My Diatribe

[Gunner46]

I originally posted this almost a decade ago, but I still stand firmly behind the primise.

I started shooting hard time around ag 9. Dad didn't think a thing about handing me his '03 Springfield '06 and let me blast away! Kicked like HELL. His solution was to get me a Lee Enfield .303 British (11 lbs ?) Big guns, small kids....Hmmmmmm.

I overcame it, by didn't enjoy the punishment.

That didn't seem to sink in too well as I grew. Every outdoor magazine was riddled with the lastest and greatest Whiz-Bang Mag that hit the market ! Gotta Get One or you never get your Buck, Lope, Elk Bear...Whatever. Young and dumb I bought itno it. like sooooo many. And I stayed with it for many years. Two 7mm Mags, a 338 came along and critters started falling. But eventually all, but one, stayed. Why?

When I got depolyed for Desert Storm I got stationed in Hawaii for the 1st couple months. I'd been Axis Deer hunting there before and had my Dad send me a rifle, for a quick hunt while I had the chance. What I got was the old Rem 600 in .308. Had to make it work.

And ya know? Those two deer and that pig magically dropped just as fast as they did with the 7MM Mag !! Who'da thunk. That little carbine was a whole lot easier to tote around than the Weatherby.

It only took a couple of seasons and the carbine just became the one I always seemed to grab and run with. Ballistics, in reality no better than a 300 Savage, but the critters just a kept a droppin'.....(Don't mess with success, as the saying goes)

Again....Why?

Well, that rifle had gotten to age, and vintage value that I had to seriously think about retiring it. So I bought a slickety-clikety 7MM/08. ( mostly to spite my newly Ex and show some difiance, if the truth be known)

Critters kept a fallin', one shot at a time.

So ? Why did the critters fall just as easily with a 7mm/08 as they did with a 7MM Mag?

Cuz I was 'comfortable' with me shots. Not that I couldn't shoot just as well with the the Mags (and I can, won 2 bronze medals with one) , I just didn't Need all that to make a killing placement. And neither do 95% of the rest of us !

The REAL on target difference, at practical hunting ranges, is far less than we care to admit. The enegry is moot if the placement isn't right, but the weight, recoil, and $$ are real.

So. Go grab a 7mm'08, a 6.5 Swiss, a 260 Rem, a 308, or a 303 British (if you can find one) and just start dropping critters. They will NEVER know the difference. Or forefather's & son's nearly wiped out our game populations with far less.........................

 

[choc dogs]

Gunner, I'm pretty much in agreement, my older kids dropped their first animals with a 6.5 swede, I think mine was a 308, and for some reason, since I've moved away from my older kids, when I reach in the safe looking for a deer rifle, the swede or the 7x57 seems to end up in my hand, even though I've got other rifles.It just seems like I miss my boys less if I carry stuff they carried. The only time the magnums come out is if I've been talking with my dad on the phone, and it seems like he goes with me if I carry the rifle he gave me. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Gunner46]

Thanks Choc. The 1st rifle I bought for myself was a sporterized Spanish Mauser 93, 7X57. Shot like CRAP and I wasted 2 yrs of my paper route, lawn mowing, working my uncles farm money on it. Dad bought the Rem 600 for my 16th birthday ( $99.00) at Ace Hardware......but never 'gave' it to me untill I was deployed 18 yrs later ! To this day I have no qualm about picking it up and going after anything that isn't big enough to hunt me down and eat me for breakfast.

 

[BuzzH]

The three most important things to killing game...shot placement, shot placement, and shot placement roughly in that order.

 

[shoots-straight]

Buzz you forgot "Shot Placement"

 

[tjones]

Me thinks shot placement is the key!

 

[choc dogs]

actually buzz, lately for me the most important part to killing game, is finding game, I apparently suck at it.

 

[Der Aulte Jaeger]

Over the years I figured out exactly the same thing but the rifle gods were against me as for years I'd been looking for "that" rifle. Well about the time I was very comfy with my 257 Roberts BLR, a nice 7x57 Mauser and a lovely 308 BLR, "that" rifle appeared on Gunbroker in a 30-06. To make a long story shorter, I sold and traded off my battery and bought the 06 and now am working with reloads and lighter bullets to get the same delightful shooting I'd found with the lighter calibers. Being cashed strapped is hell as I would have loved to keep them all!

 

[belly-deep]

You're 100% right.

With the bullets, powders, and most importantly, the scopes we have today (with stadia lines or CDS dials), paired with rangefinders, the slower velocity cartridges are very deadly at long range too. They've got plenty of energy to kill stuff at 400 or a bit more. The fast cartridges were good when we couldn't determine an exact range on targets quickly because you could have some error in your range estimation and still hit your target.

 

[The Hedgehog]

Sissy guns are great and work just fine, but don't underestimate the value in a good cannon in the right hands.

 

[Gunner46]

Yep ! Them guys from 29 Palms did us just fine in the Desert ! A 101MM does a great job at breaking things and destroying tanks, airfields, cities and generally scaring the Hell outa anyone within a few miles, I just care to carry one on a deer hunt.

 

[The Hedgehog]

Carrying a cannon sucks almost as much as carrying a XL set of elk antlers out of the hills.

 

[Gunner46]

Just Bustin' yer Chops Buddy. Tote it if you want to, we'll both pop away and endure the rack weight as they come ! My real point was to give an alternate input for someone questioning 'If' they realllllyyyy needed to Gun-Up just to go hunting for X .

A long time ago, my uncle told me "If you need more gun than a 30/06.....you'll need ALOT more gun". Well, that little carbine seemed to do just fine, so WTF, I don't hunt Grizzlies.....seemed pretty simple. BANG, Drop, BANG, drop, Repeat. LOL

 

[The Hedgehog]

I'm pretty sure I could kill an elk with the .223 I just bought, one shot drop. Some situations offered when hunting leave less room for error, say a 575 yard shot at a steep uphill or downhill angle in a 15 mph crosswind and you don't have all day to think about it, or a bench to shoot from. In that case, I'll take the cannon, where I know that my mistake in ranging/wind means much less when it comes to that thing Buzz mentioned above 3 times... shot placement. It has ZERO to do with energy.

If I were hunting whitetails where my shot distance was never more than 150 yards, I'd hunt with a 7-08 or maybe even a .223.

 

[tjones]

Problem with a cannon is you may shoot thru and kill one of big shooters imaginery cows.

 

[Gunner46]

Deer, Lope, Elk, Moose, Griz, Buff, or Eat Me Pissed Off.....pop 'em in the gut, or in the A$$ and it's Bye-Bye.. See ya later, no matter the cartridge.

I'll just retire in the grace of my time afield peacefully, taking a bit more care, time, and 'hunt' into my Hunting, skillfully drop my critters gleeful from lessons learned from my years, & years, & years of tapping caps from hundreds of rifles, some missed, a few tuff tracks, but mostly good hits. The hard one's taught me, the easy one's came too few. But all left a statement in my soul.

My Diatribe, My Choice....Our Choices.

It's kinda like a Man & a Woman. You just seem to keep always going back to the one that "Fits" ya, even when you stray to play with some of the High Speed ~ Low Drag new toys !!!!

 

[The Hedgehog]

I guess some people can't shoot a gun well that "kicks" and it takes them some time to figure that out. Glad you've come to terms with that.

 

[Mudranger1]

This one fell 15 yards from it was shot. 190 yard shot with Remington model 700 in 7mm08. This gun is the by far the best grouping gun I've ever shot and there is no recoil at all

 

[Gunner46]

Yeah well....

~ you probably had a whole minute to shoot.
~ you were only 2 miles from the road
~ that elk is not 'That' big
~ It didn't Drop on the Spot
~ That's a Girl's gun
~ Uhhhhhh Yeah and, and That too !!

I wish I had a pic of my neice's 1st whitetail, with a our pappy's 250 Savage. She was 11 and that doe had to be all of 225 corn rows aways. One good hop & she dropped !