There is just way too much common sense in that article. Thank you for putting that out there.

I've come to the conclusion that today's perfect rifle could very well become tomorrow's trade bait. But that won't stop me from looking for it.

Oldelkhunter,

Glad you enjoyed it! But I don't always follow my own "common sense"....

Einstein's common sense was different than mine. I suspect I have more fun.

Hence the term: Rifle "Looney".

I have achieved perfection many times in hunting rifles...

but I always sell them off and continue looking....

I’m almost at perfection with my current 280. We’ll see what happens.

I`ve hit "perfection" with my 700 06, shooting 168 Bergers over IMR 4350, and RL-19. Factory barrel, following Berger suggestions on seat depth, tweeked a bit. Both powders shoot to the same POA at 100. 3 shots touching. 4350 gives a bit more velocity. Perfect. No, it`s not for sale..

I’m almost there with my latest “perfect” rifle. It’s a Fieldcraft 6.5x55 and it shoots Hornady 129 Spire Points over StaBall 6.5 into ridiculously small groups at around 2850 fps. I just need the LOP shortened by about 1/2” and it will be there.

I also have a stainless Howa 6.5 Creedmoor that I bedded into an Alpine stock that shoots Hornady Whitetail factory loads with the same bullet pretty darn well. It’s almost too easy.

Either of these would be more than sufficient for just about any deer hunting I can imagine. But, you know..,

Perfection would not be all that difficult to obtain if it wasn't constantly changing with my age and experience. 🤣

Great article, MD!

Thanks!

Several years ago I did an article for RIFLE titled "Rifles That Stuck," a list of my rifles that had been around for at least a decade. I did NOT call them perfect rifles, but being around that long suggested they were at least pretty good for their purpose. Since then I've sold four of them.

This is why I find vitriol around “high end” custom rifles pretty amusing. Usually they guys spewing it have gone through more rebarrelled unused rifles amassing a larger bill in the process.

There is no perfection in either rifles or shotguns especially when looking for a perfect grouse gun. They don't exist, it's a myth to support the addition of another gun.. My last perfect rifle was a custom High Wall in 38/55 the one before that a Mannlicher stocked 6.5X55 the next one is going to be a custom #1 in 300 H&H. None are or ever will be perfect because the perfect gun is always the next one.

Enjoyable read.
All the way until the tab closed itself..
It felt like it was wrapping up though..
I don't bubble up to the front page often enough...

Sometimes the chase (pursuit) is the best part...

Well, yeah....

One just needs something to do sometimes.

It can't be all bad...Can it?

No, it's the center of rifle-loony existence!

MD, I got a 150 year old rifle I’ll sell you. Includes a scope from that era too. And a can of BP. It’s a .50 caliber under hammer.

I might be interested!

Then again, I might not. Already have a 154-year-old .50 caliber cartridge rifle. (But not a scope from that era....)

Oh. Your train got to Perfection before mine I reckon.

The scope interests me most!

The next perfect rifle would be a #1 in 35 Whelen and the 300 H&H isn't even finished yet!!

Well, here's the package. It was good enough for 2d place in a 100 match out in Cody, June '71. Might have done better but I wasn't used to those Wyoming breezes.
Made by a fellow named David H. Hilliard in Cornish, NH. I don't know he made the scope; in fact I doubt it, but it is period correct.



Some of that style of scope/gun reflected here, obviously in used by some rag tag bunch of miscreants. They have no class as all their rifles are sidelocks.