Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Alaska/Canda working rifle

Yeah, just like Darcy does it and keep it under a hundred!

No one with friends he likes would EVER do that!

No one with friends he likes would EVER do that!

Exactly!

Exactly!

Not sure where that came from, but tangers are a very, very well-designed stock and far from painful. The MKII, not so much...

For many years of back-up while guiding I used a 77 tanger in 300WM with a Leupold fixed 3x. In those days I thought the bullet sun rose and set in a small central Oregon town... or some small Idaho burg struggling to cross the line.

The rifle now gets handed around as a loaner, often for extended periods of time, and has left a hefty blood trail in a good number of places... It loves the TTSX line-up...

These days I use a custom-stocked 700 in 30-06 with a Vortex 4-16x44HS for most everything of size. It has worked well for the last several bull moose with 168gr TTSX.

This year I decided to start stretching things to see how far I had to go to catch a TTSX. Looks like a 700 in 7-08 with 145 gr TTSX in a bull moose can get it done! Just takes a raking shot through the ribs, spine, off-side scapula, a bunch of meat, and a piece of really thick hide to catch one!

Moose died.

Military designs like M98 and Lee-Enfield proved themselves very much in that manner, long before any custom gunsmith
got their hands on them trying to make a buck out of selling candy shop 'pimprovements' on them, none of which really
make a rifle bomb proof, if anything they can compromise reliable function.

My "rugged" hunting rifle is left-handed Ruger Hawkeye in 308Win with McMillian stock and fixed Leupie 4x scope. As new hand loader, I haven't decided on bullet choice yet.

I worked as a guide in the 70's and 80's and carried a old Husquvarna that was a heavier rifle but I was young.These days when I pitch in I take a little Browning BLR takedown-it is great. I can take it down in a storm and put it in a dry pack anytime. Packs great on a horse.Cheers

Didn' Ruger kind of invent the process....

We could take a lesson from Dick Preniky..."alone in The wilderness". For those who haven't watched it...dick disappeared in the Alaska wilderness to live out his retirement...he took a rifle with him....stayed for 30 years.....the rifle ...a model 70 30-06

Yeah, they did. They made golf clubs and all sorts of stuff for other companies with that process.

Hand drills come to mind...a dealer I knew was a big ruger collector and had a ruger hand drill....
I'll bet they said what can we use this investment cast process to really make money....how about knock of single action revolver....

I think RU 77s have always been investment casting? No "older" or "newer".....

I have two RU77 Tang models that you could not pry me from. Both are blued/wood, tho for my uses I would prefer SS and plastic... I'm hard on rifles.

One is a .338WM, self worked on, after purchase, 2nd hand at fair market value. Didn't work very well factory standard. Glass bedded, free floated, factory trig tuned to 3.25 or so poundage. As light as I could get it safely. Stick-on rubber cheek piece added to accomodate my long neck. I installed a .260 base and .260 blade front, silver soldered on, in case the scope goes tits. Rear sight is a V filed into the higher integral scope base. I always disliked those Ruger high sights. This one is low profile, zeroed at 100 with 250 gr loads.

The other RU77 Tang (.30-06) is a "deplorable" picked up for $80. Chopped the muzzle bulge out to 17 inch bbl length, glass-bedded /free floated the stock, worked factory trigger down to about 3#., refinished water damaged stock, chopped that fore and aft , and slimmed forend to make it propotion to eye-appealing '"for the wife". Mostly, I use it, with a 1" slip on recoil pad over the Decelerator pad (which the .338 also sports, to my LOP).

Basically, I anticipated Ruger's "carbine" models by about 10 years...

And, by the way- both shoot 1.25 MOA or better with factory loads, and mo-better with certain fire-formed handloads. The .338 prefers shoulder headspacing to rim.

The whole Alaska / Canada working rifle blueprint is very appealing to me. The first custom rifle I built back 25yrs ago was based on this basic concept.
Stainless rifle weren't as common back then and I am a Mauser guy.

So I built mine on a 1909 Argentine Mauser action. 338 Win. mag 22" barrel. NECG open sights , early Warne quick detach rings.
Basner stock. Total weight 7.75lbs.

Here's my 'working" gun. Stock is an old Brown Precision. Bbl is a Lilja 1:12". The M78 was Remington's pre-SPS cheap version of the M700.

I like this rifle a lot.

Always liked that rig, Brad.

Same here. Non-stainless wouldn't bother me.

New guy here. Been lurking a long time and like this thread - especially that I can read many of my own thought patterns into what others have done or are doing.

Forever I'd only ever hunted with hand-me-down rifles: 30-06 pump action when I was a young buck through early 20's, then my dad's old 7mm when times were tough in my late 20's. Killed piles of deer & elk with those two rifles and they were definitely well worn and just awesome. Nothing particularly fancy either... cheap glass, corelokts etc.

Then I started earning a few dollars and decided it was high time I buy myself a proper rifle at the ripe old age of 37 for a goat hunt on Kodiak. Got myself a new Tikka and Vortex package in 7mm and punched a few tags. The combo was easy to shoot well, easy to carry and gave me no troubles. Then gave it to a good client when he retired as he planned to build the exact rifle setup I had. While it did everything I wanted, it was plain jane boring.

Enter my super duper high fancy Christensen Arms Ridgeline 308. Tiny, light, carbon fiber, titanium, accurate, real nice! Bought Feb of this year and I proceeded to put roughly 500 rounds down the pipe over the spring/summer. Took it to Alaska for a sheep/moose hunt and had the time of my life. But kept liking my party members' old 30-06's for the same reason the OP alluded to; the guns and their respective owners had earned all the dings and shooting them accurately was as natural as throwing rocks in water for my 2 year old son. I have my late fathers Ruger 30-06 in the safe and the old 7mm he gave me being rebuilt into a 257wby. One thing I learned with the CA is that a rifle can be too light and that a carbon fiber stock will chip when a wood or laminate stock might just get a small dent. I also discovered I really like short actions. And I like a gun that has been there done that and has the matching character and successes that always make great stories.

Recently, I bought myself a brand spanking new Browning xbolt medallion (blued/wood) in 300 wsm. The plan is to spend a small fortune shooting the hell out of it on all kinds of hunts until I die. Love the weight, feel and balance. I don't think you can buy a properly worn gun off the rack, but you can indeed buy one and live a great life with it, and that's what I intend to do.