Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Back up rifles

Here’s what I don’t get - when I read about guys bringing along back up rifles, they’re almost always a different cartridge than their primary rifle. This makes NO sense to me.

If you have a backup, why not another version of your primary? If your backup is a different cartridge, why isn’t it your primary? Doesn’t it make more sense to bring another rifle in the same chambering?



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For me back up rifles, loaner rifles, camp rifles, are all just reasons to buy more guns.

Makes no sense to me to have two identical rifles, or even nearly identical ones in the same chambering. Have a pair of .270s and 6CMs, but their configurations are different.

Used to take an M71 along as a spare when me and the boys went off to “deer camp” at a friends house every year. Never got used, but it didn’t take up much room. Now I hunt 20 minutes from home, and if something befell my primary, I’d just go home and get another one.

I hope this didn’t keep you up all night.😜

Your reasoning makes perfect sense.


For the most part, mine are all different....just because they all kinda sorta fill different niches. At the end of the day, most of em can kill whatever I'm hunting...so they are all capable as back ups...to whatever I want to carry that day. Lol.



I just like guns. And apparently I like stocking a variety of dies, bullets, brass, powder, primers etc. Lol.

What difference does it make? As long as you have ammo and it is zeroed, you are good to go.

I have several guns but no two alike.

Use a good dependable rifle and scope and you won't need a "back up" rifle. Just sayin...

My 30-06 goes everywhere

My backup for one hunt may be my primary on another. Having two identical primary means perfect this hunt but two not quite right that I have to make allowances for when moving locales, methods or species.

I see your logic and I usually go with two rifles chambered for the same cartridge and use the same ammo. That said, how many of us have a different load for like chambered rifles? If you have specific ammo for each rifle it is a moot point.

"Good, reliable" rifles work until they don't, like when a horse steps on the stock. That's why Jack O'Conner said somebody in the group should pack an extra on an expensive trip.

I never needed a backup rifle but my father in law did, on a hunt in another State. Fortunately, one of his buddies had brought a spare. One of my buddies went hunting with a muzzleloader and some Maxiballs that were cast too hard and got stuck halfway down the barrel. Murphy's Law applies in hunting just like everywhere else.

Two identical rifles would be two primary rifles.

A liitle deviation here, but still in line with the Back-Up theme:
Having a back-up available leaves you open for another hunter hunter in camp to want to borrow the unit for some outlandish reason.

My father had one of his cronies show up in deer camp and "forgot" to bring ammo. Of course his rifle was not of the same caliber as others had so my father offers him the use of his dandy little Mod 700 BDL in 243. Well, yep...you guessed it. The stumble bum slips on a rock crossing a creek and the rifle hit scope first on a large rock then rolls in the drink. Never saw my father so pizzed. From there on the back-up loaner was an old low number 03 Springfield with the original sights, hacked down stock and military lead core ball ctgs with the point nipped off. Brings the old adage to mind: "No good deed goes unpunished".

When people ask me why I bought another Tikka 7mm-08 to go along with my other Tikka 7mm-08, I don't say a thing. They just don't understand that good backup rifles are hard to find. 😁

Yet, I also have the same size spare tire as the other tires on my truck, too.

The one time I did not bring a second riflewith me on a trip I slipped on some ice under the snow. My fat butt landed on the stock and snapped it apart through the wrist. Plenty of padding back there so I was unhurt but couldn't say the same for the rifle. Have never had a problem anytimeI took two. Call it insurance.

I have two identical rifles that are chambered for different cartridges.
Same scope, same trigger pull weight, everything same, same....
If I travel far to hunt, I take them both and trade off using them as the mood takes me.
In 40+ years I’ve only been on one hunt where a spare rifle was needed. My brother in laws .300 mag broke down and he got to use my spare .270 for the rest of the hunt.

It is irrelevant if you are proficient with either rifle.

Well sir, I reckon you have done some hunting, but still that's kind of a strange statement if you've been there and done that and got the T-shirt. There is no degree of "dependability" that a rifle or a scope can possess, that will protect it from a horse deciding, just because horses sometimes decide these kind of things, that it is time to take a roll in the dust, or to go blasting off totally spooked through the woods. Lots of stocks have been splintered from such events. Or from our very human tendency to sometimes slip and fall ourselves. I not only have a backup rifle in camp, but I have a backup scope (a 6 oz. Leupold compact) in my pack, in case I take a tumble myself and smash the primary scope on a rock. I use Leupold QR bases and rings so it's easy peasy to swap if needed, which in 40 years it has never been, but if it ever is, I'm set.

I'm not going to go dig out my Jack O'Connor books right now but I do recall his packing list from a British Columbia pack trip on which he took two identical .270 Winchester M70s. That said, my backup rifle is usually a different caliber from my primary, just because, it often works out that way since it may be the next one in the queue in my builds that is "on deck" for next year, but gets to come along just in case for this year.

Just my two cents,
Rex

I like to hunt with cartridges that are not quite as common. My backup has always been a 30-06 because I can do just about anything with one and find ammo. It’s kind of a failsafe for me.

I would guess that most hunters back up rifles are the rifle they used as a primary until they upgraded or wanted another caliber. I been dragging a spare along for decades. Never used it until last year. I was at camp early in the morning getting ready to go out. I dropped my primary straight down on the rocks scope down. I figured it was ok but I didn’t care to guess. I grabbed my spare rifle and went hunting without concern. I would prefer my back up was an exact replica of my primary but it isn't. My backup is as good as my primary rifle and scope just a different brand and caliber. The only difference is I like my primary just a touch more. If I lost my primary I would be just as confident and happy hunting with my back up. A quality primary doesn't necessarily guaranty you wont want or need a back up. Sht happens.

I always take a back up rifle, on a hunt a few years ago I ended up shooting my back up more than my primary.

I shot about a dozen prairie dogs and a couple badgers with my back up, only fired one shot with my primary !!!


more opportunity having a back up