Men I Knew, Who Hunted Thier Entire Lives, With Just One Rifle.

[Elktrack]

Don't shoot just one. Shoot one per year.

Ha!
Me and my buddies did this for a couple seasons. Had to pick one out of the stable and ride it all year. I Killed everything with a 7x57 one year and then went on a 8mm Mag kick for the next two. Everything, few coyotes, 2 whitetails, a bear, an elk, and a moose with a 220 gr 8mm bullet from 20 yds to 323.

You learn pretty quick that you really don’t “need” some of the rifles you think you have to have and just how versatile one can be. (I’m glad my wife can’t see this) Don’t get me wrong, everyone needs multiple options and don’t forget PACE planning.

We’re talking about doing a lever action only year or maybe just our muzzle loaders but none of us have the balls to commit to that much limitation.

 

[jt13]

I both love and hate this thread. When things go back to poop slinging and vicegrips, I'm out...

Every year I choose one rifle out if the safe for the fall/winter big game seasons. It's a rotational basis with no real set rhyme or reason as to the selection, sometimes its sentimental or sometimes it's just for the sake of being different. While I will NEVER be a one gun person, I know plenty of folks that are.

My grandfather owned a small arsenal that would rival most 3rd world militaries but always pulled the same Remington 760 Carbine 30-06 out of the safe for every hunt. That little gun killed a 60" moose in Maine, half a dozen caribou, a few elk, dozens of bears, probably hundreds of deer, and lord knows what else.

He passed in September and I used it for the first time this fall.

 

[cheeser]

started in 1974 at 12 with a model 94 32 special with a peep sight(my dads hand me down) i still have it.
killed my first buck in 77 and killed about 6 more till 1982.
bought a used browning lever model 81 BLR .308 that i have used ever since, 40 yrs and probably around 3 deer/year. half dozen bears, another half dozen coyotes.
I have a Belgium browning BAR in 270, Remington 700 in 300RUM, a new Browning lever model 81 BLR .308, Ruger model 96 lever in 44 magnum, for my 4 sons. I cant bring myself to put my 308 down for the others. my sons all want my 308.

 

[rjthehunter]

My grandpa hunted around the world. Africa, New Zealand, Arctic, Alaska, Tajikistan, etc. He had a grand slam of North American sheep, and hunted all the dangerous game in Africa, and got a polar bear in the arctic. He had a rifle built in I believe 1987. It was a 338 Win Mag, that was the gun he used for 98% of his hunting. The only time he didn't use it was when he was required to use his larger 416 Rigby for Cape Buffalo and Hippo. Once the outfitter saw how good he shot, they let him use his 338 he brought with for the Leopard and Lion.

I'd consider myself pretty lucky because I am his only Left Handed grandson (also the only one obsessed with hunting like him) so I was given the rifle. It's not light by any means. With the scope I have on it, it's right about 10lbs. I have considered building a lighter weight rifle, but I wouldn't ever use it on a big trip. Any trip I take, I always grab this gun. It's a high quality rifle, that was my grandpas prized possession.

It feels like he's with on the trips I take it on. He always wanted me to take it and use it the way he used it. So I refuse to let it sit in the gun safe. I use it on every hunt I go on. I just wish this gun could tell the stories it's been apart of!

 

[TheTone]

I enjoy how this thread devolved into someone justifying not having a safe full of rifles by explaining how he doesn't use the right tool for the job in any other aspect of his life.

"I don't need a 6.5 manbun because I use a plunger to mash my potatoes"

Just one of many gems to justify questionable actions

 

[CCH]

One Man, One Rifle, One Land documents a hunter's odyssey with just one gun. I haven't read it, but want to. I'm pretty sure there is an older book, about someone from a previous generation that did just the same thing.

As a kid, I was a gun nut and read all the greats: Keith, O'Connor, Askins, etc. I loved rifles and was convinced I needed something different for everything I hunted. Life didn't work out that way as I couldn't afford multiple rifles and had to sell one to get one. So instead I went on a quest for the rifle that I would always want in my hands when hunting and not wish for anything else. It took a while, but my Winchester 70 SS FW with a McMillan stock in .308 is likely my last hunting rifle, and it has covered some ground from Colorado to Alaska. It is not the classic blue and wood pictured here that I love so much, but when I'm in the field, it's the one rifle for me.

 

[Jim/Wa]

My grandfather hunted with a 30-40 Krag from the 1920’s well into the 50’s until his eyesight started aging out. He could’ve bought glasses, I suppose, but instead bought a Remington 721 30-06 with a scope and hunted with that the rest of his life.

 

[NAHMINT]

I both love and hate this thread. When things go back to poop slinging and vicegrips, I'm out...

Every year I choose one rifle out if the safe for the fall/winter big game seasons. It's a rotational basis with no real set rhyme or reason as to the selection, sometimes its sentimental or sometimes it's just for the sake of being different. While I will NEVER be a one gun person, I know plenty of folks that are.

My grandfather owned a small arsenal that would rival most 3rd world militaries but always pulled the same Remington 760 Carbine 30-06 out of the safe for every hunt. That little gun killed a 60" moose in Maine, half a dozen caribou, a few elk, dozens of bears, probably hundreds of deer, and lord knows what else.

He passed in September and I used it for the first time this fall. View attachment 259263View attachment 259264

Firstly,I am sorry about your GRANDAD......They are ''special people'' !!!
Like ''franks hot sauce'', when ya find something that works WAY better than other things, ya just keep using it. the '06 is one of those things.