doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Range Reports,

The side discussion about rainy day rifles reminds me of an exchange I had with a respected and well-known professional Alaskan guide last year. He described the rainy humid conditions up there and I described the rainy humid conditions down here and we didn't come to any earth-shaking conclusions (grin).

Later, I DID come to a minor but revealing conclusion about bad-weather rifle maintenance.

IMO the main telling point is whether the owner is primarily a hunter who uses his rifle in his pursuit of happiness, or is he primarily a rifleman who uses hunting in his pursuit of happiness?

Many typical hunters regard their rifles as merely tools, and so they're looking for minimal maintenance and NO maintenance would be even better, thus plastic and stainless.

OTOH many typical riflemen regard their rifles as things of beauty and perhaps even extensions of their own personalities, and so they are much more inclined to want to take the extra time & effort to clean their rifles with no complaints. Indeed, many riflemen find pleasure in such activities since it gives them additional opportunities to handle their weapons!

Count me among the riflemen.
Regards, Joe

Michael,

Great shooting and another beautiful rifle! These days such grouping with iron sights is a challenge for me at 50 yards.

Buchseman

...and the target signed by the legendary Bill Fuller, extremely cool!

Those old rifles sure can shoot. So can you.

For foul weather firearms I use wood and blue steel. Duck hunting usually brings out the worst in weather but I've never felt the need for plastic and stainless. After all up till Vietnam wars were fought with wood and steel in far worse conditions for far longer than any hunting trip and the rifles came through. Indeed in 'Nam we were initially told the M16 didn't require maintenance like the M14 or M1 and cleaning kits were not issued. That bit of lunacy cost the lives of many fine young men. Plastic and stainless has its place but it doesn't preclude taking care of your weapon or your hunting rifle.

In the end I'm with Joe. The real pleasures of having a fine firearm is in using it and taking care of it

Jerry Liles

I wanted to try out Townsend Whelen's small game load in the 30-06.

His load was 18.0-grs 4759 and a 150gr FMJ bullet.

I figured it was only fitting to use a rifle made by his friend James V. Howe.

I fired three (3) five-shot groups at 100 yards with my standard 150gr load.

I thought it might be fun for you to see what the plates look like through the scope at 100 yards. Took about twenty shots with the camera to get just one that look sort-of-OK.

I moved the target up to 50-yards and tried the small game load. I think the idea was that if sighted at 100 yards with regular ammo the small-game load would be right on at 50-yards.