Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters It's 1958-- what were y'all shooting East of the Mississippi?

IN 58 my grandfathers/great grandfathers where using sporterized Mausers and Springfields.

I grew up around quite a few WWII veterans,and it seemed like they all had at least one "bring back" from the war.I saw a lot of 7x57 and 8x57 mausers in the woods,though those 7x57s were not likely "bring backs." Also lots of SMLEs ,which were also not likely "bring backs",plus a sprinkling of Arisakas,Springfields,and 1918 Enfields,in various stages of sporterization.
At least two hunters I knew carried M1 Carbines,and swore by them,though they were considered as too weak in power by many.I don't know how far these guys were shooting,but they were both very successful hunters.
Almost every young hunter starting out was first outfitted with one of these old war horses.
You could find stacks of these rifles in all kinds of stores in those days,often displayed in wooden barrels,often for less than $10.00 each.I remember seeing them in Auto Parts and Dept. Stores,and even a gas station in Brooklyn.You could buy them just as cheaply through the mail from a number of sources.This ,of course,was still ten years before the 1968 Gun Control Act.
Almost every group of hunters had a member,or knew someone who would cheerfully reload ammo for others,often taking readilly available,and cheap, military surplus,and pulling the bullets,then reloading commercial hunting bullets over the original powder and primers.Not very sophisticated or elegant,but the deer never seemed to notice the difference.

I was also 14 in 1958 and like many people was carrying a Winchester 94 in 30-30.

These Winchester carbines, along with a few Marlins, in 30-30 and 32 Win Spl were by far the most popular outfit in the part of Wisconsin I grew up in. I knew two brothers who lived near me and owned a pile of them. They rented them out every year for $10.00 for the nine day deer season. It seems an unthinkable thing in todays world but I don't ever remember them losing one or even having trouble getting one returned after the season. In fact, many folks rented the same one year after year from them. At that time in our area if I recall correctly a new Winchester 94 cost about $80.00 and used ones not much less. That was just too much money for some folks to come up with so $10.00 looked pretty attractive. Add five dollars for a dear tag and three or four for a box of shells and you were in business for less than $20.00.

Then, as now around here, you might see almost anything. Primarily, though, you would see .30-30's and .32 Specials, .30-06's, .270's. Also, a good number of .35 Remingtons and .300 Savages. Some shotgun slugs.

In 1958 in our area of eastern NC there were far fewer deer than today, so most of the relatives in my family used their shotguns for the annual deer hunt. One uncle was rather excentric (never married until he was 65), a veteran of WW1 & WW2, and spent his spare time raising, and hunting, with his bird dogs. He had a Belgian Browning A5 shotgun (most everyone else had cheaper guns) and he had the only centerfire rifle in the family I ever saw; a M94 Carbine 30/30. He went deer hunting enough to justify owning a dedicated deer rifle.

I was a year or two away from my first deer hunt that year but watched Dad leave home with his M99 .300 Savage. When my first morning on the deer stand would arrive, I would be carrying my new M37 Winchester single shot in 16 gauge loaded with a single slug. I can still remember following behind Dad that first morning as we headed for a ground blind we had revamped on the edge of a swamp earlier in the year. Dad had sat there for several years before, but we needed to enlarge his blind to make room for me. Naturally I got cold and we started a fire that was the highlight of that first morning. Several members of Dad's hunting party were Minnesota Gophers football fans and after noon would end up at one members stand to listen to the start of the game and catch up on who had shot deer and who had missed. Then it was back to the stands for the afternoon sit. Other members of the party carried Remington autos and pumps, Marlin and Winchester lever actions and only one bolt action, a Springfield .30-06.

In 1957 my dad was 19 years old and had grown up in Nova Scotia. He picked out the exact same rifle a couple of his older hunting buddies were using, and had his older brother pick it up for him because older brother could get it wholesale, $64. The rifle? A M94 carbine in 32 Special because it was "a better stopper than the 30-30".

While his brother (who was not a shooter or hunter) was picking it up, the salesman tried to talk him into a different Winchester lever, which turned out to be a M88 in 308 Win. For $84. Older brother insisted on the M94 because he wasn't sure and didn't want my dad mad at him.

My father, who had never heard of an 88 in that small NS town, still brings it up occasionally; how his hunting success may have changed for the better if he had known about the M88 at the time.

In what seems ironic today, I gave him his favourite field rifle about 20 years ago. A 1957 M70 standard rifle in 270.

There was not a whole lot of deer in CT in 1958 we only had crop damage back then and of course the guys that Jack Lighted. You had to go to VT NH Maine Or NY in those days. My uncle Felix shot a 270 that was an FN that came from Sears Roebuck and Co. I on the other had hand to make due with a Marlin 22 Bolt rifle. I was not quiet old enough yet. Mom drove a Studabaker back then, My father a 1949 Caddy. They were divorced by then. A 1957 Chevy Bel Air became the car my mom drove, latter on, drove it till 1968, then my dads caddy, when he died. Lots of guns around, didn't know that even the cheap ones then would be something special 50 years latter. My Uncle Felix FN, is still in the family. It didn't look like much back then but now its really a fine rifle.

I was born in 1954, I know my dad was using an old Springfield that had been sporterized. He used it up until he had to give up hunting. My nephew now uses it for his deer hunting back in VA.

A custom .300 Savage (or .35 Rem.) built on a Mauser Kurz action stocked by Dale Goens with a 21"
barrel, and a 2.5 to 3 power scope in detachable mounts. It would swing like a Wells Fargo sawed-off shotgun.

Or a single trigger M-S .358 WCF and 20 " barrel and peep sights.

Or a Winchester 64 .30 WCF with 20" barrel.

Or a Winchester M12 12 gauge with a 20" barrel and slugs.


Or a beat up pre-war Savage 99R in .300.

YMMV

My family in WNY always had to use shotguns, so they all had Ithaca 37 Deerslayers.

For the Adirondacks, they had Savage 99 in 300 Savage.

Many parts of Indiana didn't have huntable populations of deer then. So, dad and grandpa killed the heck out of cottontails and squirrels with shotguns. Grandpa had a Model 12, 12 ga and later an 1100. Dad hunted with a Rem semi-auto that looked like an A-5 and then latter a Mossberg 500, both in 20ga.

Dad was using his 99 Savage 250-3000. His one friend had a .35 Remington pump. Don't know who else had what. His shotgun was a 20ga Mossberg bolt action, modified choke.

In 1958, my two mentors were using a sporterized Mauser 98 in 8x57 and a Remington Model 8 in 35 Rem. I think they each had a 94 Winchester in 30-30 floating around their households as well.

Dan

I was only 12 in 1958 but I remember going along with an uncle, and he had me carry a couple spare cartridges for a custom 35 whelen built on a rem model 30 .it was a very hard to find civilian version of the 1917 enfield.
he had a gunsmith buddy custom barrel the rifle, for hunting BEAR in MAINE.
I wish I knew where that rifle was today, both my dad and uncle are long gone and I think my cousin who never hunts got that rifle.

In 1968, I was shooting a 30-06 03-A3 Springfield.. Deadly on whitetails,

The poster who mentioned the depression not being over in 1958 was not far wrong, things were better. I lost my dad in 1955 and was home with my mother and sister, I was 17 . In fifty five I hunted with a 20 gauge Stevens 94 that I had bought myself, slugs for deer and #6's for small game. What ever I took in the field was apprecited on the table as Mom couldn't work sis was 5. In 57 I landed a much better job and started to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Then eventually came the model 12 and the 94. A lot of people are upset about our troubles today, and I like others have suffered some loss, we will get through it. I believe it will make a better people of us all. kotzy

Deer, rabbits, squirrels, fox, wood chucks, and quail, but no coyotes. 1Minute

I weren't born yet; not by a long shot.

What were the go-to guns, though? Likely 1894/94 Winchesters and 336 Marlins, with the occasional 99 Savage, and sporterized Mauser and Enfield and Springfield thrown in.

I know my family hunting mentors used Remmington 141's in 35 Rem. There was also many shotguns in use, with Model 99's and 94's bringing up the rear. If someone used a bolt gun it was usually a rifle "from the war" in which the bullet was measured in mm's. There were some odd rigs out there like single shot 30-30 bolt guns, a bolt action shotgun, and rifle/smoothbore over and unders.