Back up rifles [Archive]

koehlerrk

10-29-2014, 06:21 PM

1. Well, I guess you could say that. I take my Swiss K31 for sitting in my treestand, but take my 30-30 in case I feel like walking, but those can be swapped if needed.
2. Nope, no stainless or plastic for me. Just traded my last tupperware rifle for a motorcycle, it's all blued and wood for me now.
3. Yup, 7.5 Swiss and 30-30 Winchester, though I have been known to swap for a 12ga slug gun for walking.
4. Well, I'm saving for a nice Sako 338 Winmag. Already have brass, dies, and bullets for it. That will be my "Going to Alaska for a brown bear" rifle.

starmac

10-29-2014, 06:29 PM

I just picked up a nice sako 338 win mag at the last gun show. I'm not sure if I got a deal, or burn't, but it is for my SIL's, moveing to Alaska and christmas present.

It is not exactly what I had in mind, but was the only 338 I came across priced at what I thought was a fair deal.

taco650

10-29-2014, 06:58 PM

I wish Starmac was my FIL!!!

starmac

10-29-2014, 07:14 PM

Well he has took good care of my grandkids (not his) and it really is a small price to get the grand kids 4500 miles closer. lol

This way both sil's my son and I all have 338's, and I have mucho components. lol

This reminds me though, my son borrowed mine, I need to get it back. lol

koehlerrk

10-29-2014, 07:38 PM

Well starmac, looks like you're taking care of your relatives quite nicely.

From what you said, and from other folks I've talked to, it seems the 338 Winmag is the perfect round for the bigger critters in Alaska.

starmac

10-29-2014, 07:46 PM

I don't know if there is such a thing as perfect, but it ranks pretty high, and until a certain 0 got in office, you could get ammo anywhere. lol I actually carry my 45/70 more, I am just more comfortable with a lever gun.

My uncle gave me my first (and only for a lot of years) rifle, I have paid for that rifle many times over the years with nephews,cousins and kids. lol

dk17hmr

10-29-2014, 07:49 PM

1 take a back up rifle.....Always, I have a back up rifle for my truck gun most days.

2 take a wood and blue rifle, but take a plastic and stainless for rainy days....Yes but when I leave camp in the morning I don't always know what the weather is going to be like so my blue/wood rifles become all weather rifles as well.

3 take much different caliber for your backup......anywhere from 6.8spc to a 338 for big game.....there are several rifles in my safe for predator hunting.

4 have bought a complete different gun and caliber, for a hopefull out of state dream hunt....yes and no I can hunt just about anything I ever really wanted to in the state I live in and have rifles that I bought when I was in Michigan for "going out west some day" now I'm out west I have been looking at rifles for when I "go up north someday"

dragon813gt

10-29-2014, 08:04 PM

I take a backup if I'm going away to hunt. One rifle will always be an All Weather Ruger M77 Hawkeye in 308. It heads out w/ me in bad weather. Primary rifle depends on what I'm going for and what my mood is. If it's just deer I will take an 1894c. If bear is running concurrent then I take something larger. This year it's a 336 in 35 Remington. Previous years have been a 99 in 300 Savage. If I'm going for any birds I bring one shotgun, no backup. I purchased a 99 in 358 Winchester since it's big enough for anything in North America. I plan on using at home so it's not just for a dream hunt.

starmac

10-29-2014, 08:24 PM

Main reason I added the dream hunt rifle was I had a good friend in chicago, that dreamed of moving to NM or Az after he retired. He bought a 7mm and had it for years, but never realized his dream. Life got in the way. I have known a couple of others with pretty much the same scenario.

dragon813gt

10-29-2014, 09:25 PM

I know plenty of people that buy rifles for the African Safari that's nothing but a pipe dream. At least I will get some use out of my dream rifle :)

Camba

10-29-2014, 09:35 PM

How many of you
1 take a back up rifle - Rifle and/or pistol
2 take a wood and blue rifle, but take a plastic and stainless for rainy days. - Not necessarily. I hunt in any weather with either one.
3 take much different caliber for your backup. - Pistol/rifle or vice-versa
4 have bought a complete different gun and caliber, for a hopefull out of state dream hunt. - have a few

Lonegun1894

10-30-2014, 06:27 AM

How many of you
1 take a back up rifle--I always carry a handgun suitable for hunting (but I'm also the numbskull who hunts hogs with a .22LR pistol, yes, successfully, so take that for what it's worth), but don't bring an extra rifle on local hunts. Anything more than an hour away from home and I bring an extra of some kind.

2 take a wood and blue rifle, but take a plastic and stainless for rainy days.--Most of mine are blued, but I have a couple stainless ones also, but tend to pick my rifle by what game I'm going after and not by weather conditions.

3 take much different caliber for your backup.--This goes either way. Sometimes the same, other times different, and not much rhyme or reason to it as long as it is appropriate for the game being hunted.

4 have bought a complete different gun and caliber, for a hopefull out of state dream hunt.--I have not, but I also have several things chambered in calibers that would allow me to go anywhere in North America, if not the world, and have a sufficient rifle to hunt with. For example, I know some of you may consider this to be boring, but I don't think there is anything in North America that I can't hunt with my .30-30, .308, .30-06, and .45-70. But I also use them all here in Texas.

milkman

10-30-2014, 07:06 AM

I used to carry a 35 Rem Marlin with aperture sights as a backup and for tracking in the brush, but never needed it so I no longer carry it.

I am not nearly as mad at the deer as I used to be, so if its raining very hard I just stay home and wait for better weather.

I am content to vary my loads for different areas, not my rifles. The rifles I use, mostly 35 cal., 35 Whelen, 358 Win,and the occasional 30-06, will take anything I want to point them at.

truckjohn

10-31-2014, 03:38 PM

I like to carry a back up rifle along for the trip - I don't like my hunting trips ruined that easily.... What happens if you something stupid happens? It's not like a rifle has never been sat on by mistake and ended up with a broken stock...

I do have a SS rifle... but don't necessarily carry it for that reason...

Different caliber - yes... but more so by default because I don't have many duplicates....

nope... I haven't bought one for an out of state dream hunt.... More like a dream of hunting more of what we have here with something a little better suited to our conditions.... AKA - a 30-06 is great, but it's way too much gun for the typical short range brush-hunt in South Carolina and Georgia... I am now leaning more and more towards the ubiquitous 7.62x39 and venerable 30-30....

seaboltm

10-31-2014, 04:57 PM

If I am sitting, I take one rifle. I don't care if its wood and blue or synthetic as sitting don't tear one up much. If I start to stalk and hike a bunch, I switch to a Ruger SRH in 44 magnum. I have enough rifles to cover anything on the planet. And then some.

btroj

10-31-2014, 05:24 PM

Backup rifle, always. It is also what I use it I need to follow up a deer. Always the Marlin 1984 CB in 45 Colt.

I don't own a stainless rifle so that isn't even a thought.

I use rifle adequate for the game being hunted but tend to go on the lighter side. I am to a point where I only hunt with cast so cartridge/rifle choice is also a bit dependant upon that.

I have too many options and deciding what rifle and mould to use is the hardest part of deer season.

skeettx

10-31-2014, 05:56 PM

1 take a back up rifle Only on long horseback hunts (week to 10 days)
2 take a wood and blue rifle, Wood and blue only
3 take much different caliber for your backup. Nope all 30-06
4 have bought a complete different gun and caliber, for a hopefull out of state dream hunt. No have enought to use what I have

Used in Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Texas

freebullet

10-31-2014, 06:21 PM

I take a rifle & pistol in whatever flavor suits the anticipated conditions. My dream hunt doesn't include leaving the USA so I'm set on calibers unless I get a wild hair lol.

starmac

10-31-2014, 06:25 PM

It may sound like a dumb question, but what do you guys do with your backup rifles while you are hunting?? Where do you keep them, hide them in or close to camp?

skeettx

10-31-2014, 07:20 PM

In the case , in the tent.
We keep our main rifles outside the tent, hanging on a tree limb in camp,
covered in plastic sheet, to keep the temperature and moisture stable.
Of course we are usually a 5 to 8 hour horse back ride from the nearest road.

Mike

fouronesix

10-31-2014, 07:50 PM

When I read the title, "Back Up Rifle", I was thinking along the lines of a back-up stopper double rifle in 470 NE or 500 NE. :)

No, I've never taken a back-up rifle on a hunt. I've taken synthetic w/ SS and wood w/ blue or brown. Both in all manner of bad weather.

C. Latch

10-31-2014, 07:55 PM

If hunting 'away from home' I'll have a spare rifle with me, or one spare between two of us.

I had one 'deer rifle' for most of my hunting life, it is a blued steel bolt action with a wood stock. I currently do most of my deer hunting with a smaller caliber rifle that happens to have a SS barrel and a synthetic stock (it's an AR15 6.8).

edit:

That blued rifle (700BDL, 30-06, Leupold vari-x III scope) has sat out in rain, snow, cold, and everything else, and killed a trailer-load of deer over the years. It shows lots of honest wear but no rust.

starmac

10-31-2014, 08:17 PM

Skeetx, 3 years ago my SIL and the bucch he hunts were 105 miles from the road, and still caught a guy going through their tents. Lucky for him he didn't take anything though.

skeettx

10-31-2014, 08:52 PM

Starmac
How long was that fella in the hospital?
Mike

dragon813gt

10-31-2014, 09:01 PM

It may sound like a dumb question, but what do you guys do with your backup rifles while you are hunting?? Where do you keep them, hide them in or close to camp?

On the racks in the cabins. There is no hiking in and camping for days around here.

starmac

10-31-2014, 09:18 PM

No hospital but he was seen through a spotting scope. One of the guys took the rollagon and went to his partys camp and read them from the book sort of speak. lol
Apparently one of them had snooped through another camp or two and someone must have had a satellite phone, because the a day or two later a trooper landed and came to my SIL's camp, looking for the camp these guys were at.

TXGunNut

10-31-2014, 11:34 PM

How many of you
1 take a back up rifle-Every trip! Can't waste a precious trip because of mechanical failure or even suspected failure. Life's too short and hunting trips too few.
2 take a wood and blue rifle, but take a plastic and stainless for rainy days.-Yes, and even tho I prefer blue steel and walnut my bad weather gun is one of my best rifles.
3 take much different caliber for your backup. -Most of the time lately. I generally take a primary, secondary and backup rifle. Backup rifle shoots j-words, primary and secondary rifles almost always shoot boolits these days.
4 have bought a complete different gun and caliber, for a hopefull out of state dream hunt. -Any excuse to buy a gun, I've used worse but can't imagine a hunting scenario that I don't have a suitable rifle for...but I only hunt Texas.

For me any hunt generally represents an investment of precious vacation time and sometimes significant expense. I only get 1-2 trips a year most years so if my only rifle has issues it may be awhile before I get another chance. Same logic for a bad weather gun. If the weather gets bad I don't have to waste a hunting trip sitting in camp to keep my pretty guns dry.
I know some folks buy a special rifle for a special trip but I don't plan on hunting outside of Texas unless I go to Africa or Alaska. For a big-ticket trip I'd probably take a rifle I was comfortable with, anything new would cost me a bit of confidence.

TXGunNut

10-31-2014, 11:45 PM

It may sound like a dumb question, but what do you guys do with your backup rifles while you are hunting?? Where do you keep them, hide them in or close to camp?

Cased up in my locked truck or locked bunkhouse. Never field-dressed a polecat but I wouldn't want to bait one in and have to shoot it.

texassako

11-01-2014, 12:25 AM

How many of you
1 take a back up rifle Usually, in a caliber with easily found factory ammo, just in case.
2 take a wood and blue rifle, but take a plastic and stainless for rainy days. Only wood and blue, but that is all I own and not a preference.
3 take much different caliber for your backup. Usually since I don't own more than gun per cartridge except for some milsurps.
4 have bought a complete different gun and caliber, for a hopefull out of state dream hunt. Not yet, but there is still time to dream.

Adk Mike

11-01-2014, 02:52 PM

I take an old Ruger 280 tang safety with a custom fiberglass stock anywhere I go. 1.5 by 5 V X 3.
Works in the eastern mountains and out west. Never thought of a spare. It would just take up room.

pls1911

11-01-2014, 07:30 PM

Geez, even the question hurts my head.
Ok, I'd have to admit an extended safari or horsetrek might merit a back up, but otheriwse it's a bit like drag racing... you run whatcha brung.
Rain, hail, sleet, mud, or snow, your old reliable should be "old reliable" in any event.
You know the gun, the ammo, and your capabilities...and should be able to repair any nominal break in the field....why dink with another separate gun, especially in a different caliber? That's about as smart as having a sweet and loving wife at home and sneaking around with a stilt skinny, bow legged, zit faced 20-something girlfriend ...
it's just more weight and more baggage to make your life miserable and your head hurt.
Keep it simple.

starmac

11-01-2014, 08:05 PM

Another question or 2
How many of you have ever had to revert to a backup rifle.
Do you like to have iron sites on your scoped guns, just in case?
Personally I like irons on mine scoped or not.
I actually had a friend that had his scope fail this year on a fly in sheep hunt. He had no backup, but used his hunting partners rifle to fill his tag.

Digital Dan

11-01-2014, 08:14 PM

Uh, no, no, no, no, never and yes/no.

dk17hmr

11-01-2014, 08:29 PM

My back up stays locked in my truck at camp. Camp is between 120 and 150 miles (depends which one I go to) one way from my house, a backup rifle makes a lot of sense when I only get a handful of day to actually hunt. Would be very unfortunate if I had to burn a full day coming home and going back just to get a rifle because something happened to my primary rifle. Even when I go for a day hunt closer to home I take two rifles....one for the timber/mountains and one for the prairie....never know where an elk will stick its head out at.

I have yet to have to take my second choice rifle but there has been times I swap them out because of the location I am hunting that day.

triggerhappy243

11-01-2014, 10:20 PM

Most of my hunts have to do with varmints. and i take 5 rifles.... because the barrels get flaming hot and I rotate them. But I also take everything I may need to repair and re-sight in any rifle I take. And I have had to repair one or two in the field.

texassako

11-01-2014, 10:39 PM

I started taking a backup because of a scope failure. My usual hunting rifles don't have iron sights, but my current backup has both. I have only needed it once when my regular rifle's ammo turned up missing a long way from any store. It never turned up either, and we still joke the deer must have stolen it. I don't bother with it when I hunt at our little pond close by.

Lead Fred

11-01-2014, 11:59 PM

How many of you
1 take a back up rifle
2 take a wood and blue rifle, but take a plastic and stainless for rainy days.
3 take much different caliber for your backup.
4 have bought a complete different gun and caliber, for a hopefull out of state dream hunt.

1) No
2) Except for the 45/70 everyone has been painted and sealed, I do live in rain city
3) no need
4) Any place I want to hunt, Ill drive to carry my stuff there. Been clean to TX for hog shoots

jlchucker

11-02-2014, 01:31 PM

All of my rifles are wood and blue--some of them pretty worn blue. I hunt near home, and as a rule use one rifle for my entire season. If it becomes damaged, there are others in the gun safe. I use iron sights mostly--only two of my rifles have scopes. My selection for hunting every year is the one I've used at the range most--probably my 35 Remington, or one of my 30-30's. Boolits of course.

MT Gianni

11-02-2014, 07:10 PM

How many of you
1 take a back up rifle
2 take a wood and blue rifle, but take a plastic and stainless for rainy days.
3 take much different caliber for your backup.
4 have bought a complete different gun and caliber, for a hopefull out of state dream hunt.
1] If I am camping a couple hours away from anything I take a backup pistol. I have taken a back up rifle when I would be the only one in a party of 4 to have one.
2] I carry what I choose and clean when I need to
3] I am OK with a different cal for back up. Few of my guns shoot the same load well same caliber or not.
4] Live in MT, have all I need for all but Brown Bear or Africa.

Lonegun1894

11-02-2014, 07:32 PM

How many of you have ever had to revert to a backup rifle. In military service, yes, but never on a hunt unless you count times I got closer than expected and chose to use a handgun instead of my rifle. I have had to fix a few issues that came up with my guns in the field, but thankfully nothing major.
Do you like to have iron sites on your scoped guns, just in case? Almost all of mine have irons even if they wear a scope, and the couple that don't have irons, I wish they did. Most of my hunting guns I just use irons though.

fouronesix

11-02-2014, 08:32 PM

Never had to use a backup gun. I've either been lucky or just very persistent in watching out for and maintaining my own gear. The fewer items taken the better. My biggest concern has always been loss or damage during airline transit, not loss or damage during a hunt. Have always taken proven, reliable gun and ammo. For long distance travel, that risk of loss is equal no matter how many guns you take. Adding an extra gun is a real PITA for airline travel and especially so for international travel and is not even practical for something like a pack or super cub drop.

I've seen quite a few travelers struggling with too much stuff or over-sized 2 gun cases or paying out the snoz for extra baggage or struggling with fouled up gun permits, etc. To me an extra gun is just something extra to worry about.

Artful

11-02-2014, 08:55 PM

I don't hunt (much) any more since moving from PNW to Arizona - but when I did
How many of you
1) take a back up rifle
(secondary weapons - yep - lots of times at the same time - S&W 29 8 3/8" 44 Mag)

2) take a wood and blue rifle, but take a plastic and stainless for rainy days.
(No SS hunting stuff)

3) take much different caliber for your backup.
(Yep, I usually had a clear cut long range and a close in brush gun.
I have several longer range calibers I've used - 270, .30'06, 300 win mag, 375 Weatherby mag.
for Close in I've use 44mag, 30-30, 308, 375 BigBore, 358 WCF, .45-70.
Last couple of hunting years used Boolits in all the brush guns and in the 375 Weatherby Mag.)

4) have bought a complete different gun and caliber, for a hopefull out of state dream hunt.
(At one point I dreamed of going to Africa, hence 375 Weatherby Mag.
- Then I read all of Peter Hathaway Capstick's books. :holysheep
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hathaway_Capstick
- So I'll stay on this continent. :Bright idea:)

Another question or 2
1) How many of you have ever had to revert to a backup rifle.

(Once - broke a firing pin on my 308 Winchester 88 lever.)

2) Do you like to have iron sites on your scoped guns, just in case?
Personally I like irons on mine scoped or not.
I actually had a friend that had his scope fail this year on a fly in sheep hunt. He had no backup, but used his hunting partners rifle to fill his tag.

Some do - some have folding buckhorn and receiver sight. Some have Scope and back up irons.
Some I have two scopes sighted in and carry the second
(usually like 3x9 mounted and straight 2 or 4 power backup.)

And for a long time I kept a loaner rifle for the instance like your buddy.
For a long time it was my 30-30 Marlin, then when people started to abuse it
changed it out for a 303 Enfield #4 with brass butt plate
- that way they don't seem to want to hang onto it too long or shoot too much of my ammo.
:twisted: :mrgreen: :drinks: [smilie=1:

JWT

11-02-2014, 09:28 PM

How many of you
1 take a back up rifle? My Dad and I both hunt with 308s and we will leave a backup at the cabin. Either my 336 in 35Rem or his 336 in 444.
2 take a wood and blue rifle, but take a plastic and stainless for rainy days. Wood and blue. My Win 100 has seen it all. Rain, snow, heat.
3 take much different caliber for your backup? See #1
4 have bought a complete different gun and caliber, for a hopefull out of state dream hunt. My 30-378, 416 Rigby, 458WinMag, and 375H-H aren't for Michigan whitetail. I'm hoping to get to Alaska (bear,moose,musk ox), Africa (cape buffalo,kudu), and Australia (water buffalo). Then maybe I'll start on countries that start with B.
5 How many of you have ever had to revert to a backup rifle. The firing pin in my Winchester 100 broke a few years back and I had to resort to the 35Rem.
6 Do you like to have iron sites on your scoped guns, just in case? Not usually. If the primary fails I would move to the backup. My African rifles have both.