Hunting With Grandpa's Pump Action 30-06 (b4 it gets banned)

[MG5150]

G'day Gents - I made a special themed video over the weekend hunting with Grandpa's pump action 30-06 ahead of potential bans/reclassifications. I thought I'd go looking for sambar, and ended up getting a fallow deer on the farm fringe.

---Synopsis---

With potential changes to Victoria’s firearms laws on the horizon, pump-action rifles could soon be reclassified or banned.

That’s what prompted me to take my grandfather’s pump-action Remington 7600 in 30-06 out for one more hunt.

He promised it would one day be passed down to me — but in the wake of the Bondi incident, it may be forced to become permanently inoperable or handed in to be crushed before that day comes...

So I took it back into the Victorian High Country — along the same ridges and game trails it hasn’t seen in nearly 20 years — for one last opportunity to hunt in familiar territory.

https://youtu.be/sSXbxRrhMj8

PS. If anyone knows the specific model/edition of this Remington 7600 and can tell me more about it I'd love to know.

It's got a bear etching on one side and deer on the other

[Wapiti]

Looks like a BDL mate, you CANNOT let it get crushed.
Make sure, if that hideous creature running your state gets back in due to the low-IQ of Vic voters, that you sell it interstate.

[Flavius Maximus]

Beautiful rifle. You'd have to be out of your mind to want to destroy such a thing of beauty. Maybe leave that state for somewhere more sane (not much left nowadays), & bring that rifle with you. Pass it on to your own kids & keep the story going. Make new memories. But, if you can't, maybe in November i'll have an un-sporterised, 1941 SMLE for ya. Well, if i have issues finding a buyer, that is. I plan to have it cleaned up & shooting straight regardless, & it too has a lot of history - that's why i wanted one. It helped defend our country against the Japanese, but i have my doubts our boys would've fought so hard if they knew what this land would become. I'd keep it myself, but i'm planning to move to a saner country before gavin gecko calls another election. You're lucky to have had such an upbringing. Keep the memory alive, but always look to where you want to be

[MG5150]

Looks like a BDL mate, you CANNOT let it get crushed.
Make sure, if that hideous creature running your state gets back in due to the low-IQ of Vic voters, that you sell it interstate.

What's a BDL?

This thing won't get handed in. We've got family in QLD luckily enough.

[Wapiti]

A BDL in the Remington range of rifles was a higher grade, they were in all types of firearms in the Rem range.
Kinda like a "deluxe" version of a firearm in the line.
Then there was certain runs of special issue rifles, commemoratives about some US event or milestone in the company.
There were ADL's and BDL's.
ADL's were the economy versions, or the cheaper ones in a particular range. Less fancy wood, or a synthetic stock, bead blasted finish instead of highly polished and deep blue as in a BDL.
Some BDL's got engraving about a particular scene of game animals that the firearm in question was sort of hinting at being used for, fancier figured walnut and usually a very hard, shiny finish on the wood.

I have a Remington 700 BDL 308 from about 1980, the wood is beautifully figured and glass-like gloss finish, the blued steel is polished like a mirror, the bolt is jewelled to hold lubricant, nice red rubber recoil pad. Stock has a Rosewood forend tip, and the pistol grip has a rosewood tip. The checkering is beautiful and cut, and not pressed in.
I got it from a young bloke who bought it as a proud hunting rifle to cherish, but his new wife would not accept guns in the house so apparently, she was more important than his wishes were.
By contrast, the ADL's back then had cheaper plain wood stocks or synthetic, bead blasted blue or stainless, just less time spent on the finish and materials, but exactly the same barrelled actions as the core.

That 7600 in 30-06 is a classic, it certainly is a higher grade or a special run model, and the ones with those walnut stocks and polish/game scenes on them are very rare in Australia.

[MG5150]

A BDL in the Remington range of rifles was a higher grade, they were in all types of firearms in the Rem range.
Kinda like a "deluxe" version of a firearm in the line...

Thanks for the extra info, I was looking to learn more about it and couldn't find much online.

One of the blokes in my grandfather's hound crew went to the USA and bought it for him. It was a special edition and cost a few thousand back then (late 80's early 90's) but as my Grandpa didn't buy it personally he didn't know all the info himself.

I put together a short 30-second video with a few close-ups of the etching if you would like to see it in more detail.

https://youtu.be/lOVr4Lm0to8

[Wapiti]

Yep, that's a beauty and in awesome nick.
Appreciate the vid.
Not only is it your Grand-dads and so it means so much, it proves what a cool bloke he is... and he and his mates got class alright, but it's perfect for Vic deer hunting. Great cartridge too.
Just check out the slim, curved lines, what makes a fast pointing, true hunting rifle with the opportunity for lightning fast second shots. Without taking your hands off the forend or grip like those ergo-hideous straight pulls from Europe that cost 4-5x as much.
Your Grand-dads eye stays looking through the scope and his hands stay on the gun through the whole magazine.

For those who think thumb releases and levers are fast (levers pull the gun off target and button releases force a hand postion change, at best a wierd hold...) check out Paul Harrell running a pump action shotgun down a line of small plates... sure it's a shotgun, but the 7600 runs the same as a 12g 870 or Mossberg 500.
Practice and familiarity... and class.

[MG5150]

Yep, that's a beauty and in awesome nick.
Appreciate the vid.
Not only is it your Grand-dads and so it means so much, it proves what a cool bloke he is... and he and his mates got class alright, but it's perfect for Vic deer hunting. Great cartridge too.
Just check out the slim, curved lines, what makes a fast pointing, true hunting rifle with the opportunity for lightning fast second shots. Without taking your hands off the forend or grip like those ergo-hideous straight pulls from Europe that cost 4-5x as much.
Your Grand-dads eye stays looking through the scope and his hands stay on the gun through the whole magazine.

For those who think thumb releases and levers are fast (levers pull the gun off target and button releases force a hand postion change, at best a wierd hold...) check out Paul Harrell running a pump action shotgun down a line of small plates... sure it's a shotgun, but the 7600 runs the same as a 12g 870 or Mossberg 500.
Practice and familiarity... and class.

I was amazed out how I fired, watched the deer turn around through the scope, pumped the next round in, aquired the 2nd deer and fired and pumped again in the space of only a few seconds. The 1-6x scope is pretty nifty too

[Wapiti]

Check out this old clunker of mine, it's a 308 with the 22" barrel. I can get 2850fps with 150gn bullets and 2208 powder, a perfect speed with strong projectiles for smashing pigs. And this thing has done that for 30 years, god knows how many rounds it's fired.
For someone who had a property and cannot get access to a semi-auto under PP, this thing does everything.
Only thing it can't do is really work off a bipod, because the sling stud is on the forend and the whole thing moves back. But that's never been an issue, because field work is always (usually) opportunistic and immediate, and these things are just that.
Compare how nice your Grand-pa's rifle looks like to this standard model.

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It has a Lucky-13 extended mag release, you can drop the mag with your trigger finger. It's also fitted with one of my modified MDT AICS-style 5 shot mags, I also knock up 10 shotters in the shorter new double-stack MDT mags for mates and myself too.

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When I got it in '96, I couldn't find any other scope bases but this Leupold quick-release QR mount, and it works excellently. The old VX-II 3-9x40 went on about 2000 or so, after the Tasco World-Class 2-10x scope's crosshairs decided that they too would disappear inside somewhere, like a few did on my M14.
Never an issue with a Leupold scope, and 3-9x is perfect for out here. 3x for the creek gullies and 9x to take advantage of all the open country where the bolt-gun accuracy of this thing shines.

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And my other one, a 16" barrel Patrol. The 1-8x Vixen scope looks positively clubby on it, but it's a true 1x with the dot reticle turned on for both eyes open, and on 8x I can stretch the 200yd shots.

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Don't let that awesome rifle go MG.

[Wapiti]

Far out, I just looked at "Used Guns" after a tip-off from DJ, something I usually have no desire to do, and FMD there's some BUBBA-built 7600/7615 Frankenstein guns on there. Most have had the open sights taken off, useless red-dots, Ebay scopes, pistol grips, lipstick and gimp-mask holders, asking TWICE what they are worth.
Especially so in Labor states where they are about to become Cat C.