Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What was your first deer rifle??

A Winchester Model 70 Ranger in 30/06 with a Tasco 4x scope. Dropped a fork horn mule deer with it my first season , about 5 minutes into the season. It went on to kill a ton of game including whitetails and antelope. Sold about ten yeras ago so I could aquire a shiny Rem 700 BDL in 30/06 that didn't shoot near as well.

A Savage 720 12 gauge with a small rear sight soldered on the barrel about 1/3 of the way between the receiver and the front bead. It was 1973 and I shot a doe at about 100 yards. To this day I marvel at how lucky of a shot it was, as I had no idea where the thing shot, as I never sighted it in. It was given to me by a business associate of my dad. I still have it, but haven't hunted with it in 25 or 30 years.

Fast Ed

My first deer season I was 13 years old in Shasta County, Calif. After reading many articles on the attributes of various rifles, I decided I needed a flatshooting bolt action with a scope (I did like levers though). I saw that the Army & Navy store in Redding had Remington 788's with 4X Taco scopes on sale for $99.99. They had them in 243, 6mm or 30-30. Sent Dad & Mom down there to buy me one, first choice 243, second 6mm after that forget it, no 30-30! If I wanted one I'd get it in a Winchester 94! All day I waited at the homestead. They came back from town with my new & first deer rifle. A model 788 in 30-30 <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />. I asked Dad what happened. He told me that the manager of the Army & Navy store told him that the 30-30's recoil was the lightest between the calibers and the better caliber for a youth! I told my father he had been had, by a manager who wanted to move a gun with a missed matched caliber (Yea, I was a spoiled kid). I hunted with it the first year, sold it before the next season and bought a Savage 99-A in 308 (Ironicaly from the same store, still have the gun). Killed my first Blacktail 5X4 with that. four years later, a friend of mine and I came across the manager of the Army Navy Store with his wife in the woods with a broken down jeep. We drove them back to their relatives. I didn't say a thing about how he had saw my father coming. It didn't seem appropriate. Funny, I hear that 788's in the 30-30 caliber bring top dollar now days. Who would have known (I sold it for $75.00).

Remington 760 in 308

Tang Safety Ruger M77 with 4X Leupold in 257 Rob. A pretty good choice for an 11yr old to make, if I do say so myself. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
222

Remington 700ADL in .243 with iron sights---still have it 40yrs.

Although every deer I shot with it and the 105 Speer was a bang-flop, I now use a variety of 35calibers. Still bang-flops but a little more recoil <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />



WN

My first deer rifle was a Universal carbine, .30 carbine. I was 12 and filled a doe tag. Range was about 35 yards on the edge of a swamp and the doe did a backflip at the shot. 30 years ago and I remember it like it happened yesterday. That rifle is in my fathers safe.

Marlin model 30 as 30-30 win.

Remington model 700 adl .264 win mag. Rifle was made in 1968 still in use today, and shoots as good as it did when new.

My first deer rifle was my Grandfather's .22-250 built on an old Zastava Mark X. It has a P.O. Ackley barrel and it used to have a P.O. Ackley 3x9 scope on it. It now wears a Fulfield II Burris. I thought that I was jinxed with this gun for a long time. I didn't kill a deer with it until this past season. I shot a tasty yearling doe and a young boar, which also tastes great, on the same gray drizzly day. My Dad has killed lots of deer with it through the years. I killed my first deer (doe) with a sporterized rifle that I bought at a gun show. It was built on a P-17 action and was in .280 Remington.
[bleep]

My own rifle was a push 270 winny i bought for myself with my own cash. i was pretty damn proud of that gun too. hunted with it for 3 years then had to sell it for a broken leg. yup, stupid.

well. after almost 20 years i got it back. 3 months ago <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> stripped it and am in the process of bedding it. i cant tell you how much happier i am owning that gun again. so much more than any custom i will ever own.

the first one i hunted with was a 303 british (what you get for growin' up in the city). a pards dad let me borrow it the first year in VT. i was hooked till' i go in the ground. i still cant imagine a life without deer hunting.

then i stepped up to a semi-12 gauge. after killing 8 trees and missing a nice 8 (it was the guns fault. it had nothing to do with a ferocious case of buck fever) i started saving every dime i could. the next fall had me a plain old 270 win and a variII 2-7. still didn't shoot anything but i was damn proud <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

woofer

The first one i lugged about in the woods was Dad's 742 carbine. Being a fairly clumsy kid, it wound up being dropped scope down when a wily bit of brush tripped me on the way into my stand opening day. Fortunately no deer came my way-the scope mounts had bent just a tad.

PETA----People Who Eat Tasty Animals

Weatherby Mark V .270 Roy, LH flavor. A real sweetheart.

A Belgian Browning BLR in .308 Win.

I hunted deer with an old 12 gauge pump for 3 years before I ever saw one. I saved up the $67 price for a Winchester Model94 back in 1963. I killed my first 10 deer with it before someone told me that it was inadequate.

Remmy Model 141 in 35 Rem. Still the fastest pump-action center fire ever produced. Oh yeah, it's also a take-down rifle. Perfect brush gun for whitetail--2MG

This doesn't really qualify as a rifle, but on my second season of deer hunting (just turned 11 years old), I took my first deer with a 410 slug. It was fired from a O/U(22/410) Stevens.
My first real rifle, I bought at 13, was a Model 88 Win. in .308 Win. I still have it,but it has been retired many years!! -memtb

REMINGTON M788 in .243 Winchester. Had a aftermarket Ram*line stock, and would shoot .5 to .75 with just about any factory ammo. Sold it to a Good friend for $100 bucks. If he wasn't still a good friend that would be one of the worst days of my life. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

My first deer rifle was a Stevens single shot 410 (which was my great grandmothers) shooting slugs. I shot the biggest deer I've ever shot it my life with it when I was 10 years old.

Since that time I've build several custom left-handed rifles, but have never shot a deer larger than that one.

Jeff