Bolt action rifle
 

You know overs the years I have owned a lot of rifles but seems I have settled on Browning x-bolt as my go to rifle have two both in 308 .These rifles are tack drivers . What is your go too rifle?

A plain Jane Remington 700adl in .30-06 goes on every big game hunt that I go on. Often it goes as a back up as I have more interesting rifles that I want to play with most years. It's taken everything from raccoons, foxes and coyotes over a call, to deer and elk. I've carried it for bear but no such luck yet. It will likely be my primary rifle when I eventually draw for antelope in Wyoming.

It's boringly reliable at making things dead.






-Jake

I have more rifles than any one man needs, I have rifles for extreme range, some cost more than I make in 2 months, some are just "Cool" but my go to rifle for pleasure hunting is a bone stock 6mm Remington model 788, shoots awesome and I shoot it well, its been the demise just about everything that walks where I hunt, from bears down to groundhogs and foxes.
RR

I don't "have more rifles than any one man needs," but I do have a good variety of rifles for various needs.

However, my favorite rifle, and my first choice for most hunts is my .300 Weatherby that I custom stocked in AA Fancy Walnut and wearing a Leupold 4.5-14x40 CDS scope. Favorite bullet for it is 180 grain Barnes TTSX at 3248 fps for which Leupold made a custom CDS dial.

But if the weather is raining or snowing, or I think that it might be, I will use my Stainless/Tupperware stocked Remington 700 BDL in 7 mm RM, shooting 160 grain Nosler Accubonds, and wearing a Nikon Prostaff 4-12x40 BDC scope.

I have an old (35 years old) SSG 69 .308 that is my go-to rifle. It is accurate and has some real pluses. The scope is a quick mount type. The mounts and scope hold zero if you remove them and reinstall, I've tried it numerous times. On hunts away from home, I carry a spare scope just in case. The rifle is heavy and kind of clunky, built like a brick, In all likelihood you could drive over it with a car and still shoot it. My zombie apocalypse rifle is built along the same lines, a better AK, FN FNC in .5.56, built like a brick, heavy and robust.

Man you guys are too fancy for me. All that extra stuff ya gotta operate like a scope and such. My go to favorite is my old TC Renegade smoke pole. No worrying about a busted scope, no worrying about out of battery, no worrying about the safety, just point, shoot, watch a deer lay down. Simplicity has more advantages.

I've never had a scoped rifle that didn't also have iron sights, just in case. Having said that, you really don't want me shooting at anything *at a distance* without having first checked it out with my binoculars and then seen clearly through my scope. Honestly at a hundred yards and low light I really couldn't tell the difference between a Hog and my mother inlaw bending over to tie her shoelace. :)

Funny story about that, end of a Deer hunt and I see something trotting over the top of a nearby hill, maybe 4-500 yards, I glass it and decide it is a Fox, but it doesn't have a tail, I'm thinking it is a dog that resembles a Fox. I watched it through my glass for a long time and was conflicted as to whether it was a tailless Fox or a dog, Finally, at 40 yards I shot it, it was a tailless Fox.

If you have eagle eyes go for it, mine aren't all that good and getting worse with age. :) I feel naked without good optics.

I have several different calibers but without a doubt my Rem 700 CDL 25.06 is my favorite rifle and caliber. Mike

Many years ago I was hunting in northwestern Colorado in their muzzleloading season. I was using a CVA .45 caliber percussion Kentucky rifle that I had built that summer. I was hunting with a couple of friends and I had gone in a different direction than the other two. Earlier that day a light rain came through, and my only cover had been a tall sagebrush, and I had held the rifle's lock under me out of the rain.

A little while after the rain I was quietly walking through a sage flat, and two muley does and the largest non-typical md buck that I have ever seen jumped up less that 50 yards from me and ran almost broadside in front of my. I immediately shouldered my rifle, lined the buckhorn sights on his shoulder and squeezed the trigger. Pop.....pause.....Bang, and when the smoke cleared, all three deer had disappeared.

So I took off in the direction that I had last seen those deer. I hadn't gone very far when I heard a shot, then a minute or so later another shot. A few minutes later I caught up to my two companions standing over a 30" 4x4 plus brow tines and 7 additional points buck. When we examined the deer we found a bullet entrance hole in the back of his chest (and later a .45 cal round ball), a grazing wound on the lower part of one back leg, and a hole in his neck from the (third) killing shot.

We then determined that the .45 caliber ball had hit one lung. As the buck ran past one of my partners, his first shot clipped the buck's rear leg. My partner then reloaded and caught up to the buck that was standing on the back side on a hill, blowing blood out of his mouth, and he finished it with the neck shot. My rifle was .45 caliber, both of my partner's rifles were .50 caliber. I had been shooting a lot of Trap that summer, so I instinctively followed through on crossing targets, including the lung hit on that deer.

I've had several "go to" rifles over the years. The first being a very old Rem 700 in 270 WIN. That rifle went all over the country with me killing everything I shot at with it. Next came a Browning Micro Hunter in 7-08. That rifle was as lethal as the 270 but it seemed to be "luckier". IT seemed every time I took that rifle out I harvested an animal. Today, except for bear up our cabin, my go to rifle is my Tikka T3 30-06. Just as light as my Browning but packs more punch and is as accurate as all get out. My go to bear rifle however is my little Marlin Guide Gun in .45-70 or as I like to call it - Thor's hammer!

I have a Savage Model 11F in .308 that is really accurate with the Hornady Custom Lite cartridges; this is definitely my go to rifle.

Of course, I'm looking to pick up a Tikka T3x Lite Stainless in 7mm-08, so maybe that will become the new go to :D

I have been thinking about getting a .308win or maybe 7mm-08 with a 20" or maybe 22" barrel.

go-to currenty is a 270win that loves 130gr cheap federal ammo., one of those rifles I can never sell, just too accurate!
thinking about getting another 270 some day.