Practical Rifle?

[Archie]

David, I had one. The ability to put it under the seat in the pickup is a great feature. It worked well, but I liked the Swede (Ole is the name) better.

I have nothing really bad to say about it, other than I prefer the Swede. Good shooting to you

[davidsog]

Good shooting to you

You too!

[Husqvarna]

Originally Posted by Archie

David, I had one. The ability to put it under the seat in the pickup is a great feature. It worked well, but I liked the Swede (Ole is the name) better.

I have nothing really bad to say about it, other than I prefer the Swede. Good shooting to you

Ole would be norweigan

Olle is Swedish

[9ballbilly]

I think a "practical" rifle needs to be further qualified by 'for who' and 'for what'.


During the past year or so we've been considering relocating to several different places, as well as full-time RV'ing. With that in mind and wanting only one rifle, I went looking for a "Do it all" rifle for the lower 48. What I ended up with is a Ruger model 77 Hawkeye chambered in .300 RCM. Of course it's going to be too much for some things and only borderline if I win Murphy's lottery and end up facing off with a northwestern brown bear. Overall though, for me, a compact .30cal short-action rifle approximating .300 Win Mag ballistics is the most "practical" rifle I could find.

[agtman]

I think a "practical" rifle needs to be further qualified by 'for who' and 'for what'.

Not quite ... Some folks in this thread got too hung up on the word "practical," apparently unable to understand it in terms of synonyms like, "all-around," "do-it-all," "do-everything," "multi-purpose/multi-use," etc.

Whether bolt or semi, it's a rifle that's handy - being of reasonable size and weight - and obtainable in a reasonably common chambering. It's suitable for many tasks and can do pretty them well even if it's not the "best" at any one thing or niche use, like sniping gophers or p-dogs at 400yds or being competitive in hyper-accurate bench rests competitions.

Necessarily, not everyone's choice of what weapon makes for their "practical rifle" will be the same, nor even the same chambering within reason. If you understand "practical rifle" in that sense, then the 'for who' and 'for what' questions answer themselves.

During the past year or so we've been considering relocating to several different places, as well as full-time RV'ing. With that in mind and wanting only one rifle, I went looking for a "Do it all" rifle for the lower 48. What I ended up with is a Ruger model 77 Hawkeye chambered in .300 RCM. Of course it's going to be too much for some things and only borderline if I win Murphy's lottery and end up facing off with a northwestern brown bear. Overall though, for me, a compact .30cal short-action rifle approximating .300 Win Mag ballistics is the most "practical" rifle I could find.

Like the choice of envelope, but the chambering isn't, ah, ... very practical.

[9ballbilly]

That's kind of what I meant. Seems like folks were trying to debate what one single rifle was most practical for everything, instead of what was most practical for the shooting they did.

Even choosing the most practical rifle for my range of needs wasn't easy. Caliber was definitely the fly-in-the-ointment with my choice. If I didn't reload it would have been a deal breaker. The .300rcm is a fine cartridge IMO, but it's pretty unlikely that ammo will ever be as easily found as the more popular rifle chamberings.

[jrothWA]

30/30! [336 /94/ Savage 340??]

Practical due to ammo being readily available.

[Ben Dover]

To me, a "Practical" rifle is the rifle you save in your hands when you need a rifle real badly.

[Archie]

Olle it is, then.

I can say Husqvarna, but I had coaching.