Do you need a REASON to buy a big bore rifle?

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I actually had to 'justify' my purchase of a Ruger #1 .45/70 to the police.

Had the same Prob with The west Aust polilce myself some years back That was trying to get them to get through teir thick skulls that (a) it was classed as a low power & (b) I was only going to be shooting their side of the Border for 2 mths :banghead: Ironicley it was for camels & I had a contract with the APB ( Agracultural Protection Board ) to trap, shoot& Poison dingos ! It took a Phone call to perth to straighten the whole matter out :cuss:

As for a reason for owning a Big Bore ? Do you need a reason to Climb Everist? do you need a Reason to own aV8 when a VW bug will sufise of cause not !!!!!!!!!Go forward young man .Stride perposfully into your nearest Gundealer ! & demand (not ask that he sell you a 45-70 !!!!!!!!!!!!! Demand that he give you discount for cash Then Work out a way of sneaking it into the house with out your wife seeing it!
 
It gets easier

I pondered for several days before I bought my first .375 in 1984. It made the next .375 easier, and when the .416 Rem Mag came out it was a snap. My last purchase, a .17 HMR. Go figure!
Ron
 
Very few owners of really big rifles actually need them. I don't actually need 95% of the guns I own.

I load 285 grain lead bullets at 2,000 FPS fro plinking in my .375 H&H BRNO 602. This gives a nice shove but I can do 25-40 rounds without trouble. A lot of shooters don't consider the 375 a big bore.

I have a Remington Model 30 rebuilt into a classic safari rifle in .460 G&A (the .404 Jeffrey necked up and blown out to .458). Plinking load (plinking?) is a 500 grain lead at 2000 FPS or a 390 lead at 2300. Very stout. I can take about 10 of the 390s before flinching sets in but the 500 grain loads just knock the crap out of me. Especially the full bore 500 jacketed bullets at 2350 FPS.

Here's the .460. Pretty, but brutal with full loads.

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my 45-70 Contender was my second barrel purchase. I absolutely love it. It has killed two scopes and was underestimated once, coming out of the poor fella's hands and almost hitting him in the head...that was with a 500 grain round nose and a compressed load of RL7 in pistol configuration.

My next big bore will be an Encore Katahdin, in either the available 450 Marlin OR get a custom shop barrel chambered in 458 Lott, that way I can shoot Lotts or WinMags. A nice 2.5 power Leupold will grace that baby, and it will be my feral zombie hogzilla gun. :D

Until then, 350-400 grain thumpers out of my 16" gong-killer will have to do. :)

Darrell
 
Are those loads "OW" loads? (from the involuntary response following the shot)
Click to expand...
fallingblock - Quite significant ''Ow'', yeah! :D

I only had a t-shirt on and after first shot did succumb to going ''wussy'' and added a pad of folded spare t-shirt between me and gun butt! :p This was a just sub max load with 52 grains 3031 shoving the 405 lasercast ........ 1650 fps or over (not chono'd yet) yielding around 2500 ft lbs - so quite ''useful''. :evil: :) My load of choice tho may well be another just sub max using R7, which will get those figures up somewhat! :cool:
 
John Ross --

Nice choice! That's a Cobb FA-50(t). For my money, it's the ultimate big bore rifle. If I had an extra seven grand laying around, I'd have one. Plenty more pics here: http://www.cobb50.com/photo.htm.

The biggest bore rifle I own right now is a Remington rolling block in .45-70. It lobs some pretty big hunks of lead, but the operative term is "lob." I love black powder, but you just don't get anywhere near the velocity of nitro. Still, gotta love the BOOOOOOM, clouds of smoke, and the SMACK! of nearly an ounce of lead impacting a silhouette target.
 
Father Knows Best,

All cleavage aside, I'm seriously looking at the BAR-50 (bolt action instead of straight pull) for my personal .50.

10 Shot repeater, 1 MOA, $3K, you can't go wrong.

Best,
John Bear Ross
 
I think the only reason you need for getting a big bore rifle is YOU WANT ONE. However, if that's not enough - a .338 Win Mag is the perfect all-around cartridge for American big game and the .375 H&H is a pretty good all-around cartridge for big game anywhere in the world. :)
 
That's about par for the W.A. police.....

"Had the same Prob with The west Aust polilce myself some years back That was trying to get them to get through teir thick skulls that (a) it was classed as a low power & (b) I was only going to be shooting their side of the Border for 2 mths Ironicley it was for camels & I had a contract with the APB ( Agracultural Protection Board ) to trap, shoot& Poison dingos ! It took a Phone call to perth to straighten the whole matter out."
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W.A. used to be the most firearm-unfriendly Police in Oz until that mongrel Howard brought us all down to the same level. :cuss:

The camels are really breeding-up here in the Centre. Along with the donkeys they are literally eating the place bare! Not to mention the waterholes and bore damage. Camels are even busting-up the toilets in remote communities looking for more water. :rolleyes:


P95Carry:
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"just sub max load with 52 grains 3031 shoving the 405 lasercast ........ 1650 fps or over (not chono'd yet) yielding around 2500 ft lbs - so quite ''useful''.
*********************************************************

Yep, that qualifies as an "ow" load in my book! :eek:


********************************************************* "My load of choice tho may well be another just sub max using R7, which will get those figures up somewhat!"
*********************************************************

:what: Into the "OW-OW" category? :)

Do we get to have bruise photos? ;)
 
I sure hope a reason is not needed. I have kind of been looking at high powered hunting rifles (.338 Rem. Ultra Mag., .375 H&H, and .338-378 Weatherby Magnum), yet I have no plans to do any big game hunting in the near future. I figure it is better to have something and not need it, then to need something and not have it.
 
I'm not sure what I gave as the official reason for buying a Browning A-Bolt in .375 H&H a few years ago, but the real reason was that I had just finished reading all of Capstick's books about African hunting. Sure, I had to make do with using it to plink Pepsi cans with, but secretly I was always hoping an elephant or Cape Buffalo or Triceratop would escape and end up terrorizing my neighborhood. Granted, the odds of that happening in a small Oklahoma town are small, but HEY, somebody has to be ready to protect the citizenry. Only reason I sold it was that it was stainless and had that BOSS muzzle brake thing on it and lacked that African bush macho look. One day I hope to acquire another .375 or a .416.
 
I've got two big bores.

1. Steyr Scout in .376 Steyr. This is a hell of a fun gun and can be had fairly cheap. It kicks hard, but not as bad as some would have you think. Yes, 260 grains at 2600 fps in a 7 pound gun is not something you'll forget, but its not out of control. The effects of it on a deer are rather dramatic. I've never seen an exit wound quite like it.

2. .50 Beowulf in an AR15. I haven't shot this one yet, but I figure I'll take it out for deer a couple of times next year.

I now feel well prepared for the migration of zebra, kudu, lion and buffalo that are on thier way to the Eastern US. ;)
 
One of the few advantages of getting older.....

"at my age - I use a thick ''wuss pad''!!"
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We don't subject ourselves to needless abuse.....

Well, when we do, we at least take precautions. :)

One of the guys in the club was firing a .458 Ruger Tropical off the bench with factory loads last week.

After seven rounds, he got up, rubbed his shoulder and said:

"That's about all the fun I can stand for today." :D
 
.50 cal. One day, it shall be mine. That's what I keep telling myself anyways.

I miss "my" M82A1. The bomb guys made me give it back. :(
 
Jack O'Connor's reason and mine too.

"To me the rifle has always been the most romatic of all weapons, and of all rifles the one I love the most is for big game. I like a handgun. I hold a shotgun in high regard; but rifles---well, I love the darned things. To me, they stand for wilderness, mystery, romance..."
 
Yes, I'm afraid you do indeed need a reason for owning a big bore. If you don't have one, I'll let you borrow mine: "I wanna!".

The .375 H&H is not a big bore, it is a medium bore, but it is tons of fun to shoot. If you don't mind a single shot, the Ruger #1 in this is a fine gun.

If you want an easy shooting big bore, the .45-70 can't be beat.

If you want more power than the .45-70, the .458 Win Mag is a classic.

Any way you do it, I'd recommend you get a reloading setup for it, as they can be pricey to feed, and the best ammo for them is handloaded ammo.


Id' advis ethe .45-70 as your first big bore. The Marlin guns aren't very expensive, and that particular cartridge can be loaded for anything from deer to cap buffalo with ease. The joy of those big, slow slugs, is that they easily penetrate to and through the vitals, even through heavy bone, yet very little of the meat is destroyed or bloodshot. You can "eat right up to the hole" as they say.
 
Speaking of Big Bore calibers and CZ rifles, somewhere I recall reading that CZ was going to chamber their 550 Magnum rifle in .404 Jeffrey.

Can anybody confirm this?
 
Sorry to tell you this guys but "big bore" starts at .458. By traditional standards medium bore starts at .375 and includes all of the various .400's up to .411,.416,.423* (.404), .425WR.

So the .375 is a small medium bore.

The .458 is a small big bore.

And no you don't need any reason to own one besides the fact that the cool factor is high. And you never know when that dream trip is going to pop up. You'll want to be familiar with that .577 Tyrannosaur in case you need to shoot your way out if a flock of ele's or something. :)

In any case here are my three favorite "big bore rifles" I'll even throw in my .375 for funs sake. ;)

I'm such an express rifle loser that I've just bought a double square bridge magnum mauser in .404 Jeff. Just what I need, another DG rifle! :D

.458Lott stainless M-70 custom.

africa21.jpg

.470NE Searcy field grade box lock ejector.

ff529496.jpg

.375H&H M-70 stainless

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Shell size comparison Right to left. .308 Winchester, .375H&H, .458Lott, .470NE

shellssize.gif

Once it starts the disease only grows in severity there is no cure!
 
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A little over 30 years ago, in Africa, I picked up my one and only big bore double... a 470 N.E. Krieghoff Classic

....from that day on it was "The" rifle...and everything else..were the others. If you wish to get started in the big powder burners... go with the 375 and look up...to your next one... but try to get your hands on a double...there is NOTHING like touching off a double.
 
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I'll do that, artherd! I might be heading out to Cali in a few months for a buddy's wedding.

My baby. sniffle, I miss her.

50cal.jpg
 
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