making a mistake in the rifle you carry?

Grumpy

The Grumpy Grease Monkey mechanical engineer.
Staff member
I think most of us learn by making mistakes, or watching the mistake's others have made!
I remember sitting on a larger, maybe 32" diameter section of fallen log, with my back against a larger second log in a fairly well weathered, old rotted tangle of, weathered branches old logging debris left decades earlier, on a steep canyon,
one morning, the temperature was about -5F and the wind was blowing briskly but not too bad, we were both (Howard and I ) were basically rather uncomfortable in the cold pre-dawn,
I'm sitting next too one of the guys I generally hunt elk with,
as we watched the first faint glimmer of day light creep through this remote canyon.
on that hunt I had selected my favorite thick timber hunting tool, my sako 375 H&H carbine,
which Id always found to be a great choice in the narrow canyon country,
wheres shots over about 250 yards were very rare,
my carbines loaded with 270 grain spire points over a stiff load of WW760 and a 215 fed primer
I sight it in to be 3.5" high at 100 yards. my carbines very similar but has much darker wood
sako375man.jpg
Sako-Mannlicher-375-HandH-Mag-caliber_101230090_6903_99AA8CE55C90DBC8.jpg

https://gundigest.com/gear-ammo/ammunition/handloading-375-hh-magnum
I posted two pictures , below, of the actual canyon country we hunt elk in most years,
keep in mind the drainage is 15 plus miles long and almost totally devoid of any logging road access
deepcreek.JPG

Full-362-Deep-Creek-Canyon.jpg

my partner was carrying a winchester md 70 in 30/06 feather weight very similar to this picture I found posted,
win70.jpg

http://www.handloads.com/loaddata/default.asp?Caliber=375 HqqqH&Weight=All&type=Rifle&Source=
and he turns to me and whispers,
"damn I wish I purchased a SAKO manlitcher carbine like that one,"
now this caught me a bit by surprise as I could not imaging his 30/06 carbine loaded with 180 grain soft point bullets,
http://www.handloads.com/loaddata/default.asp?Caliber=30-06 Springfield&Weight=180&type=rifle&Order=Powder&Source=
not being both fully up too the intended use we were hoping to use the rifles for,
and I did not for a moment consider either of us badly equipped.
we had both sighted in our rifles at the local range before we went on the hunt and I knew,

both rifles would consistently shoot under 1.5" three shot hundred yard bench rested groups,
so I turn to him and ask..... why would you be the least bit concerned with your rifle choice?
after a brief discussion I found his issue really was nothing to do with the particular rifle,
he had just tried to work the action, several times and pull the trigger , several times ,

checking function on the un-loaded rifle he was about to load,
and found the firing pin in the bolt was very stiff and the action was extremely hard to cock,
because he had not taken it apart and properly cleaned it of all old lubricant grease

(mandatory for cold weather function reliability,)
, a good pre-trip cleaning with a good solvent and used a moly spray powder lube too replace the grease,
use of proper solvent, a tooth brush and lubing the gun with moly lube tends to work in extreme cold
molysp2.JPG

thus while I sat there contemplating my frozen fingers I wondered why he had any concerns over his choice in rifles,
I had found his rifle was for all intents rather useless until,
he either cleaned the bolt and firing pin spring assembly internally,

or the temp outside increased to the point the grease thawed.
now if your going to hunt elk and there's a chance temps will occasionally drop into well below the sub freezing range ,
too me proper cleaning and cold weather gun prep is a no-brainer but too Howard the concept was rather new.
 
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Well with it not being his first trip, and as old as he is, either he hit got a case of CRS or he never paid attention to you instructions or advice. JMTCW
Cold weather hunting is another animal in it's self.
 
I think most of us occasionally make mistakes , and yes I find that not carefully cleaning and prepping a rifle for cold weather use is very common.
I hunted elk for decades And I bet I saw the problem manifest itself on at least 5-6 occasions with the guys from florida I hunted with,
even though it was brought up pre-hunt every year in the pre- trip discussions
 
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.
An unloaded gun or unable to fire is useless.
 
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