Dave_Preston

Is a bolt-action no good for timber?

hardcastonly

its the skill and experience of the hunter and his familiarity with his equipment of choice ,far more than the action type that maters,
between the end of the American civil war (1865) and the end of WWI (1918) the lever action , Henry, Winchester, marlin, were the predominant repeating action, hunting rifle type in AMERICA
only after WWI did the bolt action start to gain popularity, most people tended to use what they had and money was tight until about the end of WWII
,with roughly an 80 years of popularity , head start, the lever action gained a large following,
if you grew up in the 1940s-70s watching westerns people like john wayne did not use a bolt action.
most deer hunting in the eastern U.S. and some areas of the west are in forested or timber areas where shots over about 150 yards are not all that common,
many guys are more comfortable, carrying a carbine or rifle, having a faster second or rapidly accessible repeat fire capability.
If your hunting timber and potentially making shots on rapidly moving game having a fast second shot may prove helpful, but its that first shot that generally counts.
most guys can work a lever action , or pump action rifle a bit faster than a bolt action, thus it provides a bit more confidence,
I personally think its mostly physiological, for several reasons, first , the first shot is almost always the critical shot, and in 50 plus years of hunting ,
Ive rarely needed a fast or any second shot, second, anyone willing to practice with a quality bolt action will find its more than fast enough under real hunting conditions,
in fact Ive used a single shot browning 78 and ruger #1 and never had any issues reloading rapidly and getting ready too take potentially a second shot,
rifles like a browning BLR or remington 7600 do provide access to that rapid repeat shot capability and maintain reasonably consistent accuracy.
but as previously stated,its the skill and experience of the hunter and his familiarity with his equipment of choice ,far more than the action type that maters,


when hunting elk this type of timber, and shorter ranges is where I find most of the elk Ive seen and shot,
and my late hunting partner rarely shot deer or elk at over 120 yards, thats because neither of us even saw elk past 75-120 yards








my long time hunting partner always used a 358 win BLR and had a very good record

I preferred a SAKO carbine in 375 H&H, it never had any issues dropping game that I remember,
but I'm just as happy using a BLR in 450 marlin on recent trips
and Id feel just as well equipped if I had a ruger #1 in a caliber like 375 H&H or 450 marlin or 35 whelen.

mrbb

IMO lever action guns tended to be associated with deep woods hunting due to , well, most are smaller, shorter, hold more rounds of ammo, were cheaper back in the day, making them more common
BUT the fact is, IMO< many folks that hunted deep woods, wandered about till they JUMPED a deer, and then the lever guns were fast to shoulder, again held a bunch of rounds and folks took a LOT of shots at RUNNING deer, so they wanted a FAST reloading gun that held a bunch of ammo!

these days, MOST hunters don't shoot at running deer, its NOT a great thing to do for a ton of reasons and safety being at the top of the list IMO

so, lever guns sort of lost there fame, as some had some safety issue's , and many were NOT as accurate as bolt actions, and not a lot of lever giuns came in LARGE calibers, that a trend of folks seemed to all want Magnum caliber rifles that shot more accurately and farther!
BUT the fact of the matter is, ANY rifle is fine for hunting, deep woods, and almost any place deer live
as long as you can shoot it well
99% of deer are taken with 1 shot , the FIRST shot, so as long as that one gets to the target correctly, there is not need for guns to hold large amounts of ammo, and any gun you spend time with, you can learn to reload it FAST if need be!
practice is what makes one a good shot, not BUYING things!

hunters_life

There is also the looks factor as well. What I mean by that is, most leverguns, at least a couple of decades ago anyway, were a good deal less expensive than a good bolt action thereby leverguns were being called "brush guns". Now there are some out there that are under the illusion that being a brush gun was caliber/cartridge driven. They thought that the leverguns were chambered with big heavy bullets that would "go through brush" better than your fast movers. They were actually called brush guns because most didn't mind taking that much less expensive lever gun into thick cover and getting it a little scratched up. Most of your good bolt actions back then tended to have fine looking wood stocks and you didn't want to get it dinged up. It had absolutely nothing to do with cartridge/bullet. A tiny unseen limb will throw a big 30+ caliber bullet off track just about as easily as it will a .243.

Dave_Preston

I find the bolt-action guns sleek, pretty and racy. For me, getting the rifle sighted in at the bench and making the first shot count is of the essence. The bolt-action can fire these sleek, bottleneck high-velocity cartridges and they are stacked in the magazine in a column not single-file in a tube so they can handle a wide variety of bullet types. I find lever guns ungainly to look at to boot and feel pumps are shotguns, not rifles. It has been said that the bolt-action is a true rifleman's rifle and for me most aesthetically pleasing in the field. A lever gun is a Ford Focus but a Weatherby Vanguard bolt-action is a slick sports car.

Oldtimr

Any rifle in any caliber is good for hunting in timber. The term brush gun gives the idea that certain calibers can shoot through wood and still be on target it is nonsense. You take the shoots that are reasonable no matter what kind of habitat you are hunting. Lever actions wee considered brush guns because they are historically short and easy to maneuver. in the woods and generally not scoped allowing quick snap shots, which may not be a good idea.

Nomercy448

Bocajnala

The same wounding argument (generalization) can be made of Archery Hunters, long distance hunters, hound hunters, the list goes on...

There's plenty of ethical drive hunters out there that don't make a habit of wounding deer.

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-Jake

bronko22000

Any rifle of adequate power for the animal intended is adequate for timber/woods hunting provided it's legal. I've used lever, bolts pumps, single actions, and muzzleloaders from .243 to 300 Win Mag. all with success. The ability to shoot it accurately and make humane kills is more important than the rifle itself.

flags

Because back in the day it was the classic short range rapid fire rifle for hunting. No necessarily true today but we're not talking about today. For what it is worth I have killed deer and elk as close as 15 feet in heavy timber with a scoped 7mm Mag. What works at 400 yards will also work at 20 feet but the reverse isn't always true.