The man with one gun

When I own lot's of rifle It seems I only ever shoot one. Now I'm down to 2 centerfires, 2 .22s and one shotgun. I still do most of my shooting with one of the .22's(but ya gotta have a 2nd .22 for a loaner/wife gun) and now I'm using my new 7mm-08 alot, I haven't even shot my 6.5x55 since I got it!

Plus my wife's new rule is that I'm only allowed to have 5 guns at a time (stops me from buying every gun i see)
 
Personally I'm tired of having problems with magazines.
Tired of having to deal with hour long rifle cleaning sessions.
Tired of having to chase brass I need to reload all over the range and bush.
Tired of finicky Milsurps.

So my goal is to some day have one single shot rifle with replaceable barrels in other calibers. :p
 
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One gun...yeah...great idea...

...unless you need a loaner...

...or have a malfunction before or during a hunt...

...or feel that one caliber and bullet weight just might not be perfect for everything you might hunt...

...or want to take advantage of extra muzzleloader/shotgun seasons...

...or have an imagination...
 
If i ever had to make that silly choice i think i'd just stick with my 870 in 12G. it'd do fine for everything i could ever hunt around here. If i were allowed 1 centerfine, 1 rimfire and 1 shotgun the list would probly be as follows:

1. 308 or 30-06 are nice all around calibers
2. a ruger 77/22 in 22 mag with iron sights added
3. my 870 in 12 g

I hope i never actually have to make this choice though, i'd be :(
 
sealhunter said:
Not so much, "what one gun would you pick" but more of the idea of being extremely experienced with one gun as opposed to moderately experienced with many and advantages or disadvantages..
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So a guy cant be extremely experienced if he owns more than one rifle? I know lots of extremely experienced shooters, and guess what, they own many rifles and are good with all of them.
 
sealhunter said:
Not so much, "what one gun would you pick" but more of the idea of being extremely experienced with one gun as opposed to moderately experienced with many and advantages or disadvantages..
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guns aren't that complicated. plus having only one gun is a liability, not an asset no matter how familiar you are with it. most "versitile" hunting rifles are too expensive to shoot and too hard on the shoulder to have lots of trigger time with.

somebody tell me which one gun i could have for my uses, it needs too:

shoot gophers, blackbirds, skunks, turkeys, coyotes, big game up to elk/moose in size. fit in a scabbard, have open sights and a scope, be cheap enough to plink with and recoil mild enough to introduce new shooters to the sport, and be good looking enough for me to have some pride of ownership. it is not legal to use a shotgun for game bigger than deer/black bear where i live and turkeys aren't legal with a centerfire rifle.
 
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John Y Cannuck said:
A lot of the one rifle guys I know are true Fudds. Dig it out of the closet only for hunting season. The "beware the man with one gun he likely knows how to use it" axiom just doesn't fit those guys.
I will never be in that group, even if I had just one, it'd be shot regularly.

My '94 Winchester 30-30 will always be my friend it's never let me down. If it came down to me owning just one, that would be it.
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Yeah, I don't buy into that axiom either.

Here is mine:

Beware the man who can lay hold of any gun, field strip it with ease, and fire it with great effect.
 
Sometimes I like the idea of just one gun for everything. To be so intimate with one gun, one load, I think it would be pretty deadly. I'd take a good bolt action in 260 or 6.5-06, 270 or 280 - top it with a wicked scope. Buy so much ammo components per year I'd be rebarreling it often.

not gonna happen though....
 
There are guns for having and guns for shooting.

For shooting guns you only need three.
.22 for rabbit sized game
.30 cal for deer sized game
shotgun for duck shooting

You can extend that with a long range varminter, 223, 204 or whatever.

Personally I have a Brno model 2e .22, Brno 601 in 308 and a Norinco m305 for a project rifle. No shotgun. Sure if I had more money I would buy more but I don't need any more.

I have carried my Brno 601 for too many miles to count. Every time I pick it up I can smell my sweat impregnated into the stock and the memory of past hunts floods into my mind. I won't be selling it. It's normally topped with a another classic, leupold FXII 4x33 but currently I am trailing a FX3 6x42.
 
sealhunter said:
Not what I said,..
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Sorry, I misunderstood what you were saying...

sealhunter said:
I know too many people that think a new gun/various guns will compensate for their inability to compensate/adjust/perform.
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sealhunter said:
Not so much, "what one gun would you pick" but more of the idea of being extremely experienced with one gun as opposed to moderately experienced with many and advantages or disadvantages..
Click to expand...

So I guess to answer your last statement if I understand it correctly, I myself would rather be "extremely experienced" with many rifles over just one. I shouldn't have to explain the advantages :)
 
sealhunter said:
I know too many people that think a new gun/various guns will compensate for their inability to compensate/adjust/perform.
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I know too many one gun hunters that will never be very good with their rifles either, mostly because they never practice. They want to buy one box of shells every three years and usually get someone else to check the zero on their rifle before every hunting season because they don't like the recoil or something silly like that.

As we all know(or should), the ability to compensate/adjust/perform as you put it comes from practice. Owning and shooting one rifle or ten wont change that fact. One thing I have noticed is that usually when a person buys another rifle they like to get out and shoot it, which cant be all bad as at least they are getting more trigger time(practice).

Practice makes perfect :)
 
I like a variety, no reason in particular, just I get bored shooting the same gun all the time.

last year I used an ADL .300wm. had lots of hitting power, flat shooting, wasnt too pretty so I didnt have to baby it, and was a reliable.

downside was it was a bit long, and heavy recoiling. Sold it this month for a target gun, so now I need a new hunter. this year I think want a ruger frontier .338 fed.
 
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