remnt wrote:Hi guys,
A bit of a spin on the "what's the best hunting rifle" question that comes up now and then. That's obviously a "how long is a piece" type question, and different for different people anyway.
I'm curious what a bit of an average is though. Lets forget about buffalo as most of us will never go near them, but lets say best hunting rifle, in terms of general attributes, for general hunting fox through to deer, which is what most of us do.
Do you prefer ultra-light for carrying or a bit more weight for the solid feel and recoil reduction?
Shorter barrel for pointing or longer for a bit more puff?
Timber stock for look and feel or synthetic for toughness/maintenance.
That kind of stuff, what's the mix you look for.
bladeracer wrote:remnt wrote:Hi guys,
A bit of a spin on the "what's the best hunting rifle" question that comes up now and then. That's obviously a "how long is a piece" type question, and different for different people anyway.
I'm curious what a bit of an average is though. Lets forget about buffalo as most of us will never go near them, but lets say best hunting rifle, in terms of general attributes, for general hunting fox through to deer, which is what most of us do.
Do you prefer ultra-light for carrying or a bit more weight for the solid feel and recoil reduction?
Shorter barrel for pointing or longer for a bit more puff?
Timber stock for look and feel or synthetic for toughness/maintenance.
That kind of stuff, what's the mix you look for.
Due to our poorly-thought-out minimum caliber deer laws, that's going to heavily restrict choices to .270 and bigger. If you only use factory ammo then you're further restricted to full-power loads.
My perfect field rifle would run along the lines of an 800mm bullpup, short action, short-throw bolt, no wood, fully-floated shrouded forend, matt finish, good trigger, max 5kg field weight, medium-weight barrel 22-24", tight twist, threaded, removable non-rotary double-stack-single-feed 10rd magazine, backup iron sights, single-point sling swivel, and a variable mil-dot scope.
7mm-08 - but bullet choice and shot placement on bigger beasts is critical.
If I was primarily shooting Sambar I'd go with one of the short-action magnum-class .308's like the SAUM, RCM or WSM/WSSM and load it way down for smaller game.
bigfellascott wrote:That sounds very Tacticool mate not sure I'd want to be humping 5kg around the hills looking for big brown Cows though.
Chronos wrote:JESUS 5kg? you can have that
When i went looking for a dedicated hunting gun for use on foot in the bush i went for a .308 that weighed 3.2kg scoped. Then when i had the chance i changes the stock for something that brought the total scoped weight down to 2.7kg. perfect to carry all day, quite comfy to shoot off hand, off a tree or off a bipod and kills everything you point it at
Chronos
tom604 wrote:i know its not a caliber question but a 243, will kill everything (not buff) see a rabbit,"bang" no rabbit, see fox, ditto. sambar,,big pill,shot placement quite doable, not legal but doable,
other deer no problem,goats/roos/dingos/wombats /koalas easy as . light weight,no real recoil,long barrel, syn stock, range of pills, factory or handload, flat shooting need i go on,, its called the pope for a reason
bladeracer wrote:Chronos wrote:JESUS 5kg? you can have that
When i went looking for a dedicated hunting gun for use on foot in the bush i went for a .308 that weighed 3.2kg scoped. Then when i had the chance i changes the stock for something that brought the total scoped weight down to 2.7kg. perfect to carry all day, quite comfy to shoot off hand, off a tree or off a bipod and kills everything you point it at
Chronos
That's crazy lightweight!
What rifle and scope are we talking about?
I was shooting this arvo in some mad gusting crosswinds (28-45kph) that actually blew my 5kg M38 Mauser off my bench!
Chronos wrote:bladeracer wrote:Chronos wrote:JESUS 5kg? you can have that
When i went looking for a dedicated hunting gun for use on foot in the bush i went for a .308 that weighed 3.2kg scoped. Then when i had the chance i changes the stock for something that brought the total scoped weight down to 2.7kg. perfect to carry all day, quite comfy to shoot off hand, off a tree or off a bipod and kills everything you point it at
Chronos
That's crazy lightweight!
What rifle and scope are we talking about?
I was shooting this arvo in some mad gusting crosswinds (28-45kph) that actually blew my 5kg M38 Mauser off my bench!
It's a Tikka hunter fluted stainless with a VX3 2.5-8X36 in DNZ game reaper mounts, there was a thread on it here somewhere when i got it and it was 7lbs (3.18kg) but it spends some time out of it's walnut stock these days in a carbon fibre stock and sits pretty much on exactly 6lbs (roughly 2.7kg)
the gun shoots 3 rounds of the federal 130gr HP's into about 1" at 200y off the bench and shoots 165gr game kings around 1 moa with no load development so I'm very happy with it
Chronos
Chronos wrote:It's a Tikka hunter fluted stainless with a VX3 2.5-8X36 in DNZ game reaper mounts, there was a thread on it here somewhere when i got it and it was 7lbs (3.18kg) but it spends some time out of it's walnut stock these days in a carbon fibre stock and sits pretty much on exactly 6lbs (roughly 2.7kg)
the gun shoots 3 rounds of the federal 130gr HP's into about 1" at 200y off the bench and shoots 165gr game kings around 1 moa with no load development so I'm very happy with it
Chronos
bladeracer wrote:Due to our poorly-thought-out minimum caliber deer laws, that's going to heavily restrict choices to .270 and bigger.