Slide actions; inaccurate?

roysclockgun

Handloader
Dec 17, 2005
736
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Jack O'Connor not only fixed the .270Win in the American psyche as a premiere cartridge, but he was instrumental in causing the bolt action rifle to be accepted as "the rifle action" to use if you are a serious hunter. The bolt rifle has become the benchmark of American hunting accuracy and is sold in much higher numbers than other types of actions combined. A tremendous amount of discussion is spent on the need for cartridges capapble of ultra high velocity, while at the same time admitting that the vast majority of game, whitetail size and larger, is killed within 200 yards. Given that, shouldn't slide action and lever action pieces with carbine length barrels be more popular? Or, is the bolt rifle's inherent superior accuracy simply too much to overcome, when most of us do want to appear, at least, as serious hunters.
I do not know how many states do not allow the use of semi-auto rifles for hunting, but Pa. is one of them. That fact may account in part, for the semi-auto rifle not gaining wide acceptance. However, a number of modern slide action and lever action rifles are available, complete with bolts that rotate upon going into battery. Granted, we will not expect to see pumps and semis in long range competition, but I am surprised that more hunters do not pick them up, given the advantage of very quick follow-up shots, combined with their short hendy length. In the field, I have run into elk and deer hunters toting pumps, like the Rem 760 or 7600, but invariably they are using those pieces due to a generational tradition. "Grand dad carried a 30-06 pump and we lost track of how many bulls he anchored with that thing. So it is good enough for me!" Maybe, like the .257Roberts, pumps and semis chambering hi-powered cartridges will be "discovered" and become all the rage.
 
Well, I have to admit to being what John Barnsness would call a rifle looney, but I have played with a few pump action Remingtons.

I much prefer bolt action rifles, but have been quite impressed with the performance of Remington 760 pump rifles chambered in 30-06. Not only would they chamber just about any old cartridge, reload or factory, but they shot darned good groups!!

A guy I used to work for had a Remington 760 pump and a Ruger Number One, both chambered in 30-06. That Remington would chamber just about anything while the Ruger was so picky I had to get a set of "small base" dies to reload for it. And the Remington would outshoot that Ruger any day.

Go figure! My boss used to take that Remington pump and my reloads to Wyoming and kill an antelope every year.
 
RFlowers wrote: "...I much prefer bolt action rifles, but have been quite impressed with the performance of Remington 760 pump rifles chambered in 30-06....."

Yes, you help to make my original point. I too, prefer bolt action rifles and have only owned one pump and few lever action carbines, none of which I now possess. I believe that because of the writings of Jack O'Connor and many others, we have been brainwashed into avoiding rifles other than bolt actions even when we see genuine advantages to trombone and lever actions. I am convinced that we give up nothing when using pumps and levers until we get past 300 yds. Are there any stats demonstrating the percentage of shots longer then 300 yds on game? My guess would be that shots that reach beyond 300 yds are few and therefore many hunters would be well served to look at pumps and levers. This, especially true for novices just beginning to gather a battery of rifles for hunting.
 
A lot of this is personal preference, what you are used to. I have never really gotten to like pump guns. My shotgun is a O/U, all my hunting rifles are bolt or single shot. For most hunting situations, a pump gun would provide enough accuracy I just never saw the need for one, maybe jump shooting game, but I don't hunt that way much.
 
fredj338 wrote: "A lot of this is personal preference, what you are used to. ....."

Ever since practical hunting scopes have regularly been mounted on hunting rifles, the bolt action has been the benchmark of accuracy, as correctly touted by firearms journalists. I am speaking of max accuracy and not what passes for "good enough to bring home the bacon" accuracy. My point is, has our "personal preference" been colored by the writings of journalists, swaying the thinking of those who have gone before and therefore swaying our own thinking? Or, are the pumps, levers and semis really so inferior to the bolt rifle, in terms of hunting use, that they are not often encountered in hunting camps? I believe the former. I lean toward liking pump shotguns, because that action is what I first used and stuck to. I am of the opinion that if youngsters were started on pump rifles, they would use them and never look at bolt rifles, provided their hunting was the average game getting at under 200 yards. For me, I was steered to bolt rifles because my father and my uncles used rifles primarilly for varmints and killed everything else with shotguns. In varmint hunting, we were always striving to make longer shots on groundhogs, so bolt rifles were the obvious choice.
 
I don't particularly like Rem 760's/7600's but they generally shoot well since the barrel is free floating.
 
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