Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting do you pick the same rifle evertime you go hunting??

WinMike,
I handload my rifles and if I load the Whelen up "hot" like elk loads. It kicks about like my 7MM Magnum. If I use 200 gr bullets it isn't any different than a 30-06 as far as I can tell.
Weight of the rifle and stock design will make a big difference.
My buddy had a 30-06 "mountain rifle" that was impossible to hang onto with 180 gr bullets. The slim forend would slip right out of your hand. When there is no tracking snow I like a good blood trail. That means I like a bullet heavy enough to go through a moose or a bear. We never have snow during bear season. They seem to like heavy cover when they are being hunted?
GWN

Yes. After having tried leverguns in a couple of flavors and a Remington autoloader in -06, I wound up with a Rem 788 carbine in 7-08 many years ago. It's the one that I grab when I'm heading out the door.

Up until a couple years ago, I pretty much would have agreed with the one-gun-only crowd...and still do, for the most part. 99% of the time, I carried my "Meat Gun", my Savage 99 in .300 Savage. That was, where and when I could use my rifle (excepting muzzleloader seasons and shotgun-only areas).



But, I had limited choices at the time...it was either my Pap's Winchester Model 95, which I found to be quite valuable (more than monitary) and is now a "Safe Queen" or my Savage 99. Also, the 99 fits me like a glove and I pretty much know exactly where the bullet is going to hit at nearly any given distance (within reason).



Well, I got bitten by the "milsurp" bug and have a couple Enfield rifles (a No4 Mk2 and a No5 Mk1). Now, I think about whether I want to take out one of the "war horses" or the "Meat Gun". This year, I took the No5 out in the brush and took a doe with it and one of my handloads (I just started handloading last Fall).



But, that's just a novelty thing...it's not like I've got 3-4 of the same style of rifle and need to decide which one to take out...



However, I now need to make the same kinds of choices. I'm not about to mount a scope on either of the war horses, so unless I want to try my hand with the elevation-adjustable peep sights on them, I'll continue to use the Meat Gun for the majority of my deer hunting.



Aqualung

I seem to always grab my Steyr .243. I usually only hunt antelope or sheep anymore...so thats all the power I will ever need in the mountains or the deserts.

Depending upon the condition ,but normally my Sako 280 mountain rifle with a Leupold VARI -X III 4.5X14 scope..

I only have 1 centerfire rifle. Thats all I need.
Sako 75 .308
S&B 1.6-42 scope

i use a shotgun on birds but i guess you're talking ungulates here? i've got a few. ruger ul in 243 for sniping and a ruger#1 intnl 7x57 with a reciever sight for still hunting. sometimes take out my 54 robinson but not for a while. (just got my 99 30/30) sometimes put a slug barrel on the remy when i'm "pot" hunting. i like guns- always have .

Hornhead - you have a 54 Robison?
I have a 58, serial 181.
Have run a ton of powder through it.
How's yours?
Catnthehat

#155. its what he called the hunter - single key. is he still around? talked to him when i was trying to find a hunting load. asked him if it could take 150 gr of 3f. he said sure but why use that much? asked him what his proof load was and he said a lot more than 150-3f but you sound crazy enough to try it (he wouldn't tell me). good gun. he uses (used) quality furniture on them. won a couple of small matches with it. 60-3f for targets. load 90-3f for deer. haven't found a retarded deer to try it on yet. i'd ask if you want to sell yours but most people don't. percussion? should work fine for moose with rnd ball. don't know what i'd do with a 58 anyway - but that's not the point is it? there's a bp site on this board but its not all that busy.

Another one my favorite rifles to carry is the Marlin micro groove barrel 35 REM. lever action with a 3x9 scope mounted on see-through mounts. This rifle is ideal for brush and also in bad weather conditions.

When I was younger I had visions of traveling the world and hunting exotic animals... I think I've owned a dozen calibers over the years. Everything from a .22lr to the .338 mag. But as I got older I find that all I hunt anymore is deer. Thats all. Most of my hunting is close to home. I sold off all the rifles and bought a Marlin 30-30.. Life has become a lot simpler since then. I have found the wonderful world of handloading and the 30-30 is a joy to play with. I have toyed with the idea of getting another rifle and I'm pretty sure it will be another 30-30.. Does all I ask it to do without the "fuss"..... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I don't hunt anything but deer and if i'm hunting heavy woods i grab my 30.06 and if i'm going to hunt fields or cutovers where my shots are long range then i grab the 25.06. Not saying the 30cal can't do the job at long range because i know it can i just like shooting the 25 at those longer distances.

ive had few big game rifles over the years and I have few to pick from now when i head out the door.

my 270 was my main pick for around 6 years mostly because it was the only rifle i had, its rem sportman 78, I got it new in 84, well thats when dad got it, i got it knew when i was 12

but i have others that are more fun, okay one thats more fun,

my rugger m77 walnut blued 25.06. I think ive had this rifle for 3 years. in that 3 years it has been grabbed more times than my other rifles. there other rifles I have are a 270wsm its new and hasnt prooven itself to me,. Ive also had few 30/06s that didnt get much use over the 25.06.

Im trying to turn my 270wsm into my moderate range deer and elk rifle. even with a 4.5-14x40 vxIII on it it hasnt got the nod yet. thinkn its gona get degraded and put its glass on the 25. and it get 3-9.

my 270win is set up with a 3-9 leo and will do anything i want and is my rifle of choice when hunting bigger critters,


my 25.06 is my all year around rifle that I shoot everything from rock chucks to deer without batten an eye. id only shoot elk if the situation was just right.

Evan

I have to use a different gun this year. We bought land where only shotguns and handguns are allowed. I will be using an 870 with a rifled slug barrel and a Savage Striker in 7mm-08 for the later part of the season there. Opening weekend I will still be in rifle country and will use whatever rifle looks good that month. It could be a .30-06, a .270, a 7mm Mauser, a .25-06, or a .308, all bolt guns. I still want to shoot a deer with one of my Garands or 1903A3's and the M1-A is looking lonely, too. After deer hunting for 30 years or so, shooting them with different guns is more than half the fun. The new 7mm mag .300 mag, and the .338 mag will stay in the safe, though. Overkill is overkill and recoil and I don't get along enough to use them to shoot some 175 pound whitetail.

Fast Ed

no, I take the rifle that I think is best for the area I plan to hunt. If I plan to hunt deer in an area that I know is mostly timber and small clearcuts I use a difrent gun than if I am going to hunt an area with large open areas. Or if I'm hikeing in a wilderness area I take a lite rifle.

Jamie

jamie

what rifle would you grab if you know youd be in timber and have the opurtunity to take shots at game at ranges across cayons or to the next ridge that range from 300yds and farther.

with 3-9 glass on my 270win Ive taken deer from 20yds to 300 and further. all with the same bullet. this is also a light rifle.

for timber and wide open country this is the rifle to have, but the 270wsm would work just as good at those close and long ranges. the 25.06 would.

i have debated about putting a 1.5-6 lps on the 270win to kinda make it my closer range timber and open country rifle.

I love idaho. the areas i hunt you cant count on 50yd shot or a 300yd, you have to be able to it all in the rifle your carrieing or pass up the shot wich i have done many times. in 10 years of hunting I think im just now becomeing confident in myself and my firearms at the longer 300 ranges, 300 is long range in my book, much farther and im declineing.

Evan

I always take two, first up is the Pre-64 Winchester Model 70 Featherweight in 30-06 and it gets the nod when its not raining. If the weather is nasty the second stringer is a Weatherby Vanygaurd Synthetic .270 (Walmart Special). Both wear as most my rifles do.....Leopold VXII 3x9x40. Both shoot 1inch groups at 100 yards and I am comfortable with each of them, especially the Featherweight, that gun is the sweetest thing I have ever handled.

stroker,

just outa curiousty does that vangaurd say howa on it anywhere? i think it was made by howa for weatherby.

Wow that was a long thread to read. I was going to reply but he said just what I was gonna say. Except I don't golf. Shooting golf ain't worth it, they're too tough to eat.

For many years I had only two centerfires � a Ruger M77 in 7mm Mag and a Browning B92 carbine in .44Mag, the later a gift from Dad. Each year I took both elk hunting, the Browning as a backup, even though I made it a point to hunt with it at least one day each season.

Then Dad gave me a Savage 110E in .22-250. �Ugly/� was the word Daughter #2 used to describe it, but man, could it shoot! Took a lot of coyotes with it before the barrel went south.

About 3 years ago I picked up a Marlin 375 (.375 winchester), followed a year later by a Marlin 1895 (.45-70). Last year I took an antelope with the 375 and a forkhorn buck and a 6x6 bull elk with the 1895.

Last Christmas my wife got me a Ruger M77 MKII VT in .22-250, and the Savage was officially retired. Sold it in January and bought a very nice, barely fired Ruger M77 in .257 Roberts. Have been using both of these rifles for coyotes and prairie dogs ever since, and am working up some 120g +P loads for the Roberts in anticipation of antelope hunting and maybe mule deer.

Last fall the Ruger 7mm Mag and Browning .44Mag stayed home for the first time ever, replaced by the Marlins. This year it will probably be the 7mm Mag and the .45-70.

So no, I don�t always grab the same rifles, at least not any more.