Going from multiple rifles to just one

[TaperPin]

I started letting go of rifles my shooting buddies liked more than me, and having a barrel vice let’s me add new barrels without the whole gun. A new custom barrel can cost more than an entire new rifle, but other barrels are almost free.

 

[jolemons]

Care to expand on what the smaller selection of customs are? I’m curious about the rifles and chamberings.


I’m assuming the Tikka 6.5CM is the medium range, lighter weight rifle. What is the ultralight backpacker and the the heavy long range rifle?


What are the three cartridges you selected?


I hear you on not selling things that might get banned in the future. This is a good reason to hold on, even if it doesn’t get used as much as it should.


What did you choose. Care to expand in your 1 rifle system?

.22 from my childhood
5.56 "truck gun" for predators, etc.
7 RM long range build
300 WM light weight build
375 H&H bear and buffalo build
5.56 AR SHTF build

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[JCMCUBIC]

Multiple times over the last few decades I've reduced the number and variations of rifles I shoot. I will occasionally sell something now but it's rare. Focusing on a smaller number of rifles/chamberings/brands never ended up being worth the effort of the sales for me. I enjoy shooting and evaluating different platforms, setups, chamberings, and scopes. Nothing wrong with familiarity of a specific gun/chambering/scope...but it's not that hard to swap between them. There's pro/con on everything, and I have nothing against someone deciding to reduce numbers and variations for a purpose...it's just never been worthwhile for me when I've done it.

 

[SloppyJ]

No way I can get down to just one gun. I have too many heirloom rifles for that but I will thin it down to just a few "hunting" rifles for sure. I was thinking about that this morning. I'm building a long action right now and then I'd like to build a short or medium action after that. Once those are complete I can sell off most of the rifles that don't have any sentimental value to me. At that point I can rebarrel and change cartridge if wanted.

However, I'm always going to keep an AR or two. I'll keep 3 22lrs for me and my sons, I'll keep my shotguns and likely add more because of my sons, and then probably buy some youth rifles for them to hunt with until they're big enough for their own full size.

On second thought, it doesn't sound like a consolidation at all.

 

[Spoonbill]

Lots of good feedback in this thread! Thank you all for your input and advice.

For those of you who may not have whittled it down to just one rifle, but have 2 or maybe three in the same or different calibers, are they all on the same platform, ie Tikka, R700, etc. or are they different rifles?

I am in the process of doing this and most of my rifles that are in the keep pile are tikkas. Partly because they work and I am left handed, so tikkas make it easy to get calibers I want.
It is nice cleaning out some of the safe queens, it simplifies buying ammo, the reloading bench etc. plus having less crap laying around is always nice.

 

[xsn10s]

I've sold off all but one handguns and many of my rifles. And I'll probably sell more of my rifles. I do regret getting rid of three of my handguns and have bought a EDC a year ago. And I can't see having less than five rifles and at least one of two more pistols. They all have a job. Some serve multiple purposes and some are very specific.

 

[kc0yef]

You can never have too many guns! You need a different one for each and every application!

I am narrowing down to two calibers 6.5 and .30 and .22 and .45 and N+1 lol just need to find a creedmoor barrel to go with my Sweedmore

 

[TaperPin]

My switch barrel gun just grew another arm with the addition of a 1:8 6br barrel.

I‘m also in talks to acquire a 375 H&H barrel for a Winchester model 70 and have it rethreaded for my old Remington 700.

These are two calibers that would be much harder to justify as full rifles (although everyone should have both an accurate 6mm and 375 H&H).

 

[Sadler]

Minus the guns that were handed down to me, Im pretty happy with my soon to be twin 223 and 6 creedmoor tikkas. The 223 was going to be a trainer but after seeing what it does on elk this year, it’ll be my primary hunting gun too.

 

[Floridave]

I’ve got many guns handed down or sentimental in some way, stuff like 30/30 lever, 444 marlin, but I’ve sold off most of my other hunting rifles (larger bolt guns) and was down to 1.
I’ve added an AR to that so I’m at AR for 223/77TMK and a bolt action in 243/108ELDM, as pretty much my only 2 combinations.
That’s it for my ‘serious’ hunting rifles and calibers doubt it will change.


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[Loper]

I’ve got many guns handed down or sentimental in some way, stuff like 30/30 lever, 444 marlin, but I’ve sold off most of my other hunting rifles (larger bolt guns) and was down to 1.
I’ve added an AR to that so I’m at AR for 223/77TMK and a bolt action in 243/108ELDM, as pretty much my only 2 combinations.
That’s it for my ‘serious’ hunting rifles and calibers doubt it will change.


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This appears to be the similar direction that I think I’m headed now. What parts of the country do you hunt?

 

[Tl15]

I don’t think I could do it. I tried to unify on a 16” suppressed AR platform and just run a 6.5 Grendel upper for game to 400, and a 7.62x39 sending 154’s for short range hog, but ultimately couldn’t do it. I just didn’t like dealing with the weight. I ended up looking in the safe one day and I had a short, mid, and long range ultralight bolt gun and a ultralight AR-10 for when the AR-15 “wasn’t going to have enough behind it”. I failed, but that’s fine.

 

[Yoder]

After seeing what happened in 2020, I'm not getting rid of any of my guns unless it's an upgrade.

 

[justinspicher]

I narrowed it down to a single caliber for center fire, rim fire and pistol. I went with 556, 22LR and 9mm.

 

[Floridave]

This appears to be the similar direction that I think I’m headed now. What parts of the country do you hunt?

Almost all eastern whitetail, but I’ve hunted western mule deer and Canada black bear. Now that I’m retired, I’ll do some of those western hunts again to include elk but it will be with the guns I have. In the past my primary was 7mm mag, with 338 win mag, 30/06, 270 in the mix. Now it’s 223 and 243 fast twist barrel.
My AR weighs 7lb 6oz ready to hunt. Only a few oz more for my bolt.


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[Floridave]

I narrowed it down to a single caliber for center fire, rim fire and pistol. I went with 556, 22LR and 9mm.

You’re my hero .


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[gtriple]

I've been going through the process with a few more difficulties. I have to have extra rifles for my father and 3 brothers until they decide to get their own - I'm thinking about building them 7PRC Tikkas once they hit the shelves. And we've hunted anything from coyotes and foxes up to bison, moose, and eland.

I've narrowed it down to:

Tikka T1x 22lr - trainer/squirrel rifle
Tikka T3x 6.5CM - loaner rifle for brothers
Tikka T3x 308 - loaner rifle for father
Tikka T3x 6.5PRC - wife's rifle
Tikka T3x 7PRC - my main rifle
Fieldcraft 6.5CM - my backpacking/back-up rifle.

I also have a Winchester Model 70 in 7RM that is a family pass-down.

I'm heavily thinking about adding a 223 Tikka with a heavy barrel. The 6.5CM is relatively cheap to shoot, but a 223 would be even cheaper.

 

[Tl15]

Almost all eastern whitetail, but I’ve hunted western mule deer and Canada black bear. Now that I’m retired, I’ll do some of those western hunts again to include elk but it will be with the guns I have. In the past my primary was 7mm mag, with 338 win mag, 30/06, 270 in the mix.
My AR weighs 7lb 6oz ready to hunt. Only a few oz more for my bolt.


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I used to target 7.5 pounds fully kitted on my bolt guns, once I pushed down in the 6.x# range, the old rigs feel like boat anchors. My little Howa carbon stalker is fully kitted at 5.5lbs and it’s ruined every other rifle I have.

 

[fisherman983]

I have the couple rifles that have sentimental value to me in the safe and I have 2 hunting rifles.
Years ago I sold all my junk factory rifles because I had the same mindset. Lots if rifles is best. It's not. They are expensive to shoot and expensive to put a bunch of mediocre scopes on. Trying to reload for a bunch of rifles that don't get shot much is also a large waste of money..
Now I have a couple customs that I can hunt whatever I want. If something happens to 1, I have a backup.
If 1 needs a new barrel after it's shot out, I have a backup.
Building 2 nice accurate guns with quality parts and components and only having to source reloading components for 2 guns is much easier.
I will be adding a 3rd just for longer range heavy wind situations.

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[Wrench]

I'm still on a mission to get everything consistently wearing mil scopes.


It's difficult to sell a gun in Washington....but they're easy to buy.