Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 1st Centerfire Rifle You Shot

Remington M-700ADL in .270Win.

I still own it.

Uncle’s Sporterized A3-03 in 30-06. I was probably 8.
Got my first taste of “scope kiss” and a bloody cut over my right eye. 🤠

Grandad started letting me shoot his pre-64 30-30 M94 about the same time.

30-30 in a model 94 Winchester.

My Dad’s Garand, he deer hunted with it.

Don"t remember exactly but had to be one of dads or grandpas swede 6.5 x55 or 7.7 jap, 1903 spring field sporter or Remington 788 243

I've been wracking my brain for over a week, and I simply don't know.

I remember so much from back then. I can give you a pretty good list of candidates, but I just don't know. In looking over it, I've come to realize that centerfire rifle just wasn't high on my list.

My two buddies Jerry and Bob were the ones to get me into all this. Jerry had been a marine armorer and owned his own gun store. Bob was a retired outdoor writer and editor. I asked to tag along; I had some firearms that had been my grandfather's. None were centerfire rifle. Bob and Jerry started taking me out fairly regularly, and I got to try all sorts of things. There was a a full-auto range at their club. That's where we did most of our shooting. It was only about 20 yards from the bench to the muddy slope on the other side of a creek. It was great for plinking at milk bottles and such.

I was more worried about a .22 rifle that kept breaking. It was a cheezy Savage semi-auto. I don't think I ever got through a full box of ammo without the firing pin breaking. I also had a couple of gramp's shotguns-- an 1897 in 12 GA and a Model 12 in 16 GA. The 1897 and I got to be great friends. On these visits, Bob and Jerry would pull out various pieces and let me have a go.

Candidates for my first centerfire rifle:
Jerry's M1 Garand or his Arisaka 7.7
Bob's Mini 14 or his IBM-built M1 Carbine

I honestly don't remember. I only remember that after about year of it, I mentioned going boar hunting to them, and Jerry agreed to go along. He sold me a Remington 742 in 30-06, and I spent a good long time getting it ready for my first hunting trip. I also remember that at the time I acquired the 742, I was already familiar with shooting 30-06.

You've got to understand: I was still a year or so away from my first deer hunt, and this was Ohio in the early 80's. Deer hunting was done with shotguns. After the boar hunt, the only thing I did with the 742 was hunt groundhog-- until about a decade later when I got an invite to hunt deer in Kentucky.

Remington 760 pump in .270 with the stock shortened to fit my 12 year old body. F-ing thing still kicks like a mule. Somersaulted my first buck though while he was running toward me full speed. I'm 61 this week but I remember that like it was yesterday.

Savage Model 99, in a .300 Caliber!

Several Deer Taken!

I started out shooting with my brother's pellet gun. At the age of 6 I shot my first round of powder propelled lead with my brother's H&R Topper .410. I squatted to assist with steady hold and the recoil was awesome! Put me right on my butt it did....but I hit my target.

As stated earlier my first CF rifle shot was with a M1 Carbine. Living on Guam at the time and dad took me and a friend out to the range one day. Me on the left, buddy on the right, this was the day I was introduced to CF rifles..


He went on to become a nuclear engineer, just recently retired. I turned into a disturbed shooting loony.

Just for the record, me and the pellet gun.....

Shot Dad's sporterized 30-06 Springfield when I was about 12, it was quite enough gun for me! LOL!

A few years of growing later and I took a real liking to his sporterized 30-06 "Enfield" or Model of 1917, which I still have and still hunt with time to time. Mostly these days my youngest son uses it. Pretty cool, a 100+ year old rifle, with three generations of my family using it.

BTW, Dad is still doing pretty well, in his 90's and a WWII veteran. And he still has that wonderful old Springfield, though it's been a few years since he shot it.

Good memories of those two rifles. Thanks, Guy

.222 Rem 722 with Weaver 8X. Good friend had this rifle, would pick me up and we’d shoot crows. I then got a Savage 340 in .222. I was in high school, too young to drive. He had a car.

I later traded him for that gun. Barrel was pretty well done. It now wears a .22-204 Hart with a 10X Zeiss. I checkered it, still have it.

DF

Yeah, skip-a-line was cool back then.

Model 94 30-30

Pretty sure it was a 788 chambered in 308Win in '70.........It was my first centerfire rifle.....An old timer let me handle his old M70 in 257 Roberts a year or two prior,but I can't remember if he let me shoot it ..............I do remember the first time I saw a centerfire shot.We were sitting on the front porch of the old farm and that same old timer shot at a chipmonk running down through the front pasture .............I was hooked at first blast and knew I had to have one just like his...........Funny how that works

Winchester M94 30-30.

Win Model '92 .25-20 that was my grandfather's "coyote rifle" that he permanently loaned to his "segundo" (foreman) when a rifle was needed. His segundo, Jorge Chico, gave it to me when he retired and went back to his rez in AZ. I still shoot it a couple of times a year. Anybody that thinks "Injuns don't take care of their rifles" ought to see the bore on mine--and it's over 90 years old!

My Father's Sauer-Weatherby Europa in 8x68S.

It carried a Zeiss 1.5-6x36 in claw mounts.

I still have it and it is know three generations that have killed game with it,

348 Winchester Model 81 in 1952-53 OUCH! Still feel it today!

M14 ROTC summercamp Tigerland 1969