Worst cartridge/rifle you've owned ?

[MR. WINCHESTER]

Chronos ....

I have owned .410, 20 g, and 12

( still have 12s and a 20 in my safe )

Am still keen to learn ....

[MR. WINCHESTER]

I suspect 20s and 28s are most suitable to blokes / gals shooting gauge specific clay target events.

If an argument persists for using a sub gauge gun in the field .... I suspect such 'perspective', revolves about ... poor / inexperienced 'engagement' with the target.

[happyhunter]

Lots of baggin' out of the 22 magnum. Wonder how many of the haters have owned one?

[MR. WINCHESTER]

Lots of baggin' out of the 22 magnum. Wonder how many of the haters have owned one?

I started my 'shooting life' with a 22 LR, shooting thousands of rounds and maybe nearly as many bunnies / foxes.
I then 'progressed' to a Hornet and then ( very quickly ) to a rimfire Magnum.
Have, during the interim ... Used quite a few centerfires and shotgun gauges to 'acqiuire my quarry'.
I reckon ... the .22 Magnum is way in front, re: price and performance.

[happyhunter]

Have to agree. I hunted with the 22 magnum for many years and it has quite a power advantage over the 22LR. It's real meat destroyer on bunnies and great on foxes.

[bladeracer]

Lots of baggin' out of the 22 magnum. Wonder how many of the haters have owned one?

I owned a .22WMR and liked it, but the cost of shooting it makes it more sensible to own a centrefire .22 and simply load it down to WMR velocities in my opinion. Back in the eighties I was buying bulk packs of 500 Winchester .22WMR 40gn JHP bullets really cheap and feeding them through my .222 at WMR and subsonic speeds for very cheap shooting, and better accuracy than my WMR rifle.

[MR. WINCHESTER]

Fark ....talk about 'cheap arse' !

[bladeracer]

Fark ....talk about 'cheap arse' !

Cost wasn't the reason I was shooting them
I was buying the bulk WMR bullets anyway and using them in my .222 with excellent accuracy, not tack-driving accuracy but better than my WMR was getting with the same bullet. It didn't make sense to me to keep buying WMR ammo that cost _a lot_ more money than my reloads.
With bulk ZMAX bullets (500 for $110 currently) I'm shooting my .204 Ruger heaps cheaper than I can buy WMR ammo and more accurately.
The 32gn bullet on 4.5gn of Trailboss makes 1600fps, 8.5gn makes 2400fps, and both stay under 1MoA - for about 35 cents a round. I bought 100 rounds of Eley Match .22LR this week for 50 cents apiece

I shot nineteen different types of ammo through my BSA Sportsman Five this week and the best were Remington Cyclone and Eley Match shooting almost identical groups. The Cyclones though are only $8 a box.

[northdude]

mine was a h&r handi in 243 it shot pretty well it just wouldnt extract fired cases had to carry a cleaning rod around to get them out pos saying that tho i have another h&r in 22 hornet thats a little tack driver and reliable as

[bigtone]

12G for anything other than clay targets!
Actually the Bentley pump took that 1 step further. Lost the end of my little finger getting a bit overzealous with the pump!

[bigfellascott]

12G for anything other than clay targets!
Actually the Bentley pump took that 1 step further. Lost the end of my little finger getting a bit overzealous with the pump!

No way. 12ga is the Swiss army knife of the gun world, it can do anything.

Can't do descent ranges - I had a fox sitting about 120m or so away and no way of closing the distance without it seeing me, normally I would take a rifle too but this time I didn't and that little vixen just wouldn't budge, no matter what call or whistle I used she just sat there tormenting me!

Furthest I've knocked a fox was around 70m and probably lucky I pulled it up to be honest considering the shot size (BB's), managed to put a couple in it's head and that was enough to drop it after a few steps.

[bigfellascott]

Ok so not a long range option, but it will do anything thats within range from quail for the table right through to pigs n buffalo, IMHO its the most versatile round ever made and the furthest from the worst cartridge ever that you can get.

God yeah it's quite versatile if you use the right loads alright.

[bladeracer]

Ok so not a long range option, but it will do anything thats within range from quail for the table right through to pigs n buffalo, IMHO its the most versatile round ever made and the furthest from the worst cartridge ever that you can get.

I'm not a shotgun fan. They're terrific at wounding or crippling your target so you can then finish it off with a stick though.
Slugs do a great job, but not as good as a decent rifle in my experience.

[bigtone]

Ok so not a long range option, but it will do anything thats within range from quail for the table right through to pigs n buffalo, IMHO its the most versatile round ever made and the furthest from the worst cartridge ever that you can get.

I'm not a shotgun fan. They're terrific at wounding or crippling your target so you can then finish it off with a stick though.
Slugs do a great job, but not as good as a decent rifle in my experience.

I don't even rate 12G for slowing down targets. For the same amount of recoil, a 300 winmag has supreme stopping power for Texas heart shots!

[bladeracer]

I don't even rate 12G for slowing down targets. For the same amount of recoil, a 300 winmag has supreme stopping power for Texas heart shots!

I agree
My father-in-law loved his five-shot auto as two shots were never enough to stop the foxes.

[bigtone]

300 winmag is gay

Compared to the 416 Barrett yes but it's WAY LIGHTER!
I am just trying to work up the courage to tell my wife I would like to be a real man and buy a BMG!
I hope she says yes.

PS. Still laughing because only old dudes like me would be so politically incorrect as to call something gay!

[Garth]

Bentley single slide shot gun crap crap crap good for a sinker

[sakoBC]

I would suggest that the 12g gets a hard time due to poor shooting (which I have been guilty of) rather than any deficiencies in the cartridge. From my experience, if you hit a pig in the chest with buckshot at 10m-20m it’s not going far. Use Winchester Super Ranger no. 4s with the right choke and it’s hard to miss hares and rabbits at appropriate ranges.

How many of us regularly practice with a 12g at fast moving ground level targets? I would suggest very few (me included). So, you point your 12g in the general direction and miss/wound because you didn’t have any lead; shot too high; jerked the trigger and every other variation of operator error and suddenly the 12 gauge is a dud.

From my experience, the key to success with a 12g is the right ammo; right choke and plenty of practice. Few of us are prepared to put in the trigger time. Sure, it’s no good at long range stuff, but neither is a .22LR, but you won’t see many people dumping on the .22LR.

[bladeracer]

I would suggest that the 12g gets a hard time due to poor shooting (which I have been guilty of) rather than any deficiencies in the cartridge. From my experience, if you hit a pig in the chest with buckshot at 10m-20m it’s not going far. Use Winchester Super Ranger no. 4s with the right choke and it’s hard to miss hares and rabbits at appropriate ranges.

How many of us regularly practice with a 12g at fast moving ground level targets? I would suggest very few (me included). So, you point your 12g in the general direction and miss/wound because you didn’t have any lead; shot too high; jerked the trigger and every other variation of operator error and suddenly the 12 gauge is a dud.

From my experience, the key to success with a 12g is the right ammo; right choke and plenty of practice. Few of us are prepared to put in the trigger time. Sure, it’s no good at long range stuff, but neither is a .22LR, but you won’t see many people dumping on the .22LR.

Sure, but if you hit a pig in the chest with any number of rifles you'd get the same result or better.
Shotguns are too much of a compromise in my opinion. You either have a small number of pellets that carry enough energy to do lethal damage, but reduce the number of hits to none, or you have a lot of smaller pellets that make lots of hits but lack any energy to penetrate or do enough damage. And because you're slinging such a massive amount of lead you can only push them fairly slow to still be comfortable to shoot, further reducing the energy at the target.
I think if you put in the practise you'll probably still get better results with a rifle.
The shotgun though is useful for learning to lead moving targets, but generally it's far better to shoot at your targets when they stop, even with a shotgun (a shotgun patterns very differently against stationary and moving targets due to the cone of shot - a target moving across the shot will be hit by either the front pellets or the rear pellets, but not all of them).
For survival where all that matters is that you end up with a feed they work great, especially under adverse conditions, but not for humane hunting.

[sakoBC]

Yep, we're definitely on the same page Bladeracer. I'm just suggesting that some people may take up a shottie without practicing and expect it to a magic killing machine and end up putting it back in the safe profoundly disappointed, and not all of the blame sits with the 12g

[Wobble]

300 winmag is gay

Ha ha.

I can see the winmag fanboys steaming now

[Gamerancher]

Gee, I dunno, from what I've seen when my boys are playing computer games, the shotgun is the most lethal thing you can get your hands on!!!

[Blackjack]

My brother's Brno fox model 2 in 22 hornet. I don't own it, but it's a family rifle. Hard to cycle a round, seems to shoot in circles.

[BadCompany]

Evanix Windy City in .22

The valve would get the tiniest amount of dirt in it and wouldn't seal, so spend 5 min sweating to pump the Bastard up and then hear SSSSSSSSSSS and all the effort come rushing out as I pop the pump off the valve. When it did hold air it was excellent. such a shame.