1 Mar 09
Readers:
I used to read hunting and gun magazines; subscribed to as many as 6 or 7 at a time. I used to ask everyone I met who had any hunting experience (or said they did) to share their hunting and gun knowledge with me. I used to believe everything the major firearms manufacturers said in their brochures.
Then after 30 years of hunting and trying various rifle and carbine actions (about 500 of them) with various cartridge and bullet combinations, I found what seemed to be most compatible with me and with my needs. I have owned and fired most brands of American-made rifles (including Weatherby, Riedl, Winchester, Ruger, Marlin, Sharps, Springfield, Enfield, and Remington among others), I have had rifles made in South America, Australia, and various European and Asian countries.
The bolt action rifles I found to be most dependable and most correlated with my personality are 1) the Remington 700, 2) the Sako Vixen, 3) the Tika rifles, and 4) the traditional Mausers. The lever action rifles I like most are 1) the Winchester 94 and the Marlin 1894 and 2) the Marlin 336. The Marlin 336, while probably stronger than the Winchester, simply does not seem to be as natural for me as does the Winchester.
After 40 years of hunting, I began to realize the value of having rifles (actually carbines) which were shorter and lighter. I have bad ankles and an old back injury, and I found that I enjoyed carrying the lightest and shortest carbine much more and shot it much better at the end of the day than I did a longer and heavier rifle.
About at the 40 year mark in hunting experience, I was shooting a 7X57 with handloaded bullets for prairie and Black Hills whitetail and mule deer and carried a 308 as a backup rifle, a 6MM Remington for Antelope and multiple 6MMs for prairie dogs, a 338 for elk, a 375 H&H for bison, and a 45-70 for wild hogs, the 22 Hornet for turkeys, and a 22 Long Rifle Remington Nylon model 12 for Richardson's and 13-stripped ground squirrels. In the meantime I had tried many cartridges ranging from the 17 Remington to the 378 Weatherby and the 458 Winchester, with 270s, 280s, 30-06s, 300 Savages, 257 Roberts, 375 Winchester, 356 Winchester, 222 Remington, 25-06, 7MM Remington Magnum and on and on in between.
I did not scope the lever actions, a behavior which seems to me unethical or even immoral. I strongly believe that the red gods never intended for a lever action carbine to wear a scope, so all of mine have been fitted with aperture sights (with the aperture drilled out as large as the metal allows). But I did put scopes on the bolt action rifles and carbines.
I soon learned several things about scopes: First, 12 power is about all one can use practically on a long-range prairie dog rifle. Mirage makes a scope of higher power completely unusable on a hot, Sunlit prairie day. Second, no matter how much one pays for a variable scope, with continued usage, a variable powered scope will change point of aim with the change in power. This flaw may not happen this year or next year, but expect it to happen sooner or later. I have shaken the lenses out of single powered scopes with heavy-recoiling rifles; but on the average, a good single power scope will hold its zero better than a variable scope of the same manufacturer.
Third, there is no reason to have a big game rifle scope with more than 6 power. If you can not see the big game animal well enough with 4 or 6 power scope to place your shot, you are too far away to be trying a shot anyway. Also, on a running animal, anything over 6 power does not give you enough field of view to be able to hit in any and all circumstances. Fourth, folks who have variable scopes tend to break one of the cardinal rules of hunting: They use the rifle scope for spotting. I have been spotted by such a nimrod; and fortunately for him, he could run faster than I could in my attempt to catch him.
Also, at about 40 years of experience, I fell in love with the hunting of wild hogs. My personality, my drives to hunt, and hogs were absolutely matched. At that time, I actually quit hunting deer and most other game; with the exception of Wilson's snipe and woodcock.
Then I moved first to Louisiana, and finally to Texas. Now I can hunt hogs whenever I have time to do so. I mostly use rifles, scopes, knives, and such to hunt. The hunting of wild hogs itself is my priority! Thus, I am not interested in trying out new calibers, or new gadgets, or spending a Saturday looking for special hunting clothing; I am not willing to give up the time for those things because what I desire most is to be out in the field hunting hogs.
So, what do I use? You certainly can read it elsewhere in the WBC Posts, but for hunting in the light of day and in the woods I use a Winchester 30-30 Trapper with heavy, hard bullets and aperture sights. I treat it like a tool: I have spray painted the metal black, and the stocks are black RamLine. It has to go with me in rain or shine, in mud or in dust, and it gets knocked around a great deal -- partially due to the fact that my ankles are so unstable. I have washed mud out of its barrel after a fall in the mud by removing the cartridges and swishing it out in a mud puddle (otherwise the fall would have ended my hunt).
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For low light and moonlight hunting conditions, I usually use my Remington 600 carbine (which is a model 700 derivative) in 308 with a RamLine stock and Nikon 4X40 scope. I shoot NATO FMJ ammo in this one because it is available, kills hogs well, and allows me to shoot as much as I want without great cost and without having to waste my precious hog-hunting time doing reloading. The 308 also allows me to use the short bolt action which makes the whole firearm shorter and lighter than something in the 30-06 class or larger.
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When I am wearing special hunting clothes, you can be certain that my wife, Ila, has purchased them for me at a garage sale or at a charity resale store. I am not willing to waste my time or have my intelligence and experience insulted by going into one of the hunting & fishing box stores looking for duds to wear.
I have now arrived at the 57 years of hunting experience mark. I began hunting wild hogs in 1972, so I guess I have had 37 years of experience in hunting hogs. Already, 37 years ago I was carrying the sheath knife I use today. And I have used the same folding knife for 25 years. I have done a bunch of knife trading, and I have given many knives to others as gifts, but I have not found better knives for my use than the knives I tell about and have pictured in the "Knives" section on the WBC Web.
I have also been shown many gadgets which a hunter must have; new gadgets are being invented every month. In the last 25 years of my hunting, I have added no new gadgets to my hog hunting. I have looked many over carefully, I have actually tried some which I thought looked promising. I presently carry the same items in my fanny pack which I carried wild hog hunting 25 years ago.
What we, what YOU dear reader must learn, is that it is THE HUNTER which makes regular hog kills; all equipment is secondary. The observant, practiced, dedicated hunter is the most important, the most vital factor in the determination of hog hunting success.
So, when you wonder why I am not interested in going with you on a trip to Cabella's, or Academy, or Gander Mountain, or why I do not appear to be interested in the equipment others write about, know that I am too focused upon using my time to hunt hogs. I simply am unwilling to trade time during which I could be out hunting wild hogs for such heady and theoretical speculations as are dumped upon me in those stores.
I am busy hunting hogs. And I am hunting hogs with what I have determined works well for me. Could I get by with some other combination? Yes I could. I could get by with a 505 Gibbs and a 6 X 24 scope and a Winchester in 45-90 for my woods rifle, I simply choose not to (even though few hogs would escape solid hits from these). The 308 and the 30-30 serve me just fine.
The secret of successful wild hog hunting is found in the hunter: The equipment one has comes in as a distant second consideration.
-- Little Eddie
P.S. I keep a Ruger International with a 4X40 Bushnel scope ready for action in case I fall down and knock off the scope of my Remington 600. It is not nearly the quality or functionality of the Remington or of my other favorite rifle actions I mentioned above: The action is rough like a pump jack, and the angled bedding screw makes it shoot out of wood stocks, and the barrel has one exceedingly tight spot in it (which makes it difficult to run a tight patch through it); but it is good enough for an emergency stand in. It shoots accurately enough for hogs and the chamber is cut big enough to accept the 7.62X51 NATO ammo.
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