Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting A classic New England deer rifle.

my great grandfather bought a sporterized 1898 Springfield Armory in 30-40 Krag. he hunted with it until he died early. my grandfather (RIP) had it until my dad (RIP) started hunting. then my late uncle hunted with too. now i have it and it has killed 9 or 10 deer. my grandfather and my dad later hunted with Rem m760 in '06. my uncle had a Rem m7600 in '06. when i first started hunting i had a Savage pump in 20ga with some slugs. the next year, my dad's friend let me borrow a Winchester m94 in 32 Winchester Special. a year later, my grandfather gave me a 1972 Winchester m94 in 30-30. i killed a lot of deer with the 30-30. deer drives and still hunting used to be the tradition. "everybody" had m760 in '06 or a m94 or m336 in 30-30. there were some bolt actions with 270 and 243, but it was rare.

it wasn't until the early 1990s that bolt actions and many calibers came out. then almost everybody sold their '06 and 30-30s for something "better" and new.

i've done that, but now i'm interested in old cartridges and guns and cast bullets.

Thread got me thinking about my late father-in-law and the crew he hunted with. Sporterized Mausers, Winchester levers, and Remington 742s

Truthfully until the Benoit/Blood craze I rarely, if ever, saw a pump rifle in the Maine woods

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ THIS. I respect everyone's answer) but in the 40's money was tight. Lots of folks couldn't afford a "deer" rifle so their scatter gun needed to be used for small game, birds, and big game. My father's only gun at the time was a Browning light 12 semi-auto.
My father's first rifle was a Remington 740 in 30-06. My mother, brother, and 2 sisters pooled their money and bought him the gun and a box of shells. In the sixties I bought myself a Remington 870 12 ga. In 1968 when I got out of the Navy I bought myself a 740 also so I could be like Dad.

Nice!

All is fair in this business in my opinion.. I tried to just get him to loan it to me for a year or so, but he dug in pretty hard

Easy question…

Winchester Model 94 30WCF

My first deer camps in the ADks were in the 70's and a lot of the rifles were 10+ years old so probably not to different than the 1960's 30.30's were the low end of the spectrum, 35's were considered a step up but the 760 in 06 were considered the top of the heap. I didn't see many savages, but could have been just the group of folks I saw.

I did know one guy that had a 71 and another with a 141 in 35, You would think they would have been popular.. perhaps they were expensive.

???

When I hear/read "Classic New England Deer Rifle", My mind says: "Rem carbine pump, 760/6/7600".

But, what the heck do I know, the furthest East I've ever hunted deer is ~50Mi E of the ND/MN border.

More of a PA thing. New England was heavy on the 740/742 autoloaders but in PA we were (still are) limited to manually operated

A 1952 Savage 99 EG in 300 Savage would be a great deer rifle in the era. That would be my choice.




A sporterized Krag would be appropriate too. Both rifles would have got the job done in the 50’s with style.

Do you know Randy Flannery in Danforth?

Probably be a 99 of some flavor. Being the odd-ball that I am, I like the idea of a Winchester 1886 Carbine in .33 Win, though that was already old hat by then and probably more of a Western rifle anyway.

Back in the 40 and 50's a lot of people bought BSA's and Springfields that were modified from Military Surplus and sporterized for hunting purposes. They were sold at many stores and by mail order and the price for a .30-06 BSA was $149.95 and a US Springfield Sporter in .30-06 was $39.95! lol.

I own one of them in .30-06, a great rifle and my favorite rifle of all time. "From My Cold Dead Hands!"





Here is what a BSA Sporterized Rifle looked like out of the box (I believe)



This is mine, after it was given to my father he had a new custom stock put on it.

That was the only deer rifle my grandfather ever had. That and a 16 gauge Ithaca 37 for small game and birds made up his entire hunting battery.

My dad's one friend, all he ever had in his life was a model 94 .32 Special and a Remington 870 16 gauge

people traded their '06s and 30-30 for something "better", which i mean Weatherby mags, (7, 300, 338) mags, 7-08, 308 and other stuff that was made in the early 1990s. i know that i said new cartridges, but what i should have said "new rifles with older stye cartridges." a new cartridge was just around the corner, Lazzaroni, Ultra Mags, Shooting Times Western and Eastern, SAUM... along with others that i just don't remember. .

i hunted in North Central (Centre County, my grandfather had a camp there) and Southwestern (Somerset, Bedford and Westmoreland Counties). we hunted in close cover, so your shots at deer were 50 yards and under, another reason why did they use the Round Nose or Flat Point bullets?

then in 2010+/-, people got tired of their shoulder busters bolt action rifles and they went to the '06 or the 270 or the 308 or 7-08. by 2014 or '15 "everybody" had a 6.5 Creedmoor (i bought the 6.5CM in '08 or '09). i had my fill of the CM and sold it for something "new", a 23" MGM barrel (TC Encore) in 500 Linebaugh.

i like older sporter rifles, the '91 Argentine, 1898 Spr. Armory, '16 Spanish Mauser, '95 Chilian Mauser, 98 Mauser, 91/38 Carcano. i also like Husqvarna m46 and the Rem m14. i like wood and blued steel, not something plastic stock and Stainless steel. i had the plastic and stainless but i soon got tired of them and i sold them.

i know a guy who still hunts for deer/black bear/turkeys, pheasant, grouse, squirrels and dove with his 1920something Winchester m12 in 12ga.

Around here Model 700s and 77s were the norm in the 70s on up, still the same with an occasional Savage tossed in. Rarely saw a lever, pump or auto.

As far as cartridges we saw it was 222 up to 243/6mm for most of our crowd, coyote and deer, dual purpose.