I like my M-1 Garand for deer and elk. I also have a 1917 Eddystone bolt action that I will take as a backup, or if I want a lighter rifle in the mountainous terrain.

How do you do to limit the amount of rounds you can carry in the magazine to keep within hunting rules?

With my .12ga it's just a wooden dowel that keeps me from loading more than three rounds but the Garand has that 8 round clip.

When I was in boot camp we trained on the Garand, but they didn't let us use the stripper clip. I seem to remember having to load it by hand, but it's been a very long time. Could ones used for hunting have a 5-round limit?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Yahoshua
And I was talking about your situation with my co-worker and his advice on the Browning A-bolt is to forget about it and go for something else as the A-bolt has some design flaws with the bolt and trigger assembly (I forget all the deatils but I got the gist of it), but they're manufactured with excellent barrel quality.
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Don't be trash talking my A-bolt without some documentation. :p I know a co-worker who knows somebody who says it is a flawed system doesn't work for me.:arrgh!:

My A-bolt is a great rifle and a tack-driver. I wouldn't sell it for 4 times what I paid for it. Rifle owners tend to be biased for or against something just the way car owners are.

@AAronblood:
The best piece of advice you got here was to find a way to go shoot a rifle or two before you buy. Find a decent quality 30-06 and go shoot it. Find somethIng as close to what you are planning on buying as you can. Make your purchasing decisions after that, not before. You really owe it to yourself to do this.

Have fun. Shooting is a great sport.:up:

Yeah... I know, I just don't have any friends with rifles. http://www.xl-logic.com/emoticon/crymore.gif

I guess I'll have to resort to asking my dad, to ask some of his police buddies who hunt, "Hey will you let my son shoot your rifles." Probably would've been acceptable when I was like 19... now that I'm 38 it's just kinda humiliating. :nope:

I've been trying to locate a place where maybe I can rent one or somethin... does such a thing exist? I know there's a Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World place down in Ft. Lauderdale. They have an indoor range, but not sure if they would allow you to just shoot some of their rifles.

I guess I'll have to resort to asking my dad, to ask some of his police buddies who hunt, "Hey will you let my son shoot your rifles."


That is actually a good idea. Hunters generally support other hunters and the shooting sports, and should be open to that. If that does not work out you said money was no object, so consider purchasing a used 30-06 and taking it to a range to put a couple boxes of shells through it. You would, if nothing else, learn whether your choice of caliber is a good one. Getting familiar with a borrowed or inexpensive rifle or two at the range will also help you in deciding what to purchase.

For the record, I'm a trained gunsmith with 14 months of training and about 6 months of real-world experience under my belt (for whatever it counts for). And my co-worker is also a trained gunsmith with 20 years of experience under his belt. So if he tells me that one model of rifle is a pain in the ass to fix than another or has certain design flaws I would want to avoid then I'm going to listen to him.

Not only that, but any firerms I own I get to fix, so why would I want to buy a rifle that will have a couple of design flaws that I'm leery about, is a bit difficult to acquire parts for, and is a pain in the ass to fix much less reccommend that somebody else buy that same rifle?

I don't doubt that your rifle is manufactured with some qaulity parts but that doesn't change the fact that it's flawed and sometimes difficult to fix. If you want documentation or quotations about the A-bolts' flaws I can get it to you by tuesday.

Google or ask around at local shops to see if anyone near you rents out guns, and basically call every shop in town until you've gone through all the shops or until you find out who rents guns.

As for borrowing guns to shoot from a buddy, there's no shame in doing it. And in fact it can be quite fun, you get to shoot some other guys' gun to see how you like it and you get to burn up his ammo while doing it!! It's a win-win situation.

Joining the local sportsmans or rod and gun club might be a good idea as well. Not only do you get plenty of opportunities to compare notes with other gun owners including registered NRA firearms instructors, you get a place to shoot.

That's a good suggestion... I'll have to poke around and see what we have locally.

Also, can any of you recommend some good hunting forums?

I've tried the one here: HuntingNet
...but it's total crap (the forum implementation that is) they don't even have a User CP to track threads! :down:

Of course, you can't tell if a User CP exists on a forum until you register, and I hate wasting my time registering across a bunch of forums I'll never post to.