| 词条 | Draft:American and European mountain rifles |
| 释义 |
Hunters going after big game animals such as North American big horn sheep, mountain goats and European Chamois or Asian wild sheep living at high altitudes require gear that is light. Where oxygen levels can easily be half that of sea level even very fit hunters need to lighten their loads. A prime candidate for this light gear is the hunter's rifle. Today these rifles are almost always mounted with a telescopic sight, which in itself should be as light as possible. Mountain rifles of the 20th and 21st centuries have been purposely built to be light, ranging from 5 1/2 pounds to 6 1/2 pounds, bare rifle. But until recently these lightweight rifles were usually at least partially custom made from lightened actions, barrels and stocks. And the prices were commensurately high, often three or four times the cost of a good quality production rifle. Further waiting times to receive a custom rifle from a good gunsmith could stretch from several months into a year or more. Lately however many rifle companies have begun to produce "semi-custom" lightweight rifles as an offshoot of their regular hunting rifles. The methods of reducing the weight of a mountain rifle have varied from titanium actions to carbon fiber stocks, carbon fiber wrapped barrels, fluted barrels, fluted bolts and alloy "bottom metal" (magazine surround material) and alloy trigger guards. Some rifle makers, usually on custom rifles, will even hollow out bolt knobs and skeletonize bolt handles. One less respected method of lightening a rifle is to shorten the barrel to 18 or 20 inches. Generally 22 inches is seen to be the shortest acceptable length so as not to lose too much valuable bullet velocity. Magnum cartridges often run to 26 inches for the same reason. A mountain rifle, in addition to being light, must be accurate. A hunter will often spend many thousands of dollars to buy equipment, travel to the hunt area and hire guides. All to take one crucial shot when (or if) the trophy is sighted. And that shot may well be 400 to 600 yards away across a mountain valley. It may take two and sometimes three shots to kill the animal. A mountain rifle with a light, thin barrel will heat up after about 5 rapid shots but not up enough to cause the accuracy to degrade from say a two inch group at 200 yards to a 6 inch group at that same distance. Rifles used in competition must have thick, heavy barrels to resist this tendency when tens of rounds are rapidly fired in a single course of fire. Not so mountain rifles. But accurate for up to five shots is crucial. As a result almost all mountain rifles are bolt action rifles. They are, as of 2018, still the most inherently accurate actions available. They are simple, rugged and often less expensive to manufacture than semi-automatic rifles. Plus most hunting laws forbid the use of semi-automatic rifles. Granted, this category of modern hunting rifles is relatively small but beginning to grow as many hunters age and want a lighter load for even locations like the relatively low Appalachian Mountains where steepness and frequency of climbs, not altitude, are the problem. Finally, as mentioned in the introduction, rifle scopes also need to be light. Generally any rifle scope under 28 ounces will be considered light enough. Here aluminum scope mounting rings are also required to lessen the rifle's total weight. Since most mountain hunting requires shooting at game at least 200 yards distant a mountain rifle scope should be a variable power beginning at 3x or 4x and going up to at least 15x to 20x. And a reticle should have vertical and horizontal stadia marks in either mil radians (mil) or Minutes of Angle (MOA) for reference purposes when modern programmed laser rangefinders indicate amount of "hold over" for an accurate shot. References |
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