My Ruger 1895 Guide gun in 45/70. Fits like a glove and have taken everything with it since 1973.

Nothing wrong with that beauty at all!

Growing up up shooting rifles and shotguns, if I was forced to "pick one and go", it would be my 18.5-inch Mossberg 500 with ghost ring sights, simple, but effective.

While I enjoy my AR's, my first loves will likely always be my lever actions (prefer my Marlins, but also enjoy my Winchesters), but again, if forced to "pick one and go", the Mossberg shotgun would be my choice.

There is just something reassuring about the feel of that shotgun, in my hands, but then again I guess I'm just getting old.

My go-to rifle, like many above, is a Springfield Arsenal 1942 M-1, The stock is ugly with dents and dings including the cluster of little dings where the bullets were "evened up" in the clip. It hits what it is pointed at, and that 150 grain 30-06 round will surely put a hurtin' on you if you are my target.

My backup rifle is a Winchester 1885 High Wall in 45-70. It hurts on both ends, but if you are within 500 yards, you are dead. It is fun to shoot and draws the attention of everyone at the range. It sounds like a howitzer when I shoot it and that 405 grain hunk of lead makes the steel gong ring really loud when it gets there.

John

HMMMM... TOO MANY M1 GARAND, AND M1A HERE. NOT SO MANY AR? AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SEES A DEMOGRAPHICS PATTERN GOING? LOL!!! JUST KIDDING! I WOULD BE HARD PRESSED TO PICK A SINGLE LONGARM. BUT IF SOMEONE WOULD REALLY TWIST MY ARM, I COULD END UP WITH A FEW. MY REMINGTON SHOTGUNS. MY 870 AS WELL AS BOTH MY 1187, HAVE SERVED ME WELL. FOR OVER 20 YEARS NOW I COULD NOT HAVE ASKED FOR MORE FROM THEM. FUNNY THING IS, I OFTEN HEAR OR READ ABOUT HOW HORRIBLE THE 1187 IS, AND MALFUNCTIONING ALL THE TIME. ???? I GOT 2, ONE 3" AND 1 31/2," AND THEY BOTH HAVE BEEN WORKHORSES.

SO TRUE....

My Dad's Remington 721, 30.06, original weaver K4. Dad's gone, but it worked for him and works for me if something bigger needed.
Mine is an early year Ruger model 77, .243 win., early weaver V9.
Fond memories of deer, coyote, and javelina hunting in the brush country of south Texas.
We would switch rifles and then have side bets between us about which was better! Never figured it out, both worked well for the both of us!
Both go to my son, but he already has my Dad's company retirement gift, Remington 700 BDL in 30.06, with Redfield 3X9.
Thanks to the OP for bringing this up! 😀

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Wherever my mind isn't
Jim

My Norinco Mak90 is as close to what I need as it gets. I am a handgun guy but also have two fine shotguns, Bushmaster AR15 and Ruger 10/22.

I like the thumb hole stock on my Norinco Mak90, it feels good to hold.

Like TEOTWAWKI confidence? For me, my 1944 Inland M1 Carbine.

Nice furniture on a really great gun.

I've owned a few rifles, and still do, but my main interest has been handguns. Then I walked into a gun store in Miami in the early eighties, where and when a young fellow talked me into putting my hands on a Belgian LAR (with plastic where your gun has wood, and mm where yours has decimal inches). I had never before experienced a rifle that felt as natural and comfortable as that one. In fact, some years later, I happened to look up that new-fangled word "ergonomic" in my Funk & Wagnall's, and there was a tiny picture of an FN LAR.

I have since had to handle long guns like a southpaw, since my right eye doesn't work like it used to, but the LAR is still a great gun, even though nothing feels quite like magic in my left hand. My Galil is also as reliable as you would expect of one of the two best AKs (Valmet is the other). But the FAL/LAR/L1A1 is the one that turned me on to Evil Black Rifles. The SP1 is not so bad, either, if you don't like weight or recoil, and have a surplus of mice.

Someone recently made me a deal on an AR15 that I couldn't refuse and I've come to like it a lot. I have not shot it enough to feel confident with it for self defense, but it sure feels good in hand and shoots very well ~ So Far ...



All three shot groups I fired when zeroing in the Vortex Spitfire 3x scope could be covered with a quarter, most with a nickel.

Replaced the standard elevated front sight with a Pickatinny rail equipped gas block and added a Lasermaster low profile laser on it. A skinny MagPul foregrip and 40rd magazine completes the build.

A few hundred rounds through it and I will begin to feel confident in it as a home defense weapon.

digiroc

My Ruger 77s in 223, 6mm, (both w bull barrels) 300WM and 338WM
my Remington Mohawks in 6mm and 308
my CZ 22lr
If they don't shoot they don't stay

Well, I'll be the contra-guy here. Mine is an open-sighted BA Remington .22 (514?) my grandfather gave me nearly 50 years ago...and it was old then. The original poster said "which gun fills you with confidence". This is it. From the day I got it at age 12, I have been able to hit almost everything I ever aimed at. I could shoot it better than my other scoped .22. It still feels perfect when I bring it up to my shoulder with the sights lined up perfectly. It has never misfired, FTF or FTE in the thousands of rounds I have shot through it.

(In an end-of-the-world scenario, I'd take my Garand)

For range time I'd have to say my Swiss K31 is pretty confidence inspiring. It's a tack driver. On the other hand if your talking about confidence that it'll get'er done no matter the task there's really only one "rifle" that I own that fits that bill.

"Large Marge"



Like that old Billy Joel song, she's just got a way about her.

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BCCI Life Member #2068

I have several but one always comes to the top. That would be my pre64 Winchester Westerner in 264 Win. Mag..

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NRA Benefactor

Probably a Ruger American Predator in .308 with a SWR Specwar 762 suppressor topped with a Burris Black Diamond 3-12 scope. Standard loads hit all the hash marks in the scope out to 500yds every time.

My first shotgun (also my first long gun)., Browning Auto 5, Light 12---1972.

I went to Goodman's---"Goodman's For Guns", a St.Louis institution catering to the carriage trade---Al and Harold (the brothers) wore suits and ties. Their inventory was prodigious. Having told them what I wanted, I was asked, "Do you want light wood or dark wood?" I knew I had come to the right place.

When I put the gun up, I could see about half of the barrel rib---and that didn't seem right to me. I didn't know what was right, but figured that wasn't it. Off I go to my gunsmith----C. Hunt Turner---worked at Browning by day (their "wood man"), in his own COMPLETE shop by night----and was a WIZARD---could do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING.

I told him my problem. "Shoot me in the eye.", says he. I did. "Well, you're holding it all wrong.", says he----"You're holding it like a rifle." When asked how I should be holding it, he laughed----and told me to hold it anyway I liked---and he'd make it fit me. With that, he takes my brand new, rather expensive shotgun over to a belt sander; flips it on, and proceeds to grind away on my brand new, rather expensive, dark wood. I was horrified!! After a few more "Shoot me in the eyes." and MORE grinding, he asked if I wanted a recoil pad, and told me he'd call me when it was ready.

It was ready. It looked exactly the same as new, but I didn't see any rib when I put the gun up. And I still have it---and I seldom if ever miss. Folks think I'm a WIZARD. Little do they know it's the gun----as massaged by an EXPERT.

Ralph Tremaine

On a good day (with light wind) I can bust clay pigeons at 1000 yards with this one. I shoot 600 and 1000 yard matches with it.
Remington 700 custom .308, built by Jeff Walker Custom Rifles with PDC Chassis Stock, 26-inch Schneider barrel, Nightforce scope.

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John

A full 7.62 or 30.06 is confidence building if you don't plan on walking around with it much.



My Ruger SR762 is heavy enough I wouldn't want to lug it around much. But from a fixed position, like at the range, it really can come into play out much farther than a 5.56

digiroc

I have an older (not pre-64) Winchester Model 70 .338 mag. that definitely fits the description. It spent years in Alaska with me and the last 20 in Montana. When you shoot things they fall down. Big things, little things, they just tip over right there. When my son was young and his first year of hunting I gave him a 7mm-08, thinking about recoil and all. His first shot on a deer was a good hit in a good spot. A day later we hadn't found that little doe. The next day we were hiking along and he hissed, "dad, theres an elk, give me your gun." I did, he shot, the bull disappeared, and I thought here we go again. We paced a hundred yards off and there was a nice 5x5 bull elk laying right where he had been standing. Between him and my youngest daughter I have to keep a close watch on that rifle in camp.

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"I am a creature with habits"

I've got two that do it for me. One is an SA M1903 receiver built up w/GI parts from just about everybody else. Lyman receiver sight, Win. M70 mag follower and unaltered 2-stage military trigger. Wood is cut to Krag carbine configuration w/checkered wrist and shortened 03A3 handguard to cover where the 1903 sight sleeve ain't.
The other is a Golden State Arms Model 1944: a heavily modified Enfield No.4 MkI* with an aftermarket Monte Carlo buttstock wearing a Safariland pad. It was Canadian-made and has the odd, 2 narrow groove, wide land barrel that shoots equally well with late Mk VII ball, W-W 180 gr Powerpoint, or my 180 gr. Sierra spitzer over IMR 4350 handloads.
Either rifle will shoot into one minute-of-elk's-chest at 100 yards. Deeply sorry no pix.

Larry

[QUOTE=steelslaver;
my Remington Mohawks in 6mm and 308

If they don't shoot they don't stay[/QUOTE]

Love my Remington 660s, too, all three. If I had to pick one? My Ruger 77 flatbolt .308 with Leupold 3.5-10x VXiii. A really handy little utility rifle is my No. 5 Mk 1 jungle carbine. If I can throw in a scattergun, I'll take my Ithaca Deerslayer 12 gauge 20" barrel with the rifle sights.

Like Goldstar225 I carried my (1971) Remington 870 Police on patrol with department approval for over 20 years. All stock except for an extended magazine tube. I have the utmost confidence that it will take care of business and one very bad night long ago it did just that. I will never part with it.

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S&W Armorer
Lost in the 50s

Are you sure that isn't a MARLIN Guide Gun?

My favorite rifle is an early Springfield Armory SOCOM-16" barrel without all of the rails of the current SOCOM.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

My Browning Model 1886 rifle in .45-70 that I got in 1987.

I own a few rifles but the only one I truly love is my Winchester 94 30/30 as I have rambled the woods many days with that rifle as my companion and it still goes where I go .

I don't have many long guns. Just never had much use for them, so a couple fill my needs.

First a Sears-Roebuck 12 gauge pump. Made by Mossberg, it came with two barrels, a 28" Modified, and a 24" rifle sight slug barrel. I have never used the slug barrel. I paid $99.00 plus whatever the tax was back then. I never used it for anything but deer hunting, but where I hunted was buckshot country, and the 28" barrel shot Number One buck just fine. I painted it camo at some point along the line. Every deer I ever looked at over it's bead, hit the ground and didn't get up. I have no doubt it would still do it if I hunted anymore.



The other one is a Ruger 10/22, "Wally-World Special" that I got in 2006. Stock out of the box, except for a bolt buffer someone gave me, and a trigger job. The scope is a 4x32 Bushnell, blister pack model, and the sling is a $4.95 Wally World item. It is a squirrel killing machine.

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John 3:16 .

My Bubba'd 1894 Swede carbine does it for me. No sweat hitting things with it, and it has the sectional density to leave a mark.

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Now go make God proud...

My M95 Win in 35 WCF never let me down. It's a takedown, so barrel in one pants leg, stock and action in the other leg, put it in a duffle bag, and I'm set to go.

My two favorite rifles are my M1A and my AR. I'll never get rid of either, but I've come to like the AR better. More versatile, lighter and shoots further and flatter. It's not a .223, BTW, but a 6.5 Grendel. I have a 2nd upper for the AR, makes a fine mid-range and CQB rifle, it's 300 BLK.

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this is easy, a sako finnbear, 3006, it is an old friend, had it since the army, late 80s. It survived a divorce, and barely getting by. It has since, been used in quite a few different hunts.

What this guy said. I would not own a rifle I could not trust my life with unless it was a family heirloom or had extreme collectible value