Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters It's 1958-- what were y'all shooting East of the Mississippi?

3 years before my time, but for deer hunting, one grandfather used an uncut 30-40 Krag, my Dad and his Dad both had 94 Winchesters in 32 Sp., my Aunt hunted with a Savage pump in 30-30, a couple of Dad's cousins had a Savage 99 in 300 Sav and Rem bolt (721?) in 30-06.

A buddy of mine just got his FIL's Rem. pump rifle chambered for 30 Rem. I think it's a model 14.

I remember Dad and the cousins talking about a 38-40 but don't know the model. They joked about it holding a huge handful of shells but having to wait for that big fat bullet to arrive at the target.

Shotguns that I know of were a Model 12 Win and a AH Fox double, both in 16 gauge.

I've been thinking of borrowing some of those old guns and hunting them again.

Dale

I was nine in Norther MI and we had a lot of hunters around. Dad had his M94, Gramps had a 300 savage. Uncles had single shot bolt 30-30, 351 winchester Auto, 45-70 Winchester Lever, 8 mm mauser cut down. I first carried a SxS 20 - buckshot in one barrel and slug in the other.

My Dad was using a Winchester M-70 .243 FWT. Gun was bought in early 1956 and may have been one of the first in Kentucky. John.

I was raised in a deer camp in Northern Michigan. My grandpa had a 740 remington 30-06, Gram had a 98 mauser 9X57, Mom had a 336 Marlin in 35 rem. Among the uncles and cousins there were several 99's in .250 .300 Sav. and .308, a Rem 760 '06, a few 94's, a couple of 71's in .348 and the odd shotgun. I was blessed being brought into such a diverse group to listen and learn.

Scott

16ga/16ga/8X57JR drilling with 4X scope in claw mounts and the right barrel regulated for Brenneke slugs...a 22 L.R insert for the right shotgun barrel.

It would be legal and appropriate for anything.

Or a Mdl 99 in 300 Svg, as many others mentioned. It's about perfect for the job, IMO.

A Rem model 14 in 35 Rem.Topped of with a 2.5x Lyman Alaskan scope.What a killer.
dave

Very few deer in Mississippi in 58. I wasn't born until 67, but all of the old family guns that I saw from that time were shotguns and 22s. All of the rifles were purchased in the late 60s and 70s.

Let see in the Fall of '58 I turned 9 y/o. I had been shooting a Springfield youth model .22 caliber bolt action single shot since I was 6 y/o. When I turned nine Dad gave me his old .22 Rem Take-Down pump rifle. On Christmas Day of '58 Granddad loaned me a Stevens pump shotgun w/poly-choke from Monkey-Wards and took me to deer camp.
In those days if you were deer hunting you were hunting with dogs in swamps and mature woods on the ridges.
The guns of chose were a pump shotgun, a lever action rifle and a bolt action rifle in that order. There were also a few semi-auto shotguns and rifles around but not many.

If it were me and I had the money...

Marlin 336 in 35Rem with peep sights.

Good for deer, bear (black), moose, pig.

Would be shooting 200g Rem factory or reloading same.

In 1958 I had just received my first 22 rifle and a single shot 16 gauge.

My Uncle, who mentored me, was shooting a Husqvarna 30-06 with iron sites and a 12GA Winchester Model 21.

I never saw the man miss anything he shot at with either

Dad used a custom 98 mauser in 8x57 & a 336 Marlin in 35 rem.. Many had the Model 94 30-30,32Spcl. Model 99 30-30,250-3000,300sav.,303sav,38-55 etc. 30-06 and 270's were popular. 32-40, 32-20, 25-20's,& 218 Bee's were still around, as well as some 348's,351 self loading and the Rem. Pumps. You could even see one of those new things called a 308, I'm sure somebody had one.
It all changed in 64, when the Model 600 came out,and the local serious stalkers choice was the -------------------350 rem.mag..

The only gun at our house was a single shot .22, a Remington that I can't remember the model of. There were no deer to hunt in East Tennessee then. Most guns were squirrel or rabbit/bird guns. Oh yeah, I think I got my first Daisy BB gun that year for Christmas.

Leon

I was 16 in 1958 and got my first deer rifle, a 94 Winchester 30-30 for my birthday. I had dreamed of having one for as long as I could remember. I shot my first of many whitetails with it that November in Downsville NY, in the Catskill Mtn's. I am sitting here looking at that gun as I type this. I don't use it much anymore, but would never part with it. I think my grandson will eventually own it.

Now that is a Classic!

I was 11 in 1958 and the family guns were a Springfield single shot .22, an H&R 12 Ga. single shot, a Colt Woodsman and my grandfather had his LC Smith 12. Small game was all that was available so we hunted squirrel, rabbit and many many quail.

The only deer in Kentucky were a small herd around Mammoth Cave and a smaller herd of Fallow Deer brought in to their Nelson County estate by the Bernheim Family. the first season in North Central Kentucky was in 1966. I hunted first with a 94 Winchester and later with a Sako .243. In the 1960s there were more groundhogs than deer in Kentucky and so that's what I hunted.

In '58 I was an eight year old, and a lot of the stuff being shot by my father, uncles and an older cousin now reside in my gun safe. My dad had an Iver Johnson "champion" 16 ga. break open (primarily for pheasants) and a Winchester model 67 that used to provide my grandmother with rabbits for stew meat back before WWII. One of my uncles had a Luger he brought home from Germany after the war, which was used for shooting rats down at the local dump in the evenings. My older cousin was 16 and was starting to deer hunt with a Stevens model 820B 12 ga. with slugs for western NY state.
I have vague memories of guys who went rifle hunting in the Adirondacks and used various lever guns in 30-30 and an occasional bolt gun that was almost always a 30-06. They always spoke highly of the "ought-six". Once I even saw a bolt action that was for one of those 270 things that that used to get written about by that rifle guy in one of the outdoor magazines that my buddies dad used to get; (musta been O'Connor). Old military surplus rifles were cheap and plentiful. Mostly I recall seeing various Mausers and Lee-Enfields, although an uncle had an Arisaka "wall hanger" over his fireplace.
Varmint hunting was basically Woodchucks, the old 22 Hornet still had a loyal following amongst my dad's generation, who also used to use stealth and stalking to get close enough to pop 'chucks in the head with a 22 rimfire. The 222 was around but I don't recall seeing one. One of my buddies families had a family friend who had a Savage 23-D in 22 Hornet that he owned since the late 30's and I own it today.
A lot of my other gun memories from those days are primarily shotguns; mostly pumps, break-opens and doubles, and nothin' high end; just working class guns. I don't recall seeing a semi-auto shotgun until the 60's. 22 rimfires were common and there were tons of them but I can't recall their identities other than Model 67 Winchester's because that's what my dad owned, and I still have that one.
One last thought that just came to me was my dad telling me about one of their neighbors in the late thirties who used to have several rifles and was pretty darn good with them. This guy was into it so far that he even used to "make his own ammo". I guess today he'd be called a handloader.

I was born in 1958 . Most people hunt deer with hounds. 12GA. shotguns and 30-30s. My dads first deer was killed with a single shot 12ga. 36in. barrled long tom with buckshot. Later years was a surplus 30-06 Enfield and a 1941 potbelly Johnson simi-auto.

In the early '50s I was in my mid teens. Once while visiting an uncle at his farm I heard shooting one morning at a neighbours farm. My uncle said the farmer was a hunter and shooter and had some friends who visited and brought some guns. He asked if I wanted to go and visit.

It was there I first saw heavy barrelled target guns. One of them was either a Wasp or Zipper (remember this was over 50 years ago, you can't expect too much from my memory).

At that time the extent of my arsenal consisted of .22 rimfire and a .410 shotgun so I was duly impressed. It certainly didn't do anything to dampen my enthusiasm for firearms and it hasn't waned since then.

Jim

My Great Grandad was coming to an end of his hunting days around that time, but he was a big fan of his Win 94 in 32 Win Spcl. He lived in rural PA and didnt need a flat shooter. I used the same gun to kill my first deer, which also is my biggest to date.

In 1958 I was 9 yrs. old. There were not a lot of deer to hunt here at the time. Most of the people that I can remember deer hunting used a 30-30 (either Winchester or Marlin) or a 35 Marlin. Scopes were not much used around here.