Hello Everyone,
I've read posts here for a few years but just recently joined and wanted to introduce myself. I grew-up in the Pocono Mountains of eastern PA but have lived in N. Virginia for decades. Lifelong outdoorsman - started fishing at age 3 and shooting at 7. I've not really gained an interest in rifles until the last 10 years or so, and have focused most of my time on wild turkey hunting and saltwater fly fishing, oddly, most of which has been for tuna. Today, I mostly work and raise my three kids.
I'm now 55 and gained an interest in rifles through another bizarre habit - calling bobcats in the sandstone outcroppings of the Appalachian mountains in the western part of Virginia. I decided I needed an adventure when I was going through a horrible family situation wherein my wife fell into the throes of an awful alcohol and prescription drug addiction. I needed brief escapes and wanted to do something exciting and with a hint of danger - something that would put me in situations where I'd face primitive fears of being alone in a dangerous place and often at night. With my three young kids safe with childcare, off I'd go. Moving at night through mountaintop sandstone outcroppings, and doing stream crossings in the dark to start things off. I wanted to call and take a cat, finding them on my own and putting together a special rifle to do it with. I ended up with two - a little Ruger M77 in .22 Hornet that I stripped, recut the checkering and refinished with a hand-rubbed oil finish. The barreled action and all metalwork has sent out and refinished flat. I topped it with a 2x7 Leupold (VX2 or 3, I forget, and complete with those nice Leupold lens covers). I bought a Lee reloading kit and worked up a load I was confident in (keeping my patience with the "flyers"). All in all, a great little mountain rifle for cats and also for breaking up fall flocks of turkeys to call them back. I then got an urge for a finer, more serious gun and with the guidance of my friend, a former benchrest shooter and maker of competition rifles, ended up with a beautiful Cooper M52 Classic in .22 K-Hornet. I topped it with a Zeiss Conquest 4.5-14 scope and worked up a load. I loved the details of the physics behind precision riflery, at least to the extent that the flimsy little .22 Hornet case can be called "precision" . . . . : ) With the help of my friend guiding me through the reloading process over the phone, I quickly ended up shooting a 1/4" 3 shot group at 100 yards and was very proud (even though it was very flukey due to the Cooper throwing those random flyers that I decided must be the result of inconsistencies in the flimsy necks of those tiny cases). That said, I loved shooting and hunting those little rifles and found the Hornet to be a lot of fun.
I also learned that in riflery as in everything, nothing is free. The little Ruger was a joy to carry through the mountains, but felt like a whippy twig in the shooting sticks. The heavier and more cumbersome Cooper, while more difficult to carry, felt like a rock-solid instrument ready to deal death when sitting in the sticks. It was also so finely crafted and beautiful that I never minded the weight so much - it was a joy to carry and use and brought a lot of pleasure to my hunts.
I had amazing adventures filled with excitement, sometimes flat-out fear, and always a lot of sweat and effort to move through those mountains in the dark with a heavy pack and rifle, running a circuit of calling locations which was each a major effort to reach. I eventually took my first cat just at sunset, with a single shot from the Cooper. She only weighed around 10-12 pounds but remains one of my most thrilling and fulfilling experiences. The drive just to reach the mountains was 85 miles and once parked it took about an hour of hiking and stream crossings to even reach the first calling location. Nuts, right?? If I told you how many drives out and back it took to find the cats and then be persistent enough to stick with it until I reached my goal, well, if AOC knew how many miles I drove she might have a hit man out looking for me.
I'm back into another rifle adventure. I felt it was time to own one good big game rifle, just to have fun with - for the fun of developing loads and having the ability to do anything I chose, from longer shots at groundhogs to whitetail deer hunting (just for meat, not trophies), maybe an elk or barbary sheep hunt one day. I went through a lot of study and winnowed down the cartridge to 30-06, .308 and .280 Remington and ultimately selected the venerable 30-06. I had initially thought of a .338 Win Mag as well but frankly the recoil scared me and I didn't want to put together a beautiful rifle and then be afraid of shooting it. For what it's worth, I'm 6' 2'' and 200 pounds. My first turkey gun as a 12-year-old boy was an H&R single shot 10 ga. Today I do some shooting with short-barreled 12 ga pump defense shotguns, and for a time years ago hunted turkeys with a Remington 11-87 12 ga paired with Winchester Supreme Turkey Loads (this was just before the heavi-shot revolution). Those Winchester loads were ridiculously stout - I once left a buddy's farm after shooting 6 shots to pattern the gun and felt a stinging in my cheek as I walked back to the car. I looked in a mirror and found a patch of skin was gone from my right cheek! A few more shots and I might have lost a filling or two, and I remember joking with a buddy that I'd be about as well off putting the gun on the ground and just having him punch me in the face a few times! So, while I know very well what recoil is like, to me there is a big difference between shooting shotguns (often standing) and the very deliberate shooting of a rifle from a bench. I'm thinking 30-06 will have all the power I need (and usually much more than I need) without scaring me at the bench.
I wanted to put together something beautiful and classic. As I've gotten older, I simply have no more desire for non-wood stocks. I totally understand the benefits they provide but simply am more interested in the romance and beauty of a nice piece of walnut than a super-stable and accurate plastic stock and I'm willing to live with the consequences of that decision. I also wanted a rifle with some weight to help with stability and shooting comfort and to that end recently reached a decision, purchasing a Winchester Model 70 Super Grade Stainless in 30-06. I'm off into researching bases and rings and scopes and look forward to digging around at threads here and gaining the benefit of all the expertise of the generous folks here. I'll need to also begin making decisions on powders, bullets, dies, etc. Lots of fun to come and I look forward to the journey.
Thank you for taking the time to read my painfully long intro - I look forward to being here. Cheers.
3Poults
I've read posts here for a few years but just recently joined and wanted to introduce myself. I grew-up in the Pocono Mountains of eastern PA but have lived in N. Virginia for decades. Lifelong outdoorsman - started fishing at age 3 and shooting at 7. I've not really gained an interest in rifles until the last 10 years or so, and have focused most of my time on wild turkey hunting and saltwater fly fishing, oddly, most of which has been for tuna. Today, I mostly work and raise my three kids.
I'm now 55 and gained an interest in rifles through another bizarre habit - calling bobcats in the sandstone outcroppings of the Appalachian mountains in the western part of Virginia. I decided I needed an adventure when I was going through a horrible family situation wherein my wife fell into the throes of an awful alcohol and prescription drug addiction. I needed brief escapes and wanted to do something exciting and with a hint of danger - something that would put me in situations where I'd face primitive fears of being alone in a dangerous place and often at night. With my three young kids safe with childcare, off I'd go. Moving at night through mountaintop sandstone outcroppings, and doing stream crossings in the dark to start things off. I wanted to call and take a cat, finding them on my own and putting together a special rifle to do it with. I ended up with two - a little Ruger M77 in .22 Hornet that I stripped, recut the checkering and refinished with a hand-rubbed oil finish. The barreled action and all metalwork has sent out and refinished flat. I topped it with a 2x7 Leupold (VX2 or 3, I forget, and complete with those nice Leupold lens covers). I bought a Lee reloading kit and worked up a load I was confident in (keeping my patience with the "flyers"). All in all, a great little mountain rifle for cats and also for breaking up fall flocks of turkeys to call them back. I then got an urge for a finer, more serious gun and with the guidance of my friend, a former benchrest shooter and maker of competition rifles, ended up with a beautiful Cooper M52 Classic in .22 K-Hornet. I topped it with a Zeiss Conquest 4.5-14 scope and worked up a load. I loved the details of the physics behind precision riflery, at least to the extent that the flimsy little .22 Hornet case can be called "precision" . . . . : ) With the help of my friend guiding me through the reloading process over the phone, I quickly ended up shooting a 1/4" 3 shot group at 100 yards and was very proud (even though it was very flukey due to the Cooper throwing those random flyers that I decided must be the result of inconsistencies in the flimsy necks of those tiny cases). That said, I loved shooting and hunting those little rifles and found the Hornet to be a lot of fun.
I also learned that in riflery as in everything, nothing is free. The little Ruger was a joy to carry through the mountains, but felt like a whippy twig in the shooting sticks. The heavier and more cumbersome Cooper, while more difficult to carry, felt like a rock-solid instrument ready to deal death when sitting in the sticks. It was also so finely crafted and beautiful that I never minded the weight so much - it was a joy to carry and use and brought a lot of pleasure to my hunts.
I had amazing adventures filled with excitement, sometimes flat-out fear, and always a lot of sweat and effort to move through those mountains in the dark with a heavy pack and rifle, running a circuit of calling locations which was each a major effort to reach. I eventually took my first cat just at sunset, with a single shot from the Cooper. She only weighed around 10-12 pounds but remains one of my most thrilling and fulfilling experiences. The drive just to reach the mountains was 85 miles and once parked it took about an hour of hiking and stream crossings to even reach the first calling location. Nuts, right?? If I told you how many drives out and back it took to find the cats and then be persistent enough to stick with it until I reached my goal, well, if AOC knew how many miles I drove she might have a hit man out looking for me.
I'm back into another rifle adventure. I felt it was time to own one good big game rifle, just to have fun with - for the fun of developing loads and having the ability to do anything I chose, from longer shots at groundhogs to whitetail deer hunting (just for meat, not trophies), maybe an elk or barbary sheep hunt one day. I went through a lot of study and winnowed down the cartridge to 30-06, .308 and .280 Remington and ultimately selected the venerable 30-06. I had initially thought of a .338 Win Mag as well but frankly the recoil scared me and I didn't want to put together a beautiful rifle and then be afraid of shooting it. For what it's worth, I'm 6' 2'' and 200 pounds. My first turkey gun as a 12-year-old boy was an H&R single shot 10 ga. Today I do some shooting with short-barreled 12 ga pump defense shotguns, and for a time years ago hunted turkeys with a Remington 11-87 12 ga paired with Winchester Supreme Turkey Loads (this was just before the heavi-shot revolution). Those Winchester loads were ridiculously stout - I once left a buddy's farm after shooting 6 shots to pattern the gun and felt a stinging in my cheek as I walked back to the car. I looked in a mirror and found a patch of skin was gone from my right cheek! A few more shots and I might have lost a filling or two, and I remember joking with a buddy that I'd be about as well off putting the gun on the ground and just having him punch me in the face a few times! So, while I know very well what recoil is like, to me there is a big difference between shooting shotguns (often standing) and the very deliberate shooting of a rifle from a bench. I'm thinking 30-06 will have all the power I need (and usually much more than I need) without scaring me at the bench.
I wanted to put together something beautiful and classic. As I've gotten older, I simply have no more desire for non-wood stocks. I totally understand the benefits they provide but simply am more interested in the romance and beauty of a nice piece of walnut than a super-stable and accurate plastic stock and I'm willing to live with the consequences of that decision. I also wanted a rifle with some weight to help with stability and shooting comfort and to that end recently reached a decision, purchasing a Winchester Model 70 Super Grade Stainless in 30-06. I'm off into researching bases and rings and scopes and look forward to digging around at threads here and gaining the benefit of all the expertise of the generous folks here. I'll need to also begin making decisions on powders, bullets, dies, etc. Lots of fun to come and I look forward to the journey.
Thank you for taking the time to read my painfully long intro - I look forward to being here. Cheers.
3Poults
