Best Choice for the Job at Hand
Girl and gun dog
This comes under the heading of ‘knock yourselves out’. I asked a couple of people about the best equipment for hunting. Since I hunt with a camera, a solid, multifunctional digital camera body with a good zoom lens gives you a chance to find cover and hunt/nail your target. I’d recommend a Nikon D810 with an 80-400mm zoom lens, and really good glass, with the lens mounted on the tripod and the camera attached to the lens. A lens like that weighs about 10 pounds against a camera’s 3 to 5 pounds. You mount the heavier part on the tripod.
But that isn’t quite the same thing as the best equipment for hunting food beasts like deer, elk, moose, and occasionally, small dragons. I hear they’re tasty when pounded flat, stewed in beer with lemons, and then baked to a crispy finish in a shell of pastry with wild onions.
Per AW1Ed”s advice: Shotguns, usually of the 12 gauge variety, can be used on deer and game birds, while rifles are exclusively- shotgun. Anti-tank guns and missiles are entreating but exorbitantly expensive, and require a NFA Firearms/Title II firearms reply from the ‘expert’ License. Which we can’t really justify for the items unless you’re a friendly country. Or not, as we’re finding out. Ask the Clintons.
That’s one person’s opinion. You all get your chance to chime in on this esoteric, but very relevant subject, because hunting season is here in many places and you don’t want to use birdshot on a moose. Or do you? And what about the feral hogs? Has anyone considered their feelings about this touchy subject? In regard to tanks and other heavy-armor vehicles, is the best solution disemboweling them with an anti-tank gun, or should one simply put the tank out of its misery with a direct splat from an anti-tank missile arrangement?
Taking into consideration that the target subject may be much larger than you are, the equipment to be chosen is important.
For example, to hunt large elephants, you would eschew the elephant gun in favor of jelly beans, pineapples, carrots, and the occasional Bag of Nuts, which you might find in the Congressional Souvenir Shop, should you find yourself in Foggy Bottom some time.
Have at it.
Category: Guns
That young lady is being raised right!
A good pump with a field barrel and a set of chokes will take most normal game, ie deer, birds, hog.
As budget goes, a rifled slug barrel.
But I’m an American, so like kitchen knives’ special purposes, I’ve got guns and guns and guns for anything!
What?
There is a gun in that picture?
I’ve taken more game with my old H&R single shot 20ga than any other gun.
I started a polemic on a suppressed .300 mag, thinking I could handload for all velocities and even do cast bullets… and deleted it. I’ll throw this one out, though: the old ‘if you could only have one survival gun’ question may be best answered by something like a Chiappa Double Badger – two barrels, one in .410/20/12ga, the other in .22LR. Gotta agree with Roh-Dog… like wimmins with millions of pairs of shoes (I nicknamed the wife Imelda) having two guns for two tasks is ‘way better than having just one gun that does everything. And there are ‘way more than two tasks…
Back in the day, liberal scion John Stewart on The Daily Show went on a rant about the number of guns in circulation here in the U.S. of A, ‘why do we need so many…blah blah blah’.
It’s simple, like hammers, they all have a purpose. Hell, I have two ARs that are set up identically, one is mine, the other is mine (or my girl’s as she needs it). Why? Two is one, one is none and the task of “Shall not be infringed”.
Maybe ask Stewart why he needs all those opinions, all those episodes on TV. No one needs that much audience. It is dangerous.
Yeah, hmm?
Leave my Liberty alone, and maybe your own might be safe. Take mine away and why expect yours to continue.
I use .308 for moose and caribou. I hear they are good for dall sheep, but I haven’t hunted those….YET.
I own a Nikon 80 and have a 16-85 MM and an 18-300 MM lens to use. A number of years ago, I took an adult education SLR camera course down in Boca and 6 of us had Nikons and the others had Canons. Instructor claimed that the Canons were easier and less complicated to use. Speaking of utilizing multiple items, I use ten shaving mugs and ten Badger shaving brushes so when I get to the gray mug, I change the double edge blade. I also use a biscuit cutter to cut the 3 inch mug soaps down to fit the smaller diameter mugs. Nice collection. I used to use hollow ground Stainless steel straight razors years ago but stopped. Owned three. Have two takedown .22 pump gallery rifles and a hand full of handguns in a safe. That’s it for Collectors Tuesday’s show and tell. I’ll shave off any further comments for now, so till next time, see you later alligator.
My 2¢
Given the available game in the Graybeard Compound AO – doves, squirrel, rabbit, whitetail, feral hog – if I had to stick to one firearm it would have to be the 12-ga Mossberg pump.
Given that the USFS has decreed buckshot verboten in the National Forest, that limits me to slugs for the big game, and #7 to #9 shot for the others.
If I can have two, it would be a .22 and a 30-30.
YMMV
FWIW, I’ll be dining on cat squirrel tonight thx to the .22
Just don’t ask how many attempts were made before I was successful….
“I asked a couple of people about the best equipment for hunting.” Dahell were you trying to do Mi’Lady, start a riot? Honey hush, good thing you only asked a couple or you’d still be bogged down in that argument. Slingshot to 16 inch floating artillery. And a pro tip to Jeff, a real Cannon is spelled with 2 ns, but thanks for mentioning the King of Battle for your choice in weaponry.
Lots of folks don’t realize that the 2nd A was not put in to make sure the citizen could put meat on the table. It was put in place to give the citizen the chance to stand up to an oppressive government.
Like many folks here I’m not of the one weapon all tasks.
I have 4 shotguns three 12 gauge and one 20 gauge. I have my grandfathers side by side Hopkin & Allen double barrel that is approaching 100 years old. I have a Browning BPS pump 12 I bought as it is a bottom eject like the Ithaca 37 I learned on as a kid. I bought a Mossberg pump 12 decades ago. It came with a 20 inch barrel and a pistol grip. I substituted the shorter barrel and kept the basic stock that’s what I keep loaded around the house for unwanted visitors. I bought a Remington 700 youth model 20 a couple years ago and added a slug barrel to the regular choke tube barrel. Not being a waterfowl hunter it meets just about all my needs for dove, quail, etc, and with the slug barrel works for deer as well.
I have three deer rifles. A model 94 carbine in 30-30. A Savage Model 99 in .308 and my great grandfathers Model 99 in .303 Savage. I reload for all three of them. I’d like to get one in .250 Savage one day.
You have good tastes.
There’s a 99 at my LGS with an engraved receiver and a diopter rear I’ve had my eye on for over a year.
Classic ‘above the fireplace’ gun that’s a fine built machine.
I’m looking for a shot-out 99…I am thinking a 6.5mm barrel and appropriate chamber reamer gives me a lever 6.5. .260 American, 6.5 Creedmoor, whatever. Possibly the ideal rifle.
I killed my first elk with a borrowed 99 in .308, great rifle, wish I could have kept it.
The .250-3000 Savage is damn close to 6.5 mm why not find one in the natural caliber?
I also have a pair of Colt AR-15s from the early 90s. One in the usual 5.56mm the other in 7.62×39. Who knows when you can only find the other guys ammo cache.
Ex, simply as a sanity check, you might have mentioned that a Nikon D810 with a Nikon 80-400mm VR lens runs about $4,300 new. Personally, I’d consider it a highly specialized piece of equipment, and wouldn’t suggest it for somebody who just wants to jump from, say, a smart phone to more serious photography. YMMV
Crew-served camera.
Ex, I am very impressed! Am fully appreciative of your knowledge! A Nikon is NOT a user friendly camera!
Kudos!
You know your $h!?
Having a few professional photographers as friends, you are dead on about the Nikon. In my hands it takes lousy pictures. In the hands of an expert, you get stock photo quality (i.e., an image that is worth money). Kudos to anyone who can run those things!
Yes, I agree with Fjardeson. My wife wanted a DSLR to start taking better pictures than here point and shoot. We looked at Canon and Nikon and decided to go with a Nikon D3500, which is their entry level DSLR not the Porsche version D810 like Ex-PH2 is suggesting. It has options to act like a Point-n-Shoot, but you can manually adjust everything, and lenses are great…as long as you learn to use it!
Me, I am like my wife. I know how to use a basic Point-n-Shoot like an AR-15 ’cause the Army taught me, and I can even hit something with a Barretta 92F or a Taurus clone. But I have really wanted to take a class and learn some more specialized knowledge and techniques to better use my 1911s, Ruger Gp100s, and something that can reach out an touch something a little further than 300m like a .308.
Now, if I could only find the time!
I love me some Nikon, and not ashamed to say it! I still have my Nikon F2, a prime 35mm film camera. STill use it since I found a lab that processes all color and B&W film. 🙂
Well, as others have said, If I could have only one firearm for hunting, and over/under .22/12ga would be my first choice, with a 12ga second, and a .22 third…
But since we’re all blesses enough to live in the USA, I am a HUGE fan of diversity! (when it comes to firearms), and believe in using the best tool for the job. So before that tragic boating accident, I may have owned firearms that included .17, .22, .223, .30-30, .30-06, 6.5 Mauser, and maybe a few others.. Viva la differance!