Thread: rifles whats your preference?

Tweet

Originally Posted by Don Shillady

..........I bought a new Marlin .22 and foolishly took the peep sight apart and spent the next two years resetting the sights. The best procedure was to put the rifle in a vise at one end of a long cellar and sight through the barrel at a thumb tack on the far wall and adjust the sight accordingly, but the sight itself was a piece of pressed sheet metal of low quality. My brother ended up with that .22 and has used it to kill rattlers in his backyard in Florida.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Don was the 22 Marlin a tube feed? I bought one of those as my first rifle, when I was about 12 yrs old. At the time for about an extra 8-10 bucks you could get a Ruger 10-22. I got the Marlin because it was cheaper and had more rounds by tube than the stock Ruger. Flash foward 32 years, wish I got the Ruger! Marlin shoots well though. 22's are a cheap way to have fun!

I like the older stuff too-I tend to like larger bore stuff in my "smoke poles"-I really like Black Powder (traditional), and among my collection I have Green River Rifle Works Hawken in .58 Caliber, a custom Narragansett .50 Caliber Pennsylania full-stock Flintlock, an Old Dominion Arms .54 Cal long-stock, and numerous T/C, Dixie, Lyman Rifles.

I have gotten into CASS as time permits, and recently purchased a stainless old style Ruger Vaquerro in .45 Colt-love it.

I keep a few of the "newer" designs for personal safety, but give me an old Gun (Car) anyday-

Man - lots of solid, time proven firearms mentioned in this thread . . .

Like DagoRed - I haven't touched my guns for a long time.
Once in the woods this year - saw a doe and let it go . . .

I'm REALLY a fan of single shot rifles!

My current favorites are of the 7mm variety.

7mm-08 Rem (as you may know) is a .308 necked down from 30 cal to 7mm.
That's in a Thompson Center Encore single shot.
Flatter shooting that the .308 and less recoil.

7-30 Waters is a 30/30 necked down to 7mm.
Waters developed this round to extend the 30/30's effective range beyond 200 yrds. The cartridge develops ~2600 ft/lbs of pressure so it is still OK in a lever action receiver fitted with the correct barrel and chamber.

The 7mm-Waters is on a Tompson Contender single shot frame with an 18 in heavy barrel.

Win 1895 High/Low walls are my all time favorite rifle - single shot also.
My Dad left me one in 30.06

I would love to own a 45-70 Sharps as mentioned by Denny, DonS and others.
I believe Quigley had a 45-110 - what a shoulder pounder!!!!

For Plinking -
Ruger 10/22

Some of the military guys can confirm this but I always understood -

SKS (rises and drops 10 inches within the first 300 yrds)
AR15/16 (rises and drops 10 inches within the first 900 yards)
giving the effective killing range of each gun, assuming a man's chest is approximately a 10 inch target.

Doesn't mean one couldn't lob one in at ranges further than mentioned.

I was a gun dealer for 10 years - so I could go on and on.

Tango- 7.62x39- AKs and 5.56- M-16 may have consequently killed lots of humans but they were designed to WOUND. When you have wounded you tie up all sorts of numbers of people recoverng, giving 1st aid, transporting to the rear, staffing field hospitals and such.

Wounding is one of the primary goals in battle because it saps the enemy's resources both human and material. The act of retrieving of wounded provides the enemy yet another opportunity to engange you on a disproportionate basis while you're distracted with the guys down.

It's the prime reason we have full metal jacket ball ammo. In any caliber in any army it seeks to accomplish the same task, to wound. An M-1 in .30-06 or a Mauser K98 in 7.92 mm in WW II would put a clean hole through your enemy's shoulder causing blood loss but not death. And we're back to wounded individuals drawing upon resources again.

5.56x45mm (.223 cal) or 7.62x39mm are not good large game rounds where the object is to stop with one shot. It doesn't mean they can't in the right circumstances but they do not have a proven history of repeatedly doing so. You don't want to wound a large animal an have to trek after it for what may end up being many miles and then attempt to haul it out.= if you find it befre dark at all.

Remember you can only load 5 rounds in most locales for large game so there's no spraying and praying. .223 and AK short rounds is what I'd say use for prarie dogs, racoons, bobcats, coyotes. For deer, elk, bear and other big stuff I'd use a full size cartridge behind a .30 caliber or 8mm Mauser round. For regions like some of the wide open Western states a hyperfast 7mm would be better for longer shots at elk.

Again to get back on track, it depends of what and where you're hunting. Brush guns and their game- boars, deer- require heavy slow projectiles that are not diverted by small branches and twigs like very fast rounds are. If you have ever really been in heavily wooded and thick brush area you know that you may not even get a look at the whole of your target and have to fire with partial view, past a dozen trees and bushes to hit what's back there.

Old Marlins, Winchesters, Savages and similar 30-30 "cowboy" lever actions are fine brush guns.

While 5.56 and 7.62x39 or any light, fast round fired singly will have dubious percentages of success they do the job when fired in volleys in full auto at military targets. Don't expect the kill of an animal with one round if it takes several to mow down vegetation and ultimately kill a man in the same terrain.

Literally any rifle with any mechanism with a full case size around .30 cal. will make hits in more open terrain at decent ranges. Only if you have money to burn do you want to get an African caliber firearm.

.....well the most fun gun I've ever owned is my simi auto Ruger 10/22 with a 25 round magazine. $9 bucks for 500 rounds! 'plunk/plunk' all day long! Then for a 'belly gun' it's my Derranger with a 2 1/2" barrel that shoots 410 shoot gun shells. But for real self defence it's my Mossburg 590 8 shot 12 gauge with the 18 1/2" barrel...... Yeah, you can never be too rich, too thin or own too many guns ........

Twitch The type 56 SKS with a 20-1/2" barrel firing a 762X39 123 grain soft point round can take a deer up to 100 yards . Also the 762x39 can match the 30-30s energy at 100 and 200 yards . But if I do go Deer hunting . I will use the Springfield 1903-A3 in 30-06 with 165 grain reloads . Or for Deer in heavy brush I would use the Marlin lever-action in 45-70 with 300 grain reloads . That will put them down in there tracks . COOL

Or for Deer in heavy brush I would use the Marlin lever-action in 45-70 with 300 grain reloads

- no twigs are gonna deflect that one!!!

My cousin had a Mod 94 (or Marlin?) lever action in 45-70. I never shot it.
I've also heard that, is it a .35 Marlin, is a good brush gun but I'm not too familiar with the cartridge, but I'm thinking low velocity and heavy bullet.

For plinking a Ruger 10/22, for varmint hunting a Remington 22/250 Varminter w/ a Redfield 3/9 scope, for deer and elk a Marlin 30-30. For dealing with people that really do not like you a pair of ma duece.

Keltec has a fold - up in .40 or 9mm which is classified as a pistol, but it dam sure is a short barrel rifle. Uses 30 round clips. I plan to get one in .40 and expect it to be a total hoot to shoot.

Originally Posted by SBC

- no twigs are gonna deflect that one!!!

My cousin had a Mod 94 (or Marlin?) lever action in 45-70. I never shot it.
I've also heard that, is it a .35 Marlin, is a good brush gun but I'm not too familiar with the cartridge, but I'm thinking low velocity and heavy bullet.

the 35 Marlin fires the 35 Remington cartridge . It's velocity and energy in not much different then a 30-30 . But it's larger / heavier bullet will make a more severe wound . This would make the 35 Remington a better deer or bear hunting cartridge . Here are the bullet Diameters ( 30-30) is .308 and (35Rem) is .358 Yes this would be a good brush Gun .

Originally Posted by firebird77clone

Keltec has a fold - up in .40 or 9mm which is classified as a pistol, but it dam sure is a short barrel rifle. Uses 30 round clips. I plan to get one in .40 and expect it to be a total hoot to shoot.

Is this the one?

My grandfather left my brothers and me several interesting antiques (Winchester model 12, An 1889 Colt 38-40 Military model pistol (38 cal./40 grains of black powder), and a couple of others, but the one I like is a 30-40 Krag (30 caliber/40 grains of smokeless). The Krag was used in the Spanish American war.

I don't hunt and I don't get to the range very often, but when I do the Krag attracts a heck of a lot of attention. It's long as a hoe handle and has stock all the way to the end of the barrel. It is very accurate (a heck of a lot more accurate than I am) and ammunition is available, but take your billfold with you when you go to buy some!

Jim

when i was a lot younger i did some guiding, the only rifle i had at the time was a ww2 springfield 30-06!,with an origional weaver k-4 scope!
what a stopper that was!
at seventeen or so lugging 12 lbs of gun plus gear was shure a tough way to make a days pay! ($35.00/day+ found)
to this day i still hunt,retired the 30-06
i have two fav's now after all those years of guiding,
winchester #94,chambered for .44 mag, thats my saddle gun,bush busting etc.
the other one a browning .300 win mag,just for those times you've got to
reach out and touch something

ahh, just get a 4 BORE!

This one belonged to my Dad. It's a Winchester Model 1890 22 short with an octagon barrel. A gunsmith friend appraised it at $700.