All Weather Deer Rifle

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Axis II

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Well after missing a few days of deer gun because I didnt want to sit in a downpour with a wood stock rifle and sitting in the stand last night in a random downpour and now having to disasemble my Marlin 1895 because its soaked I am looking at other options for a deer rifle. Must be a straight wall cartridge. I am exploring the following options and also have some questions. I am also open to other recommendations on caliber and rifle.

1) If I am hunting in rain and snow should I go with a stainless or cerekoted setup over blued? I have even thought about swapping the 223rem barrel with a 350 legend barrel and painting the receiver and barrel to help make it all weather.

2) Should I invest in a neoprene scope cover for my scopes if hunting in rain? I was worried about my Leupold getting soaked last night.

3) Longer or shorter barrel for hunting? My shots can go from 30yards-300yards. I am kind of leaning toward a shorter barrel but will that effect velocity and accuracy if I am hunting fields and shooting 300yards?

4) Ruger American Go Wild in 450BM. The Ruger Americans just feel so cheap to me compared to an Axis. The 450BM seems like a great long distance straight wall cartridge but I have heard of issues with bullets fragmenting when they hit bone. It seems the only bullet available is a Hornady BT.

5) What advantages does the Savage 110 have over an Axis?

6) I currently have a Vortex Crossfire 4-12 on the 223 I am debating on using as a donor. I only have experience with the Crossfire's on woodchuck guns that dont have any recoil and they arent used in low light. How do the Crossfires do on heavy recoil guns and low light?
 
I hunted with a mosin in the rain, heavy rain, with a Nikon buck masters scope from the mid 1990s or early 2000s. Scope only has flip up caps.

Zero issues with water ingress on the scope.
Zero issues with rust after I wiped the gun down and lightly oiled it.

Water isn’t as much of an evil as people claim....provided you aren’t lazy.

At 300 yards a couple inches +/- of barrel length isn’t gunna make much of a difference on most calibers.

It’s worth noting that that mosin was made in 1939 and likely saw combat in WWII. It rained back then too. It has no rust on it currently and some very minor pitting. You take care of your gun and rust ain’t a big deal.
 
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Hunting is an activity that happens in all weather conditions. Probably should take that into consideration when choosing a rifle.

If you want weather protection, get the 1895GS.

Maybe only buy stainless rifles from now on.

I like weatherproof rifles because I sweat like crazy on them here in the south.
 
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Axis II said:
Well after missing a few days of deer gun because I didnt want to sit in a downpour with a wood stock rifle and sitting in the stand last night in a random downpour and now having to disasemble my Marlin 1895 because its soaked I am looking at other options for a deer rifle. Must be a straight wall cartridge. I am exploring the following options and also have some questions. I am also open to other recommendations on caliber and rifle.

1) If I am hunting in rain and snow should I go with a stainless or cerekoted setup over blued? I have even thought about swapping the 223rem barrel with a 350 legend barrel and painting the receiver and barrel to help make it all weather.

2) Should I invest in a neoprene scope cover for my scopes if hunting in rain? I was worried about my Leupold getting soaked last night.

3) Longer or shorter barrel for hunting? My shots can go from 30yards-300yards. I am kind of leaning toward a shorter barrel but will that effect velocity and accuracy if I am hunting fields and shooting 300yards?

4) Ruger American Go Wild in 450BM. The Ruger Americans just feel so cheap to me compared to an Axis. The 450BM seems like a great long distance straight wall cartridge but I have heard of issues with bullets fragmenting when they hit bone. It seems the only bullet available is a Hornady BT.

5) What advantages does the Savage 110 have over an Axis?

6) I currently have a Vortex Crossfire 4-12 on the 223 I am debating on using as a donor. I only have experience with the Crossfire's on woodchuck guns that dont have any recoil and they arent used in low light. How do the Crossfires do on heavy recoil guns and low light?
Click to expand...

Marine Grease the metal, including the bore.

Then carnauba wax the wood if not already sealed.

Hunted in the Great State of Louisiana for decades, in the rain, w/ blued steel and wood.

Does this look like it cared?

WP-20180617-11-54-18-Pro-2-crop.jpg ​




GR
 
I started migrating to synthetic stocks and either stainless or Cerakote (a couple of both) years ago. About the time I started viewing my hunting and defensive guns as tools. I've still got a few wood stocked and blued rifles, but they're mostly target/match guns.

A quality scope will have zero issues with getting wet, but get flip open caps. IF I hunted in a predominately "wet" environment like I encountered in eastern WA state and AK while stationed there, I'd go with stainless AND Cerakote it in a synthetic stock. Especially if you're doing spike camp/drop in hunt deal when there's little chance to clean your rifle at the end of the day. As South Prairie Jim said, stainless is rust resistant.... not rust proof. Daily hunts and going home at the end of the day I'd just go stainless, even blued with wood as long as I wiped it down afterwards.

To me barrel length is somewhat a function of the cartridge. For the .308 "family" I've had good luck with 20" and velocity loss was minimal. For the magnums I stick to 24-26" (except my little M7 in .350Rem) and my open country .270 a 24". My 300 and under whitetail rifle is a REM M7 in .260. I get 2930 with 120 Nosler BTs and it's plenty flat shooting out to 300.
 
Garandimal said:
Marine Grease the metal, including the bore.

Then carnauba wax the wood if not already sealed.

Hunted in the Great State of Louisiana for decades, in the rain, w/ blued steel and wood.

Does this look like it cared?





GR
Click to expand...
I've always been uncomfortable putting any other than a light oil in the bore. Could you expand on your method and the amount you recommend?
Thx
J
 
Renaissance wax.

Seal the wood and thin layer on metal.

Nothing in the bore. Leave it fouled from the zero in.
Gets wet wipe it dry w swab when ya get home.

Or buy a stainless and synth rifle.
Like a boat paddle Ruger LOL
 
The issue with water is........after the hunt maintenance.
And how it affects the wood during the hunt (stock swell and or warpage).

Look at how many shotguns are split at the back.......can tell who was duck hunting and had the butt in the water.
Most stocks NOT sealed.

First thing you do to a new rifle is seal action/barrel channel, grip cap and butt areas.
 
I seem to remember the M-1 Garand was wood and steel? The info on wax and grease is good. But I understand the weatherproof concept for weapons.
 
Axis II said:
Well after missing a few days of deer gun because I didnt want to sit in a downpour with a wood stock rifle and sitting in the stand last night in a random downpour and now having to disasemble my Marlin 1895 because its soaked I am looking at other options for a deer rifle. Must be a straight wall cartridge. I am exploring the following options and also have some questions. I am also open to other recommendations on caliber and rifle.

1) If I am hunting in rain and snow should I go with a stainless or cerekoted setup over blued? I have even thought about swapping the 223rem barrel with a 350 legend barrel and painting the receiver and barrel to help make it all weather.

2) Should I invest in a neoprene scope cover for my scopes if hunting in rain? I was worried about my Leupold getting soaked last night.

3) Longer or shorter barrel for hunting? My shots can go from 30yards-300yards. I am kind of leaning toward a shorter barrel but will that effect velocity and accuracy if I am hunting fields and shooting 300yards?

4) Ruger American Go Wild in 450BM. The Ruger Americans just feel so cheap to me compared to an Axis. The 450BM seems like a great long distance straight wall cartridge but I have heard of issues with bullets fragmenting when they hit bone. It seems the only bullet available is a Hornady BT.

5) What advantages does the Savage 110 have over an Axis?

6) I currently have a Vortex Crossfire 4-12 on the 223 I am debating on using as a donor. I only have experience with the Crossfire's on woodchuck guns that dont have any recoil and they arent used in low light. How do the Crossfires do on heavy recoil guns and low light?
Click to expand...



i believe they make an Axis in .350 legend I’d get that then have the whole thing cerakoted
 
For you guys saying to seal the wood. How would I go about doing that? I saw something about minwax paste wax but I dont think that would make much difference.
 
Doesn’t matter what you seal it with because that will only be a temporary solution with natural wood.

Paste wax or renaissance wax will slow moisture intrusion but does not stop it. Reapplication is necessary for best results. Application to the metal helps to buy like with all waxes, reapplication is needed here and there.
 
I did a lot of hunting close to the Gulf Coast growing up. Serious humidity and it rained a lot. My father and uncles used paste wax on the metal and wood of our firearms. I don’t remember rust being an issue.

Maybe I should but I don’t worry about my scopes getting wet.

I can’t stand Crossfires, I can’t stand them even more in low light. When I was selling scopes and guns we had a lot of Crossfires returned because they went belly up.
 
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Trying to seal the wood is an exercise in futility. Wood naturally has water trapped inside of it. About 10-15% by weight on rifle stocks. If they were to dry the wood any more it would be brittle and snap like a match stick. It is the wood inside that causes most of the problems as it expands and contracts even if you could completely seal the wood from outside moisture.

But even then a cracked or split stock is pretty rare. Most of the issues come with changing point of impact. This has always been a fact of life with rifles and years ago when a 2 MOA rifle was considered accurate and 4 MOA normal most people didn't notice that the POI had changed.

The early sniper rifles with wood stocks used in Vietnam proved to be useless during the rainy season. Accuracy was so bad that they only had an effective range of about 40 yards when wet. Once they started putting McMillan stocks on them things improved considerably. I haven't owned a wood stocked bolt rifle since 1983. If I feel the need for walnut and blue steel I have several lever guns.

Stainless steel is easier to maintain, but is far less important in a wet weather rifle. Waterfowl hunters have never adopted SS shotguns and they hunt in some of the harshest weather conditions. Their wood stocks don't negatively effect accuracy like on a rifle, but even most serious waterfowl hunters today are going to synthetic stocks.

While all of my bolt rifles have synthetic stocks, I'm about 50/50 on SS/Blue. The SS rifles can wait a little longer before they need to be cleaned. The blue rifles may develop some surface rust, but any real damage caused wet weather that leads to a failure is neglect and will happen to either. I don't mind the look of a little surface rust and honest wear on a blue rifle.
 
1) I have never had an issue with wet weather and wood guns. You do have to get them dried out when done hunting but other than that I have have never any issue with wood in rain. I use RIG grease to wipe them down and that seems to give the wood decent short term protection from rain.

That said AR's do very well in wet weather being all aluminum and plastic. For straight-wall cartridges in AR's I am very partial to 450 Bushmaster but 350 Legend will work just fine. Both of those cartridge are legitimate 200 yard cartridges but 300 yards is going to be a slight stretch for either.

yX7fCYhl.jpg

2) Flip up scope-caps are the solution to wet weather hunting with a scope. Butler Creek are excellent for the price but many of the scope makers also make caps that fit there scopes. My 450 BM above has Vortex caps and they work well but I had to tape them on to keep them from falling off.

3) Given the ranges you stipulate I would go with the longer barrel unless your hunting really heavy cover where maneuverability might be compromised.

4) Factory 450 Bushmaster from Hornady using the FTX bullet does have a reputation of failing on hard targets like heavy bone. But that said there are lots of other options for 450 Bushmaster out there.
yHgMUhyl.jpg
My favorite bullet is Barnes 275gr TSX. You can reload it or there are ammo manufactures selling loaded ammo using this bullet.
Vatz1fTl.jpg
Last year I shot a 140 lb doe lengthwise, in behind the ears and out through the abdomen just in font of the rear legs. Never moved and the recovered bullet (from the dirt behind her) was 95% weight retention.
 
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My current all weather all around rifle is a bolt action stainless steel Steyr Pro Hunter with 24" barrel, factory synthetic stock, plus a Leupold VX-5HD 3-15x44mm CDS-ZL2 with simple duplex Hellfire IR and Butler Creek flip open scope caps.

wombat13 said:
Don’t have to worry about the Leupold scope in the rain. I really like the Alumina screw in flip up caps. I keep the caps closed if it’s raining. So easy to flip the open if I see or hear a deer.
Click to expand...

I'll look into those Leupold alumina scope caps you mentioned.

All but my other hunting rifles are blued with walnut stocks, those two are blued & synthetic stocks.
 
Waterfowlers don't run stainless because a white/silver barrel will be easily seen by the birds.
Just buy a beater mag pump and run it a few seasons, get another and repeat.
Hunted for years w an 1100 magnum w wood stock.
It was sealed though, and looked like new when I sold it (decade later).
My current 1100 magnum is gunkoted over the factory Parkerizing and wears a synth stock.
While the synth is durable, it is also lighter, and colder to the touch.
Wood is great, if you can tolerate beating it up.

Another thing, when you take a gun apart after a good soaking, let it dry out before putting it back together.
Wood stocks can compress when wet and stay that way.
Can bind mag spacers (seen it on an M77 V way back).
 
South Prairie Jim said:
I've always been uncomfortable putting any other than a light oil in the bore. Could you expand on your method and the amount you recommend?
Thx
J
Click to expand...

After cleaning the bore, fit a tight patch over a jag and run it down the bore.

Then, coat the patch w/ marine grease and run it down the bore a coupla times.

Followed by a clean jaged patch.

This fills the pores and leaves a film... which is all that is required.


I also use marine grease on a large patch, over the bore brush, when cleaning.

It contains detergents and anti-corrosives, so it softens the carbon fouling and encapsulates it as it comes off the bore.




GR
 
Garandimal said:
After cleaning the bore, fit a tight patch over a jag and run it down the bore.

Then, coat the patch w/ marine grease and run it down the bore a coupla times.

Followed by a clean jaged patch.

This fills the pores and leaves a film... which is all that is required.


I also use marine grease on a large patch, over the bore brush, when cleaning.

It contains detergents and anti-corrosives, so it softens the carbon fouling and encapsulates it as it comes off the bore.




GR
Click to expand...
Great and thanks
Now I know
 
Gosh. Maybe there was a reason for the .mil to leave wood stocks behind and go to polymer?
 
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