|
[ Return to Contents
| Post a Reply
| Post a new message
]
Alaska Rifles
Posted by Murphy on May 08 2005
Sprig,
I have known many people who hunted in Interior Alaska with blued Walnut stocked rifles and came home to the lower 48 with their trophy and a rust free rifle. I have hunted in the rain and snow and dunked rifles in the river and never had a rifle rust. (A little gun care helps). Interior Alaska has very dry air, winter and summer. Coastal Alaska is wet year round. And salty, coastal air will rust the best stainless without any gun care at all. Wood stocks, if well sealed will not change point of impact unless it is drenched in water. There is no monsoon season on the North Slope! If you drop your rifle in the bog, you have a problem, be it stainless or chrome-moly. Many of the cheap synthetic stocks are not worth carrying home, they don't even make good fire wood. They amplify the rifle's recoil and change point of impact much worse than the good walnut stocks because they are so flexible. Good sybthetic stocks are expensive. About $500 and up. That's why Remingtons m700 is about $1200 when they put it in a very good H-S Precision stock. There are many good stainless/synthetic rifles out there, prices start about $1000. Plastic is used for garbage bags, not for rifle stocks.
You can get by quite well on a caribou hunt in Interior Alaska or the slope with a chromoly rifle in a walnut stock. It will take a little more gun care. I am always more worried about a walnut stock absorbing moisture from humid air and changing point of impact than I am of rust. A coat of oil is hard to wash off in the rain. Rust comes from salty, coastal air is more of a concern in those areas. Yes there is a salty northern coastline. I don't know where you will be hunting. I don't know how much you plan to spend, but you should buy the best you can afford. You didn't mention calibers, do you have that figured out?
Alaska is really no different than hunting in the boggy areas of Maine or the Swamps of Virginia or Florida. The countryside is different yet very similar to other states. And, of course, the animals are very uniquely Alaskan.
Stainless/Synthetic rifles are a new fad, remember we got by without either for a few hundred years.
Good luck on your hunt and good shootin'.
Murphy
Previous: Well said Brian... Murphy May 20 2005
Next: Calibers sprig1 May 10 2005
Message Thread:
|
