Actually, as I heard the story on the history channel a while back, the military had no sniper hardware at the beginning of the Vietnam conflict. They figured out real quick they needed snipers and went to Manila or somewhere to a large sporting goods store and bought a bunch of Remingtons, stuck Redfield scopes on 'em, and gave 'em to the best shots.
. So, actually, the sporting rifle BECAME the military rifle. Kind of a neat twist, I thought.
Actually, turn of the century, i'm thinking smokeless powder and bolt action Mausers were so much more accurate and had so much more range than anything that had come before, and just had so many more advantages over the old black powder guns, that everyone that hunted probably tripped over themselves in an effort to get one. I highly doubt it was anything like today's black gun thing with black gun enthusiasts trying to justify the weapons by hunting with them and what they call "fudds" chastising the black gun guys for using a putter to drive with. But, whatever floats your boat. I just told ya what my first impressions are when I meet a guy so into black guns he's hunting with one. It may or may not be the case, for sure, and I know there are a lot of good platforms out there that have adequate power and accuracy to hunt with. I really can't understand the fervor of hunting with 'em. I'm more a single shot guy. I hunt with a Contender pistol a lot, about 180 degrees from an AR. My rifles are rather affordable bolt guns that are accurate without breaking the bank. I killed my first deer in 1963 with a Remington M722 in .257 Roberts. I hunted deer only with that gun right up until about 1991 when I bought a 7 mag, got magnumitis. I got over that, won a rifle at a gun show, a 700 Remington in .25-06 which I traded for my Remington M7 in .308 which I had been drooling over since it came out. I never even considered an AR or AK or FAL or whatever for hunting, those were toys, still are to me. That's just my mindset, sorry if you disagree, but it's a free world and I suspect I, the fudd, am very much the norm because of the hunting I've done in public areas and on leases with lots of hunters, I cannot recall EVER seeing anyone with a black rifle in camp our out hunting. I've seen more black powder, more lever guns, and such. I remember one guy who's autoloader, a Remington 740, broke and I loaned him my .257 and he killed a deer with it. I had my 7 mag at the time and took the .257 as a back up. I remember another guy with an OLD remington, M8? It's the one that the barrel moved with the action and I think it was in .351 or some such. Maybe it was a .35 Remington, can't remember for sure. That was a weird rifle to run into on the deer camp, LOL.
Nope, I think FUDDS are normal and black rifle guys are the exception, probably still, frankly, except maybe on gun boards.
