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

1983 I bought a NIB Marlin 336C chambered in 30-30 and mounted a Tasco World Class 3-9x40 with TV view, I hunted with it for one Fall then bought a NIB Ruger Mod 77 chambered in 7RM and mounted a Gloss Leupold 3-9x40 👍....I killed my first buck with this rifle in the Fall of 1984 It was a three point and I was proud as hell 😁.......Hb

My first was 94 Win picked out off the rack for my 15th Birthday in 1968. Sadly gone

Model 700 ADL, 243 Win in ‘66 (IIRC) for $101.89. At $2.00 a yard, that was a lot of yards to cut. Ammo was $3.40 for 20 at that time.

I still have it after upwards of 2500 rounds. I need to pull it out for a deer one of these days.

I killed my first 10 or so deer with a family Remington 600 in .243 that was shared among siblings and my parents. For Christmas in 1983 my dad gave me a well used but well cared for Remington 700 BDL in .270 with a 4X Redfield scope. The rifle was manufactured in the early 70's and had spent its life up until my dad bought it in the gun rack of a jeep down in Mexico. The bluing and the stock finish are worn where it rubbed the gun rack. It was the only centerfire rifle I owned for over 20 years and has accounted for allot of animals. I still own it and even though I have a number of other rifles to choose from it still is my primary big game rifle.

Bought a used 788 Remington chambered in 308 Win. in 1968 for 50.00. Then traded an old J.C. Higgins model 20 shotgun for another 788 in 222 Rem. with an M8 6x scope. learned to shoot and handload with them. Still have both of them. The 308 is on it's 4th barrel and is now a 260 A.I. The 222 Rem. is now a 223. Have a lot of other rifles but still shoot them regularly. Have killed a lot of game and varmints with them.

Like Mohawk above I started out with a Remington 600 in .243 in 1996. It was my Dad's gun and had an old bushnell scope chief straight 4x on it with cross hairs, or a command post by turning a ring on the rear of the scope. I took a few deer with it but never cared for that short little gun. In 1999 I got a 700BDL in .243 and used that for a few years before moving on to other rifles. I mowed a lot of grass to pay for that sucker and still have it, although I did strip and refinish the stock.

The first I bought with my own money was a M700 ADL .270 Win in 1966. it had a Bausch & Lomb 2 1/2-8 scope and I loved it! Problem is, it was stolen when I lived in some apartments.

For those of you that sold your first guns, do you regret it? I have contemplated selling my 300 Win Mag simply because I can use much milder and cheaper cartridges for any hunting I would do. My 300 is pretty much relegated to backup duty.

My first big game rifle was a Ruger m77 300 win mag. Bought it new in the early 90s. Until then I borrowed rifles for 12 years. I still own my 300

Ruger M77 chambered in 250 Savage. I put a weaver 4x on it and killed a pile of deer. It now has a Leupold M8 4x

Love that rifle.

I had rimfire rifles and various handguns only until the early 90s...just didnt see the need for a big game rifle as my hunting was pretty much restricted to jackrabbit and coyote country. When I decided I had to find a way to hunt deer, I bought my first centerfire rifle, a 700 Mountain Rifle in .280 Rem. I'd fired plenty of centerfire rifles at that point and was surprised at how much that rifle hurt me...I guess it was just the stock dimensions as I've owned three other rifles chambered the same and they are and were pussycats in comparison. I sold that rifle to help my sister out of a bind, but when I tried to give her the money she wouldn't take it. Oh well. I still do not regret getting rid of that nasty brute, but it sure was a good looking rifle.

It shouldn't really count as my first big game rifle because I never shot anything with it.

Jap Arisaka. I got two of them, 6.5 and a 7.7. I couldn't say where they went, both were a piece of crap. They were gifted to me when I was old enough to hunt deer.
I couldn't say which family member brought them back, but I know it wasn't my dad, he thought they were junk and useless. The first "real" rifle that I shot much with was an 03-A3 that a gunsmith in Stockton, California helped me make right. We put a Douglas barrel on it in '06 and I bought a Bishop for it and which I fitted and finished. I put a weaver 3-9 dot reticle on top. It would shoot MOA with Factory Core-Lokts which I had to use because I didn't have any reloading equipment for those four years.

1968, age 15, Model 1896 Krag cavalry carbine, .30-40, original configuration. Paid $40 for it, infantry rifles were going for $30. Stoked it with 155 grain plain base cast bullets for backyard plinking, 220 grain gas checked cast bullets for hunting. Killed a couple does with it- knocked them ass-over-tincups. Rifle is long gone, but I still have and use those molds.

It was my first centerfire rifle bought with my own money. The Old Man tried to foist a M1916 Spanish Mauser, 7x57, on me the year before. One ill fated season with that POS sent me off on my own path.

Winchester 94 30-30 for x-mas of 77. I think my father bought it from western auto. He bought me and my younger brother each one,I have my brothers and it hasn't been fired or hunted with since around 81. Mine was lost/stolen during a military transfer in 1990.

Yes I do. Marlin 336 30-30 I got for Christmas when I was 12.

Also have the first gun I bought with my own money after saving up all summer at 16, Winchester 120, 12 gauge pump combo.

Have them both and use them very little now but not getting rid of anytime soon

I agree they can be annoying. As an idea, you already have the rifle, you could have an after market match grade barrel re-chambered for 7 RM, .264 WM, 257 Wby. etc. lots more fun.

P-17 Enfield 30-06. With a Weaver 4 power scope and a Post Reticle.

Tikka T3 in 7MM08 with a Leupold VXI 3-9X40

Yes, but not in the same configuration that it in when I bought it.

I bought a poorly sporterized FN built Venezuelan 24/30 Mauser in 1968 for $37.50. It was a 7x57 when I got it, but I had it rebarreled and restocked after I plugged the barrel with snow and damaged the bolt. Now it is a 257 Roberts with a McGowen barrel and a Bishop stock. Not the lightest or prettiest rifle in the house, but one that brings back a lot of memories.

Brother and I got new Win 94 30-30's when i was probably 11 and he 12.

Killed my first buck with Dads old 760 in 30-06 a couple years later though.

Still have both. Drug the 94 out last year after it sat for 20+. Forgot what an absolutely great rifle it is to handle and shoot.