Feeling kinda left out of these new whiz-bang discussions?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Quite a few excellent responses in this thread ! I have enjoyed reading this.
Thank You @Picher , I always enjoy your insight.

Ultimately, all the answers show we all REALLY like shooting, and get great satisfaction doing it the way we like.
A lot of great alternate perspectives.

I am also very happy that this thread didn't turn into a bashing, you are wrong / I am right thread...

Thank You, The High Road , and its members.

Some day, It would be great if all us could gather up firearms, meet, and try everyone's favorites... A Firearm Tupperware Party... Lol ( For lack of a better description )

And Picher is 100% correct... especially the Practice, Practice, Practice.
 
My whiz-bang is 45-70, more accurately roar-thump. I don't really ever shoot over 100 yards though so it serves me well, not much on earth will laugh off a 400+ grain @ 1600 fps or even 700 fps for that matter.
I'm not a rifle guy though, I'll get a modern rifle sometime . kind of thinking 416 ruger, why? Why not. Whiz-bang enough or does it have to be called something cool like creedmoore or velociraptor ?
In the end, we buy what we feel suits our needs, based on the game, familiar hunting terrain, history, gun magazine hype, friends or relatives' guns we like, or whatever we get talked-into by a gun mag article or salesperson in a gun shop. When a much-younger guy, I swapped guns almost as often as putting five bucks worth of gas into Dad's old truck to go out on a date.
 
Quite a few excellent responses in this thread ! I have enjoyed reading this.
Thank You @Picher , I always enjoy your insight.

Ultimately, all the answers show we all REALLY like shooting, and get great satisfaction doing it the way we like.
A lot of great alternate perspectives.

I am also very happy that this thread didn't turn into a bashing, you are wrong / I am right thread...

Thank You, The High Road , and its members.

Some day, It would be great if all us could gather up firearms, meet, and try everyone's favorites... A Firearm Tupperware Party... Lol ( For lack of a better description )

Thanks "bfoosh006". Though we feel comfortable that we might live close enough to "meet, greet, and target shoot"...we're scattered across the country and beyond. Still, if you just "happen" to come to Maine, we might be able to pop a few primers, providing the wind isn't blowing like normal, rain isn't washing out the range, or it's so cold or snowy to trudge down to put up targets.
JP
You mean there is something to hunt deer with than my old “thutty-thutty”?

I used to think that when hunting with an old lever rifle, rounds had to have bullets that had flattened noses, backed into cases almost half-way from recoil when in the mag tube for the last 4 deer shot. ;)
 
Hey, looking at a Natchez catalog last night. Weaver still makes K series fixed power scopes. Might need to pick up another 24x or 36x target scope before they are gone forever. Not overly impressed with their new European series target scopes for extra $$
 
I used to think that when hunting with an old lever rifle, rounds had to have bullets that had flattened noses, backed into cases almost half-way from recoil when in the mag tube for the last 4 deer shot

I remember those days of my Win 94. Not much money back then so you used the cases with the set back bullets at the range or first the next deer season.
 
I think I’d take more interest if a manufacturer turned out something truly revolutionary.

For example: a .22 sized round that produces .223 performance. Caseless ammo, a rail or coil gun that matches or exceeds centerfire performance.

I don’t know if any of the above is actually possible, but it would be cool.

the advantages the 6.5 Credmore over the .260 Remington just seem kinda boring and incremental by comparison.
Caseless ammunition has been done already.
This is a decent sum of what has happened thus far: http://futurewarstories.blogspot.com/2012/10/fws-armory-caseless-ammunition.html?m=1
Almost bought myself a voere vec 91 one time just for the "cool factor": http://www.voere.com/en/history/rifle-vec-91.html#history
 
I tend to stick with the old tried and true blue steel and walnut firearms. I didn't buy a .380 carry pistol for my wife because I would have to set up to reload for it. I like the 30 caliber and related cartridges in rifle, they will cover anything that crawls, walks or flies in my part of the country. My old model 12 Winchester will take care of the ones that I miss with a rifle.

It really boils down to the one that cranks your tractor, floats your boat, boils your water............ you know the drill.

Have a blessed day,

Leon
 
I remember those days of my Win 94. Not much money back then so you used the cases with the set back bullets at the range or first the next deer season.
I used to go to Dakins to look at and sometimes buy guns. That was in the 1950s and people didn't have a lot of money, so they'd come into the store and buy 4 or 5 rounds of hunting ammo instead of a box, which was about $9 or $10 bucks.

My buddy and I went hunting when we were teenagers and he had 5 rounds of .30-30 ammo. I was on the edge of a field and beside an old power pole that ran along an old trolley line next to Webber Pond, which is now part of Natanis golf course. My buddy went into the woods between the trolley line and the Pond. After a while, I heard 5 shots and I figured my buddy got a deer! After a few minutes I yelled, "Did you get him?" He yelled back, "No!" I yelled back, "Which way did he go?" He yelled back, "He's still here, looking at me." He had put the front bead right on the buck, but forgot about the rear leaf and missed a beautiful buck about 40 yards away! The next week, we brought the gun down to my Dad's shop and installed a Williams 5 Dollar receiver sight and a new, higher front sight and he never missed another deer.

JP
 
Kinda slow this morning, so thought I'd create a bit of nonsense that might get the ball rollin'.

Lots of noise here about the Creed and other "newish" hunting cartridges. That's okay, but even "oldish" favorites can still get Job #1 done well.

People tend to see things through the filter of their own interests, but I think that’s part of where some of this comes in. If by “Creed” you mean 6.5 Creedmoor, the issue might be that you are seeing things through your own filter rather than as what they are.

6.5 Creedmoor wasn’t developed for hunting. It’s no more a “hunting round” than 30’06 or 7.62x39. They get used for hunting but that wasn’t why they were developed.

Shooting interests can be broadly broken down into recreation, self defense, and civics. Within recreation you have target shooting and hunting.

Interest in recreational shooting is in decline relative to self defense and civics. Within recreational shooting, the reduction in interest in hunting is driving that decline. Hunting was a primary reason for people to own and shoot guns 50 years ago. Today it is a fringe interest.

Many of the new cartridges are being developed to reflect that shift. You can use them for hunting but that’s not what drove their creation. They can be completely successful and serve their market well without ever being used to take a game animal.
 
I love all wiz bangs! And which ever one I'm pulling the trigger on at the moment is my favorite.
I understand how people have their favorites,,, what I don't understand is their need to prove everyone else's inferior to theirs.
Some of us might have a complex, or just like to talk guns/cartridges. I think arms companies started it...to get more business, obviously.
 
What ever keeps people buying them and even more important making more first time buyers, makes things better for all of us.

So some kid gets himself a new 6.5 or 300 Blk and sells his “old” 30-06 or 30-30 to a buddy because they are useless now, makes one more well armed gun owner, now we just need both to vote...
 
Like was mentioned in several posts, if you have something that fills your needs quite effectively you're probably not looking to upgrade. Keying in on the slight differences and subtle advantages is what helps to get new tech off the ground and into homes. Some folks shun new tech as redundant and unnecessary. Some thumb their noses at old stuff as incapable and obsolete. Old cartridges taking advantage of modern powders and bullets are capable of much more too. Realistically though, how many of us have shot a cartridge in the way it was intended to be used and hated it? Maybe didn't like the platform, but never hated a specific round.
 
I too have old and new and I need more new guns to balance out the old guns. I cannot say at any moment what gun is my favorite. I buy a gun and almost never trade or sell it, and the few I have I regretted doing so later. At this moment, because I shot it yesterday, my favorite is my Marlin 917VS, it will shoot sub one hole at 100 yards if that is possible, reliably. My second is my Marlin 45-70 SBL. And it is only a few years old, bought for bear protection in Alaska while hiking and camping. It is more than a keeper, it is a get buried with forever gun. I suppose following those two is my Marlin 30-30 Model 336T (Texan). So, my new plastic and stainless Kimber Hunter in fancy smancy 6.5CM just sits there fuming and feeling slighted. Note a preference for lever guns. Sorry Henry, I will take a Remlin kit gun over a clunky Henry, reminds me of the box the Marlin came in (just teasing, sort of). Okay, I guess, my favorite is a Marlin 336S so I am not a high tech rifle guy at all.
 
I love classic wood and milled steel hunting rifles, which to me possess far more character than contemporary plastic and stainless steel rifles. In particular, I dearly love my late-1940s Husqvarna Mauser 98 in .270 Winchester:

View attachment 929994

Classic hunting iron will get the job done in the field as well as anything currently marketed. North American game is still built to the same specs, and assuming the hunter does his/her part, a deer shot with a 30-30 lever gun is just as dead as from something more high-tech. I will concede that the greater accuracy of modern production rifles have a real edge when it comes to long distance varmint shooting, but the difference there is more about rifle QC than cartridge choice. The .220 Swift is still pretty relevant for such old cartridge, though.

Having said this, there is also something undeniably practical about a lighter, more accurate and more weather-resistant arm carrying a greatly improved optical sight. I don't hunt at present, but if I was headed to the field I would take my Kimber 84M in .308 instead of my beautiful Heym Mauser 98 in 30-06. The Kimber is more than a pound lighter, about 2 MOA more accurate and can be washed off with a garden hose without damage if it falls into the mud.

View attachment 929995 View attachment 929996

Shorter, lighter ammo is not such big a deal to a hunter carrying maybe 20 cartridges max, but many of the newer, shorter cartridges offer hunters the option of shorter and lighter actions and therefore rifles. After all, new rifles do need to be made, and personally I would choose the .308 Winchester over the 30-06 in a newly-purchased hunting arm. Beyond that, these new-fangled cartridges don't really interest me all that much. Granted, most of the stuff I handload is seriously obsolete military fodder ...

===

Not everyone buys a hunting rifle to hunt with it -- these days, probably most don't. Shooting holes in paper or dinging steel at long range is good fun, and while I myself prefer old military iron with downloaded ammo for this pastime, I won't object to someone choosing a rifle that shoots a spiffy new high-performance cartridge over one of the classics. Good sport is where you find it.

Bragging rights are a fundamental guy thing, a part of our competitive DNA, and bragging is often about insisting that one thing is better than another when nothing truly vital is at stake. Bragging is a big improvement on hitting each other over the head with clubs.
I for one prefer hitting people over the head with clubs. It weeded out the ones too dumb to pay attention.
 
To be honest, all these cartridge debates are getting tiresome. It’s like arguing about our favorite flavors of ice cream. I went to the range this morning and had several cartridges represented (6.5x55, 308 Win, 6.5 Grendel, 6.5 Creedmoor, 300 Win Mag, 257 Roberts and 257 Weatherby Magnum). If older cartridges get your rocks off, shoot those. If you like the more modern stuff, shoot those. If you don’t know what you like, try them all until you find your favorite. It really doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks about your choice.
That's my opinion also. Enjoying shooting is good enough for me. I don't need you to like my choices. I don't even like some of my choices.
 
Kinda slow this morning, so thought I'd create a bit of nonsense that might get the ball rollin'.

Lots of noise here about the Creed and other "newish" hunting cartridges. That's okay, but even "oldish" favorites can still get Job #1 done well.

I personally use the .270 "Win-nah" and .243 "Widdler" and you know what?...they still kill critters really dead...even with just one shot at the same and longer ranges than most hunters can manage.

So what? Nothing new...not much to get excited about...unless you don't have any rifles that are really capable of slammin' down that 300 yard deer in the field. That starts with the caliber choice, but soon needs to consider a great-handling rifle that is easy to carry and shoot...a great variable-powered scope that makes dawn and dusk bright and clear. And the most important part, a capable "nut" behind the buttplate!!

The deer's vitals don't really have a vote here, but really hate meeting your choice of cartridge and your delivery to them.

So relax. You don't need to get excited about exotic rounds, except to impress your buddies, should you need that ego boost. The game doesn't rate rounds they receive, because they don't have time...as long as you deliver it to the right places. And that takes practice, practice, practice.

Deer at 300 yards? There are a ton of old cartridges that can do that. How about a prairie dog at 500 yards? Or a milk jug at 1000?

270 and 243 are fine cartridges, but they won't get me to where I want to be.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top