have you ever gotten harassment from friends over your choice in rifles?
Ive taken a bunch of verbal harassment,
but I have noticed my choices ,also at times tended to result in similar rifle purchases.
now Im sure this has to be rather common simply because,
many of us are 100% convinced that the rifle type and caliber we choose to hunt with is obviously the best choice available and,
everyone else just can't see how foolish their choice in weaponry is!
For 3 plus decades my late hunting partner carried a BLR in 358 win caliber on every ELK hunt we made to several states.
and over that time frame he managed to kill almost 12 elk in about 37 years we hunted using the same load of a 250 grain speer over 44 grains of IMR 4064 and a 215 fed primer.
the fact is that there is just not ,an ideal caliber or rifle,
what makes the rifle or caliber effective, in most cases ,
is related too the skill , knowledge and experience, of the guy using it!
and Id have to point out that its been a rather rare hunt where any member of the guys I hunt with,
has ever gotten a shot at over about 250 yards.
I like trying out new things, and being a rifle crazed lunatic I have bought and traded off a good many rifles in the last 50 years.
now in that same time frame I made 40 plus out of state elk and mule deer hunts ,hunts in co. WY. even norther CA. with different rifles , at time I carried a 340 wby, 378 wby, 375 H&H ,458 win, 300wby, 300 win, 35 whelen, 45/70 308 win, 30/06 and a 358 win.
I still use my 35 whelen 7600 pump action ,and 450 marlin blr
THEY ALL WORK JUST FINE IN MY HANDS
I almost always brought two different caliber rifle and used one for mule deer and one for elk, and there were a great many times when I left camp thinking I would be hunting one or the other but found that the ELK I was armed for happened to be a MULE DEER that I had the opportunity to take or vice verse.
this led to a near-constant good Nature verbal harassment from my partner,
who thought that constantly swapping rifles was both costly and a bit insane,
he frequently asked me how I could even remember,
if I was carrying a single shot, bolt action or semi auto,
or had any hope of remembering trajectory, or how to mechanically work the action under stress etc.
plus the constant verbal jibs about ,
why did I need a "CANNON" or bother to carry an extra 2 lbs-3 lbs of rifle that was 6"-10" longer than necessary?
I can assure you that being a member of a group of about 16 -18 guys who remained rather serious members in our elk hunt club
,that I took similar good nature verbal abuse from some other members ,
but over the years I noticed that tended to drop off considerably due to the fact Id proved successful with most of the rifles I carried,
and a couple were so effective that other members took notice and bought similar rifles.
the 35 whelen 7600 I bought,my 340wby, my 375 SAKO and my friend 358 BLR all performed well enough,
that others in the club purchased similar rifles or carbines,
theres now at least 6 other 35 whelen 7600 rifles, 5 guys who now own 45/70 marlins and 4 other 340 wbys owned among the club members.
I remember standing on the edge of a logging road one day near dark,
waiting to be picked up by one of the guys who went to get the truck so we would not need to drag our packs loaded with 60-70 lbs of boned out elk,
when a guy pulled up in a car to B.S. a bit and seeing we had obviously been successful he asked what rifle I was using ,
before I could respond he pulled a 25/06 cartridge out of his top pocket and said he was hoping his choice would be effective.
I assured him if his shot was well placed he would do fine!
he asked me what I,d used to drop that elk, SAL ,
my partner on that hunt just started giggling and pulled a cartridge out of my rifles stock cartridge sleeve and handed it to the guy to examine...it was a 378 wby loaded with 300 grain boat tail bullets,
the guys eyes really opened up....that started a rather interesting road side discussion.
BTW a 378 wby is in my experience no more effective than my 340 WBY so I don,t think the extra recoil and impact energy gains you much more than some grins from friends that might think your a bit masochistic to use it on an elk hunt!
using a 378 wby for elk, is an idea that looked better on paper than it turned out to be in practice
viewtopic.php?f=92&t=2403&p=10070#p10070
Sometimes the less knowledgeable guys don,t know good natured kidding from actual fact!
Howard ,One of the guys in our elk camp found a nearly UN-used pre 1964 Winchester mod 70 in 257 Roberts,
one year, that had a very trim and very pretty laminated walnut hand checkered custom stock, and Williams receiver sights.
It was simply a very well done, tastefully made, custom rifle really too nice to be hunting with, but he decided he had to at least find a mule deer to shoot with it before retiring it to his safe as a collectors item that it really was.
Jack and I both loved the looks of the rifle and we knew he got a really great deal, because Howard bought it fairly cheaply at an estate sale,
for $500 which even at the time was a fraction of its value.
Jack looked it over and told Howard with a strait face that he was basically wasting his time with that rifle,
as "EVERYONE KNEW" a 257 Roberts was marginal for big mule deer past 200 yards...
.If I had not started laughing... I think Howard might have "BOUGHT THAT CRAP"
Howard eventually killed a fairly nice 4 point elk with the rifle at about 160 yards on that trip so he told Jack when he got back into camp, that he thought it performed well with a serious tone in his voice and Jack and I both burst out laughing thinking he might have even taken Jack seriously, for even an instant!.
http://www.24hourcampfire.com/newsletters/May_2009.html
http://www.chuckhawks.com/recoil_table.htm
Ive taken a bunch of verbal harassment,
but I have noticed my choices ,also at times tended to result in similar rifle purchases.
now Im sure this has to be rather common simply because,
many of us are 100% convinced that the rifle type and caliber we choose to hunt with is obviously the best choice available and,
everyone else just can't see how foolish their choice in weaponry is!
For 3 plus decades my late hunting partner carried a BLR in 358 win caliber on every ELK hunt we made to several states.
and over that time frame he managed to kill almost 12 elk in about 37 years we hunted using the same load of a 250 grain speer over 44 grains of IMR 4064 and a 215 fed primer.
the fact is that there is just not ,an ideal caliber or rifle,
what makes the rifle or caliber effective, in most cases ,
is related too the skill , knowledge and experience, of the guy using it!
and Id have to point out that its been a rather rare hunt where any member of the guys I hunt with,
has ever gotten a shot at over about 250 yards.
I like trying out new things, and being a rifle crazed lunatic I have bought and traded off a good many rifles in the last 50 years.
now in that same time frame I made 40 plus out of state elk and mule deer hunts ,hunts in co. WY. even norther CA. with different rifles , at time I carried a 340 wby, 378 wby, 375 H&H ,458 win, 300wby, 300 win, 35 whelen, 45/70 308 win, 30/06 and a 358 win.
I still use my 35 whelen 7600 pump action ,and 450 marlin blr
THEY ALL WORK JUST FINE IN MY HANDS
I almost always brought two different caliber rifle and used one for mule deer and one for elk, and there were a great many times when I left camp thinking I would be hunting one or the other but found that the ELK I was armed for happened to be a MULE DEER that I had the opportunity to take or vice verse.
this led to a near-constant good Nature verbal harassment from my partner,
who thought that constantly swapping rifles was both costly and a bit insane,
he frequently asked me how I could even remember,
if I was carrying a single shot, bolt action or semi auto,
or had any hope of remembering trajectory, or how to mechanically work the action under stress etc.
plus the constant verbal jibs about ,
why did I need a "CANNON" or bother to carry an extra 2 lbs-3 lbs of rifle that was 6"-10" longer than necessary?
I can assure you that being a member of a group of about 16 -18 guys who remained rather serious members in our elk hunt club
,that I took similar good nature verbal abuse from some other members ,
but over the years I noticed that tended to drop off considerably due to the fact Id proved successful with most of the rifles I carried,
and a couple were so effective that other members took notice and bought similar rifles.
the 35 whelen 7600 I bought,my 340wby, my 375 SAKO and my friend 358 BLR all performed well enough,
that others in the club purchased similar rifles or carbines,
theres now at least 6 other 35 whelen 7600 rifles, 5 guys who now own 45/70 marlins and 4 other 340 wbys owned among the club members.
I remember standing on the edge of a logging road one day near dark,
waiting to be picked up by one of the guys who went to get the truck so we would not need to drag our packs loaded with 60-70 lbs of boned out elk,
when a guy pulled up in a car to B.S. a bit and seeing we had obviously been successful he asked what rifle I was using ,
before I could respond he pulled a 25/06 cartridge out of his top pocket and said he was hoping his choice would be effective.
I assured him if his shot was well placed he would do fine!
he asked me what I,d used to drop that elk, SAL ,
my partner on that hunt just started giggling and pulled a cartridge out of my rifles stock cartridge sleeve and handed it to the guy to examine...it was a 378 wby loaded with 300 grain boat tail bullets,
the guys eyes really opened up....that started a rather interesting road side discussion.
BTW a 378 wby is in my experience no more effective than my 340 WBY so I don,t think the extra recoil and impact energy gains you much more than some grins from friends that might think your a bit masochistic to use it on an elk hunt!
using a 378 wby for elk, is an idea that looked better on paper than it turned out to be in practice
viewtopic.php?f=92&t=2403&p=10070#p10070
Sometimes the less knowledgeable guys don,t know good natured kidding from actual fact!
Howard ,One of the guys in our elk camp found a nearly UN-used pre 1964 Winchester mod 70 in 257 Roberts,
one year, that had a very trim and very pretty laminated walnut hand checkered custom stock, and Williams receiver sights.
It was simply a very well done, tastefully made, custom rifle really too nice to be hunting with, but he decided he had to at least find a mule deer to shoot with it before retiring it to his safe as a collectors item that it really was.
Jack and I both loved the looks of the rifle and we knew he got a really great deal, because Howard bought it fairly cheaply at an estate sale,
for $500 which even at the time was a fraction of its value.
Jack looked it over and told Howard with a strait face that he was basically wasting his time with that rifle,
as "EVERYONE KNEW" a 257 Roberts was marginal for big mule deer past 200 yards...
.If I had not started laughing... I think Howard might have "BOUGHT THAT CRAP"
Howard eventually killed a fairly nice 4 point elk with the rifle at about 160 yards on that trip so he told Jack when he got back into camp, that he thought it performed well with a serious tone in his voice and Jack and I both burst out laughing thinking he might have even taken Jack seriously, for even an instant!.
http://www.24hourcampfire.com/newsletters/May_2009.html
http://www.chuckhawks.com/recoil_table.htm
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