Originally Posted by MojoHand
When I got old enough to hunt in N. Wisconsin (late 80's early 90's) I started off with a Rem 600 in .35 Rem (still have it--serial # low 2000's). Probably just about perfect for the environment but of course it seemed too outdated and old and my older buddy (now my BIL) shot a .30-06 and was always telling me how anemic the .35 was!

I still remember the rifle I absolutely lusted after in my early teens was a Rem 7 in 7-08. I loved the trim size, schnabel foreend and the 7-08 seemed to be everything awesome to a young boy's mind. Read every article I could on the rifle and cartridge and mostly remember Layne Simpson singing its praises. (As a side note, I actually wrote two letters about the Rem 600 and the .35 Rem to Simpson's Q&A column in Shooting Times and had both answered in the magazine--quite a thrill for a young kid!).

Never got a Model 7 but I did eventually get a 7-08 (in a beautiful Kimber, no less) but eventually sold it and have even 'regressed' acquiring a 7x57! grin

So what was high on your wish list as a young hunter and did the dream ever come to fruition or did you move on?


Dad's rifle, his only gun, was a Winchester. And I thought that machine, a Model 62 pump 22 was the neatest firearm. Consequently, it wasn't much of a leap to accept the 'wisdom' of Jack O'Connor and his praises of the Model 70 and the 270 cartridge. That was my dream, a M70 chambered in 270.

My first CF rifle when I could afford one, was a M70A in 222. There was nothing about that rifle that was very endearing. my second and third were a M670 in 30-06 and a M788 in 223 (with a few inches of cobblestone near the muzzle). Both were better rifles than the 222. The only 270 I've owned has been a Ruger #1-A I bought 'cheap' on Gunbroker. It was a new, rifle with a broken rear sight that a gunshop apparently didn't want to mess with. My 10-year old learned to shoot CF with that rifle and killed his first moose with it.

Sometimes, the air you 'let in'matters less than the air you 'let out'.