The 1 Thing You Learned- Rifles

[5MilesBack]

In regards to rifles, it was learning to stop cleaning them every time I shot them.

 

[slvrslngr]

99.9% of all hunting on this planet can be done with a 30-06, 180gr bullet and a 6x scope. Anything else is superfluous.

 

[Gunaddict]

Cold bore shots are more important than follow up shots.

 

[Rich M]

My 1-thing is to know your rifle. Be able to shoot your selected ranges and know where it is gonna hit throughout the entire breadth of the range. If you know that, you aint gonna miss.

Everything else is about getting that shot opportunity. If you don't have a shot opp, you go home empty handed. You get a shot opp, you shot something.

I can relate to the change-up comment couple posts above here. Tried to work up some loads over the summer and next thing i knew, it was hunt time and I didn't know everything I needed to know about where the gun would hit. Used backup rifle to take my deer that hunt. I knew where it hit and was more confident.

 

[Oregon Hunter]

We do dry runs with inexperienced hunters that have never used horses. A full load up, load out saddle, brief ride and then reverse it makes it much easier.

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Do you find that hunting from horses is easier with certain types of guns, or is it pretty much all the same?

 

[Oregon Hunter]

I hunted elk for 20 years with a rough blued, plastic stocked Remington 270 with a cheap bushnell 4x fixed scope. It was about as basic as you could get, it had a blind magazine and most of the blueing was scratched or worn off. I never didn’t get my elk during those years.

I like guns and have a lot of them but I’m sort of at a point where I want to really use the heck out of what I have rather than browse gun racks and get the next “best thing”.

I still struggle with being happy with what I have versus enjoying looking at the new stuff. Lately I've been good at resisting the temptation, but those binoculars with a built-in rangefinder are pretty sweet...

 

[Oregon Hunter]

My 1-thing is to know your rifle. Be able to shoot your selected ranges and know where it is gonna hit throughout the entire breadth of the range. If you know that, you aint gonna miss.

Everything else is about getting that shot opportunity. If you don't have a shot opp, you go home empty handed. You get a shot opp, you shot something.

I can relate to the change-up comment couple posts above here. Tried to work up some loads over the summer and next thing i knew, it was hunt time and I didn't know everything I needed to know about where the gun would hit. Used backup rifle to take my deer that hunt. I knew where it hit and was more confident.

I missed a big buck once in high school because I changed up my load right before hunting season. I thought goes ballistic tips would be some kind of magic, that a better kind of magic would have been taking the time to learn were it shot at range

 

[Oregon Hunter]

Cold bore shots are more important than follow up shots.

How much difference do you find in your point of impact on cold bore shots?

 

[Oregon Hunter]

Here’s an old trick for target acquisition. Practice it before you go out in the field. Shoulder your rifle and get it positioned so you have a scope sight picture, but don’t worry about whats in the scope sight picture. With both eyes open, Acquire the target in your “off” eye, that is the one you are not using to look through the scope. In my case that is my left eye so I hold the rifle pointed a little right of the target. Now swing the scope smoothly towards the target. The “off” eye will dominate what the brain sees, but as soon as the target pops into the scope picture the focus will shift to the “scope” eye like magic and the enlarged image will pop up. Voila ... target acquired.

That's a fantastic tip that I've never heard of! A friend of mine has a wife who often has trouble finding the animal in the scope, so I will tell her about this

 

[Oregon Hunter]

Much has been said about LOP but I will add my thoughts. I restocked my Model 70 with a Pacific Research stock and a 14 1/2 inch LOP. At 6' 5" this fit me perfect. What I did not take into account was that most of the time out hunting I had my jacket on and my day pack. Since I always carry my rifle in my right hand when hunting the LOP was now too long for quick shots. This is my go to gun and I've learned to adapt. The last bull I shot was a snap shot at the back of his head at 75 yards as he took off from his bed. I think I would have happy to just got the standard LOP at 13 1/2" in hindsight.

I also believe in the lower powered variable scopes. I have a 2.5 X 8 on my Model 70 and a 3 X 9 on my 270. One of the best scopes I ever looked through was a 3 X 9 X 50 Leupold. The field of view was awesome and it was very bright even in low light.

One thing I've learned about my rifle is when to put on the scope caps. I had been still hunting in a white out blizzard in the quakies all morning. I had come to the far edge and now I needed to cross 200 yards of wide open sage to reach the black timber beyond. I pulled down my hat and pulled up my collar. With my rifle in the crook of my right arm I stepped out into the raging wind and snow. The wind was blowing at my back as I hurried across the flat. Just as I reached the timber I caught a buck jumping out of his bed to my right. He had 6 or 8 points on each side and was 32-34 inches and only 50 feet away, broadside ! I put both my thumbs in the ends of my scope and tried to thaw is out. Nothing. If I could have just got any part of an image I would have shot. He was that close. The worse part was that my scope caps were in my day pack. Lesson learned.

Thanks for sharing your stories! My hope here is to show people these simple lessons so they don't have to make the mistakes we did hahaha. I wish you could have got that buck just so you could have shared the picture with us!

 

[Oregon Hunter]

Best post of this thread! My daughter had only practiced prone and off a bench - and here we were with deer starting to mill around and get ready to run and she couldn't figure out eye relief standing up using a heavy fence post for a rest. Very frustrating.

People should spend money on what they want to, but one rifle for 99% of all situations that you practice, practice and practice with has a lot to say for it.

I totally agree, sometimes less is more

 

[Oregon Hunter]

I have hunted many years with my Browning BOSS and never had an issue with the Break, keeping the barrel down and checking for twigs is as automatic as bolting that first round soon as you hit the dirt. as for the scope I have a 55 mm with an 8" glare not tube for the early mornings and a red dot for the evening ( big Scope) there again not an issue I keep the tube on until evening. So if your good with the old ruff 10x power scope and a single shot bolt action Great.
You like to tech up with good to great optics, magnaport muzzle breaks, BOSS systems that's great also.

The general theme I'm picking up from all these stories is just to be familiar with what you have and not change things up constantly

 

[Oregon Hunter]

I no longer hunt brushy areas with a brake installed, had a tree limb go through it and stick, could’ve been a bad deal if I fired it that way. Closed end, electrical tape over the end.


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If someone really wanted to have with their braks on, I wonder if you could put electrical tape over it too?

 

[Oregon Hunter]

I'll explore that possibility. I'd probably have $500 in a stock, maybe $150 in bottom metal. That's probably less than the beating I'd take selling the rifle.

Yeah you would definitely have to weigh out the cost because those carbon stocks are expensive. They are pretty cool though, and can weigh up to a pound less than a wood or polymer stock. That's cheaper than buying another rifle and scope combo

 

[Newtosavage]

What have I learned about my rifles? Keep it simple. I tried dialing and it wasn't for me. Holding over is so much more natural and intuitive for me, probably because I grew up bowhunting and shooting traditional bows. I'm used to adjusting elevation for each distance.

 

[Oregon Hunter]

In regards to rifles, it was learning to stop cleaning them every time I shot them.

I have too. After hearing from many respected gun writers and people in the military, we probably don't need to be cleaning the bores as often as we do, unless they show signs of a problem. Or if we are bored lol

 

[Oregon Hunter]

What have I learned about my rifles? Keep it simple. I tried dialing and it wasn't for me. Holding over is so much more natural and intuitive for me, probably because I grew up bowhunting and shooting traditional bows. I'm used to adjusting elevation for each distance.

Keep it simple continues to be a theme. There might be something to learn here...

 

[Marble]

Do you find that hunting from horses is easier with certain types of guns, or is it pretty much all the same?

We don't actually hunt from the horse, or shoot off of it. The guns go in scabbards that attach to the saddle.

The one thing I can say is a lesson learned for guns and horses is:

1. Position your gun muzzle forward in case the butt stock catches a tree it won't break.

2. Put a fairly heavy scope cover over your scope to prevent scope covers (one on each end) from pulling off or getting damaged when putting the gun into or pulling it out of the scabbard.

3. Use a stainless gun or keep your gun oiled in a gun sock. A sweaty hot horse can make your gun rust up pretty easy.

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[Oregon Hunter]

We don't actually hunt from the horse, or shoot off of it. The guns go in scabbards that attach to the saddle.

The one thing I can say is a lesson learned for guns and horses is:

1. Position your gun muzzle forward in case the butt stock catches a tree it won't break.

2. Put a fairly heavy scope cover over your scope to prevent scope covers (one on each end) from pulling off or getting damaged when putting the gun into or pulling it out of the scabbard.

3. Use a stainless gun or keep your gun oiled in a gun sock. A sweaty hot horse can make your gun rust up pretty easy.

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this is super valuable information that could keep us newbies from learning a lesson the hard way

 

[Marble]

this is super valuable information that could keep us newbies from learning a lesson the hard way

Some scabbards are really hard on the outside, some are softer. I prefer the softer ones for comfort. My dad likes the harder one because it seems to offer more protection.



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