Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What was your very first center fire hunting rifle and....................

Winchester M94 30-30!

Love that rifle and hope to pass it on. Been wanting to put a peep on it for years. Maybe this year I will get to it.

I am Canadian Eh.
Mine was and still have a 303 lee enfield.
Forgot I had already posted about it, here is the target it shot.

First cenerfire, Remington 788 in 222 Remington. Thank you for reminding me to kick myself in the ass again for selling it.

First deer rifle was a customized M98 mauser, beutiful piece but it had a high Monte Carlo stock. I hate Monte Carlo stocks. Never use it deer hunting.

First deer rifle I actually used, a No. 4 MK I SMLE that I cut down the stock on. I actually made my own scope mount from a piece of aluminum angle ( 3/16" 6061 T6) Don't laugh, that thing was solid. I killed 11 deer over 4 years with that rig.

The best balanced, lightest, prettiest, nicest, handiest and the best 30-30. I now have one. It feels so good in hand. It's what the woodsmen used to roll bucks ahead of the hounds or to stalk or sit with in the big woods of east Texas years gone by.

Remington model 788 in 308 Winchester. It's long gone.

used 700 ADL in 7mm Express! Bought it at the Gun Show in the Mancos , CO Jr High auditorium, in early 1980's. Was a surveyor in a coal mine at the time.

Still have it, but don't hunt it much anymore. It might turn into a 338/06 someday.

Sycamore

Yea, or be turned into melted iron and charcoal if your Dimocrap pals have their way.

I thought you were on strict regimen of reading more and posting less?

You are damnably uncompliant, is what you are!

Sycamore

What most other folks in Wisconsin used in the sixties. Mine was, and still is, a 30-30 with a Lyman 56 receiver sight. I wish my eyes were as sharp as they were back then though!!

Marlin 444 lever gun. I traded that rifle away many years ago.

FN actioned Husqvarna 30-06, beech stock and lots of drop which helped me develop a pretty good flinch. Killed my first three deer with it (missed at least 2 other gimme shots), sold it off after a few years and moved ahead.

Hey !!! That looks like my 30/06 ADL, same scope, bought around '67....sadly it's long gone several dozen trades ago.....but I am still an ADL addict ....I won't own a hinged floorplate, it destroys the clean lines.

Why would a kid in Iowa buy a Marlin 336 in 35 Rem where the few that bought center fires bought 222s, 22-250s, and 243s for fox and coyote. Deer hunting in IA was a shotgun proposition only.

I liked the Marlin's looks and thought the little, fat cartridges were so cool. To salve the fact I didn't have a varmint rifle, I reloaded 158-gr .357 bullets and thought it'd work for fox though I never shot one with it.

Wish I still had that rifle.

Pre-64 Featherweight in .243 Win with a 3x9 Weaver on it.
My uncle gave it to me when his hunting days were over.
Every year after I take an axis deer, I give my Aunty a gallon sized ziplock of backstraps and she is couldn't be happier.
Still have it and never changed its set up.
It stays in the safe now because it's a tank.
I have a daughter but not sure who I'll pass it on to yet. (nephew or future son-in-law)

8mm Mauser, probably a 98 that Dad whittled a stock for. Unfortunately no.

sold it long ago, picked it up for $20 at the Springfield armory
back in about 1957 , my dad let me keep in in my room but he kept the bolt and ammo in his room until I was 16

Mine was a toss up and im not sure which one you would consider my first.
I used my dads Win 94 30/30 for a while. The first one I personally owned is a toss up between an M1 Garand I bought from the CMP or a Win model 70 in 22-250.

I still have all 3.

When I was 8,my father made the same deal with me, his father made with him . If I saved up, he would go halves with me on my first gun ( of course a .22rf). I proudly bragged to my Great uncle after saving up a hundred dollars or so, about the deal we had, and how I'm going to get my first gun. Uncle Art gets up from his rocking chair digs around in his closet and comes out with a Mossberg .22 (model 46c Great gun, very accurate, but HEAVY)... and said " save up for something else.. this will do you fine". So being true to his word my father spent more than he was envisioning, paying for half of a brand spanking new Rem BDL in 30-06 w/ a Redfield TV 3-9 on it two years later. Yes I have them both.
As a 10yr old I read the ballistic charts in the back of catalogs until they were worn out and had my heart set on the 8mm Rem mag. ( no hope for me, loony at a young age). My father was right to talk me into a more sensible chambering for Pa deer, but I still look for one on gun racks and one will be in my safe one day.

oops.... double post