Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters What rifle brings back the memories?

Mine is a Pre-64 Model 70 Featherweight in 30-06 that my dad bought new. It still wears the original K4 Weaver that he mounted on it. I can still remember tagging along with him in the Sandhills of Nebraska in search of mule deer. I saw him make some pretty impressive shots with that old rifle, mostly off hand. It has collected a few dings over the years, but they are all honest. Have pretty much retired it now, but last year took it out and shot a late season doe with it using a 150gr winchester Silvertip, the old ones. I was as proud of that doe as any big buck I've ever shot. It's the one rifle I can always pick up that puts a smile on my face and takes me back to simpler times. What's yours?

I do the same thing.....I killed some does a year or two back with my Remington 742 BDL....I am 51 now and my dad and mom got if for me when I was about 13 years old...I am still haunted by the 140 class 8 pointer I missed at 90 yards with it when I was 16. Nothing but pure unadulturated buck feaver there!

I also take my M1 Garrand out from time to time....its serial number is within about 75,000 of the one my dad carried in the Battle of the Bulge, Springfield Armory mfg of course. He could remember his s/n until Alzheimers started working on him.....

Perhaps my fondest memory is hunting with my grand dads single shot Iver Johnson 12 ga from the early 1900's...like 1920 or so. I killed a 23 1/2 # 10" double bearded turkey with it, one buck with a slug and a number of doves. I pulled off a stunt with it I will never in 10 lifetimes duplicate...I killed 5 doves with one shot. They all flew over in one tight group, and that full choke was magic on them that day. I about fell out....

The stories ahead of me are excellent. Such good memories.

I have my late dad's M51 JC Higgins FN 30-06 mauser still. He got it from the mfg. High Standard he made some tooling for them.

The rifle still has the 4X Lyman All American on it in Lyman mounts with the scope caps. It has a pad along with a Buehler safety he put on and he reblued it as he did not like the JC Higgins name on the barrel.

While my dad's guns bring back the admiration I had for him its the Boy Scout Explorer Post that he ran which was centered on hunting and shooting that makes many revor him. He made a lot of riflemen.

For me, it's a Winchester Model 54 in 22 Hornet. My Step Dad bought one right after returing from WW II, and his got lost in the shuffle after he died. He let me use it groundhog hunting in PA. But, last summer I found one on Gunbroker and won the auction. I made sure that rifle wasn't going somewhere else. The one I bought is in excellent condition.
So, I can now go back and re-live those fine years I spent hunting with him...

my winchester 94 trapper carbine in 30-30. My dad bought it for me when I was about 8 or 9 because it was nice and light. I shot my first doe with it when I was 12 and my first buck when I was 13. I still use it because its the only deer rifle that I own that is in good enough shape to use. Its in like new condition. Also my marlin youth modle 22. Its a 15YN. I shot a goose with it and my first squirell.

My Winchester 62A my dad gave me when I was just 6 years old. It has a million rounds through it but is still as accurate in my hands as it was when I was growing up. I cannot pick it up without fond memories of my dad and the times we spent together in the woods and fields of northern Illinois in a much better time.

When my Dad passed on some years ago, his Mod 63 came my way and what a gem...that's the rifle that taught me how to hit what I aimed at. We would go to the diversion canal (diverted water off the river to the water works) and shoot flash bulbs (he was a photographer) off the spill way. Unusual but it made me a great shot. I still go down there but you can't shoot anymore...

Marlin 336C in .35 Rem. My dad had one when I was little boy and he used it to kill some beautiful bucks.

I wanted one when I was 7, but had to settle for the H&R .410 he got me.

When I was 12 he got me one for Christmas. I didn't put that rifle down for 2 months. Now, I had one just like my dad.

I deer hunted with it exclusively, until I was 25 years old. It has killed some of my best bucks, it has also cost me a couple of good ones. I loved that rifle so much, I had the bad habit of hunting with it in situations it was not suited for, (ie. long distance shots.)

Yep, that's the rifle that brings back my fondest memories of hunting with my father.

my fondest memories are of my dad and i quail and dove hunting near alachua, florida back in the late 50's and early 60's. he used only one shotgun, a browning a-5, with a poly choke. after he gave the gun to me i kept it for several years then sent it off to browning and had it re-conditioned. gave it to my son maybe about 15 years ago. he uses it every season.

my personal firearm with the most memories is a tang ruger 270, wood/blue, i bought back around 73' or so. hunted with it many years in alaska, colorado, new mexico, virginia, georgia, and a few other places. nothing like memories!

For me, it's a Savage M99, in .250-3000. It was owned by an uncle of mine, who came to visit us when I was around 13 or so. I got to shoot it, the first centerfire I had ever shot. I still remember where we were when we set up for that first shooting session!!

Two...My Grandfathers bolt action 22 and Model 1100 shotgun, which were handed down to me. The 100 has a real gas powered kick to it too.

Loved these stories....

I have very few fond memories of my father. I could count on my two hands the times that I hunted with him. Seems he never had time for me...

He actually owned very few guns. (And no, I didn't inherit any of them.)

But his favorite deer rifle was a cut down .30-40 Krag. Actually, he had two of them. My brother inherited one and God knows where the other went. I've owned a couple of them over the years, but now I have one that my brother purchased from Stan Baker in Seattle, and gifted to me. It is much like the one my father had. And whenever I fondle it, it brings back memories of banana oil and his old gun cabinet. After I became an adult, I even used his rifle a time or two.

Now I own a replica of the rifle that I lusted after for years growing up... Perhaps one day, I'll carry it in the woods and take a deer as a tribute to a man I never really got to know, and never really learned to like. I could never make him proud of me, no matter what I did. Tho' God knows, I tried...

GH

I still have dad's Model 88 in .308. That would be the one.

He didn't hunt much but after he figured out his boy was crazy for it [I had hunted with every junker the family had for a loaner]he took the plunge.

He and mom took us to Freeway Sporting Goods in Portland and dad bought the 88 and he bought me a 99R in 300 Savage with a tang sight.

I was in the 7th grade.

The one in this photo, I just stripped and re-finished the stock. First rifle I ever bought new, Marlin 336, $159. For years it was "good enough" until I figured I needed something faster and better. Killed the only buck I ever got mounted with it:

Rifle is my .375 H&H mag, M70 pre-64 Winchester....dad passed this one to me as a teenager, and I have had it ever since...this is the cartridge I learned to reload first.....so I would not KILL my shoulder at age 15 with the full house loads....always loaded a bunch of mild loads for target practice. And there is also a shotgun here for the story.....I inherited my grand dad's
28ga. Parker....used this one to shoot pheasants on his farm in Kansas every Christmas vacation when I would spend a few weeks
with him.

A Mod.4 Rem..22 Rolling Block my uncle bought when he was young brings back the most memories of good times with family and firearms.

This is the one that started it all for me ... Marlin 39, and the actual rifle I learned to shoot with after a Red Ryder. This one has taken its share of game and varmints.

My Dad's model 70 30-06. and the Stevens 22/410 O/U that he carried most of the time on our late afternoons " walk out back " in the fall. Most every day we take the 1/2 mile walk and to an old abandoned orchard that was bordered by farm fields. Lots of Rabbits Squirrels and pheasants fell to that old .410 . I miss those days but the Stevens is still with me and next week my daughter will start learning with it !

+1 on Bighorn's 99 in .250-3000. It was my grandfather's, who died in 1929, then Dad's, now mine. It shipped from the factory to the warehouse in Utica, NY, Oct 17,1917, and to a store in St. Louis, MO, on Oct. 19. How it ended in Elysburg, PA, is a mystery. It only goes out in nice weather now, and hammers deer like always with the 87gr Speer hot-core. And it spawned my .25 caliber lust, too.

My first gun was an Iver Johnson single shot 16ga,
I killed a fair amount of small game with it, but it
had something wrong with the ejector. One of my
grandfathers had a lever action .44-40 that disappeared
after he passed away, I never saw it. Always wanted to
at least handle it.