Author Topic: bonding with a bolt action (Read 1479 times)

longwinters · « **on:** January 21, 2003, 04:42:43 AM »

I know many of you have multiple (ie tons of ) rifles. Some you keep them just because you never get rid of one. Others because you have bonded with them . . . they are a part of your life. Even to trade them for another rifle would be considered a loss to you. What did it take for you to form a bond to a mechanical tool that shoots a metal projectile through the air, makes lots of noise and costs you money each time you do it?

Hud · « **Reply #1 on:** January 21, 2003, 05:18:27 AM »

Well I'm shy of my first "ton" of rifles yet, but working on it.

I don't know if I've actually "bonded" with any one rifle. But I think what your talking about is the rifle you have faith in, it always works. The one you can load and unload in the dark. Your hand knows exactly where the saftey is. The scope alines with your eye and is naturally on target. When you bring it up to aim, it points where you point it. You can hit a pie plate at 100 yds without the sights. You know where the bullet will strike at 50 yds and at 500yds. You can cycle the action without thinking about it or losing the target picture. It goes from hanging on your shoulder to your shoulder in one fluid motion.

That would be my M700 Rem in 30-06, 165gr boattail@2850fps.

Hud

Yukon Jack · « **Reply #2 on:** January 21, 2003, 07:08:25 AM »

Well, I don't know about "bonding" either, but I tell you - I have toted a Ruger No. 1 S in 338 all over, hither and yon, through Alaska. I've taken deer, sheep, caribou and moose with it, many times over. It's been my constant companion on nearly all my hunting trips for about 20 years and has never let me down. It's lucky for me too. I never go a day in the field without seeing game when I have it. It may not be the game I'm after, but always see something. The rifle fits me perfectly and has great balance. I can tell you where every nick in the stock came from and what the day held when it happened. It shoots good, but I have other rifles that probably shoot better. Me and this rifle have seen a lot of country, walked many thousands of miles, put a lot of food on the table for my family and I, and it's never let me down. Would I get rid of it? Nope, it ain't going to happen.

Zachary · « **Reply #3 on:** January 21, 2003, 07:54:07 AM »

Ditto about the "bonding." I can say, however, that each rifle brings with it certain memories and stories. I own several rifles, maybe not a "ton" but about 14 of them, some of which I have not even shot yet. But I can tell you, within great certainly, what animals I have shot with each rifle, and the circumstances under which I shot them. :wink:

Zachary

Yukon Jack · « **Reply #4 on:** January 21, 2003, 08:02:55 AM »

longwinters,
My apologies, I didn't read the title very well did I? :oops: I can't say I've got any bolt actions that wouldn't go, but my No.1's that I have now will stay put.

Questor · « **Reply #5 on:** January 21, 2003, 08:25:21 AM »

It comes through use. After a while there are some guns I pick up to hunt with, and others that stay in the safe. The T/C Contender is my "bonded" gun.

Papa Bear · « **Reply #6 on:** January 21, 2003, 04:47:37 PM »

Hi Guys
I guess bonding is as good as saying reliable, accurate, comfortable, becoming part of you.
I have rifles with different actions, that will fit that description, but since this post was in Bolt Action Rifles. I have 6 bolt actions that fit that description, each one having its own story, with some memories of past hunts. Memories of game taken along with friends and family.

Remington M 511 - 22 cal. ( Has accounted for many squirrels )

Chipmunk - 22 cal. ( 2 1/2 lbs 16 1/8 inch barrel accurate & fun to shoot. a real conversation piece, has taken a few squirrels )

Remington M 700 - 222 cal. ( Taken many ground hogs / extremely accurate )

Winchester M 70 - 30.06 cal. ( Accounted for most of my Whitetail deer.It got heaver as I got older)

Weatherby Mk5 Ultralite - 30-06 cal. ( New but has already put meat in the pot. & a pleasure to carry. )

Harrington & Richardson M 348 Gamester 12ga.Bolt action with adj.choke.( I've taken 2 turkeys, but the memories of a brother who took a lot of game with it.)

I have added my 5cents ( inflation you know) :grin:

( Hey Graybeard you got me to register after all ) :roll:

Mikey · « **Reply #7 on:** January 22, 2003, 10:42:16 AM »

longwinters: what it takes for me is a complete takedown, cleaning, honing, redoing this or that, new parts, bedding, stocks, whatever the old warhorse needs to shoot straight.

I try not to buy new rifles unless I want to do something with them, like have them rebarrelled right away or something else.

I prefer old mil-surps and turning them into sporters, either in their original configuration or through a complete sporterization. By the time I'm finished with a 'project', I know that rifle so well I even amaze myself sometimes. Friends think it's my old Army training. What they don't realize is that by the time you have finished handling that rifle for so many hours you are so familiar with it that it just seems to be a part of you. If the dang thing shoots straight you are that much farther ahead of the game.

Mikey.

Wild Oregon · « **Reply #8 on:** July 22, 2003, 04:29:59 PM »

First, I need to know how you guys are able to get all those new rifles past
your ordinance officer (wife). Secondly, what issues do you have with a synthetic stock?? Anyone

jhm · « **Reply #9 on:** July 22, 2003, 04:54:20 PM »

Longwinters : I dont know how many times I have told myself over the past 40+ years that this is the gun I have been looking for all my life, it keeps me looking as I really enjoy the old craftmanship of fine steel and wood working together to creat a work of art that has a function as well as beauty to go with it, anf Wild Oregon my wife well after all these years of a decent mariage and me not messing up too bad in life I am allowed a few vices and collecting and shooting, and taking apart just to see how it works gives me alot of satisfaction, and what the hell she is just going to sell them all when I die and buy another DIAMOND RING

JIM

jhm · « **Reply #10 on:** July 22, 2003, 04:59:51 PM »

Wild oregon : I am not a big fan of the syn stocks, I know that they have their place and when I was younger and hunted in all kinds of weather I would have wanted one, but since I am retired and can pick and choose the days I want to hunt I will stick with the blue steel and fine walnut as I said earlier a fine gun is a piece of art to me and nothing looks better than craftmanship on two items wood and blue steel. PS I do have some guns with the laminated wood that is a little heavier than walnut and add a certain look to the rifle.

JIM

Carl l. · « **Reply #11 on:** July 23, 2003, 02:58:16 AM »

JHM, Well writtin, I couldn't agree with any one more. Carl L.

Lawdog · « **Reply #12 on:** July 23, 2003, 09:43:01 AM »

longwinters,

I believe the Hud said it best as it covers the way I am about my .300 Weatherby Mark V Deluxe that I got in 1963. Extreme confidence would be how I would put it, not bonding really. Lawdog

longwinters · « **Reply #13 on:** July 23, 2003, 12:01:00 PM »

So tell me. Does your rifle being able to shoot 1" MOA make a difference to you? Or, do you like your rifle inspite of the fact that it may only shout 1.5" groups? To me the enjoyment of using a rifle would be related to how it looks, how it carries, how small a group it shoots and how I have performed with it while hunting. To date the only rifle I have that fits all of these criteria is my Tikka 243. But I guess I need to quit trading and hang on to my other rifles long enough to see how it goes....now thats a thought :eek:

jhm · « **Reply #14 on:** July 23, 2003, 01:08:03 PM »

Longwinters : I would be lying to you if I said my all time favorite was the one that was the most accurate, yes I like to squeze the most out of a rifle thet I can, so I try different loads, part of the joy of shooting and reloading for that particular rifle, no my present all time favorite is a rifle that I usually have with me on the farm here it a howa 1500 in 223, but when deer season aproaches I really fall in love with a rem. model 7 in 7-08, have heavier guns but getting older lets you down size on lots of things, I spend from after the 4th of july working on the food plots and deer feeders also the box blinds so when others say baiting is a lazy mans way of hunting I just allow myself a small smile and tell myself they dont know what they are missing, the joy of having one of your favorite guns along with you in the woods makes it all worth it.

JIM

JACKNZ · « **Reply #15 on:** July 27, 2003, 06:38:38 PM »

Ya made me think a bit there,I have been thru a few rifles over the years,
I have a SAKO A1 that I spent a lot of years waiting for,but the rifle I always seem to take is a Remington ADL in .308,it is a very plan rifle thats shoots avarage groups,I have carryed the thing miles over most of the roughest country in NZ and it has never let me down.When I take a kid or new hunter with me this is the rifle they always carry,It has shot a few first deer.I got this rifle as part of a swap but I would not now part with it for gold.Just way to many great memorys.Hills,rivers,camp fires,
good mates,rain,snow,mud,blood,nights spent temporarily misplaced,Deer,pigs,thar,wild cattle,chamios,goats,,need I say more..
JACK..

Jack Gilbert · « **Reply #16 on:** September 15, 2003, 03:51:44 PM »

Guess it would be the model 70 I picked up a few years ago used (well, it was made in 1955) and had barely been used--bluing still on the bolt face. Well, it shoots consistently and is a favorite for that, besides being a real classic. Stock looks kind of tacky but what the hay, it's a hunting rifle.

gunnut69 · « **Reply #17 on:** September 15, 2003, 07:19:07 PM »

My long gun count is into triple digits. Some are just financial speculation, some are just experiments in process, but the ones that mean the most are the ones with the memories. Some of those are missing. A Remington M788, the first high power rifle I owned, stolen.. A M67 Winchester single shot, belonged to an uncle who was more like a father, sold at auction with me to poor to bid!! I have 5 M67's now but still not the right one.. A M550 Remington with a groove in the stock from using the gun to hold down fence wire, was my fathers.. He was a market hunter as a youth and guns were tools. He was not stupid though... told me once the days of shooting all you wanted are gone, I don't really think he missed them.. He taught me how to hunt effectively and how to see in the woods. He was not the best shot but one of the best hunters I've ever known. If it rained during our deer season,that's the day he killed his deer. Some sjot in their bed, they never knew he was there and that in his 60's. Dad taught me to kill, my uncle taught me when to kill. I miss them both,,,

detritus · « **Reply #18 on:** September 16, 2003, 01:32:24 PM »

Quote

Does your rifle being able to shoot 1" MOA make a difference to you

Well first off that's a YES with a possible "time will tell"....

See i've never OWNED a, non-military, cernterfire bolt action that WOULDN'T shoot 1MOA with tailored handloads....
even the little Remington 600 that my father gave me a few years ago (first centerfire rifle i ever got to shoot as a kid btw) would shoot that well, the fact that dad had freefloated the barrel may have had something to do with that.

so after having spent just over half my life seeing "1 MOA" as a standard for "non-battle rifles" (military guns have theior OWN draw) i can pretty much say that if a gun don't shoot 1MOA or less at 100yards it's NOT gonna stay in my safe long....

now i should be careful because one of these days i may walk up on a right beauty of a shootin iron that for reasons other than accuracy that i'll never sell, but at this time i just don't see that happening.

as to what makes me "bond" with a rifle, many things and many of them are things that defy explaination, adn they vary from gun to gun.
in fact in the past two years I HAVE had to sell off all teh guns i could spare and of that only two of them did NOT hurt to see cross the counter... a ruger Bisley in .22 and a year old 10/22.

I've had at least two guns that the instant the sales clerk handed them i KNEW that if not THIS gun then one like it would be mine... teh first was a Savage 110FP in .223 that just "felt RIGHT" in my hands, the other was a Marlin 1894"cowboy" in 45 colt that had the most beautifully figured wood i'd seen on an example of that model, in both cases i had the clerks get teh lay-away form before i handed the gun back... :grin:

Big Tom · « **Reply #19 on:** September 16, 2003, 05:40:10 PM »

Quote from: longwinters

I know many of you have multiple (ie tons of ) rifles. Some you keep them just because you never get rid of one. Others because you have bonded with them . . . they are a part of your life. Even to trade them for another rifle would be considered a loss to you. What did it take for you to form a bond to a mechanical tool that shoots a metal projectile through the air, makes lots of noise and costs you money each time you do it?

Actually I think the challenge of setting up a new rifle(after months of indecisive research :roll: ),developing a load and fine tuning it at the range is all part of the experience for me. My first rifle, a Rem 700 ADL in 30.06, stayed with me the longest and made some amazing shots for me including a 200 yd running heart shot :eek: Pure luck indeed... but I'll never forget it. That rifle was lost in a fire a number of years ago.
Right now an older Sako Lightweight Hunter in .308 is my favorite. Especially after it made a tough shot on the nice 9 point last November that now graces the wall behind me. :wink:

jim21 · « **Reply #20 on:** April 17, 2006, 06:25:46 PM »

I'm not saying I bonded with my rifles.I'm saying I like the smell of gun powder,the solvents and thought of the hunt.

mountainview · « **Reply #21 on:** April 18, 2006, 04:57:47 AM »

Reckon that I am of "loose shooting morals" since I tend to bond with most anything that goes bang. I have however formed a few long lasting/long term relationships and I am what I guess you could call a polygamist (gunwise that is).

Robert357 · « **Reply #22 on:** April 18, 2006, 06:58:23 PM »

Let me tell you about bonding.

I hand load. There is something special about getting a rifle, especially a military surplus rifle, and figuring out how to adjust the trigger, adjust the sights, float the barrel, get it grouping well. Then you get to work up hand loads so that it is even more accurate. After investing hours of range time and figuring out how to make this rifle shoot far better than when you first got it, it would be hard to sell it.

Even if you put that rifle that you have tricked out in the back of your gun safe and don't bring it out to the range or the field very often, it is still special and a symbol of your mastery of the shooting sports for what you have turned it into.

It doesn't need to accurate enough to enter into benchrest match, but it has to shoot respectable and much better than when you first got it.

jro45 · « **Reply #23 on:** April 19, 2006, 05:44:23 AM »

I would say my 30-06 and my 300 Win Mag. These are the ones I've shot
the most out of all my rifles. I only own a few not sure how many.

BRL · « **Reply #24 on:** April 20, 2006, 04:20:21 AM »

I am reading this post because I am looking to purchase my first bolt action. However, I am a lefty. But, the gun I have bonded with is, believe it or not, a Rem 7400 auto in .30-06. This was the first gun I bought at age 18, and being a lefty, didn't have much else to choose from at that time (early 1980's) in that price range. It has been 100% for me with 1 shot kills every time. Other than the sentimental reason of it being the first gun I bought and it's track record, I have a hard time telling myself that this is the gun I've bonded with. Although, when I leave for a hunting trip (which is slim to none these days) it seems to always find it's way next to me. I keep pondering trading it for something newer and more modern, but usually end up just buying a new gun instead of trading it. But, of course, none of my newer guns (since buying the 7400) have ever been fired at an animal, just paper. I am hoping a new bolt will become my proud companion. The looks/smurks I get when I pull out that old auto really get old...of course until I come back with an animal.

BRL · « **Reply #25 on:** April 20, 2006, 04:24:03 AM »

jhm, do you take visitors on your farm...ha ha? Sounds like you have a great set up.

lilabner · « **Reply #26 on:** April 20, 2006, 02:06:24 PM »

The only rifles I've bonded with are those I inherited from my best hunting partner, my father. They may have a few battle scars but they are beautiful to me. Memories. I make it a practice to hunt his favorite, a Springfield 30-06, on the nice days. Most of the time, I use stainless, synthetic stock jobs that shoot well but there's no connection to them.