What were your worst caliber/rifle choices

[Fullquiver]

Shooter problem. mtmuley

That's funny.. I wasn't sure what it was but when I shot it off from the bench it in moderately high winds it told the tale..

 

[mtmuley]

That's funny.. I wasn't sure what it was but when I shot it off from the bench it in moderately high winds it told the tale..

I just thought it would be obvious that the wind would move a .17 caliber bullet. I shoot a .222 Remington and 40 grain bullets a bunch. Wind is a big deal. Can't imagine what it does to smaller bullets. mtmuley

 

[Fullquiver]

I just thought it would be obvious that the wind would move a .17 caliber bullet. I shoot a .222 Remington and 40 grain bullets a bunch. Wind is a big deal. Can't imagine what it does to smaller bullets. mtmuley

I never thought about having that much wind here in Michigan. Never really had that kind of issue here with any of my other rifles. However it was my first sub 6mm rifle. My 22-250 was as accurate off from the bench and far less wind sensitive at least out to the ranges that I use it at. I bought it really cheap and it sits unused in my safe for now. I've thought recently about selling it to buy a lightweight tracking rifle for the big woods.

 

[BrentD]

hmm,
This .577-.450 might be my worst cartridge/gun choice. I bought it to go to Africa but I could not make it shoot like I wanted. In all fairness, I really needed to invest in a bullet mould to see what it was capable of. But I found the gun to be just not my style, so it stayed home and I took a Sharps .45 2.6" (100) and it did the job just fine.

The Martini was an interesting gun though with decent wood and a really interesting barrel that had an integral rib. The inside of the barrel, however, was a major marvel. It tapered from what must have been .468" to .450" at the muzzle, but with normal looking Alex Henry Rifling the full length, I have no idea how such a bore could be made like that. If I had invest in a suitably large bullet mold, I suspect it would have shot just fine.

.577-450 cases are cavernous things, even with their mile long necks.

 

[RaiderRich]

870 wingmaster, I like my old faithful 870 Express. This particular wingmaster was lighter and just didnt fit me right damn thing would pop me right in the cheek bone each shot. I'm sure it could have been corrected but down the road it went.

I was the exact opposite. I bought an 870 Express for deer hunting and ended up using my old reliable Mossberg 500. Once NY legalized rifles where I hunt that thing just collected more dust in the back of the safe. I have an Axis 2 in 243 that couldn't shoot Trophy Coppers worth a bean, can't fully blame that rifle until I try other ammo in it though. Bought it for the step daughter but she doesn't come up to NV to shoot from the LA basin that often. When ammo becomes a little more available for it I will run various stuff through it to see if likes anything better than the Fed. Trophy Copper. My other Axis 2 a 7mm-08 shoot pretty well regardless of the ammo.

 

[grizzly63]

Ruger American in 6.5 crudmore. Shooting left handed, the bolt would drag across my thumb while still gripping the throat of the stock. Terribly inaccurate. Did not want to put the 3-400 into it to make it more acceptable. Sold it and moved on. 550 CZ medium in 300 win mag. bought for my Nephew, could not get it to shoot better than 1.5". Had to clench my teeth while pulling the trigger as it kicked something terrible. Traded it to a guy for a 700 varmint in 308. Shot a three shot 3/8" group at 200 yds today with the 700. I think I got the better end of that deal.

 

[pwrwgn57]

Remington 700 Mountain Stainless in .270Win. Smooth action as you'd expect, but it wouldn't group anything I put through it. More like shooting patterns. 3-4" was the best it would do even after giving it a bedding job.
I've since had it rebarreled into a 25-06.

I had the exact same gun and similar experience. So disappointing because the gun was beautiful but best I could get was around 2-3”

 

[F250]

Ruger Mini-14 in .223. As others have said, it was at best, a 100 yard gun.

 

[elkhnter]

Ruger 77 Ultra Lite in .270, thing kicked worse than my 300 RUM. It went down the road, traded for a Winchester 70 Featherweight in 257 Roberts. Wish I still had that one.

 

[Northwoods]

270WSM. The Browning rifle was fine but I disliked the cartridge. I used that rifle for over 10 years but never learned to like the cartridge. It couldn’t do anything that my .30-06 or .308 can’t do. I finally had enough of the added recoil, meat damage, limited bullet weights, and cost to shoot.

I also parted ways with a Marlin 45-70. I was not accurate with that thing. I don’t know if it was me, the rifle, or the cartridge but I was never comfortable trying to hunt with it.

 

[EastTNHunter]

Tikka T3 Lite in 338WM. My brother convinced me that i needed a magnum to hunt elk, I found one on clearance for a really good price, and proceeded to beat my brains out for a while. Ended up trading it and sticking to a 30-06, which I used to cleanly harvest an elk on my first day ever elk hunting.

 

[Otto Matic]

1979, Ruger M77 in .300 Win Mag.
Gorgeous piece of wood. Shot just fine. Would cloverleaf at 200 yards.
Problem?
I would just as soon walk up behind a mare mule and goose her in the butt as pull the trigger on that thing again! !
Four of us were headed to CO for a pack in trip. All four of us had a .300 Win Mag and we worked out a load that all four guns would shoot well.
At a range trip, we shot each others guns.
The other guns were 2 Rem M700's and a Wby Vanguard.
Nobody would shoot my gun more than once.
Swapped that sucker for a set of "Blue Boy" camper jacks when we got back to flat land.

The ONLY thing I can think of is if I had sent it for a custom stock from like Rhinehart-Fajen. (late 70's, early 80's)
Could NOT have been anything but poor stock design.

 

[BAKPAKR]

Rem 742 Woodsmaster in 30-06. For some reason I thought I needed a semi, sold my 760 pump in the same caliber for it. Had about half the accuracy (neither were “great”) and felt like twice the weight. If you shot it enough that the bbl heated the marginal accuracy got a lot worse plus the thing was like packing around a barbell.

My dad started me with his Remington 742 Carbine (18.5” barrel) in 30-06. Even though I shot my first bear and my first buck with that rifle, I hated it. It rattled, it was hard to clean and it was muzzle light which made it challenging for me to shoot well offhand. There were no tears shed when Dad traded it in towards something else.

 

[belshawelk]

Nosler M48 Liberty in 6.5 creedmoor. Sticky action, cerakote chipping and inaccurate.

Hope you sent it back. and had them fix it. they guarantee all their rifles. I have a Nosler M48 custom and it shoots .28 MOA. Very surprised to hear that about yours. I wil buy a Nosler over any other rifle. Its action is like a hot knife through butter. It cant get any smoother.

 

[belshawelk]

Remington 710 in 30-06. Nuff said. Still have it with exactly 5 rounds through it. What do you want for $250?

 

[Cheesehead]

I was 13 when my dad let me pick out my first deer rifle. I wanted a Model 70 in 270 Win. The only one the store had sported a high gloss finish which I hated so I bought one with a matte finish in 270 WSM. Never occurred to me that I could have asked to get one ordered.

@rwc101, similar story here. Was 14, went to BPS looking for a long dreamt of Win 70 classic featherweight in 270 that my dad would chip in for. Chickened out and bought an A-bolt hunter which was like $150 less. Decent gun but every time I look at it I just think I should have gotten what I wanted. Probably should fix that mistake.

Another one: Rem 81 woodsmaster in 35 Remington. Heavy and unwieldy as homemade sin, rough trigger, and would bounce empties off your forehead. Interesting design but found a new home.

 

[Europe]

my husband in his infinite wisdom though we needed a blunderbuss. Are any of you old enough to remember the saying --"useless as tits on a boar"

 

[Don Fischer]

That's funny.. I wasn't sure what it was but when I shot it off from the bench it in moderately high winds it told the tale..

Every body I've talked to that shoot a 17 have mentioned wind drift with a 17. Reducing it a bit is the by product of velocity. Faster the bullet get's there the less wind drift!

 

[Mustangs Rule]

My worst choices were the .280 AI and .35 Whelen AI.

Regarding the 280 AI. Interesting how one mans poison is another man’s pleasure.

I have had two 7x57’s, one .280 Remington and one 7mm Rem mag,,,all gone now and replaced with a 280AI in the Kimber hunter that weighs 5 ¾ pounds.

My one size fits all bullet has been a Barnes 150 grain TSX and now a 150 grain TTSX.

The best I got out of my 7x57 with a 22 inch barrel was about 2,600’/sec.

With the 280 in a 22 inch barrel, I got well over 2,800’/sec.

With my 280AI in 24 inch barrel, I am way over 3,000’/sec and with no pressure signs at all. I will go further. According to load data from two manuals I could just break 3,100’sec.

For this bullet weight in the 7mm Mag nearly all loads peak at 3,100’/sec, with two powders breaking 3,200’ sec.

The best I ever got from a heavy 7mm Win Mag was about 3150’/sec and that used a helluva lot more powder than my 280AI which is not heavy, does not kick bad at all and shoot about 5/8’ to 7/8” for three shots from a cold barrel off a bench at 100 yards.

I am so pleased with my 280AI that I sold my very heavy Winchester stainless model 70 in 300 win mag I used for elk and large wild boar up to 400 pounds. Also, my heavy .35 Whelen spends a lot of time in the gunsafe now that I have he 280 AI

Currently I am working up a load for the 280AI with 160 grain Lapua Naturalis. I have used them with great success in other calibers, namely the 6.5x55 swede, the .308 and 30-06.

They are very kind to meat, do kill superbly but are not a long range choice,,,,which bothers me not. Hunting pressure having gotten so increased here in the west, I have taken most of my game animals in the thick and dark places,,,often walking/stalking with a heavy pair of wool slippers with a soft leather soul rather than boots.

This has worked very well.

 

[Deleted member 38069]

Hope you sent it back. and had them fix it. they guarantee all their rifles. I have a Nosler M48 custom and it shoots .28 MOA. Very surprised to hear that about yours. I wil buy a Nosler over any other rifle. Its action is like a hot knife through butter. It cant get any smoother.

No, I should’ve but I sold it.