Was hoping ole FreeRange would show off his go to …

Ruger American 223.

Sako L61 Pre-Garcia .270 Finnbear. Have 2 Pre-Garcia Finnbears that are family heirlooms my .270 and my son's 30-06. I cannot even begin to count the number of deer and hogs these 2 rifles have taken over the last 56 years. Four life times of memories here.

Here ya go, Biscuit…
Nothing special about mine, except to me, and that it’s been rode hard and put up wet.
Pic of Dad with the 3006 M70 in 1970.
He died shortly after and I inherited it. It’s the only rifle I’ve killed a deer with since then. Besides being sentimental it also shoots very well. I had Jim Ridings work up a load in the late 80s that It still shoots about an inch group. 165 Partition.
It developed an old age issue with the stock a few years ago and JG got it back going.
Not real good pics but the same rifle in all my dead deer pics. Amazingly the same cap in all pics back to 1985 to current.

Have too many "favorites", to narrow down to just one. Like taking any new rifle out also.

Have many that I like, some are faster, and some are more powerful but the one that just seems to be the go-to for me is my Ruger M77 tang safety in 7x57 Mauser with a Leupold 1x4x20mm scope.

@freerange - to me , yours is one of the most special. Clearly sentimental value but you are living proof that the classics never go out of style.

And that 9 point , 4 pics from the bottom. Wow! That’s a perfect deer

Biscuit, you sound like you like my rifle as much as I do, so, no, you cant have it.
The wide 9 is likable for sure, but he would have to be 8 or 10 to be "perfect."'

For my "go to" rifle, it's the one that has been delivering the goods for me since the mid-80s...my Sako Safari Grade .375 H&H.

Here at home it's accounted for deer, turkey, hogs and coyotes. Across the pond it's got cape buffalo, kudu, sable, eland and roan scalps on its belt...along with a pair of poacher's dogs that didn't gap it as fast as their owner's did...

I may carry a different rifle a good bit of the time, but the .375 is always close as a back-up.

Someone else on another forum who "gets it" uses (as his signature line), "One planet, one rifle...Holland's .375." I can't argue with that...

Love that one.

THE ONE CLOSEST TO ME

Mine is a Browning BLR in .308. It fits my smaller frame (belly not included, LOL) and I like the safety of the hammer. You can't accidently knock it off safe.

Remington Model 7 in .308 still wearing a Bushnell 4200 3-9x40. Short enough to not have too much trouble maneuvering in a small stand.

I finally got my barreled action back from Pac-Nor.

The rifle is an Interarms Mark X I swapped into here on THF maybe fifteen years ago. This will be my only hunting bolt gun from here on out...it looks almost the same as it did when it was a 6mm-284---the one no one wanted to buy when I was selling off rifles. I originally wanted to keep my Model 70 in .30-06, but since no one wanted to take a chance on a 6-284 with an unknown round count I decided to let the M70 go (*sniff*) and do this instead. This one is now a .260 and will do everything I need or want to do.





I've only had it on the bags once so far. I decided to try 142-grain LRABs first since I have a ton of them. Results are very encouraging, and more trial loads are ready to rock whenever I have a chance for a calm day on the range. I'll stretch it out to 200 this next time out. It may tighten up a little with a little more wear (60 rounds so far) or I may simpy improve on the load a little bit.

The grid I use on my targets is one-inch squares. When I get anything under a half inch first time out with a rifle, I am happy. I shot 20 different loads, three rounds of each all with different charges of five different powders. Every powder produced at least one sub-MOA group. I am liking it.

My .260 ARs will always be my primary pig guns, but I'll let this one play too now and then.