Well darn, as I was reading these postings I was mulling over a reply. Then, Boomer comes along and gets points on two out of three subjects I was going to go on!
I was going to say how fed up I am getting on hearing people trash wood stocked and blue metal, for anything except dry and sunny conditions. My favourite big game rifle sits in it's special place without one speck of rust on it. I purchased it, a Husqvarna, new in December 1949. It was the second 30-06 I had owned and the third I had used. That Husqvarna has been carried on more mountains than most hunters will ever see. It's been in the worst of wet weather, just as one would expect to find in the mountains. I once paid good coin for a scope that was, "Guaranteed not to fog up." On the first mountain trip with it, the scope fogged up so bad that you litterally couldn't see through it! But, as I said, there is no rust on that rifle.
Boomer stated the accuracy required on a hunting rifle very well. I would even stretch his 2 inch figure out to 2½, including for mountain hunting. As I have stated I have hunted on more than a few mountains, but I never yet found a benchrest for shooting on any mountain! The longest shot I made, or ever tried, was on a caribou. There was nothing, whatsoever, to rest the rifle on. I tried to lay prone, but the grass was too high. So I sat, wrapped up in my sling and made the shot. In any hunting condition where the rifle is not rested on something and is held soley by the shooter, 2½ MOA shooting is very good.
I think 22 inches is about the best length foar a 30-06 class rifle. For a heavier calibre, I would like a longer barrel. Also, I have hunted more with 24 inch barrels than any other length, and never really felt handicapped because of a fairly long barrel. Well, maybe once I would have liked it a bit shorter.
Two of us were going up the north slope of a mountain. Anyone familiar with mountains knows the north side is the worst possible way to get through the bush on the side of a montain. How thick that bush can get and how the alders can twist and merge through it, just has to be seen to be appreciated. The hunter with me was an archer, so just had his bow. Guard duty fell to me with my trusty 30-06.
Just as the alders were starting to get thick, there was a path up the mountain side! I say path, but it truly and actually was, a mini tunnel. It was closed on top completely, by the twisted alders, as the grizzly bears had made a well beaten trail for going up and down the mountain! We had to hunch over to travel on it and could actually see how tall the grizzlies were, by the hair on the top of the "tunnel." A shorter rifle would have been handier, but I didn't have to use it.
As a point of interest, that mountain in central BC, that was loaded with grizzly and the best goat mountain I have ever seen, has for a number of years now, been put under the top class of protection. No travel of any type on it, in a large area.
Sorry if I got carried away from the topic here, but you did ask about a hunting rifle.
