Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Specializing vs. general purpose in a rifle

Which do you find yourself doing?

Guess I do both <g>. My .358 is purpose-built for one thing... I guess my Sendero is too. So is my .325 BLR to some degree. The rest are general-purpose with lots of overlap, as my buddy Tom constantly reminds me.

Both. I've got a specialized varmint rifle, a long-range/precision rifle, and several general purpose hunting rifles.

Although I like all of them, my favorites are the general purpose rifles, like my .25-06 Rem 700 CDL, and the ancient .30-06 M1917 sporter I started with in the mid-late 1960's. I've taken that 90+ year old rifle out for varmints, & bigger game, last year my youngest son used it to take a fine bear... Dad used to shoot it in NRA highpower competition back in the 1950's - it's a great general purpose rifle.

The specialized rifles are cool, but my heart is with the general purpose rifles. Always has been.

Regards, Guy

Hmmm...I have never really gotten into anything other than Killing deer in Minnesota. But... I have rifles that'd be miserable beasts to carry in the woods like still hunting or on a drive that I dearly love. I also have rifles that would be pee poor tools for some stands where I want some respectable precision and enough case capacity to meet the need. My 30-30 has one main job, be there when someone wounds a deer and we need to go find it and finish the job, but I guess to me a 30-30 is about the definition of a general purpose deer rifle. I suppose the closest thing to a do anything rifle I own is a 7600 in .243 with a light weight Ram Line stock on it and a VX-II 1-4 on top. It's quick and handy in the brush, it's very accurate and varmints at 300 yards are going to die. Most of my rifles are run of the mill middle caliber guns with 1.5-6x42 scopes on top. So, for most hunters they'd probably be called general purpose guns but they are all quite accurate and purpose built for handling deer from a stand in very low light and out to respectable distance if need be.

Whose purpose I guess is important.

ive got one rifle set up to be grab and go that i use for 95% of my big game hunting......everything else falls into the 5% which arent built for a specific purpose but were bought cause i liked them and will use them to hunt.....

the grab and go gun is a Kimber Montana in 260 Rem with a 6x32 Leupold.....the others vary from a cut down No4Mk1* SMLE to a sporterized 1895 Chilean Mauser to a 338-06 built on a M1917 to my Marlin Guide Gun.....will likely have a Sharps at some point and any number of other guns from old to brand new....

i have the guns cause i like the individual guns, i dont buy them with a specific purpose in mind....

If one tells my wife there is potential overlap in purpose between cartridges & calibers, I will hunt them down and shoot their dog. For instance, a 6mm Rem is perfect for pronghorn. It is completely inadequate for mule deer, so a 6.5 x 55 will be used. If I take up white tail, I will need a new rifle. One needs a 257 Weatherby for caribou, and a 7 mm Rem Mag for elk. Moose need a 30-378, while black bear must be dispatched with a 30-06. Woodland bison require a 45-70, while our American bison will fall only to a 45-90. One must use logic to justify his toy collection.

Same arguments go for my 15 or so fly rods. Each is species specific.

The below is what I use for all my hunting requirements, so I guess that would make me a "general" type person;

I'm guessing you don't shoot a lot of prairie dogs...

Or call a lot of dogs or fox...



Travis

I love dogs, in fact I like most dogs better than most people. But I have to say, I have your back on this one. There is a particularly hot corner of hell reserved for those who ruin gun buying for others.

Both.

With three .30-06s and a .308 Win, I have enough �general purpose� rifles. The 7mm RM was not only my �do all� rifle for 20� years, it was my only legal big game bolt rifle and took everything from prairie dogs (great practice) to elk. The .300WM was purchased with longer range in mind and, as my first boat paddle, for bad weather. The Bob is dual purpose with a focus on deer and varmints, although it has been elk hunting. (To dte all the Bob has taken is a pile of prairie dogs, and coyotes and a couple speed goats.) The heavy-barrel .22-250 weighs more than I want to carry on a antelope/deer/elk hunt, even if it was legal. Ditto with the not-quite-so-heavy 6.5-05AI, although I�ve taken one antelope with it and would use it for deer/elk if not walking far for a sit. The levers are mostly for fun but all but the .30-30 have taken big game.

One .30-06 was converted from stainless/laminate to stainless/boat paddle for weight reasons, mainly because I didn�t have a �lightweight� elk rifle (and still don�t, at least not as light as I would like. The .338 WM I just built has a fluted barrel and boat paddle stock for the same reason. It is accurate and not bad in the recoil department with 225�s. I plan to hunt with AccuBonds but am using SST�s for basic load development and fun. The #1 in .280 Rem is getting wrung out as an antelope/deer/elk rifle � or was yesterday until my chrono battery died. For the .280 Rem I�m trying 140g AccuBond/TTSX/North Fork�s for game loads but really like the way the 162 A-MAX fly when having fun.

One of these days I�ll probably pick up an AR for fun, although the reason I�ll use to justify it is as a SHTF weapon.

Yes, it definitely would!!!

Me??

I've shot my fair share of prairie dogs, and MORE than my fair share of 'yotes, and my M70 30-06 does an excellent job.

It's more accurate than I can hold it under normal field conditions. I can't find a valid reason to justify purchasing something else for 'varmint hunting' if it isn't necessary.

Oldfenderguy - illustrates the "keeping it simple" principle in action. Regards, Homesteader.

I just go hunting...

other than i doubt he has put a couple hundred rounds a day through the 30-06 shooting prairie dogs......

i dont shoot many PD's, mainly shoot ground squirrels at 22rf ranges.....but have spent enough time in dog towns to know a 30-06 aint even close to being at home for serious shooting.....especially in a rifle light enough to pack after elk....

I don't doubt that. Just saying I can't see 300 rounds of 110gr bullets going really easy on a shoulder.

And I also can't see them saving a whole lot of hide. Especially on a fox.


Travis

The dumbest thing I feel that I've done with my money (as far as firearms go) is spend near 2k on a custom rifle that I sold for about 60% of what I had in it. The smartest thing was by a rifle, swap stocks with Dad (for the stock I wanted) and be able to do the same thing wiht about 35% of the overall cost involved. Oh, and both will do the same darn thing.

For big game?

General.

7 mm Mashburn strikes me as a somewhat specialized open-country cartridge/rifle... (or at least not "close, thick, and fast").

Don't get me wrong; it sounds cooler'n chit.

I agree with Jeff, the mashburn does sound like a specialized picece of equipment. But if you think about it that way most of our "chit" could be considered "specialized". My FN PBR XP 300 wsm is a pretty damn accurate sob that I use mainly for local comp. but if I have a chance to get it out this year a deer is going to fall to it, specialized or otherwise.

Jeff, this one is going to be my specialized deer/elk medicine:


My new fwt