Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Dad's Rifle

Tomorrow is Opening Day here in North Dakota. By now, I've usually spent the last couple of months deciding which of my rifles will be chosen to take this years deer, loads will have been re-tested for verification of accuracy, and (of course) sighted in. This fall, though, a random thought entered my head and kept picking at my brain until I had no choice but to follow it's edict: I am to try and shoot this year's deer with my Dad's 30-06.

I'm not sure exactly when Dad bought this rifle - my brother hypothesized somewhere between 1972 and 1974. I'm guessing 72. Prior to Dad purchasing this rifle, he had hunted a year or two with a surplus 1917 Enfield (Remington), which he detested. Hated the bolt. Hated the peep sight. About the only thing he did like was that it was a 30-06. So when he purchased the "new" Remington, the open sights didn't cut it there either ("Damn comb is too high!")... and on went the 4x Weaver.

I watched my Dad shoot a lot of deer with this rifle - he was a meat hunter, and every year he applied for a doe license, with the buck option as his second choice. And back then, truthfully, bucks were kinda scarce - we might go all fall and not see one...so finding one during the 10 1/2 day season (as I recall - now it's 16 1/2 days) was a bit of a gamble. I can only recall him tagging two bucks with that rifle - a nice 4x4 and a dandy 5x6. As for my brother and I - we've each only shot one deer with Dad's rifle, both does. My brother tagged his first with it, and I took one on a whim back when I was in my twenties.

Dad passed away in 2007, and to my recollection his rifle has sat in the gun cabinet ever since. My brother long ago gave up on deer hunting, in favor of bird hunting. And I have somewhere in the vicinity of 13 different rifles to choose from each fall. So his rifle has sat. Dad liked his Remington rifle, but always seemed to shoot Winchester ammunition in it (he didn't reload). So when I decided to go with his rifle, I went to the store to buy some ammo for it. The local hardware store didn't have any. On a trip to Fargo, I stopped in the Scheels there, and cringed at the prices they were asking. I bought two boxes of the cheapest 150gr loads they had (Federal Non-Typical) and paid them their blood money. I was a bit concerned when I took the rifle to the range - and put a target up at 25 yds to see whereabouts the ancient Weaver was going to put the first round. In the end, the rifle/scope combo is still solid - at least out at 100 yds.





Not bad for a Jam-o-matic 742......