Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters "Panache VS. Practicality" Sports Afield by Mule Deer

Tom,

You're not going far enough. If you want even more panache and practicality you need a drilling with a 7x57R barrel....

Well, I did sell my .405/16 ga cape gun awhile back. But my flinter is kinda slinky.

I think my newly acquired Rem model 30 Express .405 custom might qualify as panache however we have no Rhinos loose here in Kneebraskee so maybe not so practical..

Somehow I feel compelled to comment on this again, partly because I first started posting on the Campfire almost 20 years ago, after "lurking" for a few months.

Have told this story before, but what took me over the edge was a very positive comment on one of my articles in what was then the "Ask Ken Howell" forum, since Ken was the only gun writer regularly posting here.

The poster summed up my article in a 2-3 sentences, whereupon a bunch people posted that I was FOS. I eventually felt compelled to make my first post, stating why they were FOS--due to assuming what the article was all about despite never reading it.

Which is one reason the forum's name was eventually changed to "Ask The Gun Writers," since there were two of us. Since then Ken passed away other writers have taken part, including Jon Sundra and Wayne van Zwoll. (It was also soon decided that anybody would comment, especially since writing about guns on the Campfire makes everybody a gun writer.)

That said, apparently many folks are still very willing to make assumptions about articles they've never read--as you just demonstrated.. This seems a little odd to me, but then the Internet is often a very odd way to "communicate."

John,

Having authored more than a few peer reviewed articles myself, I can understand the sentiment. I posted a conscience stream of thought because I've been moving to the practical side of the spectrum and was relating to that side of the article title. I'm not sure my 2 sentence reply constitutes a summary of your article as much as relating to a part of the title. I apologize for posting a misguided thought.

I see as hunters/shooters get older they move toward panache and away from guns like the LEGO 700 series. It becomes less and less about the kill but more about the overall experience. A nice classic rifle like a FN-98 in 275 Rigby, fits in well at this time in a hunter's life. This has been my own personal experience. Less plastic magnums in the safe and more walnut.

Saying that, I do have one rifle that is pure practical. It's a beater blued 700 with 24" SS SPS 30-06 bbl re-chambered to Super 30 in a scabby Brown Precision. It's kind of a blend of panache in the chambering while being total 100% practical in form.

^^ Indeed ^^

bwinters,

Thanks for the clarification on your take on the article--before you read it. No need to apologize, as I understand how we can project our own tendencies into reading anything!

Here's a photo of the last 4 rifles I've purchased and/or traded for:



From the top:
Sauer drilling, 16x16x7x57R, with a 1.5-6x Zeiss Diavari scope.
1903-03 Springfield, made by Remington in 1942, apparently all original. (Thethe sling may not be.)
Ruger Hawkeye African, .275 Rigby.
BSA Martini Model 12, a .22 rimfire converted to .22 Hornet.

You can see my recent tendencies, but I still occasionally buy (or "build') a practical hunting rifle, even though between my New Ultra Light ARMS .30-06 and Whitworth .375 H&H (which has both a walnut and synthetic stock), along with a few others, am pretty well outfitted for practicality anywhere in the world.

Nice selection.

Very nice!

I have been more than mildly curious with the 275 Rigby given my proclivities to the 280 Rem through the last 35+ years. I've owned a couple 7x57 and think they make ideal medium game cartridges despite Mr. Bell's usage. I've threatened to build one for a while. I'd prefer it stamped 275 Rigby, gives it a bit more panache......

Jack O'Connor once wrote that the 7x57 is useful on North American big game from javelina to moose.( Do not remember him writing about using a 7x57 on moose, but he did on javelina, and maybe Eleanor shot a moose with one.) That's exactly the range of North American big game I've taken with the 7x57, and in Africa a bunch of "plains game" from springbok and impala to kudu and wildebeest. Don't know if any of them felt they died with more panache, but they all died pretty quickly.

Practical and a small degree of panache as I just picked up a Remington 700 classic is 300 Savage. It's a good fit with the other classic in 250 Savage.

That's the pair I have. Love them both.

I'm jealous. That LW Dural drilling with the perfect scope and chambers, all three barrels, is about as nice as they come.

Bruce,

If you ever decide you really need that drilling, I would be willing to give you as good a break as you've given me on drillings. No doubt I will use it on something this fall, but it's been several decades since I've been short of choices for hunting season!

Hope you are doing well, my friend!

Many minds are thinking alike here. I am building a 1903 Springfield along the lines of a classic Griffin & Howe sporter and plan to mark the barrel ".275 Rigby" too. I also scored a bunch of Hornady brass head-stamped .275 Rigby to complete the package.

John,
I have yet to read your article but look forward to doing so. I'm not a SA subscriber so I am keeping my eyes out on the newsstands for a copy. I shan't comment until having read it! But I saw the allusion above to the Burris FF II 3x9 Ballistic Plex that you're apparently using on some of your rifles. I find these scopes excellent and bought 5 of them when they were closing out at $120 wholesale. Only mounted 2 so far...
I loaned one of those rifles (a .243) to a gent who needed to put down his muzzleloader to make a stalk on a distant coyote, and when he handed it back to me he said "Man, I LOVE that scope - it's amazingly bright and clear!" This fella can afford any scope he wants but he had me get him on of those Burris. I reckon that's part of the "practicality" I can look forward to reading about!

Cheers,
Rex

Rex,

Didn't mention scopes specifically, as the article focused on cartridges and rifles. But the lead photo is of two of my favorite big game rifles, my New Ultra Light Arms .30-06, and my Merkel K-1 .308 Winchester, classic German Kipplauf (break-action single-shot). Both weigh well under 7 pounds with the 3-9x40 Fullfield II each had on it at the time.

The Merkel still does, but the .30-06 is one of my favorite test rifles for new scopes, because of its accuracy and light weight. The light weight results in enough recoil to cause problems with defective scopes, and the accuracy allows me to detect the problems. And that's why the rifle has Talley detachable steel mounts instead of the aluminum mounts--known these days as Talley Lightweights--that come with NULAs: I can detach whatever scope the .30-06 has on top of it, replace it with the test scope, and then after the testing's done put the rifle's regular scope back on the .30-06 without having to tweak the adjustments.

I had a bit of conflict in picking the Merkel from a lineup of them in the show room of Briley Manufacturing in Houston. (The also do rifle work, along with making and installing their superb chokes.) I'd been wanting (and saving for) a Kipplauf for a while, partly because I was traveling to hunt a LOT back then, and you can take the major components of a Kipplauf apart in a few seconds, just like you do a break-action shotgun. The parts will then fit in a take-down case, which is a LOT handier when traveling than the typical full-size rifle case, whether in a float plane up north or a crowded Toyota Land Cruiser in Africa.

Anyway, one of the half-dozen K-1s at Briley was a 7x57R, and I considered it too. But the .308 won, for two reasons: .308 ammo is available anywhere you can buy rifle ammunition, and 7x57R ammo isn't. That was the practical part. Second, the .308's wood had much nicer figure. That was the panache part.

Mule Deer ,i also liked your article on the solid bench ,yes it is a little high priced for a Strukey bench but it is very nice too in the pictures. a couple of weeks before i got sports afield mag. with this article i had just got some brackets from Lonny G. with a print on how to build a bench with his brackets off 24 HR. Campfire,his brackets sure look nice too.

Thanks, Steve.

As I mentioned in the column, the Stukey bench is the only portable bench I've tested over many years that has comparable accuracy results as a heavy permanent bench--and I have tested a BUNCH of portable benches. The price, of course, is pretty high, both in weight and money, but after buying my first Stukey bench 16 years ago, I considered the price or the latest version very reasonable. Many of us pay about the same for a rifle and scope these days/

Now both Eileen and I have a Stukey bench to use on prairie dog shoots--or when testing big game rifles at different elevations and longer ranges in the local mountains.