ORIGINAL: Hotburn76
Do break open single shot center fire guns have the same ability as a good bolt action gun or does a bolt action have given advantages that a break open can never have. Reason why I ask is I have a 204 ruger that I am pretty happy with and I have yet to put the time into finding a good hand load for it yet, but still have great 100 yard groups. I am wanting to get a 243 and have it reamed out to 243-AI but would still like to stay with a gun like the H&R. Can they rival each other or is the bolt always better? The single shot is not a disadvantage for me. Most of my hunting is in archery season so I have the culture of only one shot is all I need. So other then that can I be at a disadvantage with as break open?
Any rifle with a two-piece stock design has a potential for being harder to get real accuracy from than a one-piece stocked rifle, exemplified by the bolt-action. However, there are SOME falling block and break-action rifles that will shoot 1/2 MOA. I once owned a TCR 83 break-action rifle. I had three barrels for it, a .22/250, a .243 Win., and a .30/'06. The 22/250 was extemely accurate;the .243 was just terrible, and the '06 was somewhere in between the other two. This was when using the same breech section (receiver & stock), and the same forend.
In addition, I have a Heym 55/77 combination gunwith a .30/'06 under a 20-ga shotgun barrel. This '06 will shoot Sierra and Nosler 200-grain bullets with 60 grains of H4831 through essentially the same hole at 100 meters...... Of course, this massively-breeched rifle appears to me as strong as anything small enough to be carried hunting!
Then, there's my old Ruger 1B in 7mm Rem. Mag., that shoots 3 rounds into 1" at
200 yards, and a 1A in 7X57mm that is not much worse.....