Firearm nihilism - does everything actually just suck?

[DangerRanger]

Or fly fishing…

I once went to Scotland and hired a guille to take me out trout fishing on a little loch. He was a purist and insisted I fly fished. We fished for two hours and had a great time, caught nothing. On the ride back in I tossed a rapala xrap out on a spinning reel and caught a beautiful brown

 

[Mike 338]

Yes Virginia, there is "no" Santa Clause.

 

[gbflyer]

I build them and give most of them away.

 

[MTMeatHunter]

Is there really anything that a guy can’t do with a Tikka action, a barrel vice, and at most two barrels? I mean, really?

Let’s be real. Finding the perfect this or that is ultimately just a distraction from our otherwise mundane and boring daily lives. Ask an existential question, get an existential response…

 

[wind gypsy]

I found my nirvana in calibers finally. I landed on a 25-284 with 133 bergers. I went through several fazes before I landed here. It's on a tikka action with a 21 inch steel barrel and a 5 inch Suppressor. It's not a magnum but it has speed like a magnum. It's not a big bullet but it's not a small bullet. Recoil is mild as far as I'm concerned and I can spot my impacts. It wears a nightforce Atacr in seekins rings on a 419 rail permanently bonded to the action that sits comfortably in a folding xlr chassis.

Idk if this is YOUR end all be all. But if it isn't mine It's damn close. I've played the scope and caliber games, the heavy and light games, and others in between. Turns out the more I play the more I find middle ground the place to be. Not just with guns either. Went ultralight ...regretted it. Went heavy...regretted it. Damn middle ground is boring but it's a hell of a place to be.

Ive been contemplating selling off my magnums and settling on a 25x284 or 25 PRC as my big gun, you’re not helping.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Is there really anything that a guy can’t do with a Tikka action, a barrel vice, and at most two barrels? I mean, really?

Let’s be real. Finding the perfect this or that is ultimately just a distraction from our otherwise mundane and boring daily lives. Ask an existential question, get an existential response…

My tikkas are all that comes out these days. They are pretty much stock other than a few basic upgrades and chopped barrels to shoot suppressed. In my hunting daydreams I’m usually just toting around one of the tikkas.

 

[justinspicher]

A couple of years ago I decided to go with a single caliber for my rifles and a single caliber for my pistols. This narrowed everything down to just a couple of each and allowed me to purchase better equipment for them as well as have more ammo and training time.

Good luck in your quest…..

 

[Macintosh]

If the stuff is getting tiresome then simplify. Take it back to basics. If you havent used it in over a year, sell it. One of everything, nothing more, sell the rest. Enjoy hunting for the hunting and what it does to your soul. Sleep outside. Lean into the wind and driving snow and smile. Become strong and sinewy. Cook with fire. Make wild love to your woman. Be a man.

Or consider that this is an INDUSTRY. There are tens of thousands of people invested in nothing less than convincing you that you NEED more stuff to do something that people have been doing since before time was invented…without any of this stuff. We dont need 9/10 of this stuff. But if you enjoy the stuff, do it as far as your budget and your jois de vivre (jeu de vache? ) will allow. The industry thanks you, and also reminds you that the release date for the new accuracy-guaranteed 6.4wammerbammer will make you a more successful hunter and the release is this thursday and preorders go live tonight, so dont let your tag go unfilled or your woman unsatisfied this year because you didnt ACT right now!

 

[MallardSX2]

I have $300 in this entire gun. I found the sling in a wma parking lot.

Sell all that bullshit and keep it simple bro. You don’t need to stress about it at all.

I kill more deer than most and do it with a 50-year-old 2moa pump gun that costs less than what some people spend on scope rings….lol

PS: Those rings and bases came off of a BB gun I had when I was a kid. I had to cut the one-piece base in half with a hacksaw to make it fit the receiver holes (that were stripped out, and I re-tapped with a harbor freight tap, WD-40 and power drill in my college apartment) I colored the ends of the base with a sharpie, so it didn't look like raw aluminum tightened them down with an alan wrench and used super glue on the base screws because I couldn't afford Loctite that week and deer season was the following week. It's been that was for the last 20 years.

True story. Haha

 

[30338]

Last 5 years all my hunting/killing has been with a 12 year old Mathews and a 30 or so year old muzzleloader. Got tired of hearing everyone gripe about long range hunting and killed a bunch of stuff under 40 yards just to prove I still had it.

If a guy has 1 or 2 really capable rifles for his area of hunting, I no longer see a need to chase the next shiny thing. Though it was a long run lol.

 

[Go West Old Man]

My custom hunting rifle doesn’t kill anymore animals than the old rifle it replaced that cost less than 1/2 as much, or an off the shelf tikka.

Yep, when the initial enthusiasm and enchantment wanes it’s kind of disappointing. Back in late 2020 I got the idea in my head that it’d be cool to own my first “really nice” rifle from small shop, semi custom , known rifle company. Coincidentally, this was about the same time i discovered rokslide & started reading about all the cool stuff other folks were playing with. So, long-story-short, told a dealer early 2021 that had one of these rifles in 6.5-284 already on order to put my name on it & I’d take/buy it when it came in. The much anticipated and admired, first really nice rifle finally arrived spring 2022. Plunked down a big chunk of money & took it home. It stayed in the safe until earlier this year due to unforeseen late 2022 circumstances, but still waiting with all the charm of having it still on my mind.

Well, 197 fired rounds later the charm has somewhat faded. I’ve discovered that I’m not absolutely in love with it like I thought I would be because of one or two features particular to the design. Nothing wrong with it, just personal preference that I had to discover for myself. However, it does shoot damn awesome </= .5 MOA and does a fine job at that. To add to the love loss, the rifle maker went tits up last year & sold out and it doesn’t look/sound like the new owners give a toot about whet was made & sold previously. Oh well. Guess I learned a lot going through the whole process, but by golly continuing to read rokslide sure didn’t help.

But wait…… That new, expensive, 20” custom built 6CM I got a few months ago and the TBAC Ultra 7 to go with it is mighty fun. Absolutely love it! Hmmm, I wonder if I should now build a custom in 6.5-284?

 

[Vern400]

I hunt with one rifle I bought in 1989. It hits clay pigeons out to 400 yards and kills all eastern game soundly. I handloaded enough cartridges to last the life of the tube. Maybe the life of me as well. It still has the original Leupold scope. I've put over 150 large game animals on the dirt with it. 2 missed and 2 killed but lost.

I have others, but this rifle is my brother. Confidence is priceless.

 

[Go West Old Man]

I have others, but this rifle is my brother.

Amen! Same sentiment. I’ve got a 1991 12 ga Remington 11-87 SP that’s got lots of wear & tear. Have couple other nicer shotguns too, but the old & trusty 11-87 and I are bonded for life.

 

[JohnJohnson]

Yep, when the initial enthusiasm and enchantment wanes it’s kind of disappointing. Back in late 2020 I got the idea in my head that it’d be cool to own my first “really nice” rifle from small shop, semi custom , known rifle company. Coincidentally, this was about the same time i discovered rokslide & started reading about all the cool stuff other folks were playing with. So, long-story-short, told a dealer early 2021 that had one of these rifles in 6.5-284 already on order to put my name on it & I’d take/buy it when it came in. The much anticipated and admired, first really nice rifle finally arrived spring 2022. Plunked down a big chunk of money & took it home. It stayed in the safe until earlier this year due to unforeseen late 2022 circumstances, but still waiting with all the charm of having it still on my mind.

Well, 197 fired rounds later the charm has somewhat faded. I’ve discovered that I’m not absolutely in love with it like I thought I would be because of one or two features particular to the design. Nothing wrong with it, just personal preference that I had to discover for myself. However, it does shoot damn awesome sound like the new owners give a toot about whet was made & sold previously. Oh well. Guess I learned a lot going through the whole process, but by golly continuing to read rokslide sure didn’t help.

But wait…… That new, expensive, 20” custom built 6CM I got a few months ago and the TBAC Ultra 7 to go with it is mighty fun. Absolutely love it! Hmmm, I wonder if I should now build a custom in 6.5-284?

I think a lot of people build customs before they know what they actually want. 2 of my expensive builds were done before I knew what fit me best and the builds were really more about trying new stuff to fix something that wasn't broken (since my first custom had the best ergos/accuracy of them all in retrospect). Also factory rifles are so good these days people should think about how different a build is from available factory offerings and whether they're actually gaining anything.

 

[Boltgun]

We’re all buying nice sportscars when we really want to be race car drivers. Meanwhile there’s a guy with a beat-to-hell Miata track car that could outdrive us in our fancy cars any day of the week.

Stop collecting and start racing.

 

[Marbles]

We’re all buying nice sportscars when we really want to be race car drivers. Meanwhile there’s a guy with a beat-to-hell Miata track car that could outdrive us in our fancy cars any day of the week.

Stop collecting and start racing.

What if I need to by a Miata because the Ford Focus....

 

[5MilesBack]

Those problems are all internal.....first world problems. You just need a different perspective, and all this becomes trivial and unimportant. In over 40 years, I've never owned a rifle that didn't do what it was supposed to, and they were all off the shelf stock.

 

[jpmulk]

Rules I’ve decided to follow that work for me:
1: I only need one (one conceal carry, one bow, one hunting rifle, one AR) and set each one up the best I can for me within reason
2: Dont buy top of the line. It’s a waste of money
3: Don’t buy bottom of the barrel. It’s also a waste of money.

 

[Wapiti1]

I build them and give most of them away.

Can I be your friend?

Jeremy

 

[hereinaz]

Ive been contemplating selling off my magnums and settling on a 25x284 or 25 PRC as my big gun, you’re not helping.

DO IT! I am telling you that I still remember my first love, the 7 SS, but I think the 25 SST is a girl I can marry.

Recoil isn't nothing, like a .223, but it is so manageable and the BC of the 133 with velocity is so dang good.

Rules I’ve decided to follow that work for me:
1: I only need one (one conceal carry, one bow, one hunting rifle, one AR) and set each one up the best I can for me within reason
2: Dont buy top of the line. It’s a waste of money
3: Don’t buy bottom of the barrel. It’s also a waste of money.

This is essentially what I have come to realize. I only shoot the rifles that I like to shoot. Getting it set up the best I can is huge to make it nice to shoot. I found I'd rather have one very good rifle, than three or four average. And, after all the caliber discussions, and running the math, pretty much any reasonable gun can be made to work and meet our "good enough."
. For 2 and 3, I am cheap but hate dealing with the cheap garbage I usually buy, so I buy the good stuff for my guns--but not the uber expensive stuff that I can't tell what advantage the extra money gives me. That goes for all my outdoor gear these days, boots especially.