Everything I use my bolt action rifle for, hunting plinking teaching my kids to shoot...rabbit squirrel deer crow... coyote I dunno whatever gets in my sights...not many pigs in my neck of Louisiana woods but in Texas where I work there are.
No. Way before that.
Merrill and T/C were selling plenty of .30-30 pistols in the mid-to-late 1960s. By the late 1970s, custom bolt pistols chambered for centerfire rifle cartridges were all over the place. Remington, Wichita, and Weatherby were producing factory pistols. Kelbly, Shilen and many others were producing actions for bolt pistols. Somewhat later Savage, H-S Precision, and others got some traction. I've probably forgotten many others.
I got my first .308 pistol ~1980 and I was way late to the party.
I guess I hang in the wrong circle of shooters. I am thinking I would rather have a bolt action rifle with a scope to hunt to do long range target practice or a .22 to plink at the range. I saw them sitting on tables at gun shows in the 80's and they did not seem popular. I maybe saw more ar15 pistols with the buffer tube and was thinking, WTF.
No. Way before that.
Merrill and T/C were selling plenty of .30-30 pistols in the mid-to-late 1960s. By the late 1970s, custom bolt pistols chambered for centerfire rifle cartridges were all over the place. Remington, Wichita, and Weatherby were producing factory pistols. Kelbly, Shilen and many others were producing actions for bolt pistols. Somewhat later Savage, H-S Precision, and others got some traction. I've probably forgotten many others.
I got my first .308 pistol ~1980 and I was way late to the party.
Second-hand custom bolt pistols are like second-hand custom bolt rifles. Only the person who originally spec'd it cares about it and will pay for it. For resale, they're worth the price of the action and, maybe, the trigger.
I think if I had the choice to buy and use one gun for all of the above and just change ammo I'd rather have the one gun and get really really familiar...I load small cast bullets to near 22 lr velocities...makes 300 blk super super versitile but those won't cycle a semi AR...but bolt guns eat them up. I think that, the added reliability, the durability and ease of use, the additional quietness with a can (bolt action 300 blk are silly quiet) I guess the same argument can be made about why people chose bolt actions at all when you can get an AR in most everything now a days...bolt guns have specific benefits over semi autos and alot of people find that value enough to get them all the time
