Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mule Deer & Others- give us a adequate field repair kit

FS continued
I never let anyone handle my rifle unless I know them well. That includes from my room to vehicle. Some places lock rifles at night in a storage area. I always case and carry it to that area myself. My heavy canvas Boyt case is perfect. I keep it in the vehicle or near my rifle.

One place I know well and my PH likes to carry my rifle which is a good idea especially from a safety standpoint. He is reliable so I let him do it. The most dangerous critter a PH deals with is his client who walks behind him with a loaded rifle. When I carry, the chamber is empty.

FS

Over the course of my shooting life I have spent enough on rifles to buy a small house. The M700’s have given me far fewer problems than Win M70 and 98 CRF types. Those can be great but so can the PF actions.

Have a humorous story? Not at the time, I and a co-worker in Alaska put together a hurried diy hunt for caribou , Eddie King flew us out of King Salmon and dropped us off on one the many named lakes. We took plenty of food and creature comforts, to Eddie ‘s chagrin but upon unpacking everything and setting camp we discover we had forgot , you guessed it TP. Well that’s not insurmountable even on the Alaska tundra. Though a little inconvenient. Well that was a bit of precursor of what was come as, a little later, when er decided it might be a good idea to have at least one rifle out and loaded, in case of any uninvited guest of the mammals kind Mike got his m77 ruger .338 win out , our bear gun just in case, I only had my little model 70 .270, anyway as soon as Mike uncased his tiger he discovered it had no bolt , after tearing the case apart and downing a couple double malts he finally concluded he’d left, it the bolt, on his kitchen table. Well no worries we had my trusty .270. ,right . Well right until I remembered only bought 20 rounds, that’s normally plenty for me but Mike is a natoriously poor shot? We affectionly called him machine gun Mike. We’ll still no worries, we only planned on taking one good bull apiece 20 rounds would br plenty. , and it was the caribou never showed, we spent the entire 7 days trampling around together? In beautiful weather( thats why there were no caribou on the flats) we got eaten alive by no/seeums and mosquitoes only managed to kill a few ptarmigins (that only depleted out ammo further) and catch a few small lake trout. And Mike ran out of his double malts, hell of trip and we not only didn’t have any tools, they wouldn’t have done us much good. What do they say about fools and drunkatds!

John,
Not to get too far off course, but can you comment on taping the muzzle possibly affecting accuracy?

I ask because when I first read about this, being the eternal skeptic, I ran a test on two hunting rifles. Shot 10 rounds with each rifle, every other round with an electrical taped muzzle. I couldn’t see a difference.
It was enough for me to buy into the idea and I’ve been taping my muzzles ever since.

Having blown up a rifle, a Venezuelan 24/30 FN in 7x57, due to a snow plugged barrel, 3 pieces of electrical tape are now a must have for me. I haven't seen any change in POI with or without tape on the muzzle.

If weight isn't an issue, I just bring my range box. If weight is an issue, I generally pack a Chapman screwdriver set, a multi-tool, a few extra base and ring Torx head screws, a new in package JB Weld kit, a Bushmaster cable pull through kit.

Casey,

I ran the same sort of test, and also couldn't find any difference. The general explanation is the tape blows off the muzzle due to pressure from expanding powder gas before the bullet ever gets to the muzzle--which always sounded rational to me.

But also was told by an under-editor at Petersen's Hunting years ago that "they" (which I suspect meant him) had run a test and found a measurable difference in group size. I just nodded--but didn't believe it, both due to my results, and knowing that guy was primarily a big game hunter. I'd shot prairie dogs with him on "industry" shoots a time or two, with a bunch of other writers, he was way down on the percentage list of PDs hit.

Good—I’m gonna keep taping my muzzle then!

One so far unmentioned item I like to carry is a spare magazine spring. I've had a couple break on me.

Twenty years ago a client(I'm a insurance agent) was having trouble with his Remington semi automatic rifle not chambering rounds. I had absolutely no idea what could be wrong. I asked him to call a local gun smith. The problem was a very weak magazine spring. He had been keeping the rifle loaded for years and not ever taking the ammo out of his rifles magazine. A new spring was installed and no more leaving ammo in the magazine for years to ruin the spring. This was also dangerous and the gunsmith and I told him someone could handle the rifle and bad things could happen not knowing it was loaded.

I've hunted in the Yukon, Southern U.S. of A. and Africa. I've always used Mauser or Mauser type actions, low recoil rifles and fixed power scopes until my old age. A few years back I purchased two scopes with turrets and mil dots for groundhog hunting. My hunting is now near my car in a pasture hunting groundhogs. I've been very lucky. Never had any trouble. I believe fixed power scopes and Mauser actions helped.

I always take a spare when I go hunting, saved my ass twice, dropped rifles. I sometimes have two spares. I take a suppressed 308 for shooting pigs in traps during deer season. It is sighted in with full power loads, but I kill pigs with 1100 fps rounds. The other hunters don’t like all the full power shooting, don’t blame them.

electrical tape on the muzzle seems a must in Alaska where on my hunt it rained every day but one