Least amount of rifles?

[Bfh_auto]

with respect but a lot of you guys response is just hunting rifles. you are missing out on a lot of fun things, cowboy action shooting, cmp or nra hipower matches, long range buffalo gong shoots, and the three gun or action rifle shoots. just saying....

I am trying to juggle working 60 hrs a week, a family and farm. Muzzleloader and rifle season are my only guarantees.

 

[Coal Dragger]

To do it all?

Give me a high quality AR platform, I suppose for maximum versatility and robustness an LMT Monolithic upper with the quick change barrels would work. I’ll put a Geissele 2 stage in the lower, primary barrel for serious business in 5.56mm 16” CMV 4150 hard chrome lined. Run a Nightforce ATACR 1-8X24 with the 16” barrel. Use for a house gun, and gun to take to class. Additional barrel in .224 Valkyrie since LMT offers it, 20” same specs otherwise as the 5.56mm barrel. Use it for prairie dog vaporization duty, and occasional banging of steel plates beyond effective 5.56mm range. I’ve already got a 3.5-15X50 Nightforce so I’d mount that when the .224 barrel was installed.

All other hunting or general purpose rifle duties: Blaser R8. Cheating right? Yep, get as many barrels as you want to do whatever you want.

Dedicated long range boom stick? Accuracy International in .338 Norma.

I’ll also need suppressors for the long range stick, and the AR. Probably be able to use the two cans on the vast majority of the potential Blaser barrels.

So, 3 rifles is all I need. As much as I love .22’s I can live without one.

 

[Bobson]

One. In terms of rifles, I only shoot my AR15 with any regularity. I could lose all my other rifles and wouldn’t be terribly bothered.

 

[Nuclear]

A 22lr for plinking and practice.
An AR with a couple of uppers for small game, Home Defense and gun games.
An M1 Garand for medium to large game and competitive shooting.
This is a truly depressing topic.

 

[tubeshooter]

Short answer: I got by fine with a .22lr and a .30-30 for a number of years, and still could today.


Longer answer: I am in a part of the country where black bear is the biggest critter around. If I wanted to, I could trade out the .30-30 for a .30-06/.308 for more horsepower. I could also generally substitute the 7.62x39 for the .30-30 in most any circumstance, with the benefit of being able to buy cheap bulk ammo (for now). I insist on the 22lr in a rifle platform; if I do without the caliber it will be on the handgun side of things. Of course, this is all with the profound understanding that getting by on 2 calibers leaves out quite a number of "nice to have" options, including .223/5.56 and others. And yes, the prospect is decidedly depressing. So that's my full-throated answer and I'm sticking to it.

 

[JSH1]

Zero. I did just fine with "only" a Mossberg 500 for 20 years: Hunting, Clays, Home Defense.

If for some reason I had to sell my rifles the last to go would be my 22LR bolt.
If for some reason I could only have 1 gun it would be a 6" .357 Revolver.

 

[M118LR]

A shotgun for wing-shooting. Skeet/Trap/Clay etc. (hunting if shotgun only)
A Center-fire rifle.
A Semi-automatic pistol.
A revolver.
I believe that those four firearms cover all the sporting/hunting categories?

Appleseed with a .22LR? Bruin hunting with a .22LR? A .22LR Rifle won't even shoot accurately at the distances that I've competed with a revolver, why bother?

 

[420]

Least guns?! That's just silly talk, stop it! I only create needs for more guns, never fewer.

 

[Hokkmike]

For the SHOOTING activities that you actually do- what number is the least amount of rifles you could get by with to do them all? "Heirlooms", "vintage collections" and other safe queens don't count unless you want them to. For me, that number is 4: a 10-22 (no explanation needed), a M4 clone for training, HD, some hunting, etc., a "hot-rod" AR for 3 gun, and a bolt gun in 308 or 6.5 CM. Similar threads will be in Handguns and shotguns.

I only NEED one. That is my SAKO 6.5x55. But what I want is a different story.

 

[MachIVshooter]

I might be able to answer if the question was "smallest number of rifles", "fewest rifles", "minimum number/quantity of rifles", etc. But reading "least amount of" makes me cringe too much to consider the query. Wasn't going to say anything, but since you've posted the same thing in three different subforums.........

 

[Legionnaire]

For the SHOOTING activities you actually do- what is the least number of rifles you could get by with to do them all? (Edited)

Since your question focuses on what I actually do with rifles, the answer would be four.
Accurate .22LR, probably a bolt action, but an accurate semi-automatic would work
Bolt action .223, for targets and varmints
Bolt action .308, for targets and big game

The three above would be my absolute minimal workhorse list, but to do what I actually do, I need another bolt action in an intermediate cartridge to play with--something specifically to reload and tweak loads for, to tinker with, etc. It could be one of any number of cartridges, but probably a 6 (.243 Win, 6mm Remington, 6mm Creedmoor) or a 6.5 (.260 Remington, 6.5 Creedmoor). Right now my "play" gun is a .243 Ackley Improved. Why? Because it's fun.