BUFF
SWCA Member, Absent Comrade
Okay, let's discuss the rifle each of us miss the most, be it a rifle we owned and loved but for some reason allowed it to get away, lost, stolen, blown up, sold under extreme financial duress, or perhaps the exact rifle we really, REALLY wanted and swore we would obtain someday but never did.
Mine... I was a sophomore college student and just getting into hunting and shooting. None of my family shot or hunted or fished or camped, so I tried to learn what I could from magazines and books. I had my first good rifle, a new Remington 700 ADL in .30-06, with a 4X Bushnell Banner scope. I added a recoil pad and sling swivels and was off. The rifle shot very well, and 40+ years later, it still does.
So I was reading various sporting publications trying to learn more about deer and found an obviously knowledgeable writer named John Wooters. Wooters really knew about all North American deer and how to hunt them.
Then I saw his favorite deer rifle. It turned out to be a SAKO Forester in .308 Winchester with a lovely wood-to-the-muzzle Mannlicher style stock. It had an 18 inch barrel. I was in love!
It took me two years to find my own. Short barrel, fully stocked guns weren't popular for hunting in the wide open western Rocky Mountains, and few shops carried SAKO around here then. A couple ordered what they thought I wanted, but on arrival, they weren't wood-to-the-muzzle Mannlicher-stocked. Finally, when one did arrive in it's correct configuration, the wood was lovely, the metalwork crisp and intricate, the bore gleaming and the trigger pull the impossible glass rod break. I fit it with a 4X Redfield Widefield. I worked up good hunting handloads with premium bullets. It would shoot 5 round groups into 1-1/4 inches from the bench at 100 meters, and as long as you stopped at 5 rounds and then let it cool, I avoided the Mannlicher stock's tendency to string groups all over as the wood and the metal tried to push each other around. It handled so sweetly and made my Rem 700 feel like a railroad tie or club.
The main problem was the rifle was just too pretty. The oil finish on the highly-grained wood brought out the wood's colors. The polished metal pieces could be used as small rounded mirrors. Although I took care of my gear, my Remington had already gotten a few scrapes and scratches. I feared of marring this Scandinavian beauty for which I had paid nearly 4 times the Remington's cost.
The issue resolved itself in a totally unforeseen manner. Opening weekend. A friend had a key to some private gated acreage with a reputation for big deer. We would likely be the only locals hunting there, as the property owner ran it as a hunting concession with a nice lodge and his sons as guides. Hunters were well-heeled in Land Rovers! To get to their horses!
We ran into some of them late Sunday afternoon, and they were businessmen from Connecticutt. One had already shot a fine 4 point mule deer. We chatted and drank water with them, and when one got a look at my SAKO, he got really excited. He had owned one that had been stolen during an airline flight on a prior hunt elsewhere and hadn't been able to get another. He offered to buy it on the spot. I said, no, I had just bought it myself. He made me several increasing offers, and..... shamefully... I folded.
The man traded me a Browning Safari made in Belgium by F.N. with a German scope and $1,000 cash for the SAKO. The Browning had gorgeous wood, too, and was chambered in .375 H&H. It, with it's scope, was probably worth more than I paid for the SAKO, let alone the $1,000 boot.
We shook hands, traded rifles and ammo, he counted out ten new bills, and we went separate ways.
I immediately regretted it. My buddy reminded me that I could probably trade the Browning for another SAKO, and the $1,000 would more than buy another SAKO.
Long story short, I could never find another Mannlicher Forester in the time I had from college and working a full-time factory job in those pre-internet days. The Browning came to a tragic ending, too, which I will save for another telling.
So who else has lost their true love rifle?
Mine... I was a sophomore college student and just getting into hunting and shooting. None of my family shot or hunted or fished or camped, so I tried to learn what I could from magazines and books. I had my first good rifle, a new Remington 700 ADL in .30-06, with a 4X Bushnell Banner scope. I added a recoil pad and sling swivels and was off. The rifle shot very well, and 40+ years later, it still does.
So I was reading various sporting publications trying to learn more about deer and found an obviously knowledgeable writer named John Wooters. Wooters really knew about all North American deer and how to hunt them.
Then I saw his favorite deer rifle. It turned out to be a SAKO Forester in .308 Winchester with a lovely wood-to-the-muzzle Mannlicher style stock. It had an 18 inch barrel. I was in love!
It took me two years to find my own. Short barrel, fully stocked guns weren't popular for hunting in the wide open western Rocky Mountains, and few shops carried SAKO around here then. A couple ordered what they thought I wanted, but on arrival, they weren't wood-to-the-muzzle Mannlicher-stocked. Finally, when one did arrive in it's correct configuration, the wood was lovely, the metalwork crisp and intricate, the bore gleaming and the trigger pull the impossible glass rod break. I fit it with a 4X Redfield Widefield. I worked up good hunting handloads with premium bullets. It would shoot 5 round groups into 1-1/4 inches from the bench at 100 meters, and as long as you stopped at 5 rounds and then let it cool, I avoided the Mannlicher stock's tendency to string groups all over as the wood and the metal tried to push each other around. It handled so sweetly and made my Rem 700 feel like a railroad tie or club.
The main problem was the rifle was just too pretty. The oil finish on the highly-grained wood brought out the wood's colors. The polished metal pieces could be used as small rounded mirrors. Although I took care of my gear, my Remington had already gotten a few scrapes and scratches. I feared of marring this Scandinavian beauty for which I had paid nearly 4 times the Remington's cost.
The issue resolved itself in a totally unforeseen manner. Opening weekend. A friend had a key to some private gated acreage with a reputation for big deer. We would likely be the only locals hunting there, as the property owner ran it as a hunting concession with a nice lodge and his sons as guides. Hunters were well-heeled in Land Rovers! To get to their horses!
We ran into some of them late Sunday afternoon, and they were businessmen from Connecticutt. One had already shot a fine 4 point mule deer. We chatted and drank water with them, and when one got a look at my SAKO, he got really excited. He had owned one that had been stolen during an airline flight on a prior hunt elsewhere and hadn't been able to get another. He offered to buy it on the spot. I said, no, I had just bought it myself. He made me several increasing offers, and..... shamefully... I folded.
The man traded me a Browning Safari made in Belgium by F.N. with a German scope and $1,000 cash for the SAKO. The Browning had gorgeous wood, too, and was chambered in .375 H&H. It, with it's scope, was probably worth more than I paid for the SAKO, let alone the $1,000 boot.
We shook hands, traded rifles and ammo, he counted out ten new bills, and we went separate ways.
I immediately regretted it. My buddy reminded me that I could probably trade the Browning for another SAKO, and the $1,000 would more than buy another SAKO.
Long story short, I could never find another Mannlicher Forester in the time I had from college and working a full-time factory job in those pre-internet days. The Browning came to a tragic ending, too, which I will save for another telling.
So who else has lost their true love rifle?
