- Joined
- Jan 28, 2003
- Messages
- 13,341
I was at the range with my daughter last week and got to thinking about what I tend to carry for a hunting rifle. My hunting rifles have evolved over the years and I am at a point where I've noticed that all of my hunting rifles share some common traits.
Weight;
I've been through the ultra light weight phase and truthfully I find ultra light rifles to be more trouble than they are worth. They are difficult to shoot well from non, hard supported rested, positions. The weight you save carrying a 5.5 lbs rifle isn't worth the lack in "shootability". Add about 3 lbs in a properly balanced rifle and it solves those shooting issues and it's NOT that much more to carry.
Most of my rifles weigh about 8 lbs plus or minus a bit.
Length;
I have owned several rifle with 26+" barrels on them and truthfully I find them to be a compromise in the field. The little tiny bit of velocity gain is not worth the clumsiness that those extra inches cause when carrying your rifle in the field, especially not on a horse where I spend a lot of time. They also become cumbersome getting in or out of a truck or a jeep or a bush plane. The longest barrel I own at the moment is on a .375H&H with a 25" barrel. But the majority of my rifles are 22". With the exception of a couple of long range specific rifles in my inventory. One is a .270 Weatherby with a 24 & 3/4" barrel the other a .300 WM with a 24" barrel.
If it's standard caliber and it's in my safe it's got a 22" or shorter barrel on it. I find any loss of velocity to be well compensated for in handiness and shootability with a shorter barrel.
Scopes;
I will not own a scope that has a bottom end of greater than 3x and 3x is the absolute top end of where my scopes bottom out at. Most are maxed out at 8 power a couple at 10 and one at 12 power but it's a 2x12X. I find the lower end to be infinitely more useable than the top end on a scope. My hunting style tends to be still hunting in thick stuff and I tend to get some closer range shots and some shots on fast moving game. If my scope is on 2 power or 2.5 I can make those shots happen easily. If I am carrying a 4X whatever or 5.5x whatever scope I can not hunt the way I am most productive and enjoy the most. If I have a longer shot I always have time to turn he power up on my scope and am golden out to the 400 ish yard range. If you jump something in the brush at close range you will not have time to turn your scope down to make the shot.
The majority of my scopes are in the 2x8 average power magnification range.
Comb height;
For a scoped rifle this might well be one of the most critical shootability issues there is in my book. Comb height is one of the most important factors in making a rifle shootable. When you bring a rifle to your shoulder and your face is cheeked up hard on the comb you should be seeing nothing but cross hair. If you have to move your eye up or down or slide your face back or forward your rifle is not set up right for you. Once you've played around with a properly scoped rifle with a proper comb height anything else will feel clumsy, awkward and slow. It took me a long time to figure this out but once I was shown how to scope a rifle and fix the comb height if needed my shooting on game got exponentially better.
The way most rifles are set up from the factory you'll need to mount your scope as low as possible and if you are using a objective bell size of greater than about 40MM your scope by necessity will have to be mounted too high for proper cheek weld and eye alignment with your scope. In that case you can either get a strap on or a glue on cheek pad which will raise your comb height. Brownells sells just about anything you need in that department.
Almost all of my rifles have a 32MM or a 36MM objective bell scope and if larger all of them have a comb elevator of some sort attached. The majority of rifles I see now days have the scopes mounted too high for proper eye alignment.
My serious hunting rifle tend to have synthetic stocks of decent quality. And they tend to have triggers that break clean in the 3 to 4 lb pull range. They also almost all have sear blocking not trigger blocking safeties this is a personal preference that I demand on a serious hard use hunting rifle.
For my style of hunting this is what my rifles have morphed into over the years. I'm not saying it's right or wrong but this is what has proven to works for me.
What have you found works best for your style of hunting?
Weight;
I've been through the ultra light weight phase and truthfully I find ultra light rifles to be more trouble than they are worth. They are difficult to shoot well from non, hard supported rested, positions. The weight you save carrying a 5.5 lbs rifle isn't worth the lack in "shootability". Add about 3 lbs in a properly balanced rifle and it solves those shooting issues and it's NOT that much more to carry.
Most of my rifles weigh about 8 lbs plus or minus a bit.
Length;
I have owned several rifle with 26+" barrels on them and truthfully I find them to be a compromise in the field. The little tiny bit of velocity gain is not worth the clumsiness that those extra inches cause when carrying your rifle in the field, especially not on a horse where I spend a lot of time. They also become cumbersome getting in or out of a truck or a jeep or a bush plane. The longest barrel I own at the moment is on a .375H&H with a 25" barrel. But the majority of my rifles are 22". With the exception of a couple of long range specific rifles in my inventory. One is a .270 Weatherby with a 24 & 3/4" barrel the other a .300 WM with a 24" barrel.
If it's standard caliber and it's in my safe it's got a 22" or shorter barrel on it. I find any loss of velocity to be well compensated for in handiness and shootability with a shorter barrel.
Scopes;
I will not own a scope that has a bottom end of greater than 3x and 3x is the absolute top end of where my scopes bottom out at. Most are maxed out at 8 power a couple at 10 and one at 12 power but it's a 2x12X. I find the lower end to be infinitely more useable than the top end on a scope. My hunting style tends to be still hunting in thick stuff and I tend to get some closer range shots and some shots on fast moving game. If my scope is on 2 power or 2.5 I can make those shots happen easily. If I am carrying a 4X whatever or 5.5x whatever scope I can not hunt the way I am most productive and enjoy the most. If I have a longer shot I always have time to turn he power up on my scope and am golden out to the 400 ish yard range. If you jump something in the brush at close range you will not have time to turn your scope down to make the shot.
The majority of my scopes are in the 2x8 average power magnification range.
Comb height;
For a scoped rifle this might well be one of the most critical shootability issues there is in my book. Comb height is one of the most important factors in making a rifle shootable. When you bring a rifle to your shoulder and your face is cheeked up hard on the comb you should be seeing nothing but cross hair. If you have to move your eye up or down or slide your face back or forward your rifle is not set up right for you. Once you've played around with a properly scoped rifle with a proper comb height anything else will feel clumsy, awkward and slow. It took me a long time to figure this out but once I was shown how to scope a rifle and fix the comb height if needed my shooting on game got exponentially better.
The way most rifles are set up from the factory you'll need to mount your scope as low as possible and if you are using a objective bell size of greater than about 40MM your scope by necessity will have to be mounted too high for proper cheek weld and eye alignment with your scope. In that case you can either get a strap on or a glue on cheek pad which will raise your comb height. Brownells sells just about anything you need in that department.
Almost all of my rifles have a 32MM or a 36MM objective bell scope and if larger all of them have a comb elevator of some sort attached. The majority of rifles I see now days have the scopes mounted too high for proper eye alignment.
My serious hunting rifle tend to have synthetic stocks of decent quality. And they tend to have triggers that break clean in the 3 to 4 lb pull range. They also almost all have sear blocking not trigger blocking safeties this is a personal preference that I demand on a serious hard use hunting rifle.
For my style of hunting this is what my rifles have morphed into over the years. I'm not saying it's right or wrong but this is what has proven to works for me.
What have you found works best for your style of hunting?
