Your first centerfire rifle

[NDHUNTER24]

I saved up my money from Christmas and my birthday growing up and put that money to a Remington 700 sps stainless in a 270. Its the same gun, just looks different now and shoots extremely well.

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[mainbeam pursuit2]

When I was thirteen, my dad gave me a pre 64 model 70 feather weight in 308 win. Loved the rifle, shot lots of deer and elk with it. Several family members were using 300 Weatherby's. Needless to say I got caught up in the fanfare and traded the Winchester for a 300 Weatherby after 5 or 6 years. I wish that I would have never done that. That 300wby hit hard at both ends, ended up selling the Weatherby. I still have four Weatherby's, no 300s.

 

[BLJ]

Ruger M77 7mm Remington Mag.

I paid $325 cash for it at a gun show that was in the high school gym in the next county south of where I live now. I was 14.
Lotta hay bales went into that rifle.

I don’t miss that gun but I miss those times.

 

[Mish-pop]

Remington Model 700 in .243. Started open sighted and later put on a cheap nikon scope. Killed many deer and antelope with it and probably could've killed my elk with it had I not switched to a 30-06

 

[Towhee]

Mine was a Savage Axis II stainless in 243. It was super accurate but that bolt was such a pos. I really hand to rip on it after firing. I despised that rifle lol.

 

[rbaney]

Well my first would be a Remington Mohawk 600 in 222 that I used to shoot my first Whitetail doe with and have since used it on ground hogs. It sits in my safe now with a cheaper Bushnell scope sitting on-top of it.

 

[Runningwater]

A partially sporterized P-17 Enfield in 30-06 oof the used rack for $100. Put a 3x9 Tasco order from Sears on top. Heavy as a boat anchor but very accurate (the previous owner who had started the conversion had added a timney trigger).

 

[KenLee]

Mine was a Remington 742 Woodsmaster in 30-06. I probably could have taken everything with that rifle. I never shot it past about 250 yards but it shot good and I dont think it would have been an issue at any of the animals I have taken. Wish I still had that gun.

Me also. It would have killed anything I needed to, but the receiver interior would have been long worn out by now.

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

In 1950 my Grandfather bought some military surplus 03 Springfields and 1917 Enfields. He gave one of them to me. When I was old enough to hunt big game (12 years old in California) in 1953, he modified the stock to fit me and I started shooting it. Killed my first deer that year and have been using it since then. I didn't get another center fire for 10 years . I restocked the 03 as I had started making stocks and grips. It was also polished & blued, new trigger, bolt altered and drilled & tapped for scope mounts. I first put on a Weaver K-3 scope.

I still hunt with it 70 years later and it still shoots well. It has a tiger stripped maple stock and a 3 x 10 Leupold VXIII scope. It shoots my reloads less than moa out to 3oo yards.

Rifle today and at age 13 with my 03 Springfield.

 

[Slick8]

Great Thread!

Mine was / is a 788 Remington in 243 given to me for my 8th birthday and killed my first deer over Christmas break with it. I shortened the stock on it and both my girls made first kills with it. I will say recoil is a bit stout for a small statured girl.
It's in the safe with plans for grands to get some kills with it in the coming years.

I could have likely made 70-80% of my WT / Hog kills with it as well as a cow elk in the Texas panhandle.

I hunted with it for many years prior to buying my first "Mans" gun while stationed at Kirtland AFB NM, a Parker Hale in 30-06. I've had far too many to list since then.

 

[EastHumboldt]

Adult onset Hunter. In 1987, At age 29 I bought a NOS 1963 Remington 700 in 30-06 from my boss for $200. He had bought it in Greenland in 1963 and never shot it. Still had cosmoline on the bolt. I didn’t know much about rifles so I bought a box of shells for $7.59 and just took it out in the desert and shot at some milk cartons with iron sights and a brass butt plate. Learned two things: I needed a rubber butt pad if I didn’t want to walk around with a bruised shoulder, and a scope if I wanted to hit anything past 100 yds. Topped it with a $29 Tasco I picked up at coast to coast.

Learned to hunt mule deer pretty much on my own through trial and error and a little help from Walt Prothero’s articles in F&S and books.

I’ve killed probably a couple dozen deer and one elk with that rifle. Then Dave Petzal talked me into wanting a T3. Got that one in 30-06 as well as I was unaware of the existence of other cartridges it was a Xmas gift from my son. My hunting rifle now is a Tikka in 7mm-08, but my trusty old -06’s ain’t going away.

Your second question is a little hard to understand, but I take it you’re asking “What percentage of game species was taken that exceeded the supposed capabilities of the rifle”. I would say 0% since there are no mastodons or woolly mammoths left on this continent..

Forgot to mention that she now wears a decent Leupold scope and an airsoft limbsaver. As you can see, not a safe queen.

 

[Marbles]

First was a Springfield M1A SOCOM. Heavy, never killed anything with it.

A Remington 7600 Pump in 30-6 was great. Sold it when I moved to SEAK as it was blued and wood.

Both could have done anything needed for hunting.

Kimber is the only center fire rifle I have owned that was not fit for service.

 

[buffybr]

I didn't come from a hunting family, so I didn't go on my first hunt until I was in college. After two years of hunting with one of my college roommates where I shot my first deer and elk with borrowed rifles. I decided to get my own hunting rifle, and in the spring of 1967, I ordered a barreled action and semi inleted stock from Herter's.

I asked the guys that I worked with in the summers in Steamboat Spgs who had grown up there hunting deer and elk, what rifle to buy. They said to buy a bolt action chambered in .270 Win or .30-06. They said that only the Denver city dudes that only came out in the mountains once a year, hunted with big guns like the .300 Winchester. So my first centerfire rifle was a Herter's Model U-9 chambered in .30-06.

I put that rifle together that summer and also started reloading then. For the next 10 years, except for 3 years that included an all expense paid year in Vietnam courtesy of Uncle Sam, I shot prairie dogs, deer, antelope, and elk with that rifle.

In 1975 I left Colorado for Montana and my Herter's .30-06 kept my freezer full of deer, antelope, and elk meat until my new hunting partner here gave me a .30 Gibbs cartridge case. I thought that case looked so cool that I had my .30-06 rechambered to .30 Gibbs for my primary elk rifle.

My best elk and the last animal that I shot with my Herter's .30-6-06 before I had it rechambered to .30 Gibbs.

Also, after moving to Montana, my hunting experiences expanded with a group DIY caribou hunt with new friends in Alaska, and I was lucky enough to draw a couple of Montana bull moose tags and a mountain goat tag. My .30 Gibbs with 180 gr Nosler Partition bullets made one shot kills on those animals along with another 20 some elk to keep my freezers full until the early 2000s.

When I had my .30-06 rechambered to .30 Gibbs, I also made a .257 Ackley for deer and antelope size animals and a .22-250 for varmints. Over the years I also acquired a few more rifles, including a .300 Weatherby Vanguard, which is one of my favorite hunting rifles, and now my primary elk hunting rifle.
My .300 Wby with an Arapawa ram in New Zealand.