Why do you shoot a semi ?

[Country Boy]

With all their faultssome people have no choice but to shoot a semi. because of health problems. So why do you guys use them ? I'm talking deer hunting here not target shooting.

[smoji]

Faults???  The only fault I find with a semi is that when you shoot, the gun is still charged and dangerous.
I prefer bolts, but I use a BAR because it came as a trade, it shot better than anything else that I had and it hasn't been traded out yet.

[victorcharlie]

Honestly, I'm a bolt action, then lever action guy.  I got my 7400 on a trade and have only hunted with it a couple of times.  I'm still trying to decide if I like it or not.  My rule has always been one shot, one kill and if I need more than one shot I should have a shotgun.  For most of my rifle hunting, a single shot or muzzle loader would work just fine.

I don't really know why I'm keeping it, but with a gas operated action and limbsaver recoil pad, it's a pussy cat on recoil and I'm thinking my wife or grandsons might hunt with it one of these days.

[Rick Teal]

I hunt the thick stuff in Ontario.  Here, hunting ranges are short, and the action happens and is over very quickly.  Much of our hunting is by way of drives, still hunting, tracking, line drives or variations of all four.  

You normally don't have the time or opportunity to clear shooting lanes and carefully examine a potential shot to be sure your bullet doesn't deflect off brush.  

I'd say that under these circumstances, a hunter may lose anywhere between 25 and 75 percent of his shots to unseen intervening brush.  For this reason, the ability to make rapid follow-up shots is a necessity.  This dictates the use of an auto, pump or lever action.  

I've hunted with all three - in fact I currently hunt deer with a BLR - , but I find that the "comfort level" of knowing that the next shot will be there if needed makes me a bettter game shot when I use an autoloader.

[Type99]

Hello...

I second what Rick said.  I hunt in Maine in the woods where shots are rarely any more than 20 yards, and often closer.  After losing a shot at a deer due no doubt to brush in the way, and then my rifle (Winchester M70 Featherweight in '06) jammed, preventing a second shot, I decided to try a semi.  In fact, after my rifle jammed, I walked over to where the deer was, and the two deer were still standing there, snorted, and ran off!  If I had had the rapid second shot capability, the outcome may, and I stress may, have been different.  I have never, ever had a bolt gun jam on me, and it was just one of these flukey things.

I am going to try my BAR in .300 Win Mag.  It is every bit as accurate as a bolt gun, not excessively heavy, and has the punch in case a rare long shot presents itself.  I know some will say that caliber is overpowered on whitetails, but I don't think so, what with the size of deer up here, and the possibility of shooting across clear cuts.

Cheers,
Gary

[Squeeze]

For those of us that don't hunt places that look like OLN's Bean Field
hunts, or Buckmasters South Texas Box Blind hunts, but instead hunt
heavy timber, semi-autos can mean the difference between  
deer stories, and deer steaks.  I have two bolt action rifles, in deer calibers,
one bolt action pistol, and one T/C Encore in a pistol config, yet  
in many of my deer hunting situations, they stay home, and the BAR  
goes hunting.   On opening day, in mixed timber, and farm country,
of NE Wisconsin, those true trophy bucks are moving, and some
times they are flying.  You can grunt, blat, fart, whistle, or scream,
and they are not going to slow down.  So be practiced at running
shots, know your target, and what is beyond, and then let the
BAR bark.  My personal best buck stepped out into an opening,
in a thick creek bottom, and I took an "automatic" 60 yard  
broadside standing shot...Dead Deer right?  Nope, a tiny twig,
about 5 yards from the deer sent the bullet into the dirt, or a  
tree, and Ol' Mossy Horns took off like a shot.  I carefully  
tracked him, and took 3 more shots, as he went through  
openings in the timber.  The last flash in the timber,
he was still moving.  I thought I missed a big buck!
I went to where I last thought I saw him, and could not
find blood, and there were tons of fresh tracks from other
deer.  I went back to the first shot, and found the clipped
twig.  I dry tracked him and found one hit in a tree, where
I shot the second shot.  I continued, and found another  
sapling clipped, at the site of the third shot, and I continued
tracking.  At the site of the fourth and final shot, I found  
a few sprigs of hair, and a bit of tissue that looked like lung.
About 20 yards from that site, I saw an antler sticking out  
of the creek.  I pulled a VERY nice buck out of the creek,
that would still be running, if I had been shooting a bolt  
action rifle.  I have just under 30 whitetail bucks in the  
picture book, and more than half of them have been hauling
butt through the northern hardwoods, and all of them have
been taken with semi-auto deer guns.  I have three management
deer with bolt action rifles, and handguns.  
 
I do hunt late season with my Savage Striker, in pop up blinds,
since the deer have settled down.  So it is nice to have different
"tools" to choose from.  But for heavy cover trophy deer hunting,
IMHO, nothing beats a good reliable semi-auto rifle.
 
Squeeze

[targshooter]

Country Boy,
I use a semi-auto for close in hunting situations because there is no action manipulation noise for a second shot. Three times I have had the brush deflect a bullet and the deer hear the subsequent bolt action manipulation, with the result that a standing confused deer becomes a learned fleeing deer. Of course, all the times I've had a semi,  the first shot has settled the issue, isn't it always the way!

[Bigfoot]

I have a Savage bolt gun, but I bought my 30-06 BAR as kind of a science project. I wanted the softest kicking elk capable rifle I could build(without a brake). Well, after adding the Simms recoil pad it's so managable that I'm thinking about getting a 338 WM instead. The new ones weigh just a little more than the 06, and the new Shorttrack .308 weighs almost a pound less, so this might be a 2 BAR household next year.

The Savage will do the longer range stuff when I cross over to the wideopen Eastern side of Oregon.