Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada The oldest rifle you bought new and still have

1978 M700 Classic in 270. $229.99 on sale. The next week I went back and bought a Vari-X II 3-9 on sale for $99.99. Plus Redfield one piece mount and rings. That combo is still together.

I have around 3500-4000 rounds through it now.......

Weatherby Mark V Lightweight Sporter .30-06 in 2001 and a Ruger 10/22 in 1981.

1978 Browning B2000 my Dad and I bought a pair of them when I returned from the army. Killed a pile of deer and more than a few grouse with it.

My oldest "rifle" which I still have was bough in 1969 as a barreled action. A Mauser in 270. I was 13 then. It's on barrel number 3 now. Still a 270 however.

The stock was made by me from a block of walnut and I had to make it "grow" as I got older and taller. I also replaced the military bottom metal with commercial FN bottom metal so I cut out the surrounding wood and made a block to fill in the mortis and then inlet the new bottom about the time I was a senior in high-school. The military metal was a bit odd because the tang in front of the front guard screw was longer then the FN metal and it bugged me having the gap, so I "made new wood" and re-inlet it.

So it's pieced together, (looks like it too) But because it was the first rifle I ever made it's still pretty dear to me. Shoots very well, and in the last 53 years I have killed more game and varmints than I can count with it.

Ok,,,,, here you go, 1985..... Lj

Bought this 7x57 used in 78. Over the years it’s acquired a Trop safety and has had several different scopes on it, 6x Leupold on it for the last few years. It shoots great and has taken mule deer, fallow deer and antelope. It will be passed to my son. Great rifle, thanks Ruger. 😎

Nice rifle... I have a No.1-A 7X57 too... love the rifle.

That is a beauty!

That's nice wood. Maybe it's the angle of the camera, but the forend looks different. Plainer than the buttstock. The wood on that No 1 is nicer that what I've got.

SS336;
Good morning to you sir, I trust this finds you and yours well as can be.

Thanks for sharing your No. 1 with us, it's got some wonderful wood on that butt stock!

One of my hand loading and gun tinkering mentors had about a dozen No. 1's in his collection, all from the late '60's and through the '70's and most of them had wonderful butt stock wood as well. Interestingly most of the fore ends I recall as quite plain.

For years I used an '82 vintage No. 1 as my saddle hunting rifle and it was that way - that is to say nice butt stock wood and a very uninspiring grained fore end.

As I wanted to spruce it up a wee bit, I dug through my supply and made up a fore end to mimic a Dakota 10 more or less, sort of..



It went to a good home not quite a decade ago now, but I kept a photo to remember how pretty the wood was.

Thanks again and all the best to you as we head into warmer and longer days.

Dwayne

Did you pick your wood? I have bought No 1s off the shelf at my LGS, but they never had anything like that.

Steve;
Good afternoon to you sir, I hope you're getting some sun and it's a good day back east.

If the question on wood was posed to me, I picked up the rifle used for a buddy in '85 or there about. When I sold it to him then, I asked to have first dibs if he ever sold it and years later he did that and I had it for a decade and a half or so.

We never actually saw very many of them new in any gun shops out here Steve, maybe none if I think about it.

My buddy had some with really nice wood as mentioned, but he'd shopped for them slowly over the years, looking for wood first and then chambering second as I recall.

Hope that was useful Steve and all the best to you all.

Dwayne

Dwayne, your fore end is a lot nicer than mine. I must say you have some nice tack on display also. Mine is rather plain, a few dark streaks.
Steve, I think a lot of #1’s had fancy butt stocks and rather plain fore ends from that time period.
They sure are great rifles. I have a few rifles but this “one” is my favorite.

06 Sako Finnbear, have it 40 years.

Oldest one I ever bought brand new would be my 788 in .222 when they were introduced in spring of 1967. I went down to the LGS on a Saturday, about 11:00 AM (he closed at noon on Saturdays) and he had two .222's left of the two .22-250's and two .222's he'd received that morning. It was $79.95. In those days, at least in my part of the world, you paid MSRP for everything, no one expected anything else. The oldest "new" rifle I own, however, was a gift. It is a Savage/Anschutz 141M, .22 WMR that I received for Christmas in either 1964 or 1965. I was astounded. Of all the .22 WMR's in my circle of friends, it was the only one that displayed any kind of accuracy. Even with the Weaver B4 3/4" rimfire scope I could kill woodchucks reliably out to 150 yards.

It's a nice one for sure. I remember a few gun shops that would get new No 1s in and for extra money, "special select", they would pick one out for you.



Yes, any that showed up in the gun shops where I was always disappeared quickly! That's across the country and both the US and CDN rod and gun shops in Germany.



I remember thinking that I wanted more 788s, but I never got any. I am not sure when people started talking about the 788 and its so called magical properties, but I never witnessed any shoot so tight that they could outclass the 700s. I think the 222, 223 Rem and the 30-30s shot well because the pressures were kept down. That, and for the 30-30 at least, it was bolt action performance versus the levers. Everything was tighter.

1981 Remington M700 BDL, chambered in .270 Win, topped w/ a Leupold Vari-X II 3-9x40mm.






GR

Oldest rimfire is a 22 S-L-LR Winchester M9422 levergun my folks bought me for HS graduation in 1973. Oldest centerfire is this 270 WIN, Ruger M77 my wife bought for me in January 1978, first year we were married - on its third scope now.

I have the Remington 581 I got for Christmas in 1967. Don’t shoot it much, but keep it sighted in and ready. Only .22 rifle I have now that will feed shorts.

I think that is the best vintage era for the M700.