Mustangs Rule
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2021
- Messages
- 699
Hunting With My Less Accurate Rifles
This fall will be my 59th hunting season. I think. Maybe it will be my 60th or even my 58th. Hard to tell. I grew up on my families dairy farm where I had a year round dep permit to hunt deer. When the meat got low, I went out and shot a deer.
Life was that simple.
My best memory is that I have had 55 center fire rifles. Maybe 56 or maybe 54. Hard to be accurate getting into my mid 70’s. Looking back, a few stand proud and strong above most others.
One, a beautiful Safari Grade Belgium Browning bolt action 30-06,,,,with a French walnut stock and it’s pencil thin barrel, it was about as stable as I was after drinking too many beers and riding a 65 BSA Lightning Rocket Motorcycle. I took my desert ram with it,,,,at 125 yards. I have owned it for 49 years.
Another, is a custom 35 Whelen made on a FN Belgium Mauser action. It was the last rifle a life long friend made for me. He was a master gunsmith,,,,learned his trade on the GI bill after coming back from the Korean War,,,, limping badly,,,but with a Silver Star. With it’s 4x fixed scope,,,with that clumsy looking huge fat vertical post reticle ,,,so easy to see in dim light, it was,,,still is a thunder-stick that drops elk and deer in their tracks when I surprise them in the thick dark timber.
Yet another is heavy standard weight pre 64 Winchester Model 70 in .270. As all American as Mom, apple pie, and rolling around with Peggy Sue in the back of a 57 Chevy. Boy was the 283 a great engine. This .270 was once my grassland/antelope rifle,,,back in the days when I was a Wyoming resident and antelope tags could be bought in small bundles. I hunted the plains with it and also used to hunt with it up in high mountain meadows,,, saw lots of grizzly tracks and loaded it with those 180 grain Barnes originals,,,”just in case”.
All these rifles can be finicky,,,,blue steel and walnut stocks that dance around as the weather changes like records change at 60’s high school dance. With old fixed scopes they will never be 500 yard rifles,,,300 max.,,,!
Over these past some years,,,maybe a few decades, I have left these old friends in the safe as I bought stainless steel, synthetic stocks wonders with variable power scopes,,,,,all the way up to 3-9’s.
My Sako Finn light in .308 and Kimber Hunter in 280AI are so very accurate, light as feathers and never have an unstable moment. I have however decided that they are going to sit out this next, 59th, or 60th, or even 58th whatever it is, big game hunting season. I have some “Old Friends” that have sat in my dark gun safe for a bit too long. They need some sunlight,,,and the inch of change in POI never made a damn bit of difference anyway.
Any hunting season now could be my last one,,,my last chance, to dance around the mountains with these true old hunting partners. My two legged hunting partners are all either dead or done for,,,usually overweight, from over use of fork and spoon. I hunt alone now,,,but with an In Reach GPS Spot device,,, when I get something, I call in the cavalry,,get pack horses in for recovery. I can still hike and hunt the steep country,,,but carrying much meat out is too hard
Yep I decided from now on,,,I am saving these last “hunting dances” for a chance to pair up with these old rifles. It’s been a helluva hunting party we shared together.
Mustangs Rule.
This fall will be my 59th hunting season. I think. Maybe it will be my 60th or even my 58th. Hard to tell. I grew up on my families dairy farm where I had a year round dep permit to hunt deer. When the meat got low, I went out and shot a deer.
Life was that simple.
My best memory is that I have had 55 center fire rifles. Maybe 56 or maybe 54. Hard to be accurate getting into my mid 70’s. Looking back, a few stand proud and strong above most others.
One, a beautiful Safari Grade Belgium Browning bolt action 30-06,,,,with a French walnut stock and it’s pencil thin barrel, it was about as stable as I was after drinking too many beers and riding a 65 BSA Lightning Rocket Motorcycle. I took my desert ram with it,,,,at 125 yards. I have owned it for 49 years.
Another, is a custom 35 Whelen made on a FN Belgium Mauser action. It was the last rifle a life long friend made for me. He was a master gunsmith,,,,learned his trade on the GI bill after coming back from the Korean War,,,, limping badly,,,but with a Silver Star. With it’s 4x fixed scope,,,with that clumsy looking huge fat vertical post reticle ,,,so easy to see in dim light, it was,,,still is a thunder-stick that drops elk and deer in their tracks when I surprise them in the thick dark timber.
Yet another is heavy standard weight pre 64 Winchester Model 70 in .270. As all American as Mom, apple pie, and rolling around with Peggy Sue in the back of a 57 Chevy. Boy was the 283 a great engine. This .270 was once my grassland/antelope rifle,,,back in the days when I was a Wyoming resident and antelope tags could be bought in small bundles. I hunted the plains with it and also used to hunt with it up in high mountain meadows,,, saw lots of grizzly tracks and loaded it with those 180 grain Barnes originals,,,”just in case”.
All these rifles can be finicky,,,,blue steel and walnut stocks that dance around as the weather changes like records change at 60’s high school dance. With old fixed scopes they will never be 500 yard rifles,,,300 max.,,,!
Over these past some years,,,maybe a few decades, I have left these old friends in the safe as I bought stainless steel, synthetic stocks wonders with variable power scopes,,,,,all the way up to 3-9’s.
My Sako Finn light in .308 and Kimber Hunter in 280AI are so very accurate, light as feathers and never have an unstable moment. I have however decided that they are going to sit out this next, 59th, or 60th, or even 58th whatever it is, big game hunting season. I have some “Old Friends” that have sat in my dark gun safe for a bit too long. They need some sunlight,,,and the inch of change in POI never made a damn bit of difference anyway.
Any hunting season now could be my last one,,,my last chance, to dance around the mountains with these true old hunting partners. My two legged hunting partners are all either dead or done for,,,usually overweight, from over use of fork and spoon. I hunt alone now,,,but with an In Reach GPS Spot device,,, when I get something, I call in the cavalry,,get pack horses in for recovery. I can still hike and hunt the steep country,,,but carrying much meat out is too hard
Yep I decided from now on,,,I am saving these last “hunting dances” for a chance to pair up with these old rifles. It’s been a helluva hunting party we shared together.
Mustangs Rule.
