Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Your First Big Game Rifle

Do you still have your first big game rifle? I still have mine, a Ruger 77 MkII stainless in 300 Win Mag. I bought it during my freshman year of college at a small store in Idaho. Guy behind the counter said it would shoot flat and hit hard and it would be all I’d ever need. After two months on layaway and a bunch of odd-jobs, it was mine. I wish I knew then what I know now, or I might have gotten something cheaper to shoot with less recoil.

I mounted a used VX-II 3-9x40 on it and bought a few boxes of Remington 150gr Core-lokts, and zeroed it at 200 yards (at the suggestion of my hunter safety instructor). I killed several coyotes, a few rockchucks, my first mule deer, whitetail, blacktail, and elk. I missed a few too, along the way. It was never better than a 2 MOA rifle with that ammo, which was better than I could really shoot at the time.

I’ve owned a bunch of rifles since then, but I still have it. It now wears lower rings and a VX3 3.5-10x40. No more Core-Lokts, just handloads. I would take it anywhere, I just don’t seem to anymore.

Got it. I have a French Walnut stocked Weatherby Vanguard 300 Win that has nice blonde nature to it. Got it with the first PDF in Alaska. Its a nice gun but still kicks like an a - hole. I would hunt it but I got so many other rifles... it languishes.


Sincerely,
Thomas

I was gifted a sporterized 8x57 by my grandfather when I was about 13. Still have it and still use it sometimes. I took a small Maine whitetail with it last fall, and a caribou this fall. 195gr Interlocks are pretty bad medicine out of it.

Remington 760 30-06

Saved up my yard mowing money all summer when I was 14(1988) and had my sister who was 18 take me to a gun shop and I ordered and paid for a new 7mm-08 Model Seven Remington. All the old timers thought me and my little kids caliber were odd. I proved many wrong with that little kids caliber rifle.

76 Sportsman 30-06. Sent it down the road.

Kinda funny, but I had really wanted the M70 Classic Compact in 7mm-08 and the guy behind the counter talked me out of it. “Kid yer size should buy something more versatile!”

Weatherby Mark V basic synthetic matte finish barrel in .30-06. That gun was hell on my shoulder when I was a teenager. But it s pretty damn accurate with anything you feed it.

Belgian BAR in 30/06 my dad gave me. Complete with redfield and see throughs. Be the last rifle to ever leave ...

Marlin 336 30-30 I bought used for $50. Spent another $40 for a Bushnell Banner 1.5-5x scope and another $10 for site through mounts. That was 1974.

Winchester 100 in 308, I got it when I was 10 or 11. Surprisingly accurate with plain jane 150 Winchester power points. I refinished it a couple years ago and kill a deer with it every other year

In the safe.

Mike

I do not. It was a Sturm, Ruger, and Co. 77R .30-06 Tang safety with a red pad.

Pre81 BLR .308.
wore a Simmons scope and ran 180 corelocks when I was a wee lad.
Now she sports a 2.5-8 in Tally rings and eats 165 BTSP handloads.
Still carry her and still take deer. First one in '82 and last one in '18.

I still have it but don't use it much anymore even though it is a wonderful all-around gun.

I bought it at a gun show about a month before I got married. Went in looking for a different one that I had always wanted, found it but it lay side-by-side with this other one. Picked up both and chose the other one. Have never regretted it.

I had to think about it, but yes. An 03a3 that turned into a 257 Roberts.

1898 Springfield .30-40 Krag carbine. When I was around 12 or 13...I feared and dreaded that rifle more than my father's belt, and that's saying something. Prolly shooting 220 gr roundnose's with the steel buttplate, I prolly weighed 70 pounds. Took a few years to grow into it and a few more years to get over the flinch. When I joined the Army in '64 and got issued an M-14, I thought it was the sweetest rifle in the world. Still got the Krag, mostly on a cast bullet diet now.

700 ADL in .270, 1993, K-Mart. On sale for $300. BDLs were $330. Saved up money from picking up walnuts and pecans to pay for it. Back when ADLs has walnut on them. I never cared for the look of that stock though and it now has a Bell&Carson on it. Haven’t used it in several years. Need to shoot something with it next year.

Four years later it finally took a branch antlered buck. I was 17. 20+ years later it’s still my biggest.

No, savage 110 30.06. Thing kicked bad for a 30.06. I sold it and moved on to other rifles.

Rem 700 in 7RM