I'm always amused at the guns others suggest, or at least say they carry and love. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, I'm just amused. My own father spent the early 1940s humping a 1917 Enfield (Winchester manufacture) all over the world. So what does he do when he gets home? Yep, he uses his NRA/DCM membership and buys another 1917 made by Winchester. No other maker would do. So we spent the late 1950s in the basement filing and grinding on it. Then some guy named Bishop sold him a stock made from prime walnut. I think the wood was so heavy that it wouldn't float without the action installed. That was some solid walnut. So Dad had his hunting rifle of choice. When he died, I managed to con my brother out of it (he wanted high $ Remington sporter). So that was 1980. And the following fall I decided to take it hunting. Lets just call it the "airweight model". Yes, it was my fathers rifle, one I helped sporterize (ruin). And after one season of humping it up and down Kentucky hills, I decided to retire it.
And I had a cousin (really a cousin of Dad) who spent Christmas of 1944 vacationing at the "Buldge". He carried a Garand there, and guess what his idea of a sporting rifle was? Yep, same source as Dad's Enfield. So it made me realize people choose and recommend what they're familiar with, not the best rifle for the job. Might be the best for them personally. One of my current buddies was in the Marines in the late 1960s, pre M16 days. One day a guy brought in a semi M14 and he couldn't resist picking it up. It seems he was married to one of them for 8 full weeks in basic, and then a bunch more in AIT. He was smiling when he picked it up and hefted it. So being the jerk I am, I asked him if it was lighter than he remembered!
His comment was "it still weighs a ton."
My opinion is the only time you appreciate a heavy rifle is when its firing. My guess is when you're firing a M70 Featherweight, you really concentrate. Because the last thing you want to do is accept the idea you need a heavier cannon to lug all over the place.
About 5 years ago a guy asked if he could borrow one of my rifles to go hunting with. Of course I turned him down. I like my guns, and I don't even trust anyone who doesn't own his own hunting rifle. But it got me thinking maybe I do need to start looking for a "loaner" gun to have, just in case. No sooner than than I began to run into nice guns. What I remember from the past, and maybe its alcohol pickling my brain, is you could pick up a nice off brand rifle (like the Savages and such) for about $200. Then I realized they may have cooties and I wasn't putting a ratty old rifle in my safe and contaminate my good toys. So to compromise, I picked up a really nice looking BAR. The only problem being the guy I half stole it from took his scope and mounts. Not a problem, they were WalMart cheapies. But when I got home I started looking at my meager stock of scopes and rings. The only scope I found that was, in my eyes, suitable for a woods rifle was made by some German firm. Leitz I believe. Worse, it was some crazy off size of 30mm. So I just went to another gun show vendor and picked up a good set of mounts.
OK, so the scope was worth twice what the rifle cost. Big deal. I had a loaner. Except scopes are fragile and no one is hauling away my nice scoped .30-06.
And I'd buy another "loaner" rifle if I found it cheap enough, with a junk scope on top.
