S2H winter class 2026 observations and lessons learned

[HuntHarder]

Thank you for taking the time away from breaking optics to reply. lol.
I just picked up a new Rem 700 based rifle that was worked over heavily. It is for sure a shooter but I have no idea how reliabe it is gonna be. I generally dislike 700 pattern rifles but was convinced to try this one.
*Heavy sigh*
-Doc

This may sound crazy.... Remington 700's and clones have been killing shit in all kinds of weather and scenarios for decades. Don't treat your rifle like shit in extreme conditions, and you will likely be ok. If you are truly bothered by it, I would sell it immediately and buy one that you have full confidence in. If you don't, you will always be worrying about it.

 

[benconfused]

Do we know when the new jacket will be released and the possible price point?

 

[Pilsner]

For personal and professional reasons, I will never sell this rifle. However, if I am planning a late winter hunt somewhere further North than I live it is a simple matter to snag a Tikka action and toss together a rifle. Sadly, I am not yet in the place in life where a last-minute hunt in Canada or Alaska is a thing. * heavy sigh* Yet.
As stated above, I generally hate 700 pattern rifles but this one is printing legit sub-0.25 MOA 5 shot groups on the regular and turned in one 0.95" group at 985 yards using a stump and a sand bag for a rest. One does not lightly turn loose of a shooter like that! It also doesn't mean that I should rely on it for the one or three hunts I might do in those conditions. I also have a variety of rifle sleeves and other means to keep one clean and dry outdoors.
My wife would argue with me, "Why am I checking at our PO box for yet another Vortex package?! Why do you keep breaking expensive things?!", but I just use my gear - I don't baby it or abuse it. Not sure how that equates or doesn't to treating it like shit, not that you were saying that I did. Your comments about having confidence in a product that you rely on is spot on.
Thanks for the reply.

 

[Pilsner]

Half in jest.

I've jumped in a couple glacier fed lakes for fun but that was on a hot day. I fell through some rotten ice on a river during spring once. In that case I wasn't smart enough to not go on the ice, but I was smart enough to do it in a spot falling through wasn't life threatening.

I'd probably buck up and let myself get peer-pressured into the fun. I do see the value in learning how your body will react to that stressor. Probably just once though, beyond that I'd be a fan of learning from others' experiences.

You can learn a lot about how your body reacts to cold immersion - and how to mitigate your body's panic reaction so that you can think clearly and in a useful manner immediately afterwards - by just doing ice/uber-cold-water plunges. *Insert Joe Rogan/Cam Hanes joke here*
We own a hot tub, sauna, and ice tank here on our mountain and my much-tougher-than-i wife does them in rotation for fun. I do them, reluctantly, for health and wellness reasons. She enjoys the pain, I do not. Also, I am a pansy who got very soft once I hit 40+ years old.

 

[Sandstrom]

If I’m just moving through the woods and everything else is equal, the handiness of the Rokstock Lite in .223 is hard to beat. It feels awesome. I also really liked shooting the full wood Rokstock. I’m still torn on what I want long term on my .223. Wood Lite or standard wood. The one disadvantage I see with the lite just is what it is, a tradeoff... You have to be very cautious of how short/thin that forearm is. Even on my pack, jammed pretty far forward, I found I'd inadvertently be getting barrel contact every once in awhile. Something you would have to be aware of if using it.

I hear what you are saying! What about a standard rockstock forearm and a rockstock lite butstock?

 

[RockAndSage]

Because people don’t actually shoot. Those that do, almost never shoot off a range- even the competitions that people do are relatively sterile. Those that do shoot almost never have comparative experience between platform. Seeing 5-20 different platforms used side by side and subjected to real “weather” and conditions, with enough rounds to gather something approaching “data” is not a thing. When this people who do shoot, shoot, cleaning between days is not only ok, it’s expected. Malfunctions happen, but intentional blindness means people don’t notice. Humans don’t reflect by and large. Everyone says “customs” are better, so customs must be better- so they ignore or choose to not see the issues.
People will say with one breath that it’s all BS and that they have never had issues, and then in the very next day they they have had multiple triggers go down- but it’s ok because they just needed cleaned. People say “I use my gear really, really hard”, and then in the next breath say “rifle for sale, LNIB”, or “I would never let snow get on my rifle”. Etc, etc.

There are somewhere around 200 people that have been through a S2H class now. Around 30-40% of rifles that they have been used for the first day have been R700 customs (and a couple factory). Not one from a student that I can recall has made it through the very first day without malfunctions- despite multiple going out of their way to say we were FOS and theirs has never had a problem. Only mine has made it through pretest without malfunctions, and they have had problems roughly 50% of the classes.


Basically... humans are full of shit.





Round bottom action easy for a gunsmith to work on, with a relatively fast lock time.

Man, this is so true it's painful. Toss in what their dad always valued, what was cool and hyped by gun writers/influencers when they were in their high-school years, and raw need for tribal belonging and status signaling, and you have a grand slam of why people believe untrue, stupid $h*t in the gun world.

I've definitely been guilty of my share of that, but nothing sobers you up to reality like extended contact with reality. And the only way to get that with guns is to run them past their limits.

 

[Dobermann]

You can learn a lot about how your body reacts to cold immersion - and how to mitigate your body's panic reaction so that you can think clearly and in a useful manner immediately afterwards - by just doing ice/uber-cold-water plunges. *Insert Joe Rogan/Cam Hanes joke here*
We own a hot tub, sauna, and ice tank here on our mountain and my much-tougher-than-i wife does them in rotation for fun. I do them, reluctantly, for health and wellness reasons. She enjoys the pain, I do not. Also, I am a pansy who got very soft once I hit 40+ years old.

This is also done in some Japanese martial arts. We used to go to Japan in winter, where they'd crack a hole in the ice on a lake and make us all jump in wearing swimwear. No puffies to put on afterwards - just towel off, put on your gi, and get back on the mat to train. Aside from the physical desensitization, there are some mental tricks derived from Zen that can really help.