Walkabout Varmint Rifle

[tallpaul]

Mine, a Ruger M77/22 Hornet. I bought it circa 1996 in Mesa, Arizona. I used it for peccary hunting and since sniping other various varmints. About 8 pounds 10 ounces.

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Gray stainless with target barrel and a Swift 4X12 scope.

really like mine although I just got the reloading dies and supplies for it not long before the madness began... I have a volquartsen trigger to put in her... it just "feels" right... love it last I shot her at 75 it had promise... I got one groundhog with her at 80 yards...

 

[HowieG]

really like mine although I just got the reloading dies and supplies for it not long before the madness began... I have a volquartsen trigger to put in her... it just "feels" right... love it last I shot her at 75 it had promise... I got one groundhog with her at 80 yards...

Mine has a Spec Tech trigger, although I thought the factory trigger was okay. Definitely better than some of the AR triggers I have tried.

 

[tallpaul]

I found a picture of mine... it is just a nice size... thought about the 17 hornet but I have not wrung this out to its potential yet

 

[HowieG]

I don't have a theoretical problem with anything 17. I just don't want to by all that 17 caliber cleaning gear. Or fumble around with all of those itty bitty bullets.

 

[Plastikosmd]

My “walkabout varmint”

Brno 465 22 Hornet

 

[adcoch1]

My “walkabout varmint”

Brno 465 22 Hornet

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The like button is not enough for that rifle... That's beautiful!

 

[Plastikosmd]

Thank you, it is a joy to shoot especially with the set trigger

 

[Picher]

Back when I was a teen, I saved all my chore and work money (50 cents an hour working for my family's business) and had more money in my pockets than I carry today. I decided that I was going to have a hunting rifle, and the most common in that time was a .30-06. Okay, then I needed something to shoot it in, so looked around, and this company named Savage had just come out with a bolt-action Model 110 that was cheaper that the Winchester 70, so I bought one. The stock wasn't great...low comb that busted me in the face and shoulder pretty hard when firing from a rest. It needed a scope and I'd used my savings up pretty much, so ended up with a Weaver K 2.5, which a National Rifleman article told me that had almost equivalent sighting accuracy to a 10X target scope.

After getting the stock glassbedded/freefloated using boat repair epoxy (boat shop next to my favorite gun store), I mounted the scope and sighted it in with factory ammo and it shot pretty well. I borrowed my Dad's truck or my sister's car to go woodchuck hunting and was "hooked". A few months later, a guy in the neighborhood had heard I was a pretty good shot and asked if I'd like to go chuck hunting with him. He also had a .30-06 and wanted to practice for deer season by hunting chucks and crows...and so we did!

My rifle was comfortable in the fields and I made a stand-alone bipod out of bent an sweated 1/2" copper tubing that I could stick in the ground to rest the rifle on. It also could be carried in my back jeans pocket, being only about 12" long.

We kept track of all the kills one spring and we each got about 15 chucks that averaged about 220 yards. We didn't keep track of the closer, offhand shots. Eventually, I got a press and started loading ammo, then bought a .22-250, which was really nice to shoot, but my kill percentage may have gone down a bit because those little 53 grain bullets didn't bounce for crap, so we had to hit the chucks without hitting anything else first.

Sorry for the long post. Picture below of the Savage/Picher .30-06 with Bishop/Picher stock, made in 1959 +/-, also the bipod I made from copper tubing.

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JP

Dad was a plumber, so I had access to copper tubing, anvil, torch, and know-how. Carried in my pocket, in the excitement of a varmint kill, sometimes I forgot to pick it up and had to go back to find it. It could have been a few inches taller, but then wouldn't have been as portable.