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

A couple of mine.



Model 20 Savage in 250-3000



First Model Newton in 30 Newton



Whitney Rolling Block in 40-65



30 Newton again.



First Model Newton in 256 Newton



Another one for the 256 Newton

Bought a Winchester M70 in 30-06 from a pawn shop 5 years ago. It is from 1969. The Weaver V7 is from the same year. It's not pre-64, the glass is old, and the scope only goes up to 7 power. I'll be damned if it hasn't killed everything I have shot it at hunting the rugged mountains of Nevada, including a mule deer this year at 326 yards. And most years I am using Cor-Lokt factory ammo. Sure, I would love the Kimber 84 classic select grade in 30-06 the local Cabelas has in the gun library, which I am trying very hard not to buy, but the old simple way still gets it done.

I've seen those Newton's before!!

My favorite rifle for the last 50 yrs is my Remington Springfield 30-06 and it is 100 plus years old now. The sporter stock on it was bedded using some kind of wood putty long before I took possession of it, and still works just fine. The old two groove barrel seems to work well with all wts of bullets from 110 to 220 gr. Its going to stay with me till I no longer can carry it.

Another old rifle I like to play with is a Winchester low wall that started life as a 25-20, but got rebored to 357 mag. Its killed a few deer and probably elk (previous owner didn't think much of hunting seasons) along the way. This rifle also has a double set trigger that would make any benchrest shooter proud. You can hardly use it if you are excited though.

I like old quality guns.

Some friends of mine have been holding an annual "Old Gun Hunt" here in Montana for around 25 years. My wife and I have only attended a few, mostly because we live in a different part of the state, but partly for other reasons, which I'll mention later. At first one rule was "no scopes," but that changed as the group got even older, and of course synthetic stocks were verboten.

Eileen has always used an old "no name" German combination gun, with a 9.3x72R rifle barrel over 16-gauge, with a 1.5-5x Leupold. The rifles I've used have been a Mannlicher-Schoenauer carbine 6.5x54 with an aperture sight, a Marlin 336 in .35 Remington with the open factory sights, and a Sauer drilling in 6.5x57R/16x16 with a 4x Hensoldt with a German #1 reticle.

We liked the hunt when it was held for a couple years on a couple of riverbottom ranches in eastern Montana, where we could take more than one whitetail doe. But eventually EHD hit the ranches and the deer almost disappeared, and the buy started holding it in a valley near Missoula, where most of them live. There used to be a lot of whitetails there too, enough to buy OTC doe tags, but there have been very few deer for at least the past decade, in part due to wolves. But the other guys don't seem to care much, and eventually it became apparent they're not really in it for the hunting anymore. We haven't attended for at least 5 years, preferring to use whatever "old guns" we have closer to home, where we have a good chance of seeing game!

A late 50's Featherweight 270

I bet they look familiar. I think the cow with the 256 was the first elk to "ride" your little Morgan horse.

nothing wrong with it just because it's old. I still hunt with a sterlingworth side by side 12 gauge it's over a hundred years old.

(No.... I did not buy it new)

Cool Newton rifles there. I almost bought one of those a few years ago. It was a 256 and seemed like a hell of a good deal. Looked damned near new too. I had no idea on how old it was until I looked it up. Back to the thread: I used my old m1917 this year on both my buck and bull. I used a good load using the 200gr. nosler partition. Worked great on both these critters. I just got through replacing the recoil pad on the old girl a few minutes ago:





This rifle is damn near 100 years old, so I guess it would be considered "old time". One of my best handling rifles and fits me like a glove after some modifications to the left hand stock.

I've taken a lot of turkey with an old sterlingworth made in 1910... Excellent old shotguns..

Aw heck why not - cull buck with a 1907 Winchester, from the first year of production.

Can we get a pic of your Grandfathers winning rack?

Hell of a Elk by the way and good looking rifle.

Very little, if any, obsolescence in rifles.

"...if any"?

I wouldn't go that far. Take a look in Cartridges of the World and look at all the ones that you've never even heard of - many of which were developed right here in the USA.

In general, though, I agree. Cartridges don't become less effective with age.

Obsolescence from the standpoint of function, not popularity.

That's funny!

I could live with that. Have a Brno 21 7x57 that could be used in such a situation.

Here it is - big old boy. Was going to put a yard stick on there but it fell through.

Stephen Hunter books are good

here's an old design (disregard the modern optics)

Thanks centershot! That is mighty impressive.