Your first centerfire rifle

[Ridge Runner]

Cut firewood all summer of 1980 and bought myself a Interarms 7x57. Toped it with a 4x Weaver scope. Killed elk, deer moose and mnt goat with this as a kid. Had it taken out to a Remington 280 in 96 or 97 and replaced stock with a bell and carlson synthetic. Rebarreled a couple years ago with a McGowan barrel and still going strong. I'll never part with this rifle.

 

[RWT]

Sporterized 30/40 Krag with a pearl diamond inlay on one side and a heart on the other. Sold it and wish I had it back. If anyone out there runs into it I’ll gladly pay you a respectable asking price. Never killed anything with due to the open sites.

 

[Sandhills]

Cut firewood all summer of 1980 and bought myself a Interarms 7x57. Toped it with a 4x Weaver scope. Killed elk, deer moose and mnt goat with this as a kid. Had it taken out to a Remington 280 in 96 or 97 and replaced stock with a bell and carlson synthetic. Rebarreled a couple years ago with a McGowan barrel and still going strong. I'll never part with this rifle.

Rebarreled to 280 or back to 7 Mauser?

 

[Ridge Runner]

Rebarreled to 280 or back to 7 Mauser?

Stayed with the 280. Really like the 280 and I don't reload so getting ammo for mauser is problematic.

 

[Laelkhunter]

My first was a 6.5 Italian Carcano military rifle. Paid $29 (cash) for it. It had an "Original Oswald Carcano" 4 power scope (seriously). The scope crosshairs moved independently (not mounted in an erector assembly) When sighted in (somewhat) the crosshairs intersected in the upper left corner of the field of view. Needless to say, the rifle was not even barn door accurate (iron sights or scope). It went down the road, trading it for a Remington 700 ADL in 30/06. A Bushnell Scopechief IV was the optics.

 

[EastHumboldt]

My first was a 6.5 Italian Carcano military rifle. Paid $29 (cash) for it. It had an "Original Oswald Carcano" 4 power scope (seriously). The scope crosshairs moved independently (not mounted in an erector assembly) When sighted in (somewhat) the crosshairs intersected in the upper left corner of the field of view. Needless to say, the rifle was not even barn door accurate (iron sights or scope). It went down the road, trading it for a Remington 700 ADL in 30/06. A Bushnell Scopechief IV was the optics.

Are you saying you had the exact same rifle/scope set up as LH Oswald? If so I think most of us who’ve never had the privilege of looking through that scope,or shooting that rifle are curious. Do you think you could hit a head sized target at 81 yards?

 

[Shawn_Guinn]

Marlin 30/30 killed my first blacktails with it and a rosey raghorn then I read Chuck Adams articles in high school and focused100 %of my hunting with archery. I’ve slowly started coming back around to more dedicated deer rifle pursuits.

 

[Sandhills]

Stayed with the 280. Really like the 280 and I don't reload so getting ammo for mauser is problematic.

Copy. I want a 7x57 for some reason, had a chance to buy a sporterized Argentine Mauser in that or 257 at one time but couldnt come up with the cash

 

[Ridge Runner]

Copy. I want a 7x57 for some reason, had a chance to buy a sporterized Argentine Mauser in that or 257 at one time but couldnt come up with the cash

Was always told (not proved) that factory loads of 7MM Mauser were downloaded due to a lot of old mausers in the market and ammunition companies didn't want the liability of loading them up. That said killed a lot of critters with my old mauser and the old 4x scope including lobbing them in on a moose at around 300 yds when I was 14.

 

[Sandhills]

Was always told (not proved) that factory loads of 7MM Mauser were downloaded due to a lot of old mausers in the market and ammunition companies didn't want the liability of loading them up. That said killed a lot of critters with my old mauser and the old 4x scope including lobbing them in on a moose at around 300 yds when I was 14.

I figured if WMD Bell and Jim Corbett could kill elephants and tigers with one even the downloaded stuff would kill any thing on the North American Continent just fine. I'd like one on a modern action

 

[NealS02]

Winchester Model 1917 in .30-06. Bought it used from my brother in law. I haven’t and don’t plan on ever hunting with it.

 

[IDVortex]

First gun i ever bought was my Savage 110E 30-06. Only got to shoot at one animal with it and rushed the shot.

In the last 5 years I haven't even hunted with it, let alone shot it. Thought about selling it, but due to it being the first rifle I ever bought just can't do it.

 

[Laelkhunter]

Are you saying you had the exact same rifle/scope set up as LH Oswald? If so I think most of us who’ve never had the privilege of looking through that scope,or shooting that rifle are curious. Do you think you could hit a head sized target at 81 yards?

Not if his rifle shot anything like the one I had. He couldn't have hit the limo if it was sitting still. Not to besmirch the Italian Army, but no wonder they weren't winning any wars with equipment like that.

 

[Sandhills]

Not if his rifle shot anything like the one I had. He couldn't have hit the limo if it was sitting still. Not to besmirch the Italian Army, but no wonder they weren't winning any wars with equipment like that.

I think they called it the rifle that never hurt anyone

 

[jsb04]

Mine was an x bolt in 30-06, got my first deer and buck with it. Eventually sold it to pay for some medical bills. By then I had moved on to smaller calibers, I only hunt whitetail anyways.

 

[Unckebob]

Mine was a sad story:

After school, I bought a M700 Stainless Stalker DBM. It was gorgeous, but I was broke and I didn't shoot it often.

Then I moved to Connecticut which is pretty much Slug Only. In a fit of stupid, I decided to sell it because I would never get to hunt with it. After 14 years there, I expected to stay in CT for a long time.

I subsequently joined a hunt club (slug only) with access to land, bought a 20G with a rifled barrel, got it sighted in. I was good to go.

Before the first hunting season, my mother in law unexpectedly passed and my mother got ill. We moved back to Texas and I needed my 270 back.

I diligently looked for a M700 exactly like mine.

But, there was a happy ending. I quickly took a deer with a Kimber 243 and was hooked.

 

[Mr Biscuts]

Saiga 7.62x39. Years ago they were cheap and 7.62x39 came in spam cans. And for Wisconsin whitetail it worked just fine.

 

[juju]

I've posted similar threads on a few different forums over the years. The result is always the same. Any old cartridge and rifle will do.
It could be that people buy new ones finding something nicer for themselves, not necessarily making themselves significantly more effective in bagging game.

 

[Turkeytider]

Plastic stocked Remington 700ADL in 270. It had open sights and a Bushnell 4x scope. I got it in the 90s, I shot a lot of elk, mule deer and black bears with it out on trips with my dad.

When our dog died back in 2003, I took some of his ashes and mixed them with epoxy and put a bit of it inside the plastic stock. That gun had most of the blueing gone from it after hunting pretty hard with it for most of 20 years.

That’s great! Somebody once said ( probably Mark Twain or Will Rogers), “ I like all dogs more than I do most people. “ I can dig it after seven decades on the rock !

 

[WCT3]

Marlin 30/30 given to me by my grandpa when I was about 14, I was shooting an 870 with slugs before that. The story goes that he bought it out of the trunk of someone's car because he couldn't afford anything in the gun shop. My uncles and my dad all killed a pile of deer with it but I was the lucky one to get it. I still have the gun at my dad's house and it's never going to leave the family.