LebbenB
Member
Speaking of VEPRs, here's a company out of NH (I think) that does some great work with the VEPR. But I kind of balk at paying $2000+ for what amounts to a .308 Win AK.
http://snakehoundmachine.com/
http://snakehoundmachine.com/
I love lever guns but they are the weakest most complicated rifle designthe odds of needing to engage multiple armed targets simply aren't that great. i just don't live that dangerously anymore . therefor, semi-autos bring too much to the table where less will do just as well for a GPR and be handier to boot.
if i were to head into a situation where i needed to tend to serious social work, my 5.56 gun would be the one i grabbed. but we're talking a whole different ballgame then.
a GPR to me, means the one that you grab when you head out the door to walk the back 40. the one that rides in the truck. the one that gets taken to camp for no other reason than to just have a rifle along for anything that needs to be dealt with.
i guess a lot of what one decides to use as a GPR will be based on their AO.
all else being equal, bolts and levers are more rugged and reliable. that's why they are the choice in some of the more extreme environs on the planet, just as revolvers are generally more reliable than semis. that's not to say that your m14s are not reliable. but it's a fact that there is more to go wrong with semi-autos. i don't think anyone would argue that single shots are probably the most reliable there is, but then most prefer to have a repeater of some sort, so there's compromise.
for me, my go to would be a '75 marlin 336 30-30. i'm not opposed to heavy guns, and i have and use a few. but heavy and handy typically don't go hand in hand. i've witnessed other shooters who felt totally comfortable and confident in their platform switch to something lighter and handier and see their hits improve drastically, and be amazed at how well they did with little familiarization. it's kind-of like 'you don't know what you're missing until you give it a whirl'.
for .308 i would prefer a bolt gun, no more than a 20" bbl, flush mag, irons, and a QR scope of about 1-4(or 6)x. craigc's ruger rsi sounds about right. and i know cz makes a nice FS 550 as well. i had a ruge gsr that i recently sold. it was a fine rifle, but i really disliked the detachable mag. the gun was short, not too heavy, but just felt clumsy at times, and i attributed it to the det. mag.
if you really deem the semi auto and higher capacity necessary, the m14 is a fine weapon. my needs and requirements are just slightly different.
Oft-repeated but untrue. The lever on your average levergun protrudes less than the magazine of an AR. If you can shoot an AR prone without resting the mag on the ground, you can shoot a lever prone. Although I can't remember the last time I shot prone in the field.A lever gun may also do poorer in the prone position
However, if we are honest and realistic about these things, the only real advantage the semi-auto has over a bolt or lever is capacity. Unfortunately, rapidity of fire is only a bonus if they are placed accurately and for deliberate, accurate fire, the semi-auto .308 will have little or no advantage. IMHO, you simply cannot recover between shots quickly enough to make up the difference. A skilled rifleman can operate his chosen weapon fast enough while recovering from recoil to make the difference negligible.
Perhaps but the difference won't be what you think it is.For anything inside of 300 meters the semi-auto is going to be faster.
Which makes me think you have not spent much time with a boltgun.A guy with the bolt action would still be working the bolt of his rifle while the guy with a semi-auto will be firing a second, or third aimed round.
That is uncalled-for and inaccurate.Me thinks you have a chip on your shoulder
Stop trying so hard to be offended, no offense was intended. The point, which you clearly missed, is that the semi-auto's main advantage would be against multiple well-armed assailants. Also that the likelihood you'll have such an encounter is only slightly higher than having to defend yourself against a horde of zombies. If you want your "GPR" (which means Lyman Great Plains Rifle to me) to be better suited to the tiniest possibility, that is fine. I prefer mine to be better suited to what I KNOW will happen, will happen often and in the immediate future.I take your zombie comment as derogatory and not welcome. Certaintly not a HighRoad attitude.
Maybe you should leave the moderating to the moderators. This thread was started because of a tangent discussion between fragout and myself in another thread.Go ahead and define a GPR in any manner that suits you, but maybe you need to do it in another thread.
Maybe YOU s hould try reading what I've posted, instead of just skimming through it looking for something to get miffed about.This thread is talking about 308 rifles.