Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Important Qualities in a Hunting Rifle

How it feels when shouldered and shooting
Accuracy
Reliability
Looks- not interested in some jackass hackjob rig.

Not important:

Mag box length
Twist rate

If it is chambered for a certain cartridge, I'm sure I can find a load that does well in it. Don't need extra heavy bullets seated long. If I want heavier I go larger in caliber

Your list sums it up pretty good! Though, expecting a hunting rifle of decent “carrying weight” to maintain a tight, rapid fire 5 shot group may be pretty difficult to find! Not impossible…..just difficult! However 1.5” to 2.0” is a pretty large group….unless you’re shooting @ 200 yards! If it were a 3 shot group……I’d expect that @ 300 yards! IMO memtb

It is nice when the whole rifle works as it should. Feeding, extracting, safety, etc.

I want my guns set up so they point well and shoot any and all shots where they’re supposed to go along with enough accuracy with the chosen bullets I wanna use at the time.

Sounds easy in theory but man, I’ve had some I thought should be great that have turned out to be not as great as I’d hoped.

Reliable, light, well balanced. I hunt the Woods so I don't get too worked up about group size. 150 yards is a long shot

Correct on the first two being there.,…. If used for hunting, shots 3, 4 5 are just chasing a bouncing animal and backed up by some prayers if they will hit or not

+1 Well said.

When the chips are down, due to the varied terrain that I hunt, my trust in a rifle increases when going from 1.5 MOA to 0.5 MOA. Any better than that is nice, but gets lost in the noise for my hunting purposes.

+1

Feel is overlooked a lot and should not. They should feel solid, not rattle and come up to the shoulder effortlessly . Your eyes should be on target every time. They should not have excessive extrusions that bite into your hand or arm when carrying them. They should be well balanced.

Should go bang every time like others have mentioned.

First shot should be on target .

Should be good looking from a mechanical and physical aspect.

Should be able to be stripped down as much as necessary with as little tools as possible.

No Blind Magazines.



Not important:

Mag box length

Twist rate

whether it has a hinged floor plate or a magazine

The trigger on my .300 Savage 99F is the reason that it is my #2 backup rifle. Yes, it carries better and points better than my custom 7mm-08 and is probably just as accurate, but that heavier trigger pull is more than I want for my #1 sitting rifle. None of you have mentioned terminal performance. Acceptable accuracy sure, but I want to be shooting the most effective bullet / cartridge that I can for what I'm hunting. My 7mm RM weighs less which was most important for my western hunting, but it is too much cartridge for whitetails in WI.

Some good to excellent points have been made. . . but also some assumptions. To hold zero in the long term, from year to year, isn't going to happen if a scope is used and much shooting is done annually - in a high-powered medium or big bore, especially if a variable scope is used. I could tell you how I know that, but it would be too long winded! But mostly, on this thread, "deer rifles" are usually being considered, not .338 to .458 magnums that can shake "things" apart pretty quickly if fired often in practice or at a range in the development of several "best loads".

My big game rifles start at .35 Whelen and go up from there to .458 Win Mag, and I shoot them regularly. They all have scopes and are used not only in hunting but in developing loads for research and publication. It's a rare scope indeed that will hold it's zero (or last a lifetime) from year to year without attention to fasterners, screws and bolts, etc! I have hunting loads for all of them, but I'd never go to "the hunting field" without checking their "zero".

The only scopes that have survived a 30-yr pounding from .45-70s hot loaded and then on a .458 Win Mag was a Burris Silver Safari fixed 4x by 21mm. It had a long eye-relief of 5.5" and finally died this year on my oldest son's .356 Winchester. It has a lifetime warrenty. I put one similar on a .458 that when sold remained on that rifle. Zero "for ever"? Not in my experience.

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

This past September I went on a moose hunt in northern Alberta. While my guide and I were driving an old logging road the first day we stopped at an abandoned campsite and I found an onl aluminum frying pan. I thought that it would make a good sight-in target, so I propped it up with a bent willow stick. We backed off across a draw and my guide lasered the range at 169 yards.

I layed down and using my backpack for a rest, I sent a 180 gr Barnes TTSX handload from my .300 Weatherby at the frying pan. Absolutely no reaction from the frying pan. My guide said I should have seen my face as I thought that I had completely missed the pan. So I shot again, and again no reaction on the frying pan.

We then drove back the the frying pan and as we got closer, I was relieved to see the hits, and my guide was impressed. There was just a hairline of aluminum between the two hits.


 

1. Reliability first - an unreliable rifle is junk. Feed/ eject/hold zero/reasonable accuracy. "Reasonable accuracy" means that the rifle is capable of better accuracy than my ability to hold it on a target in hunting conditions. Cartridge & bullet adequate for all conditions in which the chosen game will be hunted.

2. Handling second - I very seldom hunt in a manner that allows shots from prone or bench style rests. Dynamic handling and a rifle that fits properly is more important to me. Getting an aimed shot off quickly from an improvised rest or even sometimes offhand is far more important to me than ultimate accuracy. Chasing ultimate accuracy in a hunting rifle is of no tangible benefit to me. It's a confidence builder, and gives one bragging rights, but doesn't actually help "me" put any more game in the freezer.

3. Good handling qualities includes "no need to fiddle" with stuff - I won't use scopes with more than 10x magnification, twisty turrets, thumbhole stocks, muzzle brakes ( require hearing protection), complicated reticles, difficult to manipulate safeties, or scopes with huge objectives and critical eye relief - or rifles with poor fitting stocks. Or too heavy or too light. All hinder a quick accurately aimed shot under normal field conditions. Clear, simple optics, a stock that fits like a fine shotgun, an excellent trigger, and a smooth action all help.

4. My rifles must be functional art to be most enjoyable. I enjoy figured walnut, finely finished steel, some tasteful engraving, and good fit and workmanship. I do use a couple synthetic stocked and corrosion proof rifles for use when hunting conditions are so bad that those qualities are helpful. See #1.

I hunt with a lot of different rifles but my most trusted rifle is a Ruger .300 Win Mag that would never meet the 5 shot requirements some have. My guess would be it wouldn't hold better then 1.5 MOA with five shots.....but the cold bore is always within 1/2" of where I expect it (tested many times at various temps) and the second shot is usually touching or at most within 1/2" of that. #3 tends to drop and go right...sometimes the 3rd is still sub-moa, sometimes 1-1.5 MOA. I stopped worrying about it when I realized I was shooting deer and elk and not prairie dogs, ran some numbers through a ballistic calculator and then actually started shooting the rifle at longish ranges (I know to some 500-800 yards doesn't even qualify as long range).



Hitting vital sized targets out to 600 yards consistently gives me all that I need to kill confidently inside my personal limit of 500 yards which I have never exceeded, nor wanted to, on a big game animal. These days I much prefer inside 300 on unwounded game.

I had an interesting discussion with a friend that builds long range rifles for a living and has a very long track record of long range kills (not my style...but that is his game). One of his first big game rifles he built for long range would not hold better than MAYBE 3/4 MOA, and he emphasized the MAYBE, which some on here would scoff at. He had 30+ one shot kills at 500-1000 yards with that rifle before retiring it. He guarantees 1/2 MOA out of his rifles and they do produce that...but the reality is that it probably isn't necessary for 95% of his customers. He felt having a very good drop card and learning to read the wind was way more important than benchrest accuracy.

I echo the sentiment that reliability is important and I certainly expect my guns to feed, fire, extract and eject properly.

As time goes on, I am more focused on the packability and shootability of the guns I am hunting seriously with, particularly in the mountains. I stopped carrying my .300 despite total confidence in it because the dang thing is heavy and longer then I like. My 18 year old son now carries it because he is younger, stronger and less concerned about 2 pounds and 2 extra inches than I am. I have changed stocks and scopes several times on my new preferred elk rifle (a 700 in .30 Gibbs) trying to get the right balance of weight, feel, eye relief and balance). I actually gave up a smidge of accuracy when I went to the rifles current stock (a McMillan KS stock that has a little more flex in the forend than the previous B&C stock) but it is lighter, fits me perfectly and actually seems to absorb recoil better then the heavier stock (which seems counterintuitive). I dropped to a 2.5-8x scope with a B&C reticle and found I had more than enough magnification to do what I need, the drop hashes work perfect without screwing around with dials and the weight and balance is great for me.



Some rifles you just want to pick up, put on your back and go hunt something. This is it for me.

Must shoot when I pull the trigger
Must hit where I aim with first shot. I couldn't give a schit what a 5 shot group looks like. I'm shooting animals, not paper.
Fit.
Weight/Carry

Very cool and nice shooting!

I'm not sure if I am in the majority or minority but I find that my likes in rifles for my hunting are still evolving even at 70 years old. Of course, accuracy is possibly my most important aspect like most here and I have that covered between rifles I carry and the handloads I work up for all of them. Under MOA is important to me and any rifle I can't get to that point goes down the road pretty quickly. Half of MOA is preferable, but not totally necessary. However, shooting from field positions doesn't always equate to benchrest accuracy, so the rifle must be comfortable to handle when shooting off hand, from an improvised rest, or using my Harris bipods. I have found not all rifles work out in all these scenarios- usually at the worst possible times.

What I have found is that I don't mind carrying a little extra weight if the rifle handles well for me as long as the sling is comfortable for the long walks between hunting spots or at the end of a long day chasing game. I also like a rifle that is attractive and looks like it has had some skill put into its manufacture and assembly. My personal built customs are my favorites even if they aren't as well done as a master gunsmith and stock maker may put them together. As long as they are absolutely reliable I am a happy camper.

One area I have been in a quandary lately has been my scopes. I have been playing musical scopes lately to find just the right scope with the right range of power, reticle, and eye relief for what I like in a hunting tool but I'm not quite there yet. I had put an Arken 6-24 SH4 on my 26 Nosler last year to try out and it worked fine from the bench, but using it for deer hunting this year it just wasn't working out. The reticle is great, the glass is clear, but the eye relief turned out to be a bit tight even on lower powers so the search continues. I do have a 4-16 Arken that is just about perfect for my uses that will get switched over to this rifle before next year's hunt but only time will tell if that ends up being my last choice.

Thanks all for the responses! The search for the perfect rifle that "has it all" is a lifetime pursuit it seems. I was remembering when I was young, and relatively broke, and was never satisfied with the few firearms I had. I'm still searching for the holy grail, and now realize that is what keeps this hobby challenging and fun.

1. Decent 3 lb trigger
2. Walnut stock
3. 1.5" 3 shot group at 100yds.
Everything else is gravy.

Mojo

Mojo....good answer. Someone else said trust, perhaps the same thing.

Lol accuracy snobs are like old duck club boomers- there no real reason for their BS.

If you want to spend time getting a gun to shoot great sub-MOA groups then that’s great. I’ve done the same. It has no practical benefit for a rifle that’s primarily used for big game hunting.

The environments are variable, the situations are variable; and least of all, the target is dynamic AND variable.

It comes down to this- you can kill game or you can’t. A 1/2” group every time won’t make a bit of difference because that guy with an old ‘06 shooting 1”-2” groups will do just as well as you.