Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Could your "first" rifle, have been a "ONE rifle"?

Either way you look at it...yup. First one I used was a Mauser 98 sporter in 8x57, first one I owned was a Mauser sporter in 30-06. Can't think of much I couldn't do with either of them...Hell I've got 4 "1" rifles now...maybe I shoud pare it down a bit...

My first one - a Savage 99 in 308, NO WAY. Darned thing kicked like a mule and built in a flinch that I was years getting rid of. Don't know why it hurt so bad but I have had other folks say the same thing about them.

Now my second one - that could have been the one I kept but hard times forced me to sell it. Remington 660 in 243, nice walnut stock with the fake ebony forend, 20 inch barrel, handled and shot like a dream. Still miss that one.

drover

I think I forget what my first rifle was anymore...

Anyone here know?

But I think it was a Winchester 670 in 30/06. The caliber would have been fine and the rifle would have worked but I would never have loved it.

Yep.

First rifle I paid for was a Winchester model 70 XTR in .30-06. She's retired now.


P

Yeah,..it could have been.

It was a Win Model 670A, a push feed Model 70 with a birch stock, pressed checkering and blind mag.
This was before the Ranger model took over as the econo Model 70.

...and it was in 30-06. I sold it to a coworker in 1990 when I moved to Texas for a year...figured there were better rifle deals there....I was right.

AIN'T NO WAY

1972 Win 94, nuff said?

Got rid of it in '74 IIRC, haven't missed it.

It was 1976 before I got a 700 BDL in 270. That one cudda been.

I'd saved a lotta $$ if I'd kept it only. However I've had a TON of fun and learned a lot by buying/selling/trading MANY rifles and cartridges. BTW I hunted and killed deer and game with nearly all the rifles I've had. There were very few I didn't hunt.

Maybe, but more NO. Mine was an inexpensive new 788 carbine 308 that carried as heavy as a fence post and it wasn't the ruger tang safety 3006 I wanted. I sold the 788 one year later and bought the R77 on my 15th birthday and still have it. Don't use it much because I play with other guns. Its not as accurate as it once was, but its still "woods" accurate.

I think I have bought the final "one" rifle now. Browning x-bolt SS 3006. Justified it with the wetter MN deer seasons the last decade and it has the tang safety I like on the ruger and the box mag I liked on the 788. Time will tell, but I suspect I will thin down the population until its the ruger and the x-bolt.

No but it could have worked for about 90% of the hunting I've done in the last 50 years.
M94 in 30-30

M94 30/30 Nah

2nd Rem 700 25-06 coulda mighta worked

Yep. Remington Classic in .270.
Life was simpler then and can't help but think it'd be a lot simpler today if I had just stopped there.

98 sporter in 8x57..would have covered all my bases with room to spare.

.243 vanguard. could have worked as an all around and should have kept it.

No, a Ruger in 7.62x39. But my second one sure could of. Browning A Bolt II in 280rem with a Burris FFII 3-9 it was the Stainless Stalker model

Now I am a CRF guy but that A Bolt was a slick accurate rig in a fine chambering.

Now I slum a 30-06 M70 for a dedicated do it all rifle.

Remington 700 Classic in 7mmRM . . . could have been the last one I bought.

It was before Remington made the Classic a limited yearly release, and had open sights.

I didn't like the open sights or the weight of it, and decided it was a lot of gun for whitetails in the woods.

Yes. Winchester Model 54 in 30-06 with peep sight, inherited from my Grandfather. It will kill anything walking in North America inside 200 yards. But compared to modern rifles it is just too damn big to lug around all day.

MY first was a 99e .308 win. I didnt care for it, but killed two elk with it.

Now, the first I ever bought was a Rem 700 MTN LS 30-06... And Yes, it would do just fine as my one and only rifle but thats no fun!

I hunted for my first 10 years (at least as an adult) exclusively with a single rifle - a Sako 75 in 7mm-08. It did everything from rabbits to deer. There is a lot to be said for hunting exclusively with a single rifle, especially when starting out.

First sure could have worked and been the one if necessary.... a .300 Savage in a Remington 760 pump that still is a sub-moa rifle handed down to my son. But there have been many others since, mainly bolt actions.

Savage M99 250-3000. Yes, if I would have stuck with hunting Whitetails and a bear or two, however I had dreams of bigger game.

Yes. But it never captured my heart. It was a Remington 760 .30-06.