Length of rifle for hunting

[shmrck1]

Bill,
I'm with "Slake" on this one....When hunting
use the barrel that you shoot the best for the game you are hunting. Walk thru the woods with you rifle of choice and you will quickly learn
the advantages & dis-advantages of your
choiceIMO.
snake-eyes :hmm:

 

[paulvallandigham]

If you can walk through the woods, any gun you carry will make it through, too. I stand over 6 feet tall, and shoot a rifle with a 39" barrel. The entire length of the gun is about 52 inches. I don't have any trouble taking it any place I can go. I generally point the gun forward of me when I have to bend over to clear branches, or bramble bushes, and just point the gun through the hole I am going through. If I can't get through, it doesn't matter if the gun can or not. As to making swinging shots at running game in the woods, my personal experience is that this is a good way to shoot trees! Since I have only one shot with my muzzle loader, I don't take running shots any more.

 

[Hoyt]

The longer the barrel the better hunter it will make you. Cause if you got a critter step out and you got that long barrel pointed in the wrong direction..the longer it is the more you got to move without him seeing it.

 

[gmww]

I can't help but think of your story about the critter that showed up in the wrong spot. Turkey I believe.

 

[Pork Chop]

That is a good point. Heck, Moose make it through the woods with those huge racks as do Elk. Surely man can figure out how to move through the woods with a long gun...

 

[Hoyt]

I can't help but think of your story about the critter that showed up in the wrong spot. Turkey I believe.

Every turkey I saw this yr. showed up in the wrong spot. When they gobble I don't have the slightest idea which direction it comes from and that is about as frustratin as it gets. He comes in gobblin gettin closer and closer and you don't know if he's in front of you, behind you or what. You just have to sit and watch and don't move your head lookin all around for him cause you know they got eyes like 10power binoculars.

 

[fw707]

I can't help but think of your story about the critter that showed up in the wrong spot. Turkey I believe.

Every turkey I saw this yr. showed up in the wrong spot.

Hey, don't feel bad. They do that up north here too!! :grin:

 

[Ron LaClair]

My longrifle has a 42" barrel, I've hunted with it for a lot of years and love the gun.

My Jager has a 32" barrel and is handier to carry and shoot. I like the option of hunting with both long and short barrel guns.

 

[GreyWhiskers]

Longhunter,

Great photos! Good looking game and gear! :hatsoff:

GW

 

[paulvallandigham]

I agree with you Mr. Hoyt. Learning how to move slowly is part of the " Art " of hunting, particularly with a long barrelled rifle.

 

[Hoyt]

Longhunter I know it must be nice to have all them good memories to look back on.
I really wish I had got into traditonal type hunting many yrs. ago.
I told this kid I got started in taxidermy and who is one heck of a hunter and loves it as much as I do. I told him him two things he ought to do while he's young..give flintlocks a try and go to the mountains and hunt elk.

 

[Ron LaClair]

You gave him good advice. Tell him to take lots of pictures. :grin:

 

[Slamfire]

I didn't understand what the landing party was, until some Marine leutenant waved a BAR under my nose. :shocked2: Turned out he was lookin' for an ammo carrier. :v I shaped up and got sent to the mess decks. :rotf:

 

[Riley/MN]

I can't help but think of your story about the critter that showed up in the wrong spot. Turkey I believe.

Don't know if it was me you're referring to, but I did share that story a couple times this year. Had just set out a decoy and come back to the overgrown fenceline where I was to sit and wait for the tom that was off to my right. Was just sitting down with the gun pointed left when I heard "Pffft". He was right there. I don't know how he could've not seen me puttin out the deke, but then I guess I hadn't seen him either. Anyway, at about 10' away I was busted. Didn't matter how short the barrel was at that point. :redface:

 

[gmww]

Actually it was Hoyt's story a couple of months back but yours is typical of my exploits. :shocked2:

 

[Stumpkiller]

I've got a 44" barrel (swamped) on my .54 Lehigh and a 26" barrel on my .50 New Englander. I ground/still hunt in NY woodlots, which can get pretty tangly and thick with low cover. The longer barrel is only a slight disadvantage. Most of the big trees are more than eight feet apart, anyway. :winking: A half-step backwards makes up the difference in barrel lengths.

I do find myself being more "deliberate" with the longer barrel; taking more time to take the shot. This is also partly due, I'm sure, to the longer barrel being on a flintlock. I like to have things solid and supported, if possible, just in case I have a delay in the ignition.

In a tree stand I can see where the shorter barrel would be nice for the near & "wrong-side" shots where you have to move the gun across to the other side while twisting your body or angling it down through cover branches. Don't get up in one of them things and you won't have the problems they bring to hunting. :haha:

 

[paulvallandigham]

Amen, Stumpkiller, on tree stands. If God meant us to hang around in trees, he would have given us shorter arms, long claws, and a fluffy tail! Tree stands are fine for scouting new territory, to find out what paths deer are using this year, before the season begins, but for hunting, please, leave me hunt off the ground. There is some very good ground blind camo material that is light in weight, and will cover you when you sit that makes setting up in the woods or on the edge of a field very convenient today. If I am hunting ground I was able to scout before the season, I will have already cleared an area for a stand, and piled up brush to make a ground blind, and cut shootin lanes through brush to give me several good places to shoot. If I have to move to new territory, I simply clear a spot under a large tree, stack up brush loosely, like it had fallen off the tree naturally, and put out the camo cloth, if I think my stand needs it. I would rather carry a light weight camp stool to my stand than a heavier tree stand!