Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What gun would you buy from the year you graduated HS?

I bought a new rifle in 1957. My late dad got me a job on the assembly line of the Underwood Typewriter co that summer and I saved up and ordered a new M70 Varmint in 243.

They came with a target weight 26" barrel SS and a sporter stock.

I used the rifle for both 200 yd position target matches at 200 yds and for varmint hunting. It's very accurate. Now it has a 220 Swift barrel on it I got from a friend.

It's scope is now a 6-18 Leu.

Just to own and use occasionally, a Colt Sharps in 22-250, a Browning Medalist, and a Kreighoff in 28ga not that I could have afforded them back then.

What I wish that I would have bought was all of the Remington Nylon 66 gallery models that I could find.

Graduated high school in 1963, wanted a Model 70 243 Featherweight, but that was a big purchase when you were making $1.00 hour. Had to wait 52 years, the 1962 featherweight will arrive from Texas late this afternoon. Good things are worth waiting for. GW

66 Until I saw some of the other responses, I was gonna say Win 94 classic with 26" octagon. I made the mistake of selling mine. There were still Colts, Ruger single sixes, S & W, and barrels of old Mausers, Enfields, and others at ALL sorts of stores.

The year I graduated I was making $70.00 a month! Couldn't buy a plug of Red Man chewing tobacco!

My Uncle Sam provided me with a bunk!!

Shooting my M9422 (HS grad gift from my folks) in early July 1973 with my girlfriend and her brother, just days before leaving for BCT/AIT at Fort Knox KY.

Graduated in 1968... The gun I would buy that year was what a local sporting goods store put on sale in November of that year. A High Standard Flite-King 12 ga. pump. Think it was marked down to $69.95 IIRC and while it wasn't my first gun; it was the first "brand new" gun purchase I ever made. Still have it, although it doesn't see as much use these days as it did back in "the day"; its a nice gun that I've always liked.

Apple and Microsoft stock.

I'd have settled for subaru.

When I graduated in 1978, I bought a new Nylon 66 in the Apache black and crome finish for $69 bucks. Also a new Ruger Super Blackhawk in .44 mag for $200 bucks.

They were selling new Colt New Frontier SAA in .45 Colt for $400. Still wished I would have bought that instead!

I have my dad's 721, 30-06, that he bought in about '52. I was 4 at the time. It's still very accurate but the safety is loose and I don't trust it to stay on safe. It also needs wheels.

I would have bought a pre 64 Win FWT on 270 with Redfield 4x40 for $120. My buddy did exactly that. I opted to go cheap with a 1917 Enfield from J.C. Whitney (yes the car parts place through the mail and no 4473) for $12. Put black walnut stock, milled the ears off, chopped barrel to 22" and Lyman receiver site. Joyce Hornady did my reloads for me. Killed a lot of stiff with that setup, Mule deer, whitetail, antelope, coyotes and jacks, for a couple of years that was my tractor gun.

Browning Superposed. Of course that was out of the question money-wise.

All of the SP1 CARS and Pythons I could afford

Graduated in 1966....mine would be Full Auto AR16 & M14 and all a Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum in each barrel length.

6" blued Python.

Winchester 101, 28 gauge, 26" barrels.

I graduated in 1989 and bought a new gun in 1990. Ruger M77 tang safety .30-06. Nothing fancy but it has served me well. My dad had a M77 in .25-06 that he bought the second year they were made according to the info on the ruger site from the SN.

1980 for me. It would have been a nice double, but one I could afford, not some fantasy whim. A little 20 gauge Fox Model B or the likes.

Back in 1972 when minimum wage was $1.00 per hour and gas was 24.9 cents per gallon, I used to hover near a Browning Safari 30-06. The local gun shop had one hanging on the wall.
$232.50 iirc.
It was made in Belgium and had the FN Mauser action.

Many years later I found a beat up one at a gun show and had Ahlmans in Morristown reblue it. It is almost to pretty to use.
I would like to find another one in 375 H&H Magnum.
I see one in .458 at gun shows it was magna ported and must have kicked like a mule. Maybe I should buy it?
Might be fun with cast lead bullets?
whelennut