Rifle Envy is Expensive

[gopher]

I spent the month of April in central Oregon working down the sage rat (squirrel) population. I was fortunate to handle and shoot several very nice rifles. See I thought my rifles and gear were pretty darn good but after the Anschutz and Coppers...well hell, now I have new itches to scratch.
Was happy I got a CZ 527 in 17HH before it was discontinued and before the current pricing madness. Its a great rat /P-dog rifle but my friends A 1771 was a whole different level of fine! So does anyone want to talk me off the ledge and out of the 1771? I'm not a fan of 2 stage triggers but it was very good. Any other thoughts pro and con ?(other than price of course)
Then there were the Anschutz 1727 straight pull rifles in 17hmr. Goodness. Well at $4,000 a copy those will always be just a dream.
Cooper 38's wow.
It was a great experience ... but upgrading will be spendy.

[borkon]

Meh, shoot what ya got.

[Wiserfool]

Originally Posted by borkon

Meh, shoot what ya got.

True words of wisdom sir. As you approach perfect, the cost of each incremental step becomes excessive considering what you actually gain.

[Bill K]

Sit back, reload and play with what you have, they will work just fine. And for what you would need to spend for one of those other new one's, you can do a whole lot of shooting and having fun, with those you have.

[TRnCO]

I was in your shoe's until just a couple of years ago. Finally my financial situation improved and then a stroke of luck came my way which made it possible for me to end up with a couple of really nice rifles that I once thought I'd never be able to own.

Shoot what ya brought and be happy with it. And maybe someday things will change that will allow you to upgrade.

[JDHasty]

We were shooting chucks from a setup and a couple guys showed up and started chatting us up.

We had our shooting benches set up and two or three rangefinders including a G7-BR2 and four or five spotting scopes and my Swaro 15x56 binocular sitting on tripods. One of them asked about our Unertl 100mm Team Spotting Scope.

It is really a horse of a different color, it is my choice as the standard against which all other spotting scopes are judged by when it comes to shooting from a long range setup for an entire day. However of all of the optics the Swaro 15x56 is what has made the greatest impression on me. Since buying the 15x56 about eight years ago it is what we locate more chucks using it than all of the rest of our ten power bins and spotting scopes combined. They are really hard to spot in the basalt and the 15 power binocular has it going on over the spotting scopes. The 3D view makes them really pop out.

Anyway one of the guys was watching through the Unertl while we were shooting and being able to clearly follow the shock waves off the bullets all the way out and being able to clearly see the mirage really impressed him. We weren't getting a lot of action, maybe a target every 40 minutes and they hung out a couple hours. He was commenting to his buddy and they were taking turns watching us shoot through it.

The next time I ran into them they told me they had purchased one and I asked them how they liked it. They said that they sure wish they had put the money into a pair of 15x56 Swaro instead. Well, yea. The only times we set that monster up is when we are shooting five hundred yards or further out. It is really limited in it's utility, but in it's element it can't be equaled so far as I have seen.

Since buying them I have never been shooting when the 15x56 binocular wasn't the last piece of equipment I would want to be without.