Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Can a hunting gun be too nice?

I've a Sako M85 Deluxe in 9.3x62. Gonna have a real hard time actually hunting with it. It's just too nice. Stock, blueing. Yeoowww!

I had an early B78 30-06 that was simply beautiful. It was in like new condition. I scoped it, loaded for it and shot it. I called it my gentleman's rifle. And I never hunted with it. Just couldn't see dinging that one up. A collector wanted it bad and paid me well for it. I'm not going to buy a gun anymore that I will not hunt with.

Back in the day when I just had to have a 45-70, I located a Browning B78 chambered such.
That rifle had such a high gloss finish that hunting it bothered me, so I kept it cased until I was able to haul line it up into my stand. Shot a nice doe with it one morning, slid it back into the case and brought it home with the deer.

Later I sold it and bought a decent scope with the funds to be put on another rifle.

Just because one is made of SS and fiberglass doesn't make it ugly. The new Barrett has nice lines and also appears to have good workmanship, as does the new light Cooper. One thing that really appeals to my eye, whether on a blued or stainless gun is nice contours machined into the metal, like the boss under the bolt release on my CZ527 or even a nicely shaped bolt shroud. That kind of detail really sets them apart from ones that look like all the parts are stamped into shape or turned on a lathe. Sintered or MIM parts don't help the looks either. Walnut and SS can look very nice together too.

Although I luv the warmth of wooooddd,




fugly is as fugly does!
















and does it well!


ya!

GWB

You bet SKane, making a history with these fine weapons is what the Craftsmen that built them intended.

G W

I really like your 'petting Zoo'.

Jerry

Full disclosure, the hoglet in the next to last picture was take while with the guys doing the 24hourcampfire hog hunt at the Thompson Ranch, near crystal city Texas, last March, and not at the "Petting Zoo".

ya!


GWB

[quote=Windfall... Lots of you guys post some really nice firearm pictures on here and I'm wondering if you ever think that those might be just too nice to take out in the swamp or in bad weather?

... What are your thoughts about hunting with a really nice one?[/quote]

Bought a Remington 870 synthetic/blue rather than spend $100 more for a Browning BPS simply because once slipped climbing a creek bank while hldin my Browning SA22. Took a lot of work to get the mud out of the checkering and other places. With the synthetic stock, who cares - take a brush and water to it and be done.

Sold a really nice Ruger #1 in .280 Rem because I wouldn't hunt with it in bad weather. Replaced it with a Ruger Hawkeye All Weather in 280 Rem that I will hunt anywhere, any time.

I like the looks of walnut/blue and have hunted with that combination most of my life, but for wet weather I prefer synthetic and stainless and now have several of those as well.

I sat out in an all day rain with my then Winchester M100 carbine and the stock must not have been finished under the barrel. A week later that rifle stock had warped and it was shooting 10" high. Since then my serious hunting rifles have been camo stainless and synthetic because beauty is as beauty does. In a weak moment I did buy a nicely wooded Cooper .221 Fireball, but I'm kind of ambivalent about varmints, so I'm not making much of a dent in their population and certainly not in bad weather.

I thought hunting rifles were made to hunt with. A few dings in a woodstock lends character. I sure don't throw mine around, but do hunt with them.

A mauser in 250-3000.

You're not supposed to big game hunt at the petting zoo? Oh man, I better be careful from now on!
😳

I am definitely not a collector type. I have or have had a smattering of higher-end guns in my life. I love a rifle or shotgun that is also a work of art in wood and steel (or otherwise too), but that alone would never get it into my safe; I also expect to use it; it has to be completely functional for nothing in that safe will rest quietly there — it then has to feel good to me and work in the field or it eventually takes its leave. Sooner usually rather than later.

I also love a really good, used gun on a store, gun rack that shows a thousand memories but has been obviously, well cared for.

On the contrary, I will not ever use an excuse in wood, plastic and metal that handles like a barge and to the eye appears accordingly, regardless of its function — unless of course they start drafting sixty-something year olds for WWlll.

I've had a lot of fun with the concept of "the Petting Zoo".

Back a few years ago when I was just starting out on 24hour Campfire, Larry/Busheler/BigStick would post quite a bit. I had a ball going back and forth with him. "B" as I call him holds all things Texas, Texans and our way of "hunting" in low esteem. At least on the three different websites where I have encountered him. I hunt on low fenced ranches. Currenly I have two trespass leases. One is north of Uvalde Texas and is the old Brisco homestead ranch, some 60,000 acres. My buds and I have a 1,700 acre pasture to ourselves. That lease is 20 miles from the nearest town and six miles in off the paved road. One has to go through three bump gates and a chain gate to get to our camp/hunting area. If you were to flatten it out it would probably be 4K acres. I get to where I hunt on an ATV, and load up my kills on said ATV to bring back to the camp where I stay. I can go anytime of the year I want and can stay as long as I want. I am in the middle of undeveloped land for thousands of square miles. No power, water, nor cell service unless I go to the top of a hill. I usually stay four or five days and do this at least 15 times a year. 24/7/365 I can hunt, trap, and snare varmints, such as coyote, fox, coons, hogs, rabbits, squirrels, Aoudad sheep, and exotics that wander though from time to time. I even have a few pix on game cameras of a "cat". Turkey are prevalent and Toms are hunted in April, and either sex beginning with bow season in October through the first week of December. Dove season Starts in September and goes though December. All is low fenced and IMHO free range.

Back then, "B" was always giving me "jazz" about not being able to knock the new off a pair of boots........



(the tops on this pair were purchased by my dad in Mexico shortly after he got out of the Navy in 1945.)




about golf carts



I had arranged for a father and son (who'd recently got back from one of the "Stans") to come hunt with me. My son had just completed the assembly of this golf cart, so I thought, what the hey, it would make a dandy "prop". Hang up a couple hogs, park it in front of a gate, and take a cheezy photo of Charles and I. I figured for the passive/aggressive fuzzball that I am, I'd get a kick of posting it, even if no one else did.



and gates





and a few other cheezy photos













We had recently taken my grandson to a "Wildlife Preserve" that had about 60 different species of critters. It was for a birthday party, and they had a "petting zoo.

Voila!

So I started calling this place "The Petting Zoo".

Over the years I've had a ball with this.

IIRC, these days Ingwe comes to Texas from Montana to shoot Axis, Blackbuck, Aoudad and hoglets. He refers to the whole state as "the Petting Zoo".


ya!

GWB

Merry Christmas you ole 'bastid'

back at ya!

BTW,

I've tried to always consider the old bromide "friends come and go, but enemies accumulate".

As a habit, I do not make "New Years" resolutions, but this year I've one I'm strongly considering. Burying a "hatchet" as the saying goes, and not in someone's head....... Perhaps you get my drift.

So in that spirit here is also wishing you and yours health and joy in the coming new year.

Best,

GWB

That's my intention and back at ya. I have my sister-in-law to deal with and that's enough for me. Besides, I'm getting too old and too fat to fight any longer.

This one ain't very fancy, but it was a good looking, all German boy hunting with it this Christmas Eve morning. God bless us all Tiny Tim.

I take my nice ones to the stand in a soft case. I have rifles I hunt with in bad-rainy weather. I have a designated loaner rifle. I have a couple of unfired rifles I’m not gonna take hunting. I hate getting my wood rifles dinged up.

You only live once... enjoy while getting to hunt, I say.

Nope!