When I think of a Stalking Rifle, I picture a slim rifle usually a Single Shot, but possibly a bolt action in a medium cartridge, like 275 Rigby, 303Brit, maybe 30-06 on the heavy end and something like 243 or 223 or maybe even 22 Hornet on the light end. I also picture a slim but longish barrel with iron sights and a detachable optic with low power (4x max) and a fast recital like a No1 or No4.

I question this because of a discussion that started in the shop today. I mentioned the really nice work done to the Baikal single shot in another thread and said that I had thought about such a gun as a Stalking Rifle project. I said I had considered one Of the Brass or Iron framed Henry single shots; but that they only had 22" barrels.

It was my wanting a longer barrel, 24 or 26 inch that caused the discussion to get exciting. I was immediately met with "Stalking Rifles" should be SHORT with 16 inch barrels. I said that sounded more like a Carbine to me but that I suppose you could have whatever you liked and call it whatever you wanted BUT that a Stalking Rifle had a specific description.

The guys I was talking with have a lot of hunting experience BUT not a lot classic rifle experience, nor do they care to learn about it. These are the same guys that will wear two different cammo patterns and think thats fine because the plastic stock matches one of them....