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Ever since an unruly mare played a major part in breaking a rifle stock in two right at the pistol grip on a hunt in the North Fork of the John Day wilderness section, I always bring a back-up rifle.

It was probably a good thing the rifle was disabled or my hunting partner would have shot that horse right there!
 
I use fairly low powered scopes compared to what everyone seems to be carrying these days.

I have yet to be in a situation where a 3-9×40 wouldn't cover the different terrain, timber, reprod or clear cuts I might find myself in on any given day. One rifle is enough, along with a .357 on the hip for when the gutting begins and something might come in hoping for an easy meal
 
Rarely have i ever taken more then a rifle and a handgun on a big game hunt. But then most of my hunting for the last couple decades has been within 45min of home. In a couple years when I retire and get back to serious hunting where I go hunting fora week at a time. I will most likely take a couple rifles depending on what I am hunting. Now varmint hunting I normally take a couple rimfires a couple CF rifles and a shotgun.
 
So it appears the consensus is most people take a backup gun of some sort. Calibers is another question. Is the backup gun the same caliber or is it usually a smaller caliber like a 30-30. My largest caliber rifle I own is a 30-06. I figure there's little on the continent of North America that I would likely run into that I couldn't defend myself with that. (Unless possibly bigfoot shows up). If was to ever go bear hunting with the expectation of actually seeing one. (I went one time with my son in law) I doubt I would take a 30-30 as a backup. If I did take a backup on a bear hunting trip the caliber would be a 30-06, the same as my main hunting rifle. I consider bear a "dangerous game animal' only because if they get wounded their attitude towards the hunter can change dramatically. Not being an avid bear hunter I can only speak of what I've read and most people agree that Black bear are usually not aggressive but under certain circumstances can become a totally different beast. Stories from my fathers past about their bear hunting trips of the 30's and 40's down in Oregon have been told around the campfire many times when I was growing up. One in particular is when my uncle was shooting at a bear coming towards him and after emptying his 30-30 into it the bear it collapsed just a few feet in front of him. I'm told he never hunted bear again with a 30-30 and went out and purchased a 30-06. The other story I remember is another uncle shooting at a bear climbing up the bank on the other side of a creek dragging it's guts but still trying to get away. He finally shot the bear enough to kill it but it shows the determination of an animal like that. These were campfire stories that we took as gospel so I hope they're all true and not told to just scare us kids.
 
I took a 25-06 and a 7mm Mauser for deer last year. I have never needed a backup rifle but it is a cheap insurance against a ruined hunt. I am a fortunate individual as I have a few different rifles I can choose from. I am thinking this year if the gods are kind I will be taking a 300H&H and maybe a 35 whelen or 9.3X62 as a backup. To me you know pretty much what your taking by April or May and you practice all summer with it so your ready to go come October or November.
 
One rifle for me.

It is difficult for me to get time off from work ...So I tend to hunt in areas that are close by , which means that there ain't a whole lot of terrain changes to worry about..
So , I do not feel the need to have more than one rifle with me.

With that said , when I hunt far from my usual hunting grounds...I still rely on my favorite rifle.
It is the rifle that I shoot the most and "know" it the best .. I stick within my actual shooting skill with it , even if this means passing on a shot.

And with that said...at times when after grouse , I may bring both a shotgun and a rifle...
And use one or the other , depending on how the birds are behaving that day.
Andy
 
I too have heard campfire stories about the tenacity of bears. Personally, I don't have a lot of experience shooting bears. The past few years I have bought Spring bear tags. The last two years I've filled my tag. Both times I used a .300 Weatherby Magnum. I was carrying it because it is the closest to a "long range" rifle I own. So of course I shot both bears within bow range. Hit with a 180 grain Nosler Partition behind the shoulder, neither required a followup shot or went very far.

I do note that in the Game Regs the required minimum centerfire caliber in Oregon for bear (and cougar) is .22. While it is .24 for elk. I think most wild game can exhibit a tenacity for clinging to life. Even a well struck animal can do some pretty amazing things. I saw a bobcat one time centered with a 117 grain .25-06 bullet... Well, just glad I wasn't in a phone booth with him.
 
I've been lucky but the one time we actually needed a backup we didn't have one. Me and dad were hunting out in Klickitat county and my dads Remington 700 with a Leopold scope got bumped sometime and we didn't know it. It was noon and getting hot and the deer were all bedded down so we decided to shoot a rock about 75 yards away just for fun and my dad took a shot and it hit over a foot to the right of it. He took another shot and it did the same thing so we knew something was out of wack. we had no idea what happened but my dad was short a rifle the rest of the day. We really didn't have enough ammo to sight it back in and even if we did we were sure something must have got bent or loose.
Color me surprised on this subject. On one of my first hunts in Oregon, I took my only hunting rifle at that time, a Ruger 30-06, with a Redfield (sort of a leupold) on it. I took three good falls that hunt, as I was completely new to Oregon woods. Twice I'm fairly certain I landed on the damn rifle/scope as I sling it trying to traverse some areas. (Barrel kept getting caught up causing me to go backwards)

Moral of the story, I did not harvest anything that hunt, but after the trip I did a check on the gun at the range and everything was still zeroed and A OK.

I don't think a bump would completely change a zero on good quality components. Especially a decent leupold.
 
If I am hunting up in the woods just from the house then it's just a rifle and the 10mm side arm as I am still close to home if something happens to the rifle. Any time I am not 30 minutes from home or camping and hunting a back up rifle comes with. Never know if something will happen to your primary rifle and need a back up or if someone in camp needs a back up. We have had a couple times we're someone in camp had an issue and needed to use a back up rifle. I would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
 
I don't necessarily take a back up rifle, but for pursuing blacktails in the oregon coast range, I bring along multiple options. The scoped '06 for certain areas, the Henry .45 colt for my close range areas and my Sig P220 10mm for going back in to retrieve my buck.
 
I have never taken a secondary hunting firearm, but I don't hunt far from home. Couple hours at most. If I was taking a hunting trip or staying more than a night I'd take a back up rifle.

I always carry a G20 with me so I could use that in a pinch but not for anything at a distance.
basically if I ran into something.
 

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