NitroX
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| (.700 member) |
| 04/06/20 09:37 PM |
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Re: Mountain Rifles... a brief history....
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To put it bluntly, if I had to have only one rifle to hunt everything in the mountains I would choose a .270W.
I used this caliber a lot during fifty-three seasons of mountain hunting.
Thanks for the excellent reply. And those beautiful mountain scene photos. Awe inspiring.
The friend who had that Blaser rifle in 7 mm Rem Mag and .375 H&H was a great fan of the .270 Winchester. Used it on everything. Including water buffalo, when he hunted in Africa wanted to use the .270 on lion and cape buffalo. The PH would not let him. Hunted the South Pacific Grand Slam pretty much with the .270 Win.
When I started hunting deer, and bought my second centrefire, the first a .222 Rem 788, the second my Parker Hale .30-06. Almost everyone in the deer hunting club had .270s or .243s. Maybe a 7 mm Rem Mag. My .30-06 was the largest calibre. Years later not a .270 Win in sight, few .243's lots of larger calibres.
As I always say, game isn't any harder to kill today than sixty years ago.
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I started my mountain hunting career in 1966 with a second hand 8x60S 1951 FN Mauser fitted with a Lyman 48 receiver sight before getting the possibility of acquiring a Belgian made Raik Frères 6,5x57 98' that I gave up latter for a M-S NO model cal. 6,5x68 mounted with a 4x32 Hensoldt Diasta.
A few years later I was lucky to find a .270W pre-64 W70 Featherweight that I used for a long time.
The years helping I continued to use practically only .270W rifles, in particular a GK M-S which I re-barreled using a superb match grade 25" tube from MAPF (Manufacture d'Armes des Pyrénées Françaises - UNIQUE - Olympic Gold medal winner).
With this special M-S I killed more than two hundred chamois in our mountains with 130 grains RWS H-Mantel loads.
An impressive number.
Chamois and tahr and similar mountain species are held by some to be the epitome of game and hunting. So an incredible feat.
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Of course, I used also many other rifles in various calibers, but almost never of magnum, except a 7RM during a period when, on the same territory, we hunted chamois, mouflon and mountain stag.
As I got older I converted to the smaller calibers.
I built several light chambered prototypes for some wildcats: 6mm-284, 6mm Remington AI and for some special cartridges: 5,6x57RWS, 6mmNorma BR before definitively becoming reasonable by focusing on the 6XC, the 6,5 Creedmoor and the sweet 6,5x55SE.
Now I hunt almost everything with 6.5 Creedmoor and 6.5x55SE when stalking and with my .275 Rigby (aka 7x57) in driven hunt.
Some lovely choices there, the 6.5x55 and 7x57.
Can't resist, no need for a 6.5 CM if the Swedish King is already owned!
Joking of course. A stir to Mr Ripp. My 6.5x55 Swedish is a M38 or M96 cut back rifle in a synthetic stock. Mil stepped barrel. Still with the mil trigger. Definitely no lightweight. If it was lighter, would make a nice choice. Extremely accurate rifle though.
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Of course I prefer classic rifles and nice walnut stocks but it must be recognized that the modern technical rifles using stainless steel, titanium, kevlar and carbon are precious by their resistance, their stability and their low weight when climbing the mountain becomes difficult and weather goes wrong.
Even if it must be shocking for some friends, I really like the Barrett "Fieldcraft" of which I have a 6,5x55SE that has been prepared and modified in our workshop.
Of course jokes about plastic stocks. This is "Nitro Express" after all, if it isn't a hundred years old and walnut, it is a bit too new.
Of course plastic stocks can make sense. Featherweight rifles and rifles for climates where it is very wet and rough.
Most plastic stocked rifles today are stocked that way however because it is merely cheaper.
Your walnut stocks are so well super model shaped, plastic would be like fakes on a super model!
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We are currently manufacturing two "Light Stalking Rifles", a .270W take-down and another, even lighter chambered for the 6,5x55SE round, the two rifles being built on BRNO ZG47 and mod.21 highly modified actions.
Looking forward to hopefully seeing these one day in the future.
As always a good value post by M. Dorleac-Guisset. Thanks for the reply.