Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Muledeer, tell us about Eileen's rifles

John,
Could you tell us about your wife's rifles. From past articles that you have written, I know that she used a a Browning A-Bolt in 270 Winchester and that her big rifle is a NULA in 30-06 Springfield. Please tell me about her current rifle, I know that it is a 308 Winchester with a montecarlo stock. Could you tell me what the action is, whose stock & the length of pull on it, length of barrel & contour, weight, scope & mounts. All of the things a rifle looney would want to know. I am researching a rifle for my daughter and the the two rifles that I am considering are a Winchester Featherwight or Featherwight Compact or a Kimber 84M Classic. Right now the caliber is probably 7mm-08, but I am also considering the 270 Win and the 308 Win. Thanks.

Eileen went from the .270 A-Bolt (with which she took everything from pronghorn and whitetails to elk and moose) to a .270 NULA, which she also shot for many years before starting to develop recoil headaches. Once in a while she used my NULA .30-06 as well, primarily in Africa and for bear here in Montana.

She then stepped down to a NULA .257 Roberts, which she still uses for most deer and pronghorn hunting, along with a Weatherby Mark V Ultra Lightweight in .240 Wby.

In 2008 she has Serengeti Rifles (now Kilimanjaro Rifles) build her a .308 on the Kimber 84 action. That's the one with the fancy American walnut laminated stock with Monte Carlo comb. The stock was built to fit her specifically by Gene Gordner, the head gunsmith at Kilimanjaro, in fact she went to Kalispell for the final fitting, with Gene whittling on the stock. With a 21" Lilja barrel and a 3.5-10x40 Leupold, it weighs 6-1/2 pounds and shoots extremely well. She used it in South Africa in 2008 to take several animals, including an ostrich and a zebra.

Unfortunately, she found the .308 also gives her recoil headaches and is thinking of having the rifle rebarreled to .260 Remington. Right now she is experimenting with a Remington Model 7 .260 that she bought used to see if she likes the cartridge. So far she does!

John,
Thanks for the information. My daughter doesn't get recoil headaches but I don't want her to develope a flinch or fear the rifle. Ideally I would like her rifle to be a 270 Winchester with a 150gr AFrame/Interlock2850fps or a 308Winchester with a 165gr AFrame/Interlock2700fps bullet combination. Unfortunately in a rifle that weighs 7.5~8lbs the recoil may be to severe for her. A 7mm-08 Remington with a 140gr AFrame/139gr Interlock combination at 2750~2800fps will probably be much more manageable. Right now the front runner is a Winchester Featherweight Compact with a 6.5# weight and a length of pull of 13". With a Burris Fullfield II 3X-9X-40 or a Leupold VX2 3X-9X-40 it should come in at 7.5#'s. My only concern is the muzzle blast from a 20" barrel. Maybe I should get the standard Featherweight with a 22" barrel and have the stock cut down. A 7x57 Mauser would also work very well, but those are tough to find in factory form right now.

I have a 260 Remington Model Seven Stainless. I love it, but the accuracy lacks! Going to have it rebarreled.

It's nice hear positive comments on the .260. The more I think about getting a rifle chambered in .260 the more I want one. To me, it's just about the perfect mulie/antelope cartridge - not that there is a perfect or that it makes any real world difference.

JB, here's a question for you. Why the .260 instead of another .257 roberts?

Just curious.

Heavier bullets for hunting elk, etc.

I keep telling her that the .257 will work just fine, but she has taken all her elk (along with a bull moose) with 140-150 grain bullets from the .270. So....

Yep, women just won't listen. Just kidding. (They can't work a TV remote though.)

Actually, in our house she can work the TV remote, and I can't! At least not as well as she does....

ar15a...

FWIW,

My wife ended up w/ Eileen's NULA .270 (they're buddies!).
My wife is actually smaller than Eileen but doesn't get the headaches as long as she keeps practice sessions under 20 rds.
Even at 5'1" & 108 lbs. she is not bothered by the .270 out of the NULA.
I went thru a LOT of rifles trying to find one my wife was happy with and discovered a couple things:

1. Fit & balance of the rifle was the most important. Not just LOP, but grip circumference, forend shape & size, etc. Only way to figure that out is to let her handle a bunch of rifles. Shooting them is even better.
A crisp, light trigger pull was WAY up there on her comfort list (different grip strength & all that).
2. She chose cartridges based on her confidence in the round, regardless of recoil. First rifle I bought her was a heavy .243. She refused to pull the trigger, even on WT does at 100 yds. She did not want to "wound" one. Once I got her a .270 she started winging rounds every which direction.
3. Way my wife figured it, she carried the rifle LOTS more than she shot it. Lighter was better. The only rifles she really liked were the NULA and a Kimber 84m.
4. She tried 7mm08, .260's, and .308's. To HER, they all recoiled the same. She is bothered more in shooting my 18 1/2" barreled .243 than any of the 22" barreled rifles listed above.

In case you missed it, turns out I didn't know crap about what was best for my wife, but she sure did. And I'm pretty sure Eileen would agree

Yeah, in general women know more about what THEY should use as a hunting rifle/cartridge than their husbands do--as long as they get to experiment with a few.

Then, of course, there are the guys who buy the latest In-Rifle "for" their wife or girlfriend, just so they can shoot it.

Hey now, who would of thought she couldn't like shooting a muzzle braked 7 pound 340 Weatherby?

Actually my wife doesn't really shoot much but my daughter has done some nice killing with her 260 running 140s at about 2670 these days. Hard to beat the 260 Remington.

Amazing, isn't it? But she isn't Connie Brooks. Of course, Connie wouldn't use a brake on a .340.

In the May 2011 issue of Precision Shooting there is a fine article by Stephen Boxford, "A Tale of Small Rifles - How My Wife Became a Hunter".

Finn Aagaard provided much of the initial instruction for the lady. She used Berit Aagaard's trimmed 7-08 Ruger 77 for her first successful hunt, after a disappointing hunt with a full-sized rifle.

The series of Boxford's accounts of rifles that have worked and those that did not is worth reading.

--Bob

Seems to me that a 250-3000 would do the job for all that she shoots with out a whole lot of recoil or muzzle blast. Right now I am recovering from surgery for and old injury that gotten to the point were I needed surgery due to taking a fall off of a roof( snow removal, couple of days worth of work) the doctor says no shooting big rifles, so I will do what he says and in a year or two take up my usual hunting rifle and cartridges. Going to have a friend do the heavy lifting this season and I am going to shoot 243 for legal reasons, I have the cartridge and the barrel for my blaser.

Just curious JB,

Was a Browning A Bolt Mountain Ti considered by Eileen?

Yeah, but she handled a couple and decided she likes NULAs and Kilimanjaros better.

She got the action for the Kilimanjaro rifle by picking up a used Kimber in .243 at a local store. She was tempted to shoot it, but I warned her about shooting the donor....

I don't know anybody like that...

Haven't had a girlfriend in 43 years, and my wife (of 43 years) doesn't like to be cold and only went hunting with me twice (the first time and the last time....same trip!) On the other hand, my safes are full of rifles for my grandchildren! They were all bought at each g-child's birth (I have five now) and I will stop using them when the oldest is big enough to go hunting with me....maybe.....

What is a NULA please?
Bob

New Ultra Light Arms.
The original ultra-light custom rifle.
Probably the most for your money of any custom rifle out there.
My wife's .270 weighs under 5 lbs (w/o scope) and shoots sub 1" groups with all ammo we've tried in it.