1958, I had been out of high school about 5 years then and was working on ranches in the Big Bend of Texas and rodeoing professionally at the time..I also did some guiding for my family and friends at that time, and finally settled down and went to work for the El Paso County Sheriffs dept, and started college part time, had a wife and two little boys and guided deer hunts for some friends to make ends meet and pick up some extra bucks....
I still had my 25-35 Win and my dads M-99EG in 250 savage that had served me so well on elk and deer over the last 10 or more years. My family of ranchers all used the 25-35, 30-30, and two uncles used magnums like the 300 Savage and the Win. 95 carbine in 30-40 Krag, and I was in awe of them.
1958 was the year I bought myself two rifles, a 99 Sav. in 308 and a pre 64 M-70 in .270 caliber, my friend and mentor in El Paso was Myer Erlich who owned Geneva Loan, and he would sell me any gun for $5 down and $5 per month, and I was poot'en in tall cotton.
Back then one could get a lot of flack from family and friends over using such big calibers and their ability to destroy a lot of meat, but that came to pass in time.
Lots of Springfield service rifles came out on the NRA market at $14.00 each and 45 autos at $7.50, that was cheap even then, but saleries averaged about $290 per month back then..It was a good time, everybody was an American, no dope on the streets, and if you failed to salute the flag, you could bet on an a$$ whupping, and everyone believed in God, motherhood, and apple pie, John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and a few others were heros.
With the returning of our soldiers from several wars, the 30-06 became king of the hill and never relinguished that title to this day..:)
Now if you guys want to know what deer, bear and elk hunting was like in 1945, thats when I began "legal" my big game hunting career. Dick shaw and Bill Weaver hunted our ranch and gave all of us a 2.5X Weaver scope and mounts for our low combed rifles, and low and behold they worked once we got some instruction and were told you had to "sight them in" !!:)
Last edited by atkinson; 05/23/09.
