My kid memory doesn't recall 99's, or Remington 8/81's. Mainly Winchester 94's, Remington 760's, and a whole lotta milsurps. Now and then a Marlin 336. Of course that was in PA where then as now autoloaders weren't legal for deer hunting, so the odds of somebody owning a 8/81 was slim to none. Guys with a little jingle in their pockets aspired to M70's. The only 722's I saw were a few .222's in the hands of groundhog hunters.
I remember one frosty morning in Western Maryland my Dad and I stumbled onto a yokel dressed in a flannel shirt, bib overalls, and sneakers, hunched down behind a tree stump with some sort of Russian looking automatic rifle, bipod, flash hider and all. I was intrigued (naturally) but the Old Man herded me along. I thought "man-o-man, he sure had the capability to really mow down the deer". Sure enough later that morning I heard that gun roaring way down below from where we were. Pop steered us waaaay out around when we headed back out.
Last edited by gnoahhh; 06/20/22.
