Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles What rifle did your Dad hunt big game with?

My dad didn't hunt, he fished. My Uncle took me hunting. He used an old Remington 760 Gamemaster in 30-06, with the 180 grain Corelokt or Federal round nose ammo---whatever was on sale. He was positively lethal with that rifle, the whitetail deer had no chance, sounded like machine gun fire.

My Dad used a Sears&Robuck version of the FN 98 in 30-06. I only saw him use handloads of surplus 4831 and 180 gr. Herter's semi- spitzers. It worked! He got Mom a 94 in 30-30 and used handloads for it.

Winchester M-70 30-06 vintage 1965. He has shot a ton of deer including this year.

-Z

His first rifle that I know of was a Remington 700 in 6mm Remington. It was also my first rifle after he bought it back from the coworker he sold it to.

The one he hunted the most with was a 700 Varmint Special in 6 mm. During the last 5-6 years of his life he bought several different rifles, including a 700 Classic in 300 H & H which he used to take his two cow elk in '01 and '03. He passed in 2006 and I miss him terribly.

I have the 6mm and my son has a Ruger #1 in .270 that was his. I also have two rifles from each of my Grandfather's. These 3 are my prized possessions.

KC

My dad shot his first deer with a Savage 99 in .303 Savage. Later on he bought a M88 Winchester in .308 and killed a lot of deer and a few elk with that. Then he carried a pre-64 M70 in .264 mag for many years and shot a bunch of deer and elk with that until Winchester quit making the 2 diameter bullets that he liked. Then he carried an Interarms Mauser .270 win. for quite a while, followed by a M700 classic in .338 Win Mag. Over the last decade he's carried a Wby ultralightweight in 7mm Rem Mag. He used a Sako 75 in .375 H&H when we went to Africa. Still has all the rifles mentioned above except for the Savage which was his dad's and his brother ended up with that.

My dad hunted with a 94 .32 spl..my grandfather a model 54 .30-06..I still have both, and occasionally hunt with both..for a period of 10 years from the time I was 15-25, I used the old 06 for everthing..Just shot deer, antelope, and mt. lion with the .32..

Considering only centerfires, Dad always hunted with a 336 in .35 Rem from the time I was a little kid until about 9 or 10 years ago when my brother, sister, and I purchased a 30-06 for him. I finished a Rimrock stock and bedded it to the rifle. It's the only centerfire he's hunted with since he's owned it. He decided to sell the .35 Rem....and I purchased it from him.

Dad hunted squirrels with a bolt action Western Field .22 when he was a young kid. By the time he was married and had kids he'd decided that guns and hunting were a waste of time and money. Hunting was discouraged at every turn while I was growing up. May be why I have several guns now.

Mostly Dad hunted big game - with me. He recognized a designated dragger when he saw one. He shot critters with a variety of firearms; shotguns, rifles, revolvers, muzzle loaders, and even killed a deer, with a Deere (John Deere that is).

He was picking corn using the two-cylinder "marvel" (630, gas) when a buck that was running out of rows to hide in, bolted for the nearby cover of a creek bed. In so doing, the deer hit the Deere, right where that big ol' flywheel is on those old tractors. "Konk" went the tin cover on the flywheel, just a moment before the rear wheel of tractor squished the life out of the downed buck.

Savage 99F in 300 Sav. that he bought from a coworker along about 1960BD. (BD=Before Dale) Before that, a Win 94 in 32 Spl. He'll be 81 this year and is still using the Savage. I started hunting with the Winchester back in the 70's and hunted with it again this year.

Dale

Pops has had a Belgium made BAR in '06 since the mid-70's. He has only used 150gr Winchester Silvertips since he picked it up. He's shot a bunch of deer with that rifle. Before that he used a 336RC 30-30. Before that, his uncle Kermit loaned him a similar 336.

Sporterized Springfield 3006. I am sure he had other hunting rifles before I was old enough to know the difference but the 06 was on all of the hunts we had together.

A Nine Iron.

DMc

When I was a kid he used a Marlin 336 in .35 Rem. He pretty much stopped hunting by the time I got really into it, but thankfully, he has picked it back up later in life. Now, he mostly shoots a Ruger Hawkeye in .270 and is having a ball!

My Dad never really hunted big game. He had a Ithaca 16ga & a High Standard HD target pistol and later I gave him a K38 S&W both pistols were lost in a break in. I later gave him a model 10 m&p 39 spl to have around the house. I don't know where I got the hunting bug so bad but I do remember him letting me pull the trigger on the high standard wholenhe held it when I was too small to hold its weight. I also can remember sering him knock a squirrel put of the top of a big hickory with that pistol when I was about. 5

Remington 721 re-barreled to .22 Varminter in early 1960s before the 22-250 was a factory round. Shot everything with it.

He restocked it with a Fajan stock which he finished.

My dad had a pair of 99EGs, a 300 and a 250.

My dad used a Winchester M1917 30-06 he got from the NRA. He lightly sporterized it by putting it in fajen stock. I have it and shoot it once in a while. The windage is way off, which makes me wonder how anyone was successful using it....

Started with a No.1 SMLE .303 british for the first 10 years or so.

Upgraded to a Remington 760 30-06 and weaver K4 that he used for 30 years for moose and deer.

After his retirement, he went to Germany, visited the Sauer factory and got them to make him a custom engraved M200 in .270 with a Zeiss 4X scope. He used that for his last ten years or so and shot a few deer and 3 elk and two caribou with it.

my dad used a Savage Model 1920 in .300 Savage. He kept the famly fed with venison during the last part of the depression years. He also had a FN A-5 for birds. Because ammo was relatively expensive in those days - he almost never missed! My sister has his Savage but I got his A-5! Mel Chung