Do you prefer a hunting rifle with a detachable mag?

[alaska]

Do you prefer a rifle with a detachable mag?

Yes
Both my Rem 700 have
HS Detachable Magazine floorplates.
Work best with Full Rail Scope bases.

 

[TG-5150]

I voted no. Picturing most of my rifle use is with a mountain rifle.
Long range build is going to have a clip though.

 

[SidecarFlip]

I voted no. Picturing most of my rifle use is with a mountain rifle.
Long range build is going to have a clip though.

You mean a magazine.... Clips hold papers together.

 

[MajorSpittle]

Detachable Magazine is superior to anything else and is the correct answer, assuming the Magazine allows for a long enough COL if you reload.

Top loading you have to cycle the rounds out of the rifle which takes time and effort to catch each round. A floor plate sucks because it drops the rounds out for you to catch. Both methods can really suck in the dark, cold, or in a cramped vehicle/location.

Loading both of these obviously inferior and poorly designed methods require the rifle to be present, held, and manipulated during the loading process.

Magazines require no rifle being held while you load it and are by far the easiest to load in dark, cold, and cramped locations. Once the magazine is loaded you don't ever need to remove the rounds again, you just pop the magazine out and the magazine provides the storage of the rounds until needed. It is so easy even a caveman can do it.

So everyone that voted No was wrong and failed at the poll ;-)

 

[DanRPhD]

With both types of rifles, detachable mags are the best way to go. IMHP.

 

[J.G.W]

Detachable mags are all good until someone loses one (I've had clients do this more than once) and you end up with a single shot that is a pain in the arse to load. All my hunting rifles are hinged floor plate.

 

[Greyfox]

Pretty old post that I remember not feeling strongly one way or another, but voted for the internal box, mostly due to my lifelong enamorment with the pre-64 Winchester. Interesting to revisit the question having placed a much greater emphasis on LR hunting(and competition) since. My primary LR hunting rifle(Cooper) the last 8 years has a detachable magazine. While there may be some minor pluses or minuses for each magazine type, I still don't have a strong preference for either style in a hunter. Accuracy, balance, portability, and reliabilty take priority over the magazine type as long as it feeds properly. I do like a detachable magazine that is near flush to the bottom surface of my rifles used for hunting...which IMO makes for a more comfortable carry. Just about all of my competition rifles have detachable magazines.

 

[DanRPhD]

Detachable mags are all good until someone loses one (I've had clients do this more than once) and you end up with a single shot that is a pain in the arse to load. All my hunting rifles are hinged floor plate.

That is why I own more than one magazine for each type of rifle. When hunting, one magazine stays in the rifle at all times. At the end of the day, I remove the mag, clear the rifle and put the round just cleared from the rifle back into the mag and reinsert the mag and then case the rifle. Simple, quick and helps thwart Murphy.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

Most of my rifles have hinged floorplates but I actually prefer a drop out magazine, providing that it fits flush with the stock and locks in solidly.

Magazines that hang below the stock may be tacticool but I hate them on anything other than the ARs.

 

[Kimber7man]

I prefer the DBM, have come to standardize on the APA RTG model, with AICS or Accurate Mag magazines. Load the mag, slap in in the rifle when you leave the truck. I carry the rifle without a round in the chamber, so usually don't need to clear a round out of the chamber if I haven't shot at an animal.
Always carry an extra loaded mag in my backpack. And I have a spare mag in my bag back in the lodge...

 

[FIGJAM]

DBM's drive me nuts - I am down to one gun that has one. The rest have hinged floorplates - that is the only way to go in my opinion. Both of my kids guns have DBMs so I can take the magazine out until we need them - at least that is what I did when they were younger. Now both of them are good to go.

 

[DartonJager]

I don't understand how one can accidentally release a DBM. Except for my lever action rifles all my other CF rifles I hunt with are DBM.
I own DBM rifles from Browning, Savage, Remington,Tikka and Marlin. Own one blind mag rifle but it's a pure backup elk rifle that has never actually been hunted with.
I prefer DBM for the ease of loading and unloading as well as for cleaning.
Been hunting with Solely DBM rifles for 20+ years now and I am anything but gentle on my rifles (why I love sst/syn) and never had any issues of any kind with my DBM.
Some rifles actually quite a few can now only be had in DBM.
If I can buy with DBM I will, but if the rifle doesn't come that way it wouldn't be a deal breaker for me.
When I hunt, especially elk hunting I like to keep the bolt on an empty chamber until I am ready to shoot. A DBM allows me to do so as symplisticsly as is possible.

 

[jstarko0329]

I have both, and I enjoy hunting with both depending on the situation.

 

[MHO]

Always prefer a detach mag