Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Dad's Rifle

Many years ago I worked at our local Walmart in the Sporting Goods section. We made between 10 and 15% on the guns we sold but we made between 25 and 35 % on the ammo. I could sell a lot of ammo in the fall, especially just before deer season. Back then we could only hunt with muzzle loader or shotgun in 3 of the 4 seasons. In the 4th season the hunter could use a center fire rifle for does only in the bottom 2 rows of counties in southern Iowa.

Just like owning a computer printer. The printers are fairly cheap, but the ink cartridges were the expensive part.

kwg

Great idea to use dad's rifle. Best of luck!

In 1957 dad bought a new Modell 88 Winchester in .308. It was produced in 1955 so an early one. Very nice. He hunted it until he was 84 then I got it. I killed one bull and some deer with it and the biggest porcupine I ever saw while dad was still hunting.

About four years ago I gave it to my oldest son, it is intended for his son who is left handed. I always liked the rifle and was pleased to see my son did too. The second year he had it he used it to kill a nice four point mule deer. He chose it over his Bansner stocked Pre-64 FW '06 which he rather likes.

This next year that grandson will be old enough to start using it. I truly hope I live long enough for him to get a deer with his great grandpas rifle.

When it’s your left handed grandsons turn, remember the 88s safety is easily reversed for him.

Great story Kaiser Norton, I really enjoy Dad stories, here is mine :o)

My favorite hunting rifle of all time was given to me by my father in 2002. It is a Sporterized BSA P1917 that was Sporterized in England and given to him by his good friend and mentor who befriended him when he was 13 years old. My father was a city boy, his father did not hunt so this older gentleman took my father under his wing because he was keen on hunting, so he took my father moose and deer hunting with him.

This is a picture of my father with his first moose at 16, I believe. The second picture is of my father with the gentleman that gave him the rifle, moose and deer hunting. When he gave me the rifle it had an old Weaver scope on it, since yours has one as well I am guessing that Weaver was a big name when it came to scopes? I hated the scope, so I replaced it with a Bausch and Lomb 4200 Elite.

When my father was given this rifle, he had a new stock customized for it to custom fit it to his personal measurements by a well-known stock smith by the name of Klaus Hiptmayer. The stock is Ferlach Austrian in design made from French Walnut with a Schnobble fore-end treatment. The butt plate is Sterling Silver with my father’s signature engraved into it.

This rifle is super accurate and everything I have shot with it has dropped in it tracks from moose at 500 yards to deer on the full run @ 200 yards, the rifle is a beast and I feel really bad for the chaps that were shot with it in the WW’s. I cannot even imagine a human surviving after being shot with this rifle.

I shoot Winchester Super X Power Points in 180 gr., for the simple reason that the barrel loves this round. I have killed more deer with this rifle than I remember and about 10 moose.

My father was my best friend and he passed in 2014. When I hunt with this rifle, I feel as though my father is hunting with me and is along for the ride, I do not get the feeling with any other rifle or shotgun I own, so I prefer to hunt with it for that reason and because it fits me like a glove, never fails to do its job and fills my freezer every year.

Damn nice looking work on that 17 KB...mb

My father killed a bunch of deer with his tang safety Ruger 77 in 30-06. He wasn’t much of a rifle shot in his later years & it shot everything into a softball sized group but he killed everything he shot at.

As a one year sentimental remembrance of my Dad who often took me hunting I killed a mule deer buck & a cow elk after replacing the foggy weaver with a Sightron s2 3-9 but was going to turn it into a 35Whelan it shot so poorly. My 150 grain fast 06 load got it under an inch so it still lives in original form, hopefully one of the great grandkids will take something with it.

If that model still holds, then they have some room to maneuver on their prices for sure. Like grocery stores, I imagine they cut here and hope to make it up there. I buy almost all my ammo online, and there’s a wide range of prices there for certain, but almost always less than what I see in stores, and I can usually score free shipping as well. I’ve gotten some really good deals from Norma and no duds yet. The 6CM Match was a real deal and shoots great in my rifle.

I’ve mostly given up on ink jet printers. Unless they have separate color cartridges, you end up tossing out a lot of ink when you replace them. I went laser and just replaced the toner with an extra-capacity cartridge that should hold me forever.

Thanks for the inside dope.

Wow, that’s some rifle!

I kill lots of critters, but the gun is always more important than the quarry…

In 1963 my dad decided to buy his first deer rifle and stop borrowing them from my uncles. He picked up a Marlin 336C in .30-30 from K-mart for $60 or so. He had a pachmayr swing mount with a Bushnell 1.5-4.5 scope chief put on it, and used it until 1984. Dad had missed a couple deer with it, and lost faith in it. So, for Christmas that year, he got a 700 BDL .30-06 with a Redfield wide field 2-7x. Meanwhile, I replaced the pachmayr base on the .30-30 with a weaver, and proceeded to shoot very nice, consistent groups. Dad didn’t like the 700 because he had trouble with the safety, so went back to using the Marlin. In 2003, he went hunting on a friends property, despite not feeling well, and on November 17th, they found him dead of heart failure near the blind, still carrying the Marlin. I have that gun, and every year I hunt on November 17th, I carry it. For 15 years, I never saw a deer while carrying it. I figured it was cursed or something. A couple years ago, I was hunting the blind where he died, and had the Marlin and a nice Eatin’ doe came out at 50 yards, she stood broadside, I brought the hammer to full cock, aimed and squeezed. Click. I worked the lever slowly, sure enough there was a round in there. I thought to myself “good one dad”. The deer was still there, so I cocked the hammer, lined up on a very attentive doe, and ‘bang’! She flipped and died on the spot. This morning, I took the gun to the range to verify zero, and the two shots were both in the 1” diamond on the target. Good to go for the 17th, now that the curse is broken.

Old70

My walk-about rifle up here is my Dad's '94 in 30-30. It was manufactured in 1927, and I believe he was given it slightly used when he moved the family to northern Minnesota before WWII, by my mother's uncle - who raised her after her mother died when Mom was 11 days old.. Killed a lot of deer, in and out of season, in the Minnesota years, and some after we moved back to ND when I was 3.

I killed my first BG animal, a doe white-tail with it in 1966, and nothing since. A couple brothers used it for about 25 years and took deer with it, before it came back into my hands 15 or so years back.

Old70 - sounds like you need to clean that thing and hunt it with dry lubricant, or not any at all. That "click" sounds indicative of gummy or frozen works. I wish I still had my 336, now sleeping with the fishes in the Tanana River.

Great story Old70…

Awesome story Old70...... precisely why I really enjoy Dad's Rifle stories, most of us here started hunting with their fathers.

When it's my turn to meet my lord and savior, I hope I go out in a similar fashion.

Thanks for the feedback, I do treasure that rifle. Las, that is the only click that rifle has ever made, and the same round killed the deer. Not sure what it was, but I could definitely hear dad chuckle right after.

Old70

Great story!

Same goes for me.

Great stories each of them. My dad didn't care too much for hunting and had a Mod 98 8mm that was ruff as a cob. I gave it to one of my nephews and he and couple others have killed deer with it. Dan.

Absolutely correctamundo!

Nice hunting setup, but for me, I would have scope eye every time I pulled the trigger.

My dad had a Remington 742 in .243 that had the flip over scope mount on it. He died when I was a teenager and as soon as I could, I changed the scope and rings/mounts on it. I remember my dad shooting nothing but 80 and 100 gr Rem corlockts in it. While the barrel is not the best it still shoots sub of deer. I am currently gathering all I need to reload for it and hopefully hunt with it once or twice.