What rifle do you totally trust on dangerous game and what rifle do you mistrust on Dangerous game

[Rifleman97]

I have hunted down to ~ -30° C. And alone. At those temps a mere sprained ankle could be fatal. A blown out knee definitely would be unless you have an ATV very close at hand (and I've never used them except three times someone retrieved my deer). Move carefully but continuously ... and carry food! Forget about building a fire. You'll waste more energy keeping it going than it will provide. Keep your internal engine running. I have dressed a moose in -22° and it was brutal. A pair of kitchen rubber gloves would have made a huge difference. I really do not think you want to hunt in any temp below -26°! It is miserable ... and can be scary ... even if the wind doesn't blow. A slight breeze can be fatal.

I actually meant -26F! That's roughly -33C, with -48C wind chill, and I camped overnight in those conditions. I didn't bother with a fire, I did use a double wall tent to prevent moisture condensation on the inside of the tent, and a feathered friends -40 bag (-40 is the same temp in both F and C). I being bald wore 2 hats inside of the sleeping bag, I used the Outdoor Boys trick of 2 hot water bottles in my sleeping bag, heated with a portable stove, and slept fully clothed (with different clothes than the ones I wore during that day to prevent the frozen sweat from melting and cooling me down).

The biggest challenge was just being able to see anything as I am quite blind at -4.5 to -5, and my eyes don't really take to contacts, they turn red and puff up, so I'm stuck to regular glasses. So a lot of regular warm techniques like the balaclava only accelerate my vision loss. I think if I want to get more serious about it I want to try some prescription oakley snowboarding/skiing goggles. They might fog up but they'll do so less than my glasses do, and are less likely to fall off my face and get busted, leaving me in a pretty nasty situation.

Hardly any scope they fog up tear up and break up .I had no problems at -30 with scopes but below that scopes are the first thing to go.I usually just small game hunted in the winter with a double barrel that only messed up at -45 .Its funny now but i went in rotten snow fell through 20 feet of snow on side of the road took forever to find my shotgun .I tied it to my belt after that .I didnt like winter caribou didnt taste good loved them in velvet to eat .

That's kinda why I asked, I ruined an Athlon trying to coyote hunt in some very cold temps. I stored the gun outside in the truck overnight before hunting to get the temp of the gun/scope down so it wouldnt be condensing on the lenses from cooling down. Went to zoom in the scope after I found a good vantage point and right about when I hit 4 power (it was a 1-6) the image instantly turned milky, and even in the warm temps never cleared back up. I sent it in and the Athlon guys sent me a new scope with very few questions asked. Apparently they don't test their scopes to the most extreme cold, only something like-10F, or roughly -23C, chest freezer temps. They might now though, this was 5 years ago.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Thats why you get a sub caliber analogue.
If your 404 is 12 lbs fet a 10lb 300wm or 375

May be cheaper to shoot but there's still the "getting beat up for no good reason" factor. Practicing in the house with snap caps in the same big bore rifle one intends to use in Africa will develop "muscle memory" without causing a flinch. And save me the expense of another gun I really don't need plus the cost of ammo to feed it. That savings could easily buy me an extra kudu ... or two.

 

[1:66 twiste@d]

Trust what you practice with! And be prepared mentally and physically for that charging DG. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I actually meant -26F! That's roughly -33C, with -48C wind chill, and I camped overnight in those conditions. I didn't bother with a fire, I did use a double wall tent to prevent moisture condensation on the inside of the tent, and a feathered friends -40 bag (-40 is the same temp in both F and C). I being bald wore 2 hats inside of the sleeping bag, I used the Outdoor Boys trick of 2 hot water bottles in my sleeping bag, heated with a portable stove, and slept fully clothed (with different clothes than the ones I wore during that day to prevent the frozen sweat from melting and cooling me down).

The biggest challenge was just being able to see anything as I am quite blind at -4.5 to -5, and my eyes don't really take to contacts, they turn red and puff up, so I'm stuck to regular glasses. So a lot of regular warm techniques like the balaclava only accelerate my vision loss. I think if I want to get more serious about it I want to try some prescription oakley snowboarding/skiing goggles. They might fog up but they'll do so less than my glasses do, and are less likely to fall off my face and get busted, leaving me in a pretty nasty situation.

That's kinda why I asked, I ruined an Athlon trying to coyote hunt in some very cold temps. I stored the gun outside in the truck overnight before hunting to get the temp of the gun/scope down so it wouldnt be condensing on the lenses from cooling down. Went to zoom in the scope after I found a good vantage point and right about when I hit 4 power (it was a 1-6) the image instantly turned milky, and even in the warm temps never cleared back up. I sent it in and the Athlon guys sent me a new scope with very few questions asked. Apparently they don't test their scopes to the most extreme cold, only something like-10F, or roughly -23C, chest freezer temps. They might now though, this was 5 years ago.

Back when I did that kind of ultra-cold hunting foolishness, I explored the ski goggle idea as I also require prescription glasses. Too much money and speaking to some folks who had them, the improvement was not significant (except for skiing). Hunting in that weather is certainly tricky. Incidentally, I hunted for nearly forty years in some terrible conditions, including severe cold, and my no frills 3x Weaver scope never failed. The 03A3 failed to fire once and I simply backed out, emptied the chamber, dry fired it half a dozen times, loaded a round, walked back over the hill, and shot the moose. Gutting it bare handed and still keeping my fingers from serious frostbite was tricky. Partly unzip my jacket, unbutton my wool shirt and longjohns, and kept shoving my hands inside to bring fingers back too life. Needless to say I was a bloody smelly mess when I got back home. The wife thought I'd shot myself.

 

[farmer_john]

May be cheaper to shoot but there's still the "getting beat up for no good reason" factor. Practicing in the house with snap caps in the same big bore rifle one intends to use in Africa will develop "muscle memory" without causing a flinch. And save me the expense of another gun I really don't need plus the cost of ammo to feed it. That savings could easily buy me an extra kudu ... or two.

Respectfully disagree. Snap caps are fine for practicing form inside on a rainy day. But its not that great for practice.

Id also say the same of people who just sit there shooting a oiece of paper from a fixed position. I typically only shoot stationary when working a load.

When you get charged by a buffalo or hike up a mountian looking for an elk. your heart rate wont be like in your living room on a saturday.

Example. Run 50-100m from or towards a target to get your heart rate up then shoot.

Practice angle fire.

Getting a shot timer and do some physical activity be it short sprint ect get heart rate going from the buzzer set up your sticks tripod ect and fire a shot at your target.
The timer will give you your setup time to shot and then you can score it to get your hit factor to improve..


Granted I come from a different shooting background but theres alot of good that comes from real trigger time. And you dont need to shoot thousands upon thousands to get very good in short order

 

[Rifleman97]

Back when I did that kind of ultra-cold hunting foolishness, I explored the ski goggle idea as I also require prescription glasses. Too much money and speaking to some folks who had them, the improvement was not significant (except for skiing). Hunting in that weather is certainly tricky. Incidentally, I hunted for nearly forty years in some terrible conditions, including severe cold, and my no frills 3x Weaver scope never failed. The 03A3 failed to fire once and I simply backed out, emptied the chamber, dry fired it half a dozen times, loaded a round, walked back over the hill, and shot the moose. Gutting it bare handed and still keeping my fingers from serious frostbite was tricky. Partly unzip my jacket, unbutton my wool shirt and longjohns, and kept shoving my hands inside to bring fingers back too life. Needless to say I was a bloody smelly mess when I got back home. The wife thought I'd shot myself.

I've done similar, minus the failure to fire! I bring calving gloves and hair ties with me, that way I can leave all my clothes on minus the warm gloves, and stick my arms almost up to my shoulder inside of the animal to get some warmth. For deer, I don't cut open the chest like most do, I just go up from the stomach area below the sternum as it's less work, and doing it that way lets me stay a bit warmer than when I have more access with sawing open the chest. The gloves kinda suck and when they freeze and get flexed they often crack and make a leak, but the goal isnt to be perfectly sterile, just to minimize how much blood gets on the outside of my clothes to make washing easier and prevent the liquid freezing from causing any issues with flexibility of clothing, heat loss, etc.

I started bringing calving gloves on every cold weather hunt about 10 years ago and I don't know why more people don't bring them, they're awesome. 30 cents a pair or less if you get them from a vet or farm supply store. The hair ties I started doing 3 years ago to prevent them from coming down off the shoulder when my girlfriend recommended that to me.

 

[farmer_john]

I've done similar, minus the failure to fire! I bring calving gloves and hair ties with me, that way I can leave all my clothes on minus the warm gloves, and stick my arms almost up to my shoulder inside of the animal to get some warmth. For deer, I don't cut open the chest like most do, I just go up from the stomach area below the sternum as it's less work, and doing it that way lets me stay a bit warmer than when I have more access with sawing open the chest. The gloves kinda suck and when they freeze and get flexed they often crack and make a leak, but the goal isnt to be perfectly sterile, just to minimize how much blood gets on the outside of my clothes to make washing easier and prevent the liquid freezing from causing any issues with flexibility of clothing, heat loss, etc.

I started bringing calving gloves on every cold weather hunt about 10 years ago and I don't know why more people don't bring them, they're awesome. 30 cents a pair or less if you get them from a vet or farm supply store. The hair ties I started doing 3 years ago to prevent them from coming down off the shoulder when my girlfriend recommended that to me.

Thats actually a pretty great idea.

 

[SStomcat]

The Kreighoff seems to perform well, although I have seen my friend's misfiring and the jury is out on whether it was the firing pins or ammo. There is no third lockup either.

First time hearing even though I have heard of misfires from Londons best
Third lock up is not necessary. I have looked at breach area of both Heym and Krighoff and few Londons best as well with a fine tooth comb and they are strong enough for the regulation that they are proofed