I killed my first whitetail, a six point buck, my second year hunting in 1975 with my uncle's Remington 742 in 30.06. Christmas that year I had a new 742 in 30.06 under the tree. I kept it and killed a good dozen deer with it over the next 15 years. It would never group better than about 3 inches. In 1992 I moved to Colorado and thought I better buy a bolt action so I purchased my first center fire. It was a used Sears M-53 in 270 Winchester. I paid $150.00 at a gun show in Denver. It had a no name Jap 3x9 scope and looked like it had never been cleaned. I scrubbed the gun clean and it was shooter. That rifle shot every load accurately, but would put 130 grain factory Hornady interlocks into cloverleafs at 100 yards. I killed a pile of whitetails, some mule deer and my first 2 elk with that rifle. A few years later I frosted the bore with some strong bore cleaner I misused trying to get copper fouling from original Barnes bullets out of the bore. It was still a shooter, but lost the pin point accuracy so a few years later I auctioned it off at a farm sale for a tidy profit. After I sold the 270 and went through an assortment of Ruger, Browning and Winchester rifles in 30.06, 300 WM and 338 WM I have settled on a M-70 Classic in 30.06. It is not the most accurate rifle I have ever owned, but it is rugged and true. The zero on that rifle has never shifted since it was sighted in in 2005. It is scoped with a Khales 3x9 and was full bedded in an unknown brand synthetic stock. I have only used one load in that rifle, Hornady 165 grain Interbonds and still have 6 boxes of the lot I purchased shortly after buying the rifle. It has put down every animal I have ever shot at. That rifle has also been used by 6 other hunters to kill game also. I will never sell this rifle.
