Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Old time rifles still get it done

With all the rage about cheap, plastic rifles, I get a kick out of seeing some of the old classics still getting it done. Here's a short list of some rifles that men I know still use successfully every year:

1) Winchester 88 in .308 Win. Jim bought this rifle new in the early 60s and still uses in every year.
2) Savage 99 in .300 Savage. A neighbor has used this one for a lot of years and took a nice buck with it again this year.
3) Remington 742 in .30-06 a good friend bought this one new, and even though I wouldn't use one of these, he gets venison most years with it.
4) a 98 Mauser (VZ-24 action in .30-06) with Bishop stock and Weaver K4. Nothing fancy: looks kind of ugly but kills deer.
5) Model 94 in .30-30, bought in the 50s by another neighbor. Has killed a bunch of bucks and is still killing working well every year.


All wood stocks, no plastic. Still working well for their owners after lots of years.

I'll bet you know folks using stuff like this as well.

Don't see any flies on any of those.

I agree...nothing like old walnut and blued steel. Vintage optics makes it een sweeter...

I know many dont take to old optics...but I do.

dave

It's the hunter, not the firearm.




P

I like to look at walnut and blued CM, but I prefer the low maintenance of plastic and stainless for work in the field. This year it was a mixed rifle, plastic and blue CM, an RAR-P.

One of the rules in my camp, "NO PLASTIC STOCKS".

I own at least one of every rifle on the OP's list. Minus the 742. But, my uncle uses a 7400 and kills a dear most every year.

T4

I use my old M1917, I guarantee it's pretty old...

This thread is useless without pics.

Browning Safari in 338 WM. Poor choice for a wet climate, but that's another thread.



I dropped a Roosevelt's bull the day with it the day after this pic was taken.


Okie John

Savage 99 in .303 Savage have killed deer and caribou with it.

I try and take a deer each year with my Grandpa's old .30-30. It is a Marlin 336RC, made in 1951. My daughter will be hunting with it for the first time tomorrow. She practiced with it all summer, and she shoots it about as well as I do.

I was a kid during WWII. The family 12 ga cratered and we survived with a single shot .22 that Dad had bought as a kid. I guess that stark upbringing warped me as I have a dozen .22s and even more center fire rifles, including four .30-30s. Dad had an early Marlin 336 RCand Uncle had an even older 36 SC, as their only deer rifles. I can recall only four deer that I ever took that a .30-30 would not have sufficed?

For several years my primary hunting rifle was a Savage 99F in .300. It worked just fine. When I go to the kid's ranch, I usually grab a .30-30 to shoot whatever needs shooting. Old school is not bad.

Best,

Jack

When I used to hunt with Bearrr264 on his farms, he wouldn't allow anyone to hunt with rifles that had exposed hammers, 'cause he felt that they were unsafe. One time I went to his farm near St. Joseph, MO, to hunt coyotes and brought along a Savage 24 in 223/20. When he asked me what I was shooting, I told him and he said that I'd need to use some other rifle, 'cause the "no hammer gun" rule was in force 24/7/365 on his ground.

Ridiculous. I prefer hammers.

All I own is old wore out stuff, that when new, had nice wood stocks and blued steel.

Your wife said the same thing about you...

Well you can't trust here! She had promised she'd keep her mouth shut about that!

I really liked being able to run to the gunsafe real quick to pick out something to murder a hog with in the back yard!!!! I miss those days. Too many people around now and even the hogs have gone elsewhere.

I suspect someday, they will return. The hogs I mean.

For this years deer season...

I bring a SS browning Xbolt plastic stocked for rainy days, but the Sav 99 in 308 stayed on watch the whole time. Got 3 with it.

The cool thing about the 99... is one of our old hunters, Mervin, could absolutely roll driven deer with his 300 and I swear Merv's "force" was channeled into that rifle when I rolled a fat doe with it. His spirit whispered to me.

On a side note...
The kid that pushed it out to me and saw the deer roll decided to buy a bolt action 22 just like his rifle to practice speed shooting. The spirit is spreading...

One of my evil semi autos, works just like it did when it left the factory in 1921.



.32 Rem

His land, his rules. He also sent a "guide" with each invited hunter to tell them which deer they could, or could not, shoot. I only heard of one person getting in a huff about it and he was never invited to hunt that land again. I never go anywhere with just one firearm, so the "no hammers" rule didn't impact me in a negative manner. Heck, I wish that he was still around, as his kids sold all of his farms within months of his passing.