Just watched the Cardinal/Cubs game. while watching I thumb through gun rags instead of smoking. I bet I went through 50 tonight and mostly see articles about boltaction rifles !It's driving me crazy, don't people use any other kind of rifles?after all a bolt rifle is just a single shot that carries extra shells(that should bring out the responses)
Really, a bolt is a bolt. why don"t someone do some articles on lever,pumps and semi-autos. Like how to make one accurate or shave some weight off one.How to convert them to other calibers.talk about stock fit or releoading, reliability or accuracy?I did find one article in which the writer confessed that he had never seen one fail and shot good enough for 300 yard deer shooting.
Are bolt hunters a bunch snobs that look down on people who use something else ? come on fess up, I see a lot more pumps.levers.autos in serious midwest deer camps than any thing else and NO the guys are NOT addicted to firepower !
Get off the theory stuff and think what it is really like to hunt whitetails in mixed cover.
Thanks, I feel better now! That ball game was too close for comfort!

Last year I hunted 85 percent of the time with my beat up old 3030 over my way newer ruger 243. Why? I know every time I pull the heavy trigger on that old marlin that 170 grain bullet is going to meet its mark and i have deer on the skin rack. This year I got a new ruger 3006 and a marlin 444P I have already dedicated the first 3 weeks of rifle season to the ole thumper and will probably end up hunting with it most of the season just because it it handles and shoots so well. I love lever guns and would never be with out them and if I had to choose id take them any day

Maybe you ought to have a cigarette!

Chuck

Well, I only own bolt actions, but have had 22 automatic rifles. Bolt actions are simple, inexpensive, reliable, easy to work on. Lots of great things about them. Although you may see a lot where you live, out here in the west I don't know a single person that hunts with one, although I have heard about people that are known by people I know that use them.

My stepfather does carry his Marlin 45/70 when he is not carrying his 30/40 Krag (a gift we got him a couple years ago). I would carry a lever gun if I had one, but never cared personally for a pump or semi-auto.

Magazines are going to cater to what is going to get the most interest, sell the most copies, and as much as some people might not like it bolt actions are by far and well above the most owned and most purchased of all sporting rifles. Quite simply, they rock. :-)

Red

Simple Solution:

Just quit reading those magazines then.

I sure did and I love bolt actions, period.
They simply work.

seafire

Gets some nicotine ..

I tryed to return a tape to the video store after 2 days with out a dip of skoal. Man... I sure did bitch out the young girl clerk for trying to charge me late fee.

Just came out of nowhere.

.358 ...



Yeah, the game was close and the results sucked



Gun rags gotta consider sales, and there is more variety to write about in bolt actions. More manufacturers, models, and that is where the new calibers are finding homes.



I enjoy shooting my lever actions and single shots as much as anything else. My favorite handguns are revolvers and I get irked when the handgun rags continually ran articles on 1911s, so I know how you feel. But I know that articles on 1911s sell quite well, so accept it.



Now, go have a smoke and ponder the thought of the Cubs launching a comeback

I suppose they suscribe to the majority and the point that is driven home is that fair dinkum hunting rifles begin with a bolt action in an appropriate calibre, wether this is right well thats another question. I like levers and bolts myself

Gentlemen



I only have bolt actions and if I get anything different it will be a kiplauf or a double.



I don't seen any susbtantial advantages in useing cowboy or

pumps actions Click here





Cheers

/ JOHAN

I like all action types.
I like Bolt actions best cause they are easier to load for. I once had a sweet little remington 760 pump carbine in .308, and it would not feed hand loads for squat.
On the other hand My huntin buddie shoots a BAR 300 win and it feeds hand loads well. I also like hinged floor plate better than detachable magazines.
I had a marlin guide gun,(they get a lot of press) in 4570 but I sold it cause the short butt stock put my thumb right under my nose causing me a good deal of pain when shooting hot loads. One lever that might find a place in my safe is a Browning in .358. Of corse a 88 in .358 284 or even .308 is cool and so are Savage 99s. But out here in oregon, bolts rule in the Eastern part of the state but you see lots of 30/30s deer season in the coast. I think I'll stick with the Bolts for the most part...tj3006 range...tj3006

My safe breaks this way on centerfire rifles;
1 single shot
2 pumps
3 autoladers
6 levers
23 bolt actions
I shoot all types, but if my body is on the line--I take a bolt action.

Mine are all bolt actions, mostly 'cause that's what was for sale in the condition I wanted in the caliber I wanted. I admire falling blocks but have never owned one. Maybe someday. Autoloaders in military configuration are cool, especially for competition but I don't compete, soooooo . . . Someday I'm going to build up an "assault pump" and thumb my nose at Grey and Lockyear but that isn't particularly a priority. It would be nice to have a Winchester .405 or 30/40 Krag lever action to go moose hunting but until I retire I won't be able to hunt moose anyway. I will somehow acquire a double!

Yea, I understand. I had 3 cigs, this morning in the garage. My wife won'tlet me smoke in the house.So, I'm better untill the game this afternoon when I start looking at mags. again.
I read somewhere that a guy converted a BAR to .416 something. anyone know about this? I do have one bolt rifle, -A bolt medallion in .243 for my truck gun to shoot coyotes.
what did Chris Carpenter say to Sammy Sosa after he walked him ?It seemed like a friendly exchange. I think this Missouri heat is getting to me.

Just because the rags like to sell them bolt guns is no reason to start sucking the cancer sticks!!! The bolts are dominant on the market it seems. I still see a LOT of levers and autos out in the neighbprhood deer camps. There is that one guy with the blaze orange cowboy hat the .300RUM and the humvee. The bottom line is the rags are there to sell guns and there just aren't that many companies making levers and autos.

What you're seeing is a reflection of the marketplace.

AD

On that BAR/ 416 deal I'd say from memory that it was in the early 70's and in Guns and Ammo mag. I think it was either a 458 or a 416 Taylor (which is a round I love).

"GET TO THE HILL"

Dogz

good luck with kicking the cigs....

I think that the reason that bolt guns are so popular overall is pretty simple once I think about it. easier to disassemble (anybody ever taken apart or put together a Ruger falling block?), easier to clean. Historically because of their strength and earlier availability than semi's they were chambered in a wider variety of cartridges, and still have the widest selection. Probably much cheaper to manufacture too.

I would like to see more articles on falling blocks and lever guns. Ruger single shots are probably the cheapest guns to sporterize, no rail work or magazine to deal with.

Red

I'm sick of all those right handed bolt actions.
Having the bolt on the wrong side makes them look garish and crude, whereas the few left handed rifles are the epitome of firearms design and function.

Covey16

I recall that article. It was a .458 Win Mag and it took the author (Jack Lott?) a long time to get it to shoot right and the recoil reduction wasn't worth the effort. And since reducing the recoil was the whole idea in the first place, it doesn't seem to have been done since.

This whole thread is hilarious I had a lever rifle once, Model 88 Winchester. Sold it when I went through my magnum fever stage. Now all I own are bolt guns, but I'm gonna replace that old 88 one day, in the mean time I guess I'll have a smoke....NOT! .



Terry

I think the bolt action rifles offer the best combination of:

strength, reliability, accuracy, power and price.

Here is a nice larger-bore BAR.
9.3x62

One of my favorite current gunwriters is Dave Scovill. I believe the man is presently on a quest to kill every game species NA has to offer with a lever action. Kind of a rare bird in this day.

A good friend of mine loves his BLR 308, he recently refered to himself as a lever action refugee in a bolt action world, he's right.

I expect that part of the reason for this is also the simplicity of a bolt action. That means that a quality bolt rifle can be produced for less $ than one of the other more complicated actions.

A couple of my favorite guns are a Savage 99 and a model 81 Autoloader, the rest of my favorite rifles are bolt actions.

Just do waht I did: Quit reading those trashy gun magazines. There's nothing in them but thinly disguised ads and rehashes of old articles like "What's the best cartridge for deer hunting?"

Not too long ago, I read an article by a guy who used a Marlin .45/70 in Africa, and his bag included two Cape Buffalo, one a bull which he shot on purpose, and one a cow that was killed by the same bullet that killed the bull, after the bullet had gone through the bull and hit the poor cow! How's that for "something besides a bolt-action"??

Of course, we all know for a fact that the .45/70 is not adequate for dangeropus game!!

The game yesterday was a gass ! I still thumbed through my magazines. I found one on lever action rifles and a lot of stuff about schofield, very interesting but I couldn't afford one of his rifles and I have to have a scope sight due to my eyes.
I'm not knocking bolts, but they just aren't pratical deer getters in my part of the country.I don't hunt much of anything else except bears , hogs or turkeys and some casual varmiting.
I did find an article about semi-autos in which the author commented that no modern army in the world today equipts it's troops with bolt guns. They stake their life on them, so the reliability question shouldn't be a question. a John Sundra article, tested out a bunch of semi-autos andhe found them ok. I personally talked with Bryce Towsley who said he shot a jack rabbit at 360 yds on a bet with a Bar carbine in .30-06. I went out and bought one. It is a shooter! and I've shot a lot of deer with it the last 5 yrs.
I would be completely happy with 3 model 88 wins. in .243,.308 and .358 Jack O'connor once said a guy could get by with a good 06 a 12 gage and a .22 rimfire.but, what fun would that be !
I'm trapped by the heat today, so it's back to the mags. and tonights game. I only had two cigs yesterday. Good hunting and shooting to all you guys !

They don't use lever actions anymore either.

Bolt action > Lever action X 3000

seriously, strength, versatility, power, range versus what? A bit more compactness and a slight advantage in rate of fire? Pfft.

For fighting the naked apes, I want a semi-auto rifle or pump action shotgun.

For everything else, give me a nice bolt action!

"I'm sick of seeing bolt actions in magazines !"

Me Too!!!

I usually just buy Rifle and Handloader, because you can usually count on - at least some - articles on non-bolts and non-magnums. What a breath of fresh air!

After seeing buckeye's list, I decided to check my own arsenal. In centre fires, it breaks out at:
1 - Single Shot
3 - Pumps
5 - Levers
7 - Autoloaders, and
9 - Bolts

I guess this means I'm a bolt man...........NOT!!!

Bolts are great......for shooting paper - and for jack handles. However, if I get into the bush hunting I want something that performs much better - and that ain't a bolt.

Some bolts can provide a high degree of accuracy - a degree that's wasted in the field. It isn't necessary to have sub MOA accuracy on a deer sized animal, even if I shoot at extreme range - like 300 yds (beyond that you should develop better hunting skills and learn to get close - after-all it IS called "hunting").

A century or so back, governments concentrated on bolt action firearms - not because they are superior, but to conserve ammunition (for some reason it was a commonly held idea that a soldier should limit the number of shots he took ). Other advantages of the bolt in military applications were that it was cheap to make and mechanically very simple (so any raw conscript could be taught to keep it operational).

Allen said that the magazines are reflecting the market place. In my opinion, they were (and still are) used by the manufacturers to manipulate the market place - directing us away from complex guns toward the boring - cookie cutter - bolt gun. Manufacturers prefer to produce cheap-to-manufacture and high-profit-margin bolts over the more complex, expensive (and interesting) quick shooters.

A good example of this is the fact that Savage quit producing the '99 because they felt they couldn't sell the guns at a price that would warrant their high manufacturing cost - even though there was (and still is) a significant number of hunters who prize the '99.

Gun companies sell guns by saying they are more accurate, or push bullets faster. Bolt actions are more conductive to providing a rigid platform to hold a scope, and to handle large cartridges and high pressures.

Somehow handling qualities, that can't be qualitatively assessed just don't sell. A gun review can show a picture of a tight group on a target, or high numbers on a chronograph, but a picture of a guy toting a gun just doesn't show much.

That all said, I agree that good hunting guns are always needed, and bolt guns aren't always the best platform.

I have rimfires in rolling block, pump, bolt and semi, but all the centerfires are bolt guns. Looks like I need to rectify that situation by picking up a thutty thutty or a nice 35 rem.

I have a mixed bag of rifles myself. Most of my hunting guns are bolts, my first gun was a .30-30 which is still in my safe, and I use a mini-14 for calling coyotes.
Personally I don't like the added weight and complicated mechanics of an auto for hunting big game. If I didn't live in a communist controled state right now I'd probably have at least two more autos though. One AR-15 and a M1-A1. The political influences are a bad thing, and there are many who believe an auto is not for hunting. The stigma of the "assault Weapon" being an automatic has people around here wanting to outlaw them. The AR would be a lot of fun and more accurate than my mini and although I can own an M1-A1, the only place I'd really get an advantage with it would be shooting at pigs. And it's hard to find them on public land. The added expense also probably contributes to low popularity.
As for lever guns, they'll never die completely. Out here the short range rounds are seldom used. The BLR is a decent option I suppose but I only know one guy who has one and he hasn't said nice things about it!
Funny thing, my Dad has a few bolt rifles but I think he uses the Rem pump '06 as much as any.

... Not to mention that bolt actions are (pretty much) the only designs to have good triggers - some single shots being the exception.

So for us "bolt-fanatics", there is no need to change the contents of the gun rag articles...
- mike

Well, after reading this tomb of cold logic I raced back to my armoury to check for any infestation. I don't know what it means but I found only three bolt guns, Ruger 77's, one old, one new, and another not yet grown up of stainless and synthetic. Pathetic. I had to push aside the SxS's, falling blocks, pumps and autos to find them. Perhaps this is why I secretly lust for more... Please don't tell my friends. It is why the ads in my magazines for bolt guns are soiled and worn...

Try some girly magazines. You may start invisioning a new meaning for"BOLT ACTION".Although PUMP is good. roger

You said a bolt action is just a single shot with a magazine, and you thought that should get some reaction?

FLASH! A lever is a single shot with a magazine
A pump is a single shot with a magazine
A auto is a single shot with a magazine
A slingshot is a single shot without a magazine..

Firearms 101, please study and report back to us....

Point well taken! I actually stole that line from a writer in some gun rag.He was trying to point out that if the first shot didn't go well ,like hitting a tree or the deer jumping a log when you fire, it's hard to get a second shot with a bolt rifle as your have to bring it out of recoil, remove one hand, cycle the bolt then find the deer and sights again.Most scared deer (whitetails) just don't wait for this. His words not mine. But,(in the last 50 yrs) I've found it to be true many times. thats why the guys here favor a semi.( also ther are unlimited tags here and if you want to lay in a supply of mesat in a hurry,it is possible when you have a bunch running across a bean field. I don't but some guys do) You can stay on target, ready for the second schot if necessary and the deer doesn't hear the noise from cycling the action, if they do hesitate for a moment.
Always appreciate your comments, my experience is mostly with whitetails,bears , hogs and turkeys, althoughI have hunted a few other things I don't have enough experience to really comment on them.

Well you sure got me stumped on that one. I just checked the safe and sure nuff even the lever guns and semi auto's have a bolt !

358,
Although I use Lever guns a good deal and I am very fond of them, I use a pump M-12 shotgun a lot and the only autos I use are a Colt and Browning HP, pistol..Best thing about the lever guns is they fit nice under a stirrup when horseback...Most autos are jam prone, sometimes illegal,most are inaccurate IMO...

I liked the old Remington pumps in 06 and 270 and they were super accurate guns, but they rattled like a bowling ball in a boxcar while walking.

I can't tell a lot of difference in speed of the second shot, and it's never cost me a buck that I recall..I'm pretty fast with a bolt gun..I'm faster with pump than even an auto, faster than that with a double rifle, but its never made a difference in my hunting....

However, I am well practiced, and shoot a lot and that may the reason. Someone that shoots little may be better off with a auto, lever or pump...

Could be.I'm pretty well praticed myself. It really doesn't matter what I shoot.But, this thred wasn't intended to start some kind of macho, I'm better shot than you contest. Just wanted to see some more articles about other action types. Cardinals lost tonight, guess I will have a cig. Good Hunting to All !

I'm so sick of seeing em in Magazines that I bought two this weekend just to make sure they don't find their way into an article. Got a Daly .30-06 and a NIB Interarms Mark X in .308. Both are my first commercial Mausers. It is going to take some time to get used to not seeing a thumb cutout in the siderail.