Tom A.’s favorite rifle is a Model 75 Sako with a Swarovski scope and chambered in .300 Win. Mag. According to Tom, “I have used it in Wyoming on whitetail and mule deer. I also used it on red stag and tahr in New Zealand.”
Originally the Sako had a wood stock, but Tom sent it to Hill Country Rifles in Texas where they did an accuruzing job and fitted it with a McMillan stock matching Mossy Oak's Brush pattern.
“I shoot 180-grain Federal Barnes Triple Shock ammunition and it is very accurate,” writes Tom. “I love this rifle, however, back here at home in western Pennsylvania, I do not use it for whitetail hunting. I think its too much gun.
Tom has taken it on bear hunts, but for whitetails there he uses primarily a Remington Model 700 Mountain rifle with a stainless steel barrel chambered in .270 Win. He also has a wood-stocked Remington Model 7600 pump-action chambered in .30-‘06. Both of those guns have Leupold 3×9 variable scopes.
Tom’s young son, age 10, has a Remington Model 7 in .243 Win. It has a synthetic camo stock that is shortened to fit him, and an adjustable, neoprene cheek pad that allows him to have better scope alignment. It has a Leupold 3×9 scope on it. Tom’s son has taken a big-bodied whitetail and a chamois with that rifle. The whitetail only went about 10 yards and the chamois went straight down. He was using Remington Core-Lokt ammo.