Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Weight of Jack O'Connor's favorite .270

Very handsome looking rifle - just the thing for Africa.

Great looking rifle mule deer.

I know lightweight is all the rage today, but to me, an 8# rifle is about perfect. Make it a 270, and it is! But I would not complain about a 7.5# rifle either.

I have tried the lightweights and do not prefer them. But I am not a serious mountain hunter where every ounce counts.

Thank you JB and Chet for sharing. JOC is my favorite writer of all time, but JB, you come in second!

I would like to believe that if JOC was still roaming the high sheep pastures that he would be packing a pretty similar rifle to wihat he hunted had with during his lifetime. He was clearly into the aesthetics of a rifle: I remember reading him describing in detail the angles and curves of a proper stock and he clearly liked the beauty of, if I remember correctly, Bosnian walnut.

He struck me as an imminently practical rifleman. I suspect that he would eschew these modern large scopes and other extremes like bantam weights.

I agree that he seemed to be at the cutting edge, but maybe it was do more to the fact that with the model 70, he found a near perfect rifle. But for the clubby stock, which we all know, he had modified. When the GIs brought home the Mauser, like many others he customized them.

I’ve often heard that the side by side shotgun was perfected by the end of the 19th century. Maybe the bolt action hunting rifle had been perfected by mid-20th century.

Maybe the 50s and 60s will be become known as the golden age of the rifle.

Really ? ?

I don’t think so at all because of the myriad of options that are available for Rifles today
and I don’t read of guys going retro in customizing today’s Rifles.
If the options are not being used they would not be on the market.

AND consider all the Custom Rifles on the market today. How much do they
look like mid 20th Century Rifles ?

Jerry

Seriously ??

Where have you guys been this year ?

Jerry

Did Jack O'Connor develop the 270?

and 270 wcf fan.

or hunters (vs shooters).

I think there is something to be said for the time men took guns and bullets that had not been perfected and risked life and limb accosting rhinos, leapords, lions, bears and elephants. Lord knows, many lived life to the fullest and many died pursuing their dream of conquering such things.

And I'd bet it was -




2 clicks of the wrist!

Watching Winchester re-market the 351 self loader cartridge of 1907....

In this day and age, everyone chases accuracy and ultra light weight to the exclusion of everything else. Those rifles like JOCs are not just rifles - they're works of art. They were more than accurate enough for the intended purpose which was hunting game but they had an appeal like a finely crafted musical instrument. Even if one never hunted or cared to shoot, one would be delighted to own something like that and show it off to friends.

Modern rifles seem to lack that. They're accuracy machines for sure but they don't have the aesthetic appeal that came with early rifles IMHO.

He was certainly great at promoting some very good innovations, I never really knew what he innovated or created himself, or had a hand in the development in.

Dont leave out what ‘ChetAF’ said. JOC went to a LGS bought a Rifle and
had a STOCK MADE for it.

His Rifles didn’t come O E M, even then they were ‘customized’.

Jerry

JOC was a hunter. The concept of a hunter suggests skills that enabled the hunter to get within a sub-400 yard distance to the quarry. One doesn’t need a 1/2 inch shooter or a 18 power scope to be effective. In fact at these distances the JOC would work as well as any high tech rifle, excluding a situation of where there is constant rain.

Obviously I’ve never handled a JOC rifle, but I bet that it is well balanced and moves like a wand in your hands. I’ve been in plenty of hunting camps where I’ve hefted these unbalanced monstrosities that are considered the ultimate in hunting rifles. They would be great for 800 yard shots and I acknowledge that it takes a lot of skill to shoot these accurately, but as one writer noted, this is more about being a shooter rather than a hunter., which of course is fine, if thats what blows your hair back.

That's true - thank you for pointing that out, but I still think that the general craftsmanship for affordable rifles for the Joe Average hunter was better in the 50s and early 60s.

For example, affluent shooters and hunters will gladly pay premiums for pre 64 Winchesters based on the better quality that was available back then.

Unfortunately today, that kind of hand crafted quality is priced out of the market for the average wage earner.

It’s really a neat place. Less than 5 min from my home. Truly enjoy it. On the road work. Would have loved to have met you. Before I hit the road bass fishing was off the hook on the snacks. Great post.

No, he had not gained his full stature as a hunting and gun writer in 1925, But he was for the most part the main source of the .270 popular trends, and causing people to want a flatter shooting caliber. This was during a time when other mainstream writers were actually against the .270. He was a sort of Husband of the .270 exposing it's truths to the popular opposition. Causing us the public to want similar experiences.

I don't agree with you for multiple reasons BUT I'm dropping it.........

I don't want to mess up an otherwise very good thread.


Jerry