Bolt Action Rifles

For anyone out there new to the world of high power rifle shooting, here is some information. To reach out and take down deer-sized game, one uses a center-fire rifle. I'm not going to get into any discussion concerning which brand of rifle is best. I will say that one does not have to go big-time expensive to get a very accurate rifle (Savage rifles are very accurate and budget priced -- there's one example).

There are several quality scope manufacturers and there is a wide selection. You do not have to spend hundreds of dollars to get a high quality scope. You do not have to get high magnification either. Will a 4x -- "four power" -- scope get most jobs done? Sure. You yourself must be a great shot to justify buying an expensive powerful scope. If you are uncomfortable about mounting your scope to your rifle, have the staff at the gun store mount the scope for you.

What rifle caliber? There's no "Best" caliber. The .308 Winchester is a great caliber and there is a very wide selection of ammunition for it, to include surplus military ammo. But this is just one example. There's the 6.5 Creedmoor that is very popular now; great rifle, shoots flat.

For powerful very flat shooting / long range rifles, there are several excellent chamberings such as the 7mm Magnum, .300 Winchester magnum, .338 Winchester magnum, ... (their ammo is expensive and the recoil of the .300 Win and .338 Win is heavy). The .338 Lupua is a great one, but it's recoil is ferocious/brutal (ammo is expensive). Such calibers are most often used against heavy game such as Elk. They represent massive overkill for deer.

Once you become an accomplished shooter, you may wish to reload your own ammo. That is one enormous topic and not something to get into here.

In this post I'm going to provide some links about sighting-in.





Topic: Scope "Eye Relief"

In these videos, the folk instructing are using variable power scopes. Don't worry about that. What you are doing is moving the scope forward and backward so that you can get the best sight picture and have the scope's retical in clear focus. If the scope is placed too far forward in it rings, then you will find yourself stretching your neck forward to get focused -- wrong. Too far back and there will be the focus issue AND when the rifle recoils, the rear of the scope can hit you in your eye -- painful!





Your rifle sling is for easier carry of the weapon. However and more importantly, your rifle sling is for greatly increasing your accuracy. You will see several different methods of using your rifle sling. The following two videos show what I consider the best sling positioning for most people, for most situations. I used to shoot in competition -- that's another world; often the sling is attached to your arm. Combat shooting often requires yet another set of sling positions, but that's specific to combat rifles and often relates to clearing buildings of the enemy -- again, not what we're talking about here.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm7CkfeWT1U

The second video above, I recommend. Watch it by clicking on the link.

I'm making a second post immediately below this.
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Continued from above ...

For what distance should one sight-in their rifle? Well that depends on the range at which you will be taking game.

However, for most shooting conditions, I recommend sighting-in at 200 yards / meters. Why? Because this allows you to engage targets out to 400 yards without having to do a lot of mental calculations. To shoot at longer distances, you have to be an accomplished shot and you must do serious calculations/corrections for wind conditions. Out there, the wind is your enemy -- how fast is the wind, from which direction, how heavy is my bullet, what is the ballistic coefficient of my bullet, ... .

For the .308 Winchester (7.62 NATO / 7.62 x 51mm), if you sight-in for 200 yards, you will be 1.5 / 2 inches high at 100 yards. If shooting at 100 yards, sight your rifle just under or right at 2 inches high (4.5 cm) on your target. If your target is 200 yards away (183 meters), sight for dead-center / x-ring of that target.

With this setting, the .308 will hit approximately 7 inches (most likely) to 9 inches (18 / 22 cm) low at 300 yards (275 meters). And, at 400 yards (365 meters), it will hit approximately 2 feet low (0.6 meter). I recommend one get a range finder and practice estimating distances. You can get quite good at judging out to 400 yards. Too, memorizing the drop distances given above is simply no mental challenge. For one or two hundred yards, you can pretty much aim straight at your target; for 300 yards / paces figure drop greater that a half foot and less than a foot. At four hundred yards/paces, your bullet will hit two feet low. Boat tail bullets weighing 168 or 170 grains are not thrown off by gentle winds out to 200 yards.

I've used the .308 Winchester as an example; however several calibers in this diameter and power range have VERY similar ballistics. These include the 30-06, .303 Brit, 7.62 x 54R Russian, 7 mm Mauser (with spire point bullet), 8 mm Mauser (with spire-point bullet). The .243 Winchester and 6.5 Creedmore will hit 20 inches low at 400 yards (these shoot a tad flatter), but will not have the energy levels of the larger caliber chamberings/bullets -- still, they will be able to drop a white tail deer, no problem.









Ballistics tables; these provide bullet velocity, bullet energy, and bullet drops (200 sight-in) for numerous center fire rifle cartridges:

https://www.formsbirds.com/free-standard-ballistics-chart-2

https://www.formsbirds.com/free-standard-ballistics-chart-3

 

I love the .303 Brit. Worked back then. Workhorse even today.

This fellow is trying to shoot into the next county while the wind is totally killing any accuracy he could achieve. Still, his shooting with his ancient Enfield is spectacular! No one could have compensated for the windage factor out there that day -- beyond blustery. Nevertheless, in volley fire, he and his cohort could have given the enemy hell out there.

".303 at 3000 yards, using the volley sights"



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Enfield No.4 MkI Sniper (faux-T) to 600yds: Practical Accuracy (2.5x Vintage Weaver scope)



700 yards with open sights




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Mosin-Nagant to 500yds: Practical Accuracy (Mosin-Nagant M91/30)



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Notice that the fellow shooting the Nagant has to start using a claw-hammer to open the bolt. Many of these Nagants were packed away in the Russian version of cosmoline. Over the decades this turns into lacquer = sticky bolt. With most of the Nagants I've owned, I just go ahead and polish the chambers even before taking them to the range. I know that they'll stick. I've used a 20 ga shotgun brush with Rig coating and I've used a 20 ga brass brush attached to an electric drill. Be careful with the latter method; a little goes a long way. You can destroy the chamber if you get too aggressive with this. But, I've always gotten the chambers slick and very functional. I also sporterize the stocks and free-float the barrels. A light Nagant carbine (M44) with hot ammo will jar your teeth. Some 7.62x54 ammo was intended for machine-guns, especially Chinese ammo.
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I may have lucked-up today. Got a Mosin-Nagant for $150.00 U.S..

Stock's been sporterized ... not very well. However the bore is very good to excellent. Somebody has replaced the military front site with a hunting bead site. The range will be the proof. I think I'll polish the chamber just in case that cartridge cases are sticking. Sometimes people forget to do that and imagine something is wrong with the rifle. Cosmoline if left in a surplus rifle will dry-out and turn to lacquer, which is a pain to remove. You take a 20 ga bristle-brush attach this to a short rod, then use an electric drill to get that horrid lacquer out of the chamber. Mark the short rod such that you will not go too far into chamber and damage the rifling. One can finish this process by using J-B, R.I.G., or some other polishing compound on a 20 ga. mop. This DOES NOT require a lot of time / effort, else the chamber can be damaged. When a new patch or mop is clean, then stop. This is easily overdone, so be very careful. I watched one online video and man-oh-man did this guy royally overdo the polishing! He kept going at is like he was going to grind a new chamber! He could have changed the dimensions of the chamber or worse = Danger.

 

I'd kept a spare Nagant bolt. With this new Nagant, I found a defect in the rear threads of the firing pin. Using the best parts of the reserve bolt -- but keeping the original bolt face -- I now have a much nicer bolt.

I put in some serious cleaning on the barrel. This revealed great rifling.

I got this puppy on the cheap ($150 + tax). Somebody didn't know what they had. What a shame it is that pricing has put many decent military rifles out of the reach of many to purchase. Quite frankly, I won't pay what they are asking. I used to get old military bolt action rifles for $100 to $200 and fix them up. Now they are asking over $600. That is insane.

By the by, while shopping at this gun store / outdoors shop, there must have been over a half-dozen folk purchasing guns. The shop is out in the county, "wide place in the road" "town". An interstate hwy runs through the county, however. The folk purchasing seemed to be locals, not outsiders. Interstate highways can bring-in the wrong kind of people, not just strangers, but people who ARE strange ... for any location, strange. They have to have zero convictions, else they won't be buying a firearm. The gun store employees are armed, strapping revolvers, autos, whatever they like best. Try to steal a weapon = get shot.

That place sells ENORMOUS gun safes in addition to regular-sized ones. Freaking huge! One could install a toilet and a sink and turn one into a bathroom. Maybe these are for a sheriff's office armory (?). The best gun safes are also fire safes. This way, not only can you store your firearms, but also important paperwork and any family heirlooms you may have.

 

DAAYMMM Somebody is READY for a freaking WAR!!!!

 

I've only known a few guys who owned what I would describe as an "arsenal". University math professor of mine had fully automatic weaponry in his basement according to one friend of mine.

Some collectors have a bunch of historic stuff. I have over 15 rifles, but their designs are WWI and before. I have some revolvers made in 1916 and before. However, I have no "black rifles" / "assault rifles". I'd like to have a Springfield Arms "Tanker" M1A (it's a short M1A) -- this because I was issued an M14 when in high school. I want something that has "elegance" (?) , uhhhhhh, don't have a word; "character" maybe's the word. And the thing has to be accurate. Even my collector revolvers are scary accurate. In older firearms, time was taken in fit and finish. The wood is often perfectly fitted to the metal. This time and attention is not often seen today. When you see it, the firearm costs over $1,500.This gun store I often shop has fine firearms starting at $3,000 all the way up to $10,000. Collector quality lever-actions from the latter 1800's are fetching $2,500 and up.

In the safe photo above, all of the AR-platform rifles made me think "sheriff's department arsenal". Maybe Billy-Bob has a bunch of cousins to arm. Too, one has to think about the kids.


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One of my favorite guns is a quite simple light 22 rifle. It is an AR-7. It weighs almost nothing (2.5 lb) in a pack and is able to be disassembled and put into the plastic stock. I throw it into my boat any time I go out. For such a simple package it is surprisingly accurate. If things were to get ugly I can drop out the small clip and stick a 25 or 30-round clip in it.

 

It is great for putting a squirrel or rabbit in the pot on a backpacking trip. It isn't as good as my Ruger 10-22 but it is a lot lighter and better for packing. With good ammo and the factory magazines, I've never had a failure to fire, extract and eject. I had to do a little fitting and work to get a large-capacity after-market magazine to be that dependable.

 

What kind of velocity is allowed there for an air rifle? My 177 rifle hits about 1000 feet per second which is around 305 meters per second. I often wish that I had bought a 22 instead of the 177 but it is fun nonetheless and a good small-game killer because it offers a very accurate delivery.

 

Different rifles for different environments

Most survival situations can be covered with an accurate .22, firing target ammo, plus a shotgun with changeable barrels, chokes, and a range of ammo types.

For defense against interlopers, a lever action firing .357 or .44 mag, plus a defense shotgun loaded with buckshot are good options. Removing threats at range = dear rifle w/scope. Military bolts can remove threats when they are on the other side of walls, floors, or roofs.

One of the very true old sayings is: "A hit with a .22 is better than a miss with a .44."

Extended magazines could come in very handy post-SHTF should there be raw chaos w/bands of attackers (of whatever ilk).

Again, we need to say that one should keep reserve arms and ammo locked up in safes. Don't let your weaponry fall into the hands of the knuckle-draggers. I was watching a video of a gang hit just this past week and one of the evolutionary throw-backs had an extended magazine in its handgun. Gotta know that this was stolen. Again, keep things like that and other post-SHTF weaponry locked-up. Somebody breaks into my house right now, they catch rounds out my chopped 9 which is in my pocket right now; if they do not retreat, then I'll have gotten to my pump shotgun loaded with buckshot. Our dog's hearing is very keen, plus we have electronic security turned on while we are at home.
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I've got a .177 break-open pellet rifle that sends pellets out at 900 to 1000 ft/sec
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GAMO Magnum .22 10x Gen 2 world's most powerful .22 pellet rifle.



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The .25 cal Gamo air rifle only delivers circa 690 ft / second; however this larger heavier pellet insures kills on small game.


".25 cal Gamo Magnum!?!? - HOW POWERFUL IS IT? & REVIEW "









Here's a guy killing piglets with a .22 air rifle. I was reading about people using .25 cal pellet rifles on coyotes. One guy put the .25 pellet through a coyote's eye and the pellet stopped at about a half-inch into the thing's brain. I'm thinking that even the .25 high velocity pellets are only marginal for killing dog-sized critters. With that said, we know that .22 LR rimfire rifles shooting subsonic rounds will kill dogs and humans with head shots. Silenced .22 lr ammo is very quiet.


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Agree with Texdanm's assessment of the AR 7 rifle and mine is from back then they were made by Charter Arms.

I had the Charter Arms pistol at one time with two different length barrels but traded it off ...for what I can no longer remember.

They sure are light today.

I am thinking of getting a updated model by Henry Arms.


My non Ishmaelite .02,
Watchderchris

 

It is your human right to own firearms for self defense.

The government of the U.K. denies people their right to free speech and their right to defend themselves against felons and corrupt government. People of the U.K. can be jailed for "hate speech" by god government and it is the people's "betters" who decide that which can be spoken and that which is deemed "oppressive".

The officials of valid government only fear that they might violate the people's trust and get booted out of office by the very people who voted them into office. Invalid government, however, never wishes to experience an ounce of fear and thus puts its boot down on the necks of the people so that they can never rise up and take away god government's power. The latter situation has come to pass here in the former United States.

The deep state is composed of people who have been hired into offices that have become permanently entrenched. Government cancer grows and grows, finally turning into something that eerily similar to the Borg depicted in some science fiction TV shows and movies. We are now living in days that are beginning to mirror Orwell's book, "1984" and the former USSR. Here in the States, more and more anti-firearms-ownership laws are being proposed by the socialists. Socialists love high crime and mass-murders (as perpetrated by knuckle-draggers and mental cases). The mainstream media covers mass murders in great detail and gives the nutcases days of having their faces and their sick beliefs published across the nation, even across the world. This 100% guarantees that there will be more copy-cat mass-murderers. Witness to what great lengths the control-freak socialists go to protect felons and looters.

Civilized people can be awash in firearms and have precious little violent crime -- the most heavily armed people in America have the lowest crime rates. That is not only true now, but has been the case for way back in history. What with the breakup of the two-parent family and the acceptance of abnormal behaviors as "normal", society grows more mentally ill by the week.
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Woke government in Oregon has deemed it "oppressive" to shackle accused perpetrators in court; this includes those standing trial for armed robberies and murder.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/oregon-murder-suspect-escapes-courthouse-wild-security-video

"Courthouse surveillance video shows an Oregon murder suspect sprinting away from bailiffs after they unshackled him in court — a requirement under state law — then escaping the building and prompting a massive manhunt.

"Edi Villalobos Jr., a 28-year-old accused of murder and a slew of other felonies, was supposed to stand before the court for the start of his trial. Instead, he ran down the hallway and out an employees-only exit, video shows.

"'Per Oregon law, the deputies removed all restraints from Villalobos during the jury selection process,' the Washington County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. 'At around 11 a.m., the court took a break, and restraints were placed back on Villalobos. When the break ended, deputies again removed all restraints from Villalobos, as directed by Oregon Law.'

"After a roughly two-hour manhunt, police arrested him in a Hillsboro apartment, where a neighbor called 911 to report they heard someone trying to break in, according to the sheriff's office.

"While in custody awaiting his murder trial, Villalobos racked up charges for unlawful possession of a weapon by an inmate and distributing contraband, court records show."

 

When a government denies its people the right to have effective weapons to defend their homes and family it is PAST time to put in a new government. I just can NOT understand why they would value the criminal's safety over their worthwhile and decent people!!!

I decided a LONG time ago that the government will take my guns when they PRY my cold dead finger off the trigger. I was born a free man and will die a free man.

 

As the old saying goes, "When seconds count, the police will be there in minutes."

We're seeing more mass killings via the use of a vehicle to crash into crowds, including cyclists, pedestrians, parades, ... wherever people have gathered. In America, we've witnessed the progressive breakdown in civilized behavior since the mid-1960s. There's been the breakdown of the two-parent family, a marked increase in the welfare state, the lack of hospitalization of the severely mentally ill, the increase in dependency on government agencies, the acceptance of abnormal behavior as being normal, ... .

Things are coming apart here. Inflation is happening, yet it has yet to actually explode. In the next year or two, we will witness overt economic injury due to inflation. When this happens, tens of thousands of people are going come unglued and act-out violently. There are all manner of ways to kill many people a one time. Historically, arson has been the tool of anarchists and the mentally ill.

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Arson attacks:

1990 Happy Land Nightclub Fire; Date: March 25, 1990

Location: The Bronx, New York; Deaths: 87
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1998 Gothenburg Discothèque Fire; Date: October 29, 1998

Location: Gothenburg, Sweden

Culprit: Shoresh Kaveh, Housein Arsani, Mohammad Mohammadamini, Meysam Mohammadyeh

Deaths: 63
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2019 Kyoto Animation Fire; Date: July 18, 2019; Deaths: 33

Location: Kyoto, Japan; Culprit: Unknown (suspect detained)

1973 UpStairs Lounge Arson Attack; Date: June 24, 1973

Location: New Orleans, Louisiana; Deaths: 32

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"Vehicle-ramming attack"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle-ramming_attack

"A vehicle-ramming attack is an assault in which a perpetrator deliberately rams a vehicle into a building, crowd of people, or another vehicle. According to Stratfor Global Intelligence analysts, this attack represents a relatively new militant tactic that could prove more difficult to prevent than suicide bombings.

"Vehicles have also been used by attackers to breach buildings with locked gates, before detonating explosives, as in the Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack."

Attacks

Begin quote:

2016 Nice truck attack, France, 86 killed, over 450 people injured

1974 Eugen Grigore case, drives cargo truck into Gypsy nomad encampment; 24 dead, around 50 injured

1982 Langfang attack, ramming and stabbing, 13 dead

1983 Changde massacre, 21 dead

2001 Shenzhen attack, ramming and stabbing, 8 dead

2009 attack on the Dutch royal family, attempt to attack the Dutch royals including the reigning monarch; 8 killed

2010 Hebei tractor rampage, 2010 mass murder using a bucket loader

2017 Chomutov incident, the Czech Republic, in which a driver was shot dead by an armed citizen after driving into a group of people

2018 Toronto van attack, 11 killed

2018 Mishui vehicle attack, killing 15 people

2021 Waukesha Christmas parade attack: Darrell Brooks, of Milwaukee, broke through barricades with a red SUV and drove through the annual Waukesha Christmas parade, killing six people and injuring 62 others. Brooks was charged with 81 felony and two misdemeanor counts.

End quote
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Sure...After you have been robbed and beaten to a PULP they will show up and take a statement or kick your dead body a few times to make sure that you are DEAD. Past that depending on Cops to protect you is the same as having a mortician for a family doctor.

 

I'm with you Lone Wolf I live in the "suburbs" of a metropolis of about 5oo souls. We have as many cattle as we have people in the area.

 

We don't have sheep here. I wonder if it is way too hot and humid for them. We do have a lot of goats though. Cabrito is great!!

 

"... sheep are better suited to living on hills ..."

People who lived up in the hollers usually only owned a precious few cattle. Due to the grade of the mountain sides, there wasn't much space for them to graze. Some folk had valley land. Some had high pasture. Mostly, folk raised chickens and hogs. Some folk raised goats. Before the chestnut blight of 1917, people would let out hogs to feed on the bounty of chestnuts, then hunt the hogs when they fattened-up. It was said of one of my great grandfathers that he'd killed a hog way high at altitude during the winter snow, then rode its carcass down the mountain like a sleigh.

The Vanderbilt family who had a mansion (looks like a castle, huge, they built a railroad just to bring in materials for the mansion) and other mega-rich families in the Asheville North Carolina region brought in Russian boar for hunting. The Russian boar bred-in with the domesticated hogs and so now the hogs run the gamut in looks and in size. They are all mean and too intelligent. Funny to see a hog that is shaped like a Russian (a.k.a. "razor-back" -- have lots of Russian in them), yet has the coloring of a domestic hog breed, but this is common.



Here's the little home of the Vanderbilt family -- just outside Asheville NC (they had others, like the huge one in New York).

 

We have a LOT of hogs. They have become a big problem. Feral hogs can be dangerous as hell. They will kill and eat almost anything. I really didn't realize that hogs were that kind of carnivore until I moved up here. They have just about totally eliminated all the stray dogs. I would have thought that the boars were the ones you had to look out for. WRONG!! A sow with little piglets will put you in a tree and KEEP you there. I got so that I wouldn't go in the woods without my 357 mag at the least. I really preferred a 12 ga riot gun with slugs and buckshot. I knew a guy that tried to run one down on his horse. That hog turned on him and nearly killed both him and the horse. They both went down hard.

 

Old Geezer said...
"Most survival situations can be covered with an accurate .22, firing target ammo, plus a shotgun with changeable barrels, chokes, and a range of ammo types.

For defense against interlopers, a lever action firing .357 or .44 mag, plus a defense shotgun loaded with buckshot are good options."

Holy COW Geezer it is a lot as if you peeked into my gun safe!!!

I like the 357 mag in both handguns and rifles. Here in the East Texas Piney Woods, it is really all you need for furry critters.

I have a Mossberg 500 and three barrels for it. A regular one with a poly choke, a 20-inch riot barrel, and a 22-inch with rifle sights on it.

Add in my Ruger 10-22 with a scope and a lot of different size magazines and I'm pretty good.

We don't have bears here and our deer are on the small side and in the woods you seldom get a shot over about 75 yards.

I used to be a lot more militantly armed ARs AKs and my favorite, Mini 14. That was in part because I lived someplace that I was going to have to abandon. Now I'm settled and here is where I will make my stand.

 

In the S.Appalachian mountains, most deer are downright small. No one needs a powerful rifle to bring them down. Plus, when hunting in or near forests, the distance is usually short -- a whole lot of hunters use tree stands. For this, people have lever actions, single-action revolvers, and shotguns w/slugs or buckshot. In eastern coastal areas, buckshot is often used -- even mandated.

Speaking of levers, I know back in the 1960s, a lot of folk still had the lever .32 WCF. That was a transition cartridge from black powder to smokeless. Some rifles extant then had the slower rifling twist for black powder. Also, the .35 Remington lever was / is popular. The larger 200 grain .35 bullet was for bear or big boar, if God forbid, one came after you. I've known a whole bunch of guys who did swear by the .35 Rem. There's a beaucoup of those rifles still around and hey, the .35 is a great kill-on-the-spot deer/bear round. Me, I don't believe in hunting bears unless they are old/sick/wounded or start going aggressive/crazy. Sometimes old bears start "losing-it" in the head and get psycho mean -- thankfully, this is very rare. Game wardens could tell you about this. Me, I have zero stories about it. I have stories about rabid animals -- that's something entirely different.

If firing from a tree stand out at around 75 yards or even less, why would anything over .357 be needed to kill a deer whose chest is less than 16 - 18" wide?! If one knows where a big buck has claimed his territory WAY back in the mountains (we have range after range after range of mountains; only a few families live back in there), then OK, I see using larger calibers.

Knew a young man who used a 6mm Remington -- very flat-shooting that and accurate too. That fellow ONLY took neck shots so that the deer would drop where it stood -- he wasn't in to tracking. He was feeding two families (couldn't keep it in his pants if you know what I mean, loved women ... fathered a bunch of children; great guy though; I really really respected him; fed all who he fathered; got stories about his bravery and honor; blessings be upon him and his).

Rifles in the .308 / 30-o6 / .270 realm are for those hunting across pasture land. Even our pasture land is NOTHING like west of the Mississippi.

For a time, I lived in the corn-belt west of the Mississippi and by golly, those fields are HUGE compared to where I grew up. The crop duster pilots there are gods or they are insane -- seen them in action, crazy-scary. Out there, I can see where hunters use calibers like the 7mm magnum, because they take shots out past 400 yards. That is very rare here in the mountains and narrow valleys. Oh, in Iowa, the state Wildlife whatever mandates buckshot!!! You read me! I guess they don't want center-fire rifles sending rounds over the horizon. In southern Iowa, you CAN use rifles/bolts. Forests? Go figure!!!!

Everything in my being raised lower middle class (I had it easy relative to my relatives) spoke to never wasting anything. Why waste powder and lead?! My maternal Pap only had a .32 cap'n'ball when he was young and hunting up in the hollers (beyond poor, subsistence hunter; I have his powder horn). My people used every part of a slaughtered hog except its squeal.

Having a cartridge that works in both a rifle and a handgun is simple common sense. My paternal Pap had a 32-20 revolver. God only knows what all manner of critters he put on the supper table with that puppy! Remember also that hundreds of thousands of deer have been killed with the 32-40, the 38-40, the 44-40 ... (even the 25-40). Today these are considered "weak". Let me tell you what is "weak"! It is the hunting "ability" of today's "hunters"! Those who blame their rifles and keep buying that "magic rifle" every other year have simply NOT learned to hunt. AND it makes me furious how many animals they wound, can't find, and die a horrible death. That my friends is SIN. In the next world, they'll be shown their waste, the pain they caused animals, their dirty pride.

Don't hunt if you don't have the skills!
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I like lever-action rifles a lot. I have a Winchester 94 in 30-30, A Marlin 336 in 30-30, a Savage 99F in 3oo savage, A Henry in 357 mag, a Winchester 22LR, and a Henry in 22lr. Most of my hunting is in thick forests with most shots under 100 yards.

I used to have a Winchester model 70 in 270 with a Leopold 3X9 but it was really overkill for the way that I usually hunt. If I lived in West Texas my gun selection would be different. West Texas is wide open country with looooong vistas. East Texas is dense forests and Southeast Texas where I was raised is basicly a swampy jungle.

Where I live now is a little more open because of the huge pastures but what little I hunt is in national forests and pretty thick with few really open areas.

 

Where you live and where I live are similar in that most of our shots are going to be short range. I sight 2" or 3" high at 100 yards/meters so that I'll be sighted for spot-on at 200 meters and 8" low at 300 meters, and 25" low / 0.6 meters low at 400 meters. This for my .308 rifles.

For my lever actions in .357, I sight-in at 50 yards/meters. Likelihood I'll make a longer shot is quite remote. Levers in .22 mag, the same. Bolts in .22 mag, I sight to 75 meters/yards -ish. I've a .22 mag. handgun/lever/short-rifle w/12" barrel with laser sight that I sight at 25 yards / "here-to-there"; this is a Henry "Hogleg", totally cute, wife loves it; have see-through scope rings that allow me to use iron sights; can hit sh## at 100 yards / meters. Instant point'n'shoot. Head shot? -- no problemo.

The .22 mag rifles are for 60 lb -ish critters -- smaller edible game, I use the .22 LR (I've no idea of how many .22 LR rifles I've owned over the decades / over half-century. The 20 ga. shotgun also puts food on the table. I don't go after goose or duck, therefore I'm not a 12 ga. guy. I've other toys for self defense. Think about it, 20 ga. 3" magnum buckshot loads -- or slug loads -- make a .44 magnum look weak. Sabot 20 slugs are .45 caliber traveling at like 1600 ft/sec; regular 20 ga. slugs are over .60 caliber, over 300 gr, traveling over the speed of sound = instant incapacitation -- especially if you keep pumping rounds into the attacking felon.

I've in-laws in Texas, plus I've been to Texas for several business trips. Until all the outsiders moved-in, Texas was the self-same culture in which I was raised. God's speed to all Constitution-loving Texans! In this, I include Hispanic-origin legal Texans who are seeking the American dream and who wish to live in a country having human Liberty. If people go through the proper legal process to become Americans, then good for them and I welcome them.

I know that there were abusive/murderous "Americans" who stole from Native Americans. This makes me sick. Didn't have to happen. My folk leased land from the Cherokee (Watauga Association). Fair is fair. Respect is due where respect is due. We traded and we intermarried. Troubles? Sure! Welcome to human nature (i.e. massively flawed).

I respect how the French interacted with the Original Americans. We could have done the same with the civilized tribes and such tribes were numerous (some were monsters, but then so can some European blood lines be monstrous).

I wish that the real Texans could invite the Yankee outsiders to leave ... or else. Real Texans should clean-up Texas. When I get out of this state and head further South, I'll help the younger generations to clean-up my home territory. Me, my body is finished; however, I can be a dynamite instructor in what time I have left ... got certified back when, been there done that. Created some expert marksmen & markswomen. Will do this again, if I live.

Did so with bolt-action rifles. Bolt actions can "do the deed"; but I gotta say, I sure do love lever-actions. This is NOT just based on nostalgia; it is also based on experience. If something works, it works. Our ancestors sure proved that lever actions get the job done. This in large-bore and in handgun calibers. Not up for debate. Buffaloes to bad guys -- levers work.
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You know...you guys...concerning lever rifles...

I find it interesting and fascinating to read my Hornady reloading manual and see the plethora of older calibrations in which lever rifles were chambered.as well as handguns....and then compare this to my other book in the Handbook of Cartridge Conversions.

A wealth of reloading and cartridge history to be found there.

I am gratified to see some companies still making lever rifles in suitable pistol calibrations.


My non Ishmaelite .02,
Watcherchris