Another boredom survey: do y'all take a back up rifle on caribou/elk/moose trips in the same cartridge as your primary? (I know there's no right or wrong answer here, just curious.)

Back up rifle, Yes. Same chambering, No. Why, because I do not have a lot of duplicate chamberings.

Always on a deer hunt where I could lock one up back in the cabin or in the truck; though I always worried about one in the truck. Elk hunting was out of a tent and a buddy had a .280 back in the tent, but that was a little too available for anyone who happened along that thought that it would be good to “borrow” a .280 long term. Never the same chambering as the primary rifle. Cartridges don’t weigh that much.

I always take a "back up" but it is almost never chambered for the same cartridge as the "primary" rifle. More fun to have two distinct choices...

No on rifles, but backup scopes are nice. Usually bring one of those if going to be far from home.

No rifles only scopes. Way too much weight.

Deer hunting in WI the backup is whatever seems like it needs to go into the woods for a bit, usually second week end. When travelling a spare scope comes along. Another rifle takes up way too much space.

I almost always bring a 30-06 as a back up or loaner if I'm going hunting more than an hour or 2 from home.

I usually bring 2 rifles whenever/wherever l go hunting, an accurate bolt action that is good for longer shots, up to a quarter mile or so, and a shorter, quicker handling, lever, pump, or semi-auto for hunting tight cover where a quick follow up shot or three might give me an advantage.

My primary elk hunting combo is a CLR in 270 and a Remington 760 in 270, both shooting the same ammo.

The deer hunting rifles that I have cached in NH are a Ruger 77 RSI in 260, a Savage 170 in 30-30, and a Winchester 100 Carbine in 308. The Savage 170 is my ME/NH/VT loaner, 'cause a lot of rural people in those states believe that the 30-30 is still as capable a cartridge for killing whitetails as it has been for 125 years. Plus, ammo is inexpensive and easy to come by, even if you have to bum a couple of rounds from another hunter.

I usually don't bring a back up rifle with me because I usually hunt close to where I'm staying. I do, however, carry a .375 Mag revolver in the woods with me. I used it twice. Once to put down a deer that was wounded but not dead that my brother shot, the other time was to scare off some PETA types that actually took a shot at me! Their bullet struck a tree just above my head. I did not shoot at them because I could not see them, but I drew it and walked in their direction and heard them scampering off out of the woods. Called the troopers, they said they knew they were in the area and they were students at a local SUNY school and were harassing hunters in the area. That is why I no longer hunt in NYS.

I always take a backup rifle.

Pronghorn & Deer: 25-06 & 280 Rem.

Elk & Moose: 35 Whelen & 338WM

I always take a back up rifle, but it's always in a different caliber. One MTM plastic ammo box of 50 cartridges for each rifle.

Always backup. Never same chambering. Usually something like an '06 where I can drag along factory ammo.

How many have needed to USE their back up rifle?

I wonder if Phil Shoemaker, Alaskan master bear guide, brings a back up rifle? Just curious.

I always have a back up, some times the same caliber, sometimes not. I do like pairs of rifles. This is my favorite pair, couple 264’s

Three or four times, ejector broke once, dropped rifle-jacked up scope, firing pin broke one time.

I always take a back-up rifle, different caliber than the primary. This fall my primary was a .35 Whelen with a 4x scope, back-up a .30-06 with a 3-9x. I used the .30-06 because longer shots were presenting themselves and the extra power was helpful.

I don't take a backup rifle , but do take different rifles different terrain or hunting style bolt action for calling coyotes in the open and a combo gun for the thicker stuff. Deer hunting a bolt action for more open country or sitting on a stand and a Lever 375 Win or Pump 35 Rem for still or tracking. Then there are times I just take something to see how it works. I have a hidden locking gun locker in my hunting truck.

For most of my life I brought 2 rifles, sometimes the same chambering sometimes it. Often they were a “morning” rifle and an “afternoon” rifle, one left in the truck while the other was carried. Sometimes it was a pain while flying but I wanted my guns upon arrival and hated the thought of borrowing one. Then in the late 90’s or early 2000’s I started worrying about break ins and didn’t want to lose a cherished rifle. So now it’s just one that goes, usually picked based on the weather. The only time my backup was needed was when one of my brothers, who wasn’t really a rifle guy, wanted to borrow one.

Nope.

I'm a blessed man. I've hunted Alaska and numerous western states (elk every year) since 1973 and have never taken a back up rifle. Never needed one on any of my hunts. Always used either a ruger 77 or win model 70. I always take an additional shotgun when I go pheasant hunting, only because I want to hunt with a different gun after day 2 or 3.

I had to use my backup once, when the scope went bad on my primary.

I have loaned my spare several times and, for awhile, carried along a Remington 710 in 30-06 as a dedicated loaner.

I Always bring a back up.
Deer or elk. I always have a spare just in case, if not for me, then for someone else. Last thing I want to be 8 hours from a home or who knows where the nearest sporting good store.
Deer : main gun 270, back up 06.
Elk: main gun 06, back up 270.
I might leave the 270 behind this year and grab the 6.5...:It hurts to say that.

I always have more than one rifle when I go on a hunting trip. It isn't that I need a backup in case one breaks. I just have a few rifles I like to hunt with.

When I used to spend the first few days of the WV deer season away at "camp" at my friend's place with my sons, I usually took along my .348 as a spare. Never " had" to use it, but one year I took it out first and whacked a doe. Lotta gun for little deer.

I don't bring one. I do bring an extra scope, basic cleaning kit, and a few tools.

I think it's interesting how many people *don't* take a back up rifle. I always bring two to deer camp (10+ hours from home) and I can't imagine not on a trip I'd dropped thousands on to travel across the country. (I don't really take those trips, though, so who am I to say?)

Some years back I loaned my back up 30-06 to a guy who had driven from Ohio to hunt deer in Colorado and when he was organizing his kit, he realized that he hadn't brought ammo for his 6.5x55 and there wasn't any to be anywhere close to Wray. CO, not even at Cabeal's in Sidney, NE.

I didn't bring one two seasons ago on my elk trip.amd got nervous about it. Didn't need it and was OK with primary.

My back up isn't same caliber. I've got plenty of ammo for each and won't hesitate to bring 50+ rounds for each to make sure I'm covered.

Much to the antithesis of the greatest internet argument about why to choose a rifle caliber, I never pick it based on ammo availability at a local gas station. Seems ridiculous, I know.

I've taken a spare scope and a few spare parts on every hunt I've been on except local ones. Never needed it and never wished I had a spare rifle.

Ha. I'm sure there are some good reasons to forget ammo. I can't think of any, but I'm sure they're out there. Alas the gas station nearest camp has fried chicken and slot machines, but no ammo.

I often travel a fair way from home to hunt, and a fair way from any gunsmith too, so I take a back-up. It probably won't be in the same calibre though. If I'm flying I might see if I can line up a plan B, such as checking whether there'll be a back-up available at the destination or, if I'm travelling with others, organising for one back-up to be shared within the group, to save excess baggage charges. Otherwise I just pack an extra rifle and ammunition in the car.

I have had occasions where the back-up has come into its own, over the several decades I've been hunting. In one case I can recall there'd been more shooting than I had expected, and so I had gone through all the rounds I'd brought and then was grateful of the use of a borrowed rifle and rounds to keep going, as it would have been at least several hours drive to the nearest gunshop - and probably a day each way to get them in the calibre in question. Other occasions have involved scope failures (which admittedly might have been fixed with a replacement scope), a broken extractor, and a broken stock. There may have been others. Better to have the spare and not need it than need it and not have it.

One of us usually brings a spare for the whole camp at deer season. Preferably an '06 as that is what most of us hunt. We leave it in a truck when we go in. I pull the bolt out of mine and lock it in my console safe.

Elk it varies. Sometimes just a spare scope in rings, Sometimes a rifle, usually there are only two or three in elk camp and chances of a breakdown are less but a better chance we will get robbed. For the backup elk rifle I bring a spare usually in a chambering that is uncommon ( .35 Whelen, 7x61 Super, .308 Norma Magnum).

Most of us here have a pretty good selection to choose from. Why not take a back up rifle? A second pair of binoculars if you got them also.

2nd pair of binos is a good idea. I had to use my alternate pair last year antelope hunting after the eyecup broke on my primary.

For rifles, we just make sure there is at least one for the group if traveling to the western states. Local hunting, not needed.

These days I take more rifles than I use - 4 or 5, because not all have been "blooded" yet. Years ago I only had my Remington 308 and had a back-up Israeli Mauser in the same. I had to go into town for supplies one time and didn't have anywhere inside the Jeep to hide or lock the Remington but the Mauser fit underneath the narrow gap under the rear bench seat. I got to use it on some goats when I got back to the property.

I hunt close to home (practically in my back yard), so my "back up" rifle is sometimes my Krieghoff rifle/shotgun combination gun with a full length insert barrel in the shot barrel. The primary rifle caliber is 7X75SE vom Hofe, so I'm good on long range shots, and the insert barrel is in 6X52R Bertschneider, a .25-35 necked to 6mm. I haven't had the opportunity to use it on deer yet, but I'm still looking for one. My 5.6X52R (22 Savage Hi Power) Model 99 Savage is sudden death on deer, so I'm confident the 6mm cartridge will work just as well, if not better.

Day hunt close I don't bring a backup, especially if it's a WMA, I don't want to leave one in the truck.

Staying overnight (and not public land) I usually bring an extra. The place I most often stay over at I can hunt woods or ag fields with 700 yard views. If I carry a .358 in the woods I'll bring along something with a bit more reach for fields.

I'm with the 'spare scope' crowd. Ruger M77 = no backup needed.

If I am going some where where I am staying at a lodge, then I bring a back up, usually something a little different to use if I fill the primary tag. For hunts where its a hike in or fly in, I bring a second scope with rings pre-zeroed, a 6x36 or 4x33 is pretty small and under a pound with rings. On two rifles the back up is a Ruger NECG peep. Its been more than 20 years since I had an issue, never with the rifle, but I did have a scope 20 years ago go to crap at the zero check before the hunt and it was before I brought back-ups . 5 hour drive home, 5 hour drive back to the lodge, 2 hours sleep in the car before heading out to hunt, was a long first day.

Years ago I sighted 2 rifles in for an Oldtimer. He had two BAR’s chambered in 300 Winmag.

I bring a back up. My lease is 10 hrs from home and the other place I hunt is 19 hrs. I bring a rifle that is about the same set up as my primary or one that I may have used for years before buying my primary. I want basically the same characteristics in both my primary and back up if conditions will be the same.

If the need arises....I’ll step-down to my wife’s .338 WM. We have the same rifle actions, use the same zero’s , have virtually identical bullet trajectories.....though I’lll have to deal with her shorter “length of pull”! And she can use my rifle, only she will have to contend with a longer “LOP”! We each have “back-up” scopes back at camp, in Leupold QR base/rings .....zero’d and ready to go! memtb

At deer camp I always bring at least one spare. If my son was with I had one for him and one for me.

My backup is always a 30-30 Marlin that I use for chasing down wounded deer which happens when someone from an adjacent piece asks to recover it or one of the other hunters in camp wounds one. Strangely, I have never had one I shot with a rifle manage more than 100 yards run after I shot it. The 336 is just a nice, quick, handy rifle for that job and it's accurate enough to shoot deer as far as I really need to, even if not decide to.

The one and only time I’ve hunted out of state I brought a back up. Was after deer main rifle was a T3 270 backup was a vanguard 243. I ended up hunting with both over the three days and finally connected the last day with the 270.

If I’m hunting local sometimes I’ll bring two guns but not really as a back up. Normally a bolt action for wide open areas and a lever for stall hunting the thick stuff.

I'll start by saying that I've hunted every year for the last 50 years. Mostly in my home states of Colorado and Montana for deer, elk, pronghorn antelope, moose, bighorn sheep, black bears, mountain goats, mountain lions. and buffalo. I've also hunted in Texas, Wyoming, and Alaska, and a dozen international hunts including 4 hunts in Canada and 6 in Africa.

In all of those hunts I never took a back-up rifle or scope, nor did I ever need one. On one African hunt I did take two rifles, a .375 RUM for buffalo and a 7 mm RM for plains game, but I ended up using the .375 RUM for most animals. And sometimes I will take a .22-250 with me for prairie dogs when I go to eastern Montana pronghorn hunting.

For my first 15 or so years of hunting I only had one rifle, a .30-06, and I used it for everything from elk to prairie dogs. Then in the late '70s I started buying some more rifles, in different calibers, for specific sizes of animals. I stocked those rifles in Fancy walnut. It wasn't until about 20 years ago that I bought a stainless steel rifle in a plastic stock and chambered in 7 mmm Rem magnum. That rifle is now my back-up rifle for foul weather. I still don't take two rifles on a hunt, but if I think I might be hunting in foul weather, I'll take that rifle. I've taken it on 3 of my Canadian caribou hunts.

I have however forgot to take a camera on some hunts or when I got to the hunt my camera's battery was dead.

I've only made three trips to hunt. Everything else has been 10 minutes to an hour from home. Took back-up rifles west, but not the same chambering. Actually used them all, because if I took an animal with one, the other got the nod for the next one.

I always have a backup. It depends on where I'm hunting as to my primary and backup.

I always take a backup rifle on trips where I'm camped far from home. I slipped and dropped my 338-06 No. 1 on a boulder field once and wasn't sure if the scope was still aligned. This was about 150 miles from home on the White River Plateau in CO on a week long elk and deer hunt. Fortunately, I had my 6.5x55 Swede No.1 in the truck back at camp and kept going. I didn't score on that trip, but had peace of mind knowing that the rifle I was carrying was sighted in. Wouldn't go out that far without a backup.

A family friend brought his brand new M70 .270 win on an elk hunt with us, a gift from his wife. Horse jacked him up at the trailhead and trashed the scope.
He had with him his old 742 30-06, ended up shooting a 7x7 bull with it.

I can understand all you poor saps running rem 700's with leupold scopes, needing a back up. I would too, if i were that fuggin stupid.

When I traveled to hunt, yes.
Around here no.

Never in the same chamberings. That wasn't on purpose, it was
just rifle choice. Every gun has it's own ammo, so same chamber
wouldn't matter.

Acquired a dirt cheap, abused 30-06 760 a few years ago.
Thought it was the ideal backup. Not worth much, ugly enough
to lend to someone. Haven't taken a trip worth a backup since.


10-12 of us used to go to Colorado every year. Being Loonies, before
our esteemed MD coined the term, we about all had backups. I can't
remember anyone having 2 rifles with the same chamberings. Mostly
7mm Mags or 300's of differing surnames. Occasionally a 270, or 30-06.
But no one guy ever had 2 of the same.

This past December was the first time I have hunted off my own property nearly 20 years. It was a hog hunt in Georgia. Yes, I brought a backup. My primary was the Ruger Hawkeye in '06. My backup was a Ruger Model 44. I hunted with both equally throughout the trip.

That's kind of been my strategy for as long as I've owned more than one gun. In the beginning it was just a Rem 1100 slug gun for Ohio and a Rem 742 in 30-06 for Kentucky.
I brought the REM 1100 over the bridge when I hunted Kentucky's deer season as a backup, just in case.

Then I got a Win 670 in 30-06 as a backup to the Rem 742. I set up the bolt gun for hunting the longer venues and the Rem 742 for deep woods and treestands. I still went out a few days a year with the Rem 1100.

Then I bought the farm in 2001, and things exploded. Over the years, I've acquired a slew of deer rifles. I pretty much have a rifle for every occasion. I take a minimum of 3 rifles to camp. I try to cycle through them throughout the season. That gets me through the first two weekends of season and the week in between. I try to have a mix of choices available, and always keep an eye on having a rifle that's set up for every eventuality. The main concerns I have:

1) I want at least one rifle set up for the close-in work, mostly treestands in the cedar thickets.
2) I have to have at least one rifle for the longer venues-- pastures requiring up to 250 yard shots. Whatever I pick for this spot also backs up #1.
3) I try to have at least one "rain gun." That is a rifle that I don't mind taking out in wet conditions. Some rifles in my stable I don't want to get wet.

I go home on the second Sunday and swap out rifles. Anything that's taken a deer gets put aside. Any new projects that haven't been blooded get put into the rotation.

I've only had a few times that I've had to resort to the backup. In Nov 2001, I had a nice shot at buck on the Rifle Opener and the Win 670 just went "click." This is the one and only time in 20 years of reloading that I had a bad primer. However, I'd just started reloading a year before. I didn't know at the time if it was the rifle or the round. I went back and got the Rem 742 and got a doe the next day. I got a shot at the same buck the next weekend, so it was a no-harm/no-foul thing. In those days, I was worried about having the same ammo for both rifles, but shortly after that, I started segregating my ammo to the rifle.

This past season, I had an incident where my Ruger Hawkeye got mud in the barrel and it froze. It was just a wee plug, but I had to go back to camp and change out for the Ruger Model 44. I switched from hunting a tower blind to a ground blind in the woods when I went back out. After the Hawkeye thawed out, it was an easy fix, but having a backup handy kept me from losing a half-day's hunting. I ended up taking a doe with the Hawkeye on the last weekend.

I usually have a minimum of two centerfire firearms with me when big game hunting. This is because I normally have either the .44 Redhawk or .357 GP 100 on me as well as toting a rifle. So my "backup" is regularly a revolver. However, you'll often find a second rifle in the truck, but in a different configuration than what I'm toting. I'll take a scoped long range caliber rifle and an open sighted "brush" gun, hence, grabbing whichever is most applicable for the spot I'm walking at that time.

A Ruger 77 RL tanger in 308 wearing VX3 1.5-5 glass. Dead reliable and cold bore shot always goes where I'm looking.

I pretty much always have a back up with me. I have been fortunate and never "needed" it myself but they have been loaned out numerous times. We try to make it a practice to have at least one backup in camp. My back up is usually a Stevens 200 in either 7-08 or 270. I don't mind loaning them out and if it is nasty wet weather I usually hunt the backup instead of my primary wood stocked rifle. Everyone needs a backup/loaner/truck/atv rifle.

My back up is almost always a 30-06. Either a sako or pre 64 70 somtimes they are a primary...

I bring a backup, but my Mauser hasn't failed since the 1900's

To the OP's question, yeah! Different horses for different courses, for sure, but for the plain jane whitetail hunt the issue may not be caliber choice: I the backup is often a synthetic weather-resistant rifle if I am carrying a walnut and blue - to cover weather contingencies.

Heck, I've been antelope hunting without even taking a primary rifle. Had a couple nephews with me, both shooting one of my rifles. After they tagged out I simply borrowed one of them, walked over the hill and got mine.

For the first 20+ years I didn't have a backup bolt rifle but did take a Browning B92 in .44 Mag that Dad had given me.

Since then I've almost always taken a backup. Never in the same chambering.

My hunting buddy and I have often taken similar Ruger rifles (lefty MKII for him, righty M77 for me) chambered for the same cartridge, 7mm RM. Actually used his rifle to take my last elk.

Seriously thinking about taking my 7mm RM and .280 Rem for elk this year, pending further load development. Same caliber and bullet, .284" 155g Federal Terminal Ascent.