hardcastonly

I sure don,t consider myself as being either an exceptional shot or a rifle snob, ,
I value, over all quality of machine work, fit & finish, durability, consistency and accuracy and dependability as the more important factors when selecting a rifle.
Yes its true Id prefer to use a rifle that might provide some advantage in range, power or accuracy and don,t mind spending a bit more to get what I want,
rather than just shop based mostly on price, and having a rather extensive engineering back ground, I appreciate skillful machine work more than some people do.
I was recently invited to go on a deer & hog hunt here in Florida, at a guys ranch in mid Florida south of Orlando, mid state, and when I got to camp I opened my rifle case and pulled out a ruger #1,
with a custom 28" barrel I had SHILLEN install decades ago in caliber 257 weatherby mag. with a baush & lomb 4x-12x scope, the rifle and scope are both well over 35 years old
I was repeatedly asked why anyone in his right mind would spend over $1200 on a rifle and then have over $400 more in custom barrel work done to a single shot rifle???
from the comments you heard,from all the younger crowd you would think it was a pre-civil war musket ,and I don,t think anyone considered a single shot rifle a good choice.
and because it weights about 11 lbs with its 27 inch tall, harris bi-pod, I had several people comment rather negatively on its weight and length and obviously its lack of fast repeat fire potential,
now this is not my rifle below but its a rather similar picture I found posted on line.
I also took some verbal kidding about the climbing tree stand I brought with me
(no thats not me but its a TREE LOUNGE tree stand and yeah Im an old geezer too!)


anyway after all the younger guys got through telling me that we would be driving around on those 4 wheel motor cycles,
and I should have brought a pump 12 ga, as shots were mostly at running deer and hogs at under 40 yards and I was hopelessly old and ill equipped,
I let them get on with their plans . the ranch owner was a lady about my age (70 plus) who enjoys having the grand kids hunt the property
(I got the feeling its the only reason they visit her now that he husband had recently passed on,)
well about 4 pm after watching and hearing the guys randomly drive all over the ranch for hours one guy stops to chat as they had seen nothing all day,
Id seen several does and a dozen hogs but not a thing worth shooting as we talked,
I mentioned the fact that the guys were spending all day driving around and no one seemed interested in actually hunting.
the guy I was talking too asked me if I could see any game, when I answered Id seen about a dozen hogs trot by in a clearing, when he asked where I pointed it out
(remember Im 30 feet up in a tall strait jack pine and can see far better than he can at ground level ) he doubting me, asked for directions to where I saw the hogs
(obviously to see if there were tracks to verify my sighting) as I described the area in plain sight he said that clearing was easily about a 1/4 mile away..... (my range finder said 340 yards)
I watched him drive over to the clearing , look around and then he placed an empty beer bottle on a fallen tree , he drives back and says I suppose you saw me place that beer bottle do you think you could hit it?
well it was almost dark, and not much else going on, so for grins & giggles .. why not, I put the cross hairs on the bottle , with the extended bi-pod feet on the stands foot rest , judged the breeze as inconsequential, and slowly squeezed off the shot.. yeah I hit the bottle and absolutely vaporized it with a 120 grain bullet
https://www.speer-ammo.com/products/...le-bullet/1410
(not exactly a huge challenge.. Hitting a bottle from a solid rest from mid 340 yard range ) but it seemed to amaze this guy and I got a whole lot of verbal brownie points that evening in camp, after he drove out to what he swore was a 1/4 mile out and found a vaporized bottle.
we may not have seen anything worth shooting this weekend but I got a couple younger guys thinking about rifle options
(btw the rifles sighted in the way I sight all my big game rifles in, 3.5" high at 100 yards and I aimed so the horizontal cross hair was about 1" over the standing bottle)
since I was up in a tree stand I probably hit the neck of the bottle)

BTW once you hit 66 years old in florida a resident with a florida drivers licence no longer needs to purchase a hunting licence!
http://myfwc.com/license/recreationa...eed-a-license/

Ridge Runner

same thing here in wv, most have no clue why you would build a rifle vs. buying a production job for way less money, its because they can't comprehend how much better, easier it is to get a good barrel to shoot.
RR

Bocajnala

Believe me.... I'm not against spending money on guns. And, as RR knows from previous conversations, I'm very interested in long range stuff someday when the kids are a bit older and money is a bit more available.

But I could hit a bottle at 340 yards with several of the rifles in my cabinet. And none of them cost more than $800, with optics.

Guess my point is, there's nothing wrong with spending the money. But for the majority of hunters, and the majority of shots, any common cartridge in an off the shelf rifle will do the trick.

I began shooting to 400 with a remington 700 adl in .30-06 and a $200 Nikon scope, and with practice it did the trick on several doe out to 380 yards. I could have stretched out farther but just didn't.

I'll also add that my definition of a rifle shooting 'good' and RRs definition of 'good' are two entirely different things. We have different needs based on different hunting styles.

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-Jake

Bocajnala

When I read my post this morning that came out sounding a little arrogant and that was not my intent.

Merely pointing out that everybody's needs dictate what they choose to use. If they can get it done at 40 yards with a 200 dollar Mossberg 500, then they've done just fine for themselves.

On the reverse if somebody enjoys fine craftsmanship, long range rigs, rare firearms, etc, then have at it!

-Jake

hardcastonly

I don,t think a few of us rifle looneys spend all that much time and effort worrying about what something costs,
now don,t get me wrong, very few of us have cash to throw away and it might take us several months, or almost a year in many cases,
to save up to pay for what we want,
personally I used too just throw a $20, to $50 in a 50 cal ammo can every week when I was working full time, or if I get some over time, or sell a previous project.
Ive been known to work extra overtime on occasion , to finance a project.
if your into hot rods and muscle cars , or deep sea fishing trips, you should recognize the parts accumulation process.
and the process of collecting the required associated quality component parts and gun-smithing, but theres a great deal of satisfaction, for some people,
in knowing you own something rather unique and exceptionally well made.and yeah that results in most of us purchasing far fewer rifles or handguns than we would like to own,
now I sure can,t speak for anyone else but its frequently taken me over a year to figure out the details and save up for what we want to build, and its not unusual for plans to change over the planing phase.
but as a result , its not all that rare to find you have over decades accumulated some rather nice and rare firearms.
the down side is the non-rifle looney types see no value, nor do they appreciate the quality,
and when I pass on, the people that inherit those rifles will probably sell them off for pennies on the dollar
I used to deal with one rather patient and skilled, gunsmith almost exclusively, and we became rather good friends over time