Old School Rifle Kill

[WapitiTalk1]

What's the oldest model rifle you've put a big game critter down with? I've shot a few deer with my grandfathers Winchester Model 94 Dirty Thirty back in the day; I believe it was a 1950 Model 94.

[GobbleFarmer]

I shot a 45 pound beaver the other day with a borrowed Winchester pump .22 LR. It has an original octagon barrel which means its at least 80 year old. The landowner has been having bad problems with the beavers and and asked me to shoot if i see one. I felt so awkward using such a rifle in near perfect condition. Treated it like it was a baby.

[wawhitey]

My go-to is a 1956 winchester. I have a beautiful black powder rifle thats about 170 years old. I may just have to shoot that thing someday.

[husky390]

I tagged a doe with a Winchester 88 in .243 last year. This one's new to me but it's the same model as the very first "real" rifle I carried hunting as a kid. My first thought as I carried it the first 200 yards into the field was, "jeezuz, this thing weighs as much as my .375H&H and I carried this thing all day when I was 12?", my second thought when I put it to my shoulder and put the crosshairs on a doe 200 yards away was "rubber butt pads sure are nice, they don't slide around as much". I ended up getting the doe with a one shot clean kill and probably wont use it again for a long time as I have a Savage 99 in .303 Savage that is next on the docket for field use once I install some new stocks on it.

I appreciate the new rifles for their lightness, accuracy, and utility but I'm still a sucker for blued steel and walnut.

[wawhitey]

I tagged a doe with a Winchester 88 in .243 last year. This one's new to me but it's the same model as the very first "real" rifle I carried hunting as a kid. My first thought as I carried it the first 200 yards into the field was, "jeezuz, this thing weighs as much as my .375H&H and I carried this thing all day when I was 12?", my second thought when I put it to my shoulder and put the crosshairs on a doe 200 yards away was "rubber butt pads sure are nice, they don't slide around as much". I ended up getting the doe with a one shot clean kill and probably wont use it again for a long time as I have a Savage 99 in .303 Savage that is next on the docket for field use once I install some new stocks on it.

I appreciate the new rifles for their lightness, accuracy, and utility but I'm still a sucker for blued steel and walnut.

What year is your m88? I have a couple in .308 and have been keepimg my eyes open for a good .243. Sounds like ya dont much care for it. I could give it a loving home

[husky390]

I tagged a doe with a Winchester 88 in .243 last year. This one's new to me but it's the same model as the very first "real" rifle I carried hunting as a kid. My first thought as I carried it the first 200 yards into the field was, "jeezuz, this thing weighs as much as my .375H&H and I carried this thing all day when I was 12?", my second thought when I put it to my shoulder and put the crosshairs on a doe 200 yards away was "rubber butt pads sure are nice, they don't slide around as much". I ended up getting the doe with a one shot clean kill and probably wont use it again for a long time as I have a Savage 99 in .303 Savage that is next on the docket for field use once I install some new stocks on it.

I appreciate the new rifles for their lightness, accuracy, and utility but I'm still a sucker for blued steel and walnut.

What year is your m88? I have a couple in .308 and have been keepimg my eyes open for a good .243. Sounds like ya dont much care for it. I could give it a loving home

I'm not sure on the year but it's a keeper for me as I enjoy shooting it at the range.

[Charina]

My grandfather's lever action Winchester .32 Special took a few blacktails for me back in the 1980's and 1990's. It's definitely a pre '64 variety, and I have heard family stories of it going back to the 1930's or earlier. Time to look up the serial number and figure out for real when it was produced. Still have it. Hardly ever shoot it any longer, but love it and will never part with it while alive. All around my favorite gun.

[Charina]

According to the serial number my Winchester 32 special was produced in 1935.

[Indian Summer]

I had quite a few pelts from large boar chipmunks taken with a brand new single shot lever action Daisy BB gun back in the day. Probably around 1972 to 1983. At one point we actually had a plan to make some serious money from chipmunk hide Bic lighter cases. We made a couple. They were pretty cool.

After that it whitetails with a Revelation Model .30-.30 bolt action which was a really short barreled rifle sold be Sears & Robuck. My mother gave it to me. It was an open sight gun but I had a side mount put on it and a 4 power Weaver scope. It's a pretty neat little gun.

[saddlesore]

I have killed one elk with my 1936, win. 94 in 30-30 . The first rifle I ever bought was in 1964. A win. Model 88 in .308 . I killed quite few elk deer and antelope with that gun. My present elk rifle is a 1952 winchester Model 70 featherweight in 30-06. I have a lot of elk kills with that gun. My antelope rifle is a early Swedish Hauser , model 76, in 6.5 mms Swede. Pre world war 'll. My bird gun is a 1936 Ithaca nib sxs , 12 Gauge.

[Elkduds]

It was 1948. My dad was 15 when he drove to Loveland, CO from the family farm west of town. You could do that then. In his jeans pocket was
$65 he had saved over several years of working on neighboring farms. He went into the local Gibson's hardware, and walked out w a brand new Winchester Model 94, chambered in 30 Winchester Centerfire. He kept it with him on his horse, and put so much venison on the family table that he doesn't eat it anymore.

It was 1981. I was hunting the north rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison (Curecanti NRA), in the area where I spent the summer on a crew building a trail for the National Park Service. When the doe stepped out of the oakbrush into the cleared fenceline, the Model 94 came up to my shoulder like it grew there, and a minute late I stood over my first big game animal.

[WapitiTalk1]

Great stuff Mark. Thanks.