Do you take a backup gun on a hunt?

[TheViking]

Curious about this. I always have a backup rifle with me on a hunt, but I always worry about leaving an expensive rifle in the truck. Never had an issue, but it’s always in the back of my mind.

 

[sndmn11]

And bow!

 

[TheViking]

And bow!

That’s funny, I was going to add mention of this. I’ve NEVER brought a backup bow with me on any hunt. But I’ve never left the house without two rifles on a gun hunt.

 

[Speaks]

If I am hunting from my cabin I always do. If I am parking at a trail head it depends.

If I do I am keeping it in the decked drawer in my truck. There is no reasonable way to break in there. Even if you break into the cab you cant open the tailgate and thus cant get into the decked drawer. You would have to sawzall through either the tailgate or the decked deck to get it, not impossible but rather involved.

I still generally do not though if I was driving more than half a day to get there I would strongly consider it.

 

[sndmn11]

That’s funny, I was going to add mention of this. I’ve NEVER brought a backup bow with me on any hunt. But I’ve never left the house without two rifles on a gun hunt.

I ran my bow over in 2020 on an elk hunt. It was dumb.

 

[Turkeygetpwnd38]

I used to and then stopped several years ago. Fast forward to this year, had a pretty good LE tag and my rifle went down. I ended up borrowing one from a buddy who thankfully randomly had it in his truck. Even then, my effective range was cut from 500 yards to 200 with the borrowed gun, so missed several opportunities I would have otherwise taken with my primary or back up. I’ll be going back to wagging 2 guns.

ALWAYS carry a back up bow, that’s saved me several times. A lot more to go wrong on a bow…

 

[fmyth]

I keep a cheap Savage Axis w a 3x9 scope in my truck w 2 boxes of ammo. Its in a hard case w 2 bike cables wrapped around the seat bases of my truck and padlocked. I throw a black harbor freight moving blanket over it and lock the truck. If they want a $300 rifle bad enough they will have to put in a few minutes work to get it.

 

[String Bean]

I take an extra rifle any time I’m not returning to my house each night. When traveling and space is limited my hunting partners and I coordinate to bring only 1 extra rifle between the 4 of us

 

[TheViking]

I keep a cheap Savage Axis w a 3x9 scope in my truck w 2 boxes of ammo. Its in a hard case w 2 bike cables wrapped around the seat bases of my truck and padlocked. I throw a black harbor freight moving blanket over it and lock the truck. If they want a $300 rifle bad enough they will have to put in a few minutes work to get it.

I am leaning towards doing something similar. I have a handful of rifles, but they are all really nice. I have been tossing around offloading some of the ones I don't use often and just buying a base model stainless Tikka and a decent scope as a 'beater' backup rifle.

 

[Choupique]

A cheap 45/70 Crack barrel with irons. Easy to hide, cheap to replace, serviceable on a hunt out to 100 yards. Thankfully havent ever needed it.

 

[bigunit]

Ive got what I consider a beater/loaner rifle. It's a cva scout in 6.5 creed. If it gets stolen im not out a lot. It's nice that it's ambidextrous and im a lefty but hunt with right handers.

 

[RWT]

Generally run an Encore as my back up rifle. Easy to put together as it will sit in two pieces in the truck. Most people doesn’t even realize what it is. Same caliber as my primary

 

[wind gypsy]

I have historically if hunting out of state but the more i have to leave something unattended in the pickup the less likely I am to bring a spare. I bring a spare bow too. Only have one muzzleloader so if that goes down i'd be SOL.

Good points by folks saying to use a lesser valued option as a backup. I have an old xbolt that has most of the barrel life used and a swfa 3-9 that wouldn't be the end of the world to lose. I think that'll be the go-to backup if I dont have a safe place to store one going forward.

 

[Rock’N Tacos]

I put together a back up rifle, relatively inexpensive, but reliable just to leave in the truck in case I need it.

 

[Scoutfan]

Cheap Savage axis that I got for less than $200.
Not a big loss if stolen.
Some trips a good and expensive long range rifle for those just in case times

 

[Weldor]

I too , used to take a extra bow-rifle. The last 15 years we have not had any issues either broken or stolen. I now only take my primary. I do bring an extra optic and that's about it. Don't bow hunt anymore so non-issue.

 

[RifleJunkie]

I always toss something in the truck. I myself have never needed it but it has come in handy once or twice when buddies have forgotten ammo or a detachable magazine

 

[6.5x284]

I do on most trips. Only needed once. I don’t take a backup bow (don’t have one) but have needed a backup bow more than once


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[wpeach1912]

On trips a long ways from home I will. I usually bring a backup/extra that can serve a different role. On my whitetail hunt this year I brought an 18” 243 rem model 7 and a 24” custom 6.5 creed in an XLR folder. On my elk/muley hunt I brought the 6.5 and a 22” tikka 300 WSM

 

[TaperPin]

A good steel tool box for a backup rifle will pay for itself just keeping honest people honest.

I’m a fan of four guns: 22-250 dedicated varmint gun, 243 or 6mm-06 plinker (fill in for a varmint gun or deer/antelope if need be), 7mag deer/antelope (and elk if need be), and 338 for elk or hunting anything in grizzly country (fill in for deer if need be).

Any important trip should have a backup, unless you’ll be happy going home to get it. In the hierarchy of reliability, the human is the least reliable, then electronics, then optics, then mechanical. I can think of a number of times either wrong ammo or missing ammo, or a barrel stabbed into the dirt has ended someone’s day and a backup is good for these human malfunctions.

Everyone should have a backup rangefinder, or go shoot rocks without it and see how well you do if evidence is needed to spend $175 on a good basic backup. Rather than reverting to the 1980’s without a rangefinder, it’s worse because shooters don’t practice estimating range as much as we used to.

There’s way too much trust put into optics - just look at the huge number of issues guys have every year with every brand. Spare scopes are likely to be off 1/2 to 1 MOA or more because rings don’t perfectly remount. Spare rifle is dead on.

Mechanical malfunctions are rare-ish. Look at the huge number of posts of malfunctions of all kinds. Hunting may only be a week or two each year, but if a malfunction is going to happen this year and has a 1 in 52 or 1 in 26 chance of happening on a hunt, those seem like high enough odds to plan for. In reality few people are shooting every week or even handling the gun every week, so the odds are often much closer to 1 in 5 or 1 in 10.

Maybe in some places where you live and where you hunt are close by, but everything out west seems to be at least 2 hrs one way for local hunting and all day if you’re across the state.

Humans are naturally optimistic and we will always have stories every year of driving across country and having a malfunction that can’t be fixed. lol