1st deer rifle
 

What was your 1st deer rifle. Brand, model, caliber/cartridge.

Mine was actually a loner from my father, a Rem.700 in .308.

The 1st one I bought was Marlin 336 in 30-30.

So lets hear about your 1st.

Mine was an old Winchester 30-06 with a custom stock, trigger, and barrel that I bought from the estate of a local preacher when I was a teen. He had quite a large rifle collection and wanted them to be sold to local youth if possible. I would bet that that old Winchester weighed at least ten pounds but it did shoot well. I cut a lot of grass to buy that rifle.

Sporterized 03A3 in 30-06 that my Dad made and gave me in 1973. It had a gorgeous walnut stock he made from a blank chunk of wood. I finally quit using it with that stock and dropped it into a black synthetic Ramline stock 20 years ago and now only use it up in northern MI for whitetails. The wood stock is wrapped up and kept in my closet just to look at once in a while to remember him and the good old days we had together!

Thompson center hawkins 50cal that my dad buit for me from a kit

Marlin Levergun Model 336C in .35 Rem.

Grew up in New Jersey and a lot of us hunted the Tri-state area because you couldn't hunt with rifles in NJ.

The .35 Rem was recommended for those who wanted to hunt black bear after deer season.

Still have that rifle although I don't use it much now that I live out here in California.

I killed my first deer when I was in college, hunting in northwest Colorado with one of my roommates and I borrowed a Win 94 chambered in 32 Win Spl.

The next year I hunted with him in that same area again and I had both a deer and an elk tag in my pocket. That year I carried a sporterized .30-40 Krag. I killed a 5 pt bull elk.

The following year I bought my first centerfire rifle, a .30-06 Herter's Model U-9 barreled action that I put into a Herter's semi-inleted stock. I used that rifle for about 8 years, then had it rechambered to .30 Gibbs and it became my elk rifle, and I built a .257 AI on a Mauser Mark X barreled action that I put into a Fajen stock. Now after almost 40 years later, that is still my primary deer rifle.

Mine was an old Sporterized Enfield. In 30-06. Still had the Original Barrel, Bolt, & Sights. It was a HEAVY Rifle. Thing mustve weighed 20 Pounds! (Or atleast it did when I was 12)! It was a hard hitting, flat shooting, Rifle. Killed many a deer with that old gun.

Thats awesome Top!

Yep, Dad got me started when I was 5 or 6 way back in the early 50s and he had two original Springfields that were in excellent shape. I don't even recall where/when he got them it's been so long ago. He sporterized one for me and had it blued, the barrel cut off slightly and recrowned, the bolt turned and the safety redone on it. I had bought property up in northern MI early in 73 and then a new Chrysler to get back and forth reliably from down here. I didn't even have a rifle to hunt with up there, as it is all shotgun down here in lower MI where I live and after buying the land and car the money was a little tight. He surprised me and brought it up from Texas that November deer season and I ended up killing a nice 8 pointer in an all out blizzard opening night when I shouldn't have even been out hunting. I guess it was just meant to be because that buck almost walked right over top of me it was snowing/blowing so hard. I can remember that just like a lot of other hunts just like it happened yesterday! I killed an awful lot of stuff after that with it until I sort of retired it and started using the pre 64 Model 70, Ruger, and Sakos he passed on to me when he quit hunting in his early 80s. He died 5 days shy of 89 on 9/11/11.

Sheridan, that was my primary gun this year.
Truth of the matter is I don't think it killed deer any deader than its 30-30 counterpart but 35 loyalist will tell ya different.