Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles How have your views changed over the years?

For example, I was never a fan of the 270 Winchester until just recently. I had nothing against it, it's just that I found it rather boring. Now I have one and really enjoy tinkering with it. **just for Ingwe, I love the 7x57 more! That new Winchester FW is a joy**

Another example. When I was a young lad in the 80s and synthetic stocks first hit mainstream, I loathed them. Slowly, the idea of plastic/fiberglass/kevlar stocks and stainless steel grew on me and for a while there I wouldn't even consider a rifle with blued steel and walnut. These days, I can take or leave a synthetic but once again much prefer blue/walnut. In other words, I've come full circle with a bit of tolerance for stainless/synthetic.

Here's a strange one: When I was younger, I couldn't stand the looks of revolvers that had non-fluted cylinders. Now it is just the opposite. Additionally, these days DA revolvers hardly interest me at all while SA revolvers are a great passion.

I could cite many other example. How have your opinions on guns and cartridges changed over the years?

my opinions have changed with experience with various stuff. I think shortaction smoker said on here one time, at some point youve been doing it long enough to figure out what you like and what you don't like.

I've found lighter and lighter cartridges suit my needs just fine.

I've come to realize that for the deer hunting I do - I really don't need anything above .284 to get the job done and really, nothing in a LA.

That said I have great dreams of a 7x57, 22-204, 22K Hornet, .35 Whelen and a 375 H&H as an all around battery for me. Last two might be a bit of overlap.

I have come to the same conclusion. Lighter and not necessarily faster.

I turned 20 thinking that I could do it all with a .243...

Aint' much changed except I've got more money and rifles and less time, on average...

working on chasing money less and taking more time for stuff i like to do...

I have gradually gravitated to the more extreme. lighter mountain rifles, heavier, more accurate range toys, and bigger cartridges to do the heavy lifting.

I have come to love the little ones myself.

It is a toss up between .223, .243 and 7.62x39.

I really have a hard time passing up amy of my 7.62x39 rifles for deer and smaller critters.

As I have broken-in my REM 799(Zastava) I like a little better than my Cz.

unfortunately i can do it all with a .243. i hate ohio.

Not much. I still like 'em all -- those I've messed with. I have discovered recoil and manhood aren't linked. Safety always.

It's not as fun to mess around with wildcats as it once was. The simpler the better.

When younger most of my hunting was with lever guns and every cartridge was .308 caliber or bigger, recoil was not an issue and weight was not an issue.

Fast forward 25+ years, the only gun in my safe that is .308 caliber or bigger is a 30-30, excluding the 30-30 the heaviest gun weighs 7 lbs 4 oz with scope and sling, Bolt actions all except for the 30-30 again

Still love DA Revolvers but a new passion for 1911's, shotguns like the rifles are all 20 ga except for a Marlin Mod 90 that my Dad built when he worked for Marlin and that has not been shot in years.

Lesson learned...a gun does not have to kick on both ends to cleanly take game. 6mm's, 25's and 7mm's are your friends, the proper bullet in the right spot, kills like lightning and those bullets can be cup and core

I'm heading this way myself. After 30+ years with a 7mag (I still love 'em), I'm finding lots to like about a 7-08.

Same here except I can't for the life of me figure out what I'd use something as big as a 7-08 on�( I just hunt deer these days�)

I've learned I like hunting lots more than messing around with guns.

I once owned Remington rifles and shotguns. Then they bought Marlin and ran a great company into the ground. I no longer own Remington products.

I didn't grow up a lever action guy. We had a BL-22 but did all of our serious hunting with Bolt actions. I now am a levergun nut and hunt with them as much as I can.

Could not agree more with this.


No have not really changed my mind all that much about a lot of things.

Me too except our rifle season is very very short.

Cripes it's the only thing that kept me from going batty at the loading bench.

Of course I have only had two in 40+ years....and really don't want another.

Not much in my current 48 years.

Started with a 243, found out you could kill a lot of stuff a long ways out there with it.

But that it lacked when it came to crunch time. That a mag or round with a big heavy bullet would be the go to rifle of choice for hunts where you may only get one shot.

I still adhere to both of the above.

I've hunted with just about anything at times, and I still enjoy a new challenge. Been through pistols, muzzleloaders, old and new, contenders, revolvers. Even snub nose 44 special for deer. And shooting tons of pigs with a 22 pistol. Up to the big rounds where you can reach right on out there.

Today about the only big change has been that my main go to meat gun is no longer a 243 but generally a 308.

For those that say small rounds can do a lot, they always have, I've done a lot with a 22, and a 223. But it came more around, due to better bullets like barnes bullets. Before that you had to search hard to find something that didn't come apart at times. I even ran partitions a lot but never really found them that much better than a good cup and core flat base bullet.

I'm to the point these days that I like getting a new round and shooting it, as long as it fits in the scheme of having a gun in most caliber ranges, for lots of different chores. And I tend to prefer off the wall a bit... 32-20. going for a 338-06. Have a 7x300 wtby. a 284 win. Among a few standard ones.

I've never cared for the 270 or for Ruger since Bill sold us out in the 90s. But guess WTF I won..... yep, bolt action Ruger 270. It may well stay in the box forever. Or I may just have to make it a beater truck gun that will stay in the truck forever just in case. Though I much prefer my ARs for that use.

I have this feeling though, that one of the next steps will be shooting a deer with a stone head. After hunting with bows almost exclusively from about 16 through about 35 or so, I was a bit tired and bored with even recurves and longbows. But I never made it to the stone head kick. Thats going to be coming in the future though I think. I tried knapping heads a bit and it was fun.

The worst thing thats changed, has been the duty to home. IE I used to only hunt during season basically... And now especially if home, I'll hunt a bit in the morning or evening, sometimes 30 minutes or an hour or less.. and then go do something that needs to be done.