify when buying, more frustration than its worth - although its always fun looking.

I'm sure I have many mistakes yet to be made, good thread.

I could easily get by with a .22lr, .300 Win, 45-70 and a 12ga, as for handguns I could live with a .44 Mag revolver and a .357 Mag pocket rocket...but I doubt I will ever get down to that as I still enjoy owning several different weapons just not the variety of calibers or numbers of firearms I once owned, and so far I haven't missed a safe full of guns chambered in a bunch of different cartridges one bit......Hb

One of the things I did was limit my pistol cartridges to .45, 9mm, and .22. Makes life a lot easier....and cheaper.

I made the classic blunder of cheaping out on a rifle and will now spend more money to make it into what I want. It's a Remington SPS, basically an eyesore. I will never own 20 rifles like some of you. I just want one nice one.

I still havn't learned that one rifle is all I need to hunt and the money I've spent on all of the others was better spent on trips and tags

Heavy "tactical" rifles, just did another which I will keep for a while, get tired of a sell for a loss.

Any rifle is only as good as it's owner. Just don't take much to hit a basketball at 400 yards. Of course if you live out west, have to beg for a deer tag every 3 years and only get 2 weeks to use it, I guess equipment fills in the time over hunting.

I'm with Scott again on most of this..its no big chore to hit the gopher silhouette target at 400 yards with (or without) basic scope with dotz. As usual trigger time trumps all. I however am fortunate to live in a state where I don't have to beg for deer tags and use them in a three day window.I can still buy a fistful of tags OTC and have over a month to fill them. Fortunate also in that Ive had many a season when I killed more deer than the average guy kills in a decade, and the experience helps point out exactly how bad a lot of these gizmos aren't needed....

All that gobbly gook said..perhaps my most expensive lesson is 'building' rifles. Buy a donor action, or even barreled action, buy a big name barrel, buy an aftermarket stock, have a little gunsmithing done, buy a proper trigger, Talley mounts and any kind of decent scope and you have a $1400 minimum rifle.....which is worth maybe $500 resale value...


But I knew that going in......

Rifles are similar to boats and young women...there's no end to how much money you can pour into them without making them any more useful.

Lots of gold on this thread... wish I had known this one all those years ago:






yeah, I think I am permanently out of the long and heavy game... If I get a change to varmint hunt, I'll take my kids .22-250 Featherweight compact, thing shoots 3/4 MOA with winchester white box...



I need to make this my tagline... do you mind if I steal it?

Just don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Too short and light can end up being poorly balanced, making field shots difficult to pull off. A light barrel of around 22" can be easy to carry, but also easy to shoot. Old Jack's pattern for a mountain rifle coming in at maybe 8 pounds max is still a good one. You can go lighter if you pay close attention to balance. 20" barrels pair well with Mannlicher-style stocks, if you can find one.

Just put together a 6.5 Grendel CZ with a heavy Tract scope. Maybe 8lbs with a 24" barrel, but very well balanced. Not a do-all combo by any means because of the cartridge, but it feels good in my hands, and is at least a pound lighter than my other deer rifles. Might get a lighter scope after I wring out the Tract a bit, maybe a K6.

You couldn't run fast enough to give me a boat, but young women are another thing altogether. What they are good for is priceless.