Thanks, Annihilator. Big game rifles will always get my attention.
Big game hunters can wax nuanced when it comes to best rifle and big game cartridge. When hunters are sold on a rifle and cartridge, reason and logic become impediments to knowledge. I've had hunters tell me that the .375 H&H Mag is minimum for Rocky Mountain bull elk. Anything less, and bullets will bounce off. It'll make you wonder how our hunting forefathers killed 'em dead as dead could've been with black powder and arrows. Biological reality is a .243 Win to the oxygenating blood pumping apparatus of any bull elk will kill it as dead as any mega magnum. Hunters can't compensate for bad shooting by buying bigger guns.
BTW, I've cited Rocky Mountain bull elk because it has been repeatedly alleged that Rocky Mountain bull elk is the most difficult big game animal to kill. The biological fact is a bullet fired from any reasonable big game cartridge will reliably kill all big game, including Rocky Mountain bull elk, dead, and there's only one degree of dead and that's dead. Nothing living remains in that condition without topside oxygenated blood flow.
I can't tell you how many times I've heard hunters tell me that only a Mauser 98 action is completely reliable for biggame hunting. I've never, ever seen a push-feed action fail. I've hunted many a season in the Rockies with only my Model 700 .270 Win. My guess is a military grade automatic action is far more reliable than any bolt action. This is just a guess because I don't own one: a Springfield Armory M1A is more reliable and more accurate than most if not all bolt action rifles. There's a reason that long range, competition target shooters use the SA M1A. I'd buy one if I could get one with an 18.5" barrel, under 7 pounds including scope, and a 5 round magazine. I'd never need another North American big game rifle.
The most accurate and reliable rifles I've fired were Sako AV actions and Model 700 actions. And yes, I've fired Mauser 98 Model 70s. In fact, a friend bought two Model 70 Super Grades, a .300 Win Mag and a .375 H&H right after Winchester reintroduced the slightly modified Model 98 action. Within two years he sold both rifles. He learned the expensive way that his .270 Win didn't hurt to shoot, that big cartridges causes big flinches that cause big misses.
About six tears ago, in what was then considered the best Rocky Mountain bull elk unit in the nation (it took 23 years to draw a tag), a hunter missed the same bull twice (once in the am and once in the pm of opening day) at very, very close distance with his .300 Mag, a bull that his guide estimated would've made B&C. He finally killed a 370 class bull on his third day. Out of hearing distance of his guide, his guide said he'd much rather have a hunter show up in camp with a .270 Win that he can shoot than a .300 Mag he can't. I killed a humongous bull in the early evening of my second day. One 160 grain Partition fired from my Sako AV 7MM Rem Mag at a 130 yards took out his heart and lungs. He was merely awaiting for gravity to take effect. My guide had insisted that I use my 10+ pound 7MM Rem Mag. I could've killed that huge bull just as dead with my .270 Win.
The famed Model 70 was a beautiful rifle. I hold it in high esteem. But it was merely one of many excellent rifles. Remington's Model 700 was able to capture a huge percentage of America's big game hunters because it allowed America's working class to enter the Sport of Kings with a very high quality and extremely accurate rifle at a very modest price.
I know that I can hunt anything in North America with my 40+ year-old Model 700 .270 Win, a rifle that has never, ever failed me. In fact, when my Rocky Mountain mule deer season opens in October, I will be carrying it. Don't get me wrong. I love my Sako AV 7MM Rem Mag and my Sake AV .270 Win. But I love lighter rifles more. If I remotely thought that my Model 700 wasn't 100% reliable, I would've sold it a long time ago.
I'm praying that 2021 will be my year. I have a lot of desert big horn sheep bonus points. I have an excellent chance of my number coming up. For those Armory Lifers who don't know, desert big horn sheep is the single most difficult tag to draw in North America. It is a once-in-a-lifetime tag. If I'm drawn, I'll hunt desert big horn with my Model 700 .270 Win. That's how confident I am with it.
With age and scaling a lot of high altitude Rocky Mountain peaks came wisdom I wish I had when I got in to the Sport of Kings. If I were given a do-over, I'd buy a lightweight .308 Win carbine. It'd work for all North American big game.
The famed Model 70 was an American icon. But it wouldn't be my first choice for a big game rifle. I'd probably go with Sako, but they are heavy. The Sauer 100, a very reasonably priced rifle, and it has garnered excellent reviews. That would be another option.
Another man's man friend, a CA game warden, had many custom made big game rifles. He told me that not one of his extremely expensive, custom made rifles were as accurate as my Sako AV 7MM Rem Mag. His sage advice to me was to never sell an accurate and reliable rifle. Sadly, like too many cops, he died within 5 years of retirement.
Another friend had the most impressive trophy room I've ever personally seen. He was much older than me. He killed many of his trophies, including a respectable griz, during the '60's. He used a Mark V .300 Wby Mag. When he realized that big cartridges hurt on both ends, he sold it and bought a Mark V .270 Wby Mag, an excellent cartridge that won't do anything that the .270 Win can't. Both were beautiful rifles when they left Weatherby's original South Gate store. Within a couple years, they looked like badly abused furniture. They were hunting rifles, not ornaments. And he hunted with them. He taught me the critical importance of closing distance (a hunting skill), that it was a lot wiser to shoot at a hundred yards than farther.
It's called big game hunting, not big game shooting, for a reason.
Like all great American guns, I am sad to see the original rifleman's rifle take the road leading to where all great American products go when competition (read: capitalism) causes an unprofitable and insurmountabe gap between supply and demand.
www.americanhunter.org
