Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Ask John Barsness Questions About "THE PURSUIT OF PERFECTION"

Hi Guys:

I want to thank John Barsness (aka Mule Deer) for his exclusive Campfire article, "The Pursuit of Perfection," which can be found on our new Home Page.

Please use this thread to ask John questions about the article, and again, thanks very much to John and to the Campfire.

Rick

Thanks again to John and Rick for writing and posting another fine article. Most of us here are guilty as charged!

John, excellent article. Described my rifle loonie journey to a t. How my father and grandfather ever could hunt with just one rifle for most of their hunting career I'll never know. For a PA deer hunter that never hardly has a chance to kill a deer over 70 yards in the woods, why would I need the arsenal that I have? Thanks for the explanation of my gun disorder! I doubt there is hope for me!

Excellent, excellent article - lots of common sense.

Agreed on the common sense part. Just a little common sense would have saved me a lot of money and aggravation over the years. A couple of my formerly 'perfect' rifles recently went to my local FFL for transfer to friends. I could have sold them and tried for another perfect rifle but giving them away to good friends means I'm not tempted by the spare cash to pursue equally unlikely dreams of the ideal rifle. I actually probably saved money.

Ward,

It seems you have a lot of common sense, which isn't especially common among rifle loonies!

Good job and a lot of truth there John.

Keep up the good work.

John,
You are a very gracious fellow for not mentioning me by name in connection with my many attempts to build the ever more perfect mountain rifle in 270 Win. However, I just found a perfectly laid out true French walnut blank. It has the reddish smokey look. If only I could get Jerry to build just one more....
Best to you and your publisher,
Rick

Great write up.

Glad you made it out alive after the PF'er use on the bear JB.. That's a pretty danged risky adventure!

John;
Top of the morning to you sir, I trust that this finds you and Eileen well.

Once again I very much enjoyed your thoughts on our lifelong affliction. If nothing else, it does my heart good to know I'm not alone, you know?

Like you, as I've aged there seems to be less pressing need to try something new or build "another one", though I confess that I've enjoyed modifying stocks and tweaking other folks' rifles for them now more than before. Perhaps because I've gone down a few paths myself and read a whole lot on the subject it's easier for me to do that for others now.

While I'm not trying to blow smoke up your kilt here John, I can't tell you how many times I've either pulled out your article on stock fit or quoted it while explaining to a rifle's owner why I believe the modification he's wanting on a stock will or won't work.

Speaking personally, I've wandered in a direction that I hadn't even considered previously - but it's sorta full circle in many ways I suppose.

When the beer virus shutdown coincided with my first attempt at being retired, I began to root through the gun parts in the garage to see if I could complete some projects.

Other than being ashamed to admit that there were enough parts and unfinished projects that there's now 2 functional .30-06 rifles where there was just a military surplus rifle which had been given to me with the usual, "it don't work" and some pieces all over, I've returned to my first love in shooting which is pellet rifles. In the mess that was my shop, I found several pellet guns and now there's two which function.

Perhaps as a fellow glasses wearer I'll pick your brain as to which power of glasses is best for open sights John, but anyway I've got a Brno made Slavia and a British Webley & Scott both in .177. I hung a couple gongs up on the property and had my shooting buddy bring some "fancy" made in Germany pellets down to try.

Anyway sir, all that to say I very much enjoyed your article and that's where this rifle loonie is currently in my lifetime pilgrimage as a firearm tinkerer.

All the best to you and Eileen sir. Stay well.

Dwayne

Hi Dwayne,

And top of the morning to you, too! Mostly Eileen and I have been working, but have been doing that together in the same house for over 35 years, so aside from our outside social life, not much has changed! I supposedly semi-retired last year, but somehow it hasn't worked out quite that way....

Glad you enjoyed the article--and have gotten use out of the stock-fit suggestions. Mostly I stole stuff from various professional gunsmiths--or those professional enough to actually make stocks fit their customers. Some do not.

I've been wearing progressive bifocals for about 20 years now. Have found that if I tilt my head just so, open sights can be made to come into pretty good focus, at least enough for me to hit anything I'm going to shoot at with open sights.

John

John, at fit of common sense doesn't mean I won't do something totally irrational next week. I have, however, realized that I am at an age where the accumulation of rifles, boats, fishing gear and assorted toys exceed the number of years I have left to use them. I'm planning on at least another fifteen years on this planet which would push me past eighty but the big concern came from my doc who pointed me at literature stating the average healthy life expectancy for American males is sixty-eight. Healthy just means no major health crises and the ability to continue with your normal activities. I really want to be able to hunt and fish for a long time but that article got to me because I turn sixty-six soon. The perfect rifle doesn't mean much if I can't use its capabilities.

Chuckling as I read the article today. Late last year I declared to the 'hunting gaggle' that I'm a part of that in 2020 I'd be hunting, for the first time since forever, with a factory rifle and feeding it factory ammunition. Why? Just 'cause.

Horrors of horrors, some declared, as if I'd said Galileo got it all wrong and in fact the earth is the center of the universe. Actually, as I suspect, they worried I'd discover that there are some pretty amazing factory firesticks available today that launch some pretty impressive factory ammo.

Perfection? I dunno yet, but so far I've been impressed how this little project is giving my custom hunting rifles a run for the money...

Oh, and MD - I finally threw in the towel on my declining scores and blaming them on my progressive bifocals about a decade ago. Went and got my eyes lazed and now I can confidently blame my scores on bad barrels...

Pud

Good article

Good read! I’m guilty of a large portion there.

John,
If you keep making that much sense, your rifle looney card will get taken away!

i just read this article and yes it was excellent to read and something to think about . myself: about 15 years ago I kinda bonded with my Ruger #1 -257 Weatherby Mag. for deer especially for Bigger Whitetail and Mule deer bucks this rifle just gets the job done close and far away for me ,but i still buy rifles to collect,reload for and shoot. Mule Deer thanks for posting another great article to read,Pete53

We started a Rifle Loonies Anonymous group. It devolved first into a swap meet then a race to build the perfect .280AI.

Great article John, I enjoyed it very much. Thank you.

Enjoyed the read, and the ever so perfect doses of sarcasm sprinkled throughout. Good Job!

On a finer point, it's an interesting corollary to some thoughts I've had for some time. We humans must have 'beliefs'. I'm not referring to religion here; I mean all manner of constructed mental positions on every topic imaginable. Those beliefs help us interpret and navigate the metaphysical world. The rub, as you refer on the whole in your article, is this; what does one do with a construct belief that gets tested, and turns out to be false, or, less than perfect? If that particular belief was crucial to your view of the world, which is another subject entirely, you'd likely employ one of you biases', and toss the results, thereby maintaining a false belief because it's necessary to the undergirding of the meta belief system that constitutes...you. Your ears can tell when this happens because you'll likely hear something like, "well...that's my opinion...", or, "...I'm entitled to my point of view...".

In fact, being open to having a belief tested, and having the power to alter your belief based on those results...is part of your belief system.

Anyway - I say all this in support of your own pursuit of that which is most true. Again, good job.