Beware of the shooter with one gun!

(This is NRA Smallbore and Smallbore Hunter gun related)

When I started this sport I was advised to get a hunter gun as I could always shoot both hunter and standard with the same rifle.  Back then the basic hunter gun was a NS522, CZ 452 or if you had some funds,  Kimber, Finfire or Anschutz 1700, 1710 or 1712.

I started with a single hunter, an NS522.  I wrung just about every possible degree of accuracy out of that thing.  After about 4 years, I had an offer to move to an Anschutz 1710 that was too good to pass up.  That gun is the same action I shoot today.

Along the journey I watched with envy the big shooters with their Anschutz hunter gun and their Anschutz MSR (Metallic Silhouette Repeater) and I yearned to be a two gun shooter. Surely that extra weight, trigger, stock would buy me more animals? Nomad loaned me a 54 MS which I used for a season for Std rifle.  I could have even bought it for a fair price which by today's prices was a steal.  I did not see any significant improvement with my scores and after right of first refusal, it was sold.  But, about 3 years ago, I again had a deal that was too good to pass on and I got that heavy gun with the ultra light trigger. It is without a doubt the best shooting gun I have ever owned.  But, for me.....I don't do well with it, just as I had not back in 2003.

Today's Hunter gun:  The rules have evolved over the years and what some call the "Frankenhunter", has become today's Hunter gun.  Go to a serious match and you will find very few guns that resemble anything that remotely looks like a "factory" gun.  Right or wrong, it is what as occurred and can explain why so many have jumped on the Cowboy scene.  No fancy equipment ($$$) required there, just a 39A and a box of bullets!

Today, serious 1/5th shooters take the Anschutz 54 1808 MSR action and make it fit the rules of the silhouette game.  A match chambered, aftermarket barrel with a taper is added.  These barrels tend to be heavy thus many are fluted to help make weight.  The trigger on an 1808 is just as phenomenal at 2 lbs as 2 oz and those changes are made.  The Pharr stock is legal but feels more like the big target rifle stocks.  In short, a standard gun has been transformed into a rule conforming Hunter smallbore rifle and you shoot just one gun.  Why not?  Two guns cost more, hard to travel to distant matches and you don't waste time sighting in two guns and have to inventory two different ammo types.

For me I shoot that 2lb trigger far better than any light trigger.  But why?  I have to write it off to what I have used the most, what I am used to.  I cannot switch back and forth between the two trigger types.  I dilute my "subliminal" shooting reflex.  I have to think too much to shoot it right.  One gun strategy just works. Today I shot a 26 with my super duper Std rifle and I struggled.  I picked up Blaze, old faithful, and shot a 31. I had practiced with the std gun and was able to shoot pigs at the ram distance.  Not easy but when I did the right thing the animal fell.  I conclude for me, it just takes too much thinking to shoot the heavy gun well.

So, I am going to return to one gun and shoot it well and play around with the social Lever gun sport.  I truly believe when it comes to the 1/5th game, the sport has become a one gun game.  Now if I can just figure out a way to make it as fun as the lever gun for others!

Shoot 40s!