Thought I'd make a formal introduction. I like to be very upfront with my experience or lack thereof, and given my main interest is in hunting with rifles and shooting rifles, this looks the right place.
I have been posting on Internet forums for the last 12 years and just left a forum I had been an active part of for almost nine years. I'm looking for place that doesn't coddle the terminally disrespectful, and this site looks promising.
I took my first deer 36 years ago in SW Oregon, but hunted very infrequently as a kid. My dad got very busy and all but quit hunting right after I got that first deer. I became serious about hunting when I was stationed near San Antonio in 1994, so that is where my hunting clock really starts. In 1998 I started coming home on leave to hunt in SW Oregon. After retiring from the USAF in 2007 I got to move back home to SW Oregon--though I have a full time job and probably always will.
I have harvested 18 deer, 7 hogs and one elk; using: 243 Win (1), 280 Ack (1), 7 Rem Mag (7), 300 Winny (6), 30-06 (7) , 338 Winny (1), 338 RUM (1), and a 416 Remmy (3). None of the animals were trophies. I shot competitive 1000 yd NBRSA Benchrest in 2005 and 2006 when I was stationed in Tucson (Got some trophies doing that). I also shot two NRA Highpower matches in 2006.
My choices in rifles went from heavy to light to medium weight rigs. I also went from Rem 700s, to customs on Rem 700s, to trued up M-70 Classics to where I am now: pre 64 M-70s. I like (settle for?) Leupold scopes on my hunting rigs, though I ran a Nightforce on my 1K BR rifles. My spotting scope, binocs, and rangefinder are by Leica.
I hunt mainly blacktail deer and elk, though a muley hunt is in my future, and I hope to take an Alaskan Brown Bear and a Cape Buffalo in my lifetime.
I am an avid handloader, though I am at that place in life where I am very time limited. I have a few rifles to sell, but I want to get a little more established here first. Otherwise it will look like I just registered to sell my guns, and that isn't the case at all. I am not a dealer. I am just now figuring out I MUCH prefer to hunt with a pre 64 M-70 over anything else--though I am not "anti" any brand. I have my eye on another pre 64, and I need to sell some of my M-70 Classics to fund it.
Welcome! Sounds like you have "been there, done that" and are now settling in to the favorite mode. Well, me too. As RR said, there are many good folks on here along with the usual greenies, know-it-alls and firearm misfits. Not sure which category I fall into, but it's nice to have you here. Good luck in your quest.
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If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.
Welcome from another relatively new member. So far, I've received only friendly replies and helpful advice.
I'm over 40, born and raised in New York, but now live just an hour north of you in Eugene. I'm shopping a hunting rifle now, so maybe a coffee and range trip get together can happen one of these days...
Guys--thanks! I don't mind the varying levels of experience in both hunting/shooting AND posting, I just hope folk here are generally civil to each other.
Sound like me, least with some views/goals, would love to/plan to eventually take a Alaska brown and Cape Buffalo. Less experience/animals taken however, though I've hunted quite a bit just passed alot of smaller animals I know I would have not been happy taking.
I want to take that Cape with a .458 Lott shooting 500gr bullets btw.
I had the pefect platform for a Lott. I could probably get it back if I wanted. It is a CCZ 550 Safari American rebarreled to 416 Rem. It has a special aluminum "bedding bar" epoxied into the fore end that allows the barrel to be free floated without risking cracking the wooden stock.
I don't like the rifle in 416 Rem--it's just too heavy at 10.5 lbs with scope. My current 416 Remmy is a M-70 Classic in a McMillan Supergrade stock. It weighs just under 9.5 lbs with the scope and that is a great weight for a 416 Remmy.
The CZ at 10.5 lbs all up would be great as a 458 Lott, or even 500 Jeff.
Rifle Crank, New Here
