Anybody Else Hunt with the Same Rifle for Half a Century ?

[warmer]

This will be Season #32 with my Savage 110. So I'm not even close yet.

 

[Jwill]

I still have a ways to go, currently on season 29 with my M77, MkII 7mmRM.

 

[Mustangs Rule]

I've been hunting with this Winchester for over 50 yrs.

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Very Very cool

 

[406dn]

I've hunted with the same rifle for the last fifty years. It is still the only center fire rifle I own. It's a Remington 700BDL in .270Win. It has always been very accurate.

This photo is almost forty years ago now.

 

[Bill Zent]

In 1959 I bought a Sako 222, in 1960 I bought a Sako 244, in 1964 I bought a Sako 30-06, all new at the time. In the last 40 years I have mainly shot the 30-06. On occasion I have shot coyotes with with the other two.

 

[Mustangs Rule]

I've hunted with the same rifle for the last fifty years. It is still the only center fire rifle I own. It's a Remington 700BDL in .270Win. It has always been very accurate.

This photo is almost forty years ago now.
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very cool

 

[Mustangs Rule]

In 1959 I bought a Sako 222, in 1960 I bought a Sako 244, in 1964 I bought a Sako 30-06, all new at the time. In the last 40 years I have mainly shot the 30-06. On occasion I have shot coyotes with with the other two.

Thank you. very very cool.

 

[Mustangs Rule]

So OK, here is my "deer" rifle that I bought new in 1968 when I turned 18. Big upgrade from the spears I was using back then. Savage 110C .270 Win that I recently rebarreled with SS Shaw barrel. Even though old walnut stock, it still can shoot pretty darn good with 130BT's at 3050 fps (love RL16 in .270!). Interesting story with this rifle that is nice homage to Savage back then. The first weekend I went hunting, I fell in a covered over dry artesian well hole (thats what it looked like) in the Adirondack Mountains. Cracked stock at the tang. If I wasn't 18 probably broke leg. OMG heartbroken is not even a close description that you can describe a 18 year old kid that saved up to buy the "rifle" for deer hunting. I brought it back to gun shop where I purchased it the following week and as luck would have it, the Savage rep was coming in that week. I left the rifle with expectation of having to pay for new stock and more. Couple weeks go by and I got a call from the gun shop that my rifle was back in. I asked how much and he said come in and will discuss. So grabbed as much cash as I could and went there expecting the worse. Savage was told the story, restocked the rifle with decent walnut stock "No Charge" with comment "go hunting"! I wish I kept that paperwork but as kid it was lost over time.

So 54 years later, I still take it out and look at a walnut stock with a big smile. There are plenty of "character" dings that I can recall where, when and how. Killed this doe at 220 yards couple years ago with 130BT and rifle has so many memories in it that I like to take it out when I can.

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What a great story. Thank you very much

 

[Salmonchaser]

I've been hunting with this Winchester for over 50 yrs.

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that is a classy rifle

 

[BrentD]

that is a classy rifle

Thank you.

 

[Redman]

I have a gun problem....I can't seem to just stay with one. There is hope though. I have a Browning X bolt in .308 that has been my steady since 2017.

 

[morgaj1]

Not 50 years old yet, but getting close. The only rifle I had for years and years was a 270 Smith and Wesson 1500, made by Howa. My dad bought it in the late 70's, hunted with it until he passed it to me when I was 12. Between my dad and me, it has killed countless whitetail, hogs and coyotes. I had to replace the original Redfield scope a few years ago when it failed. It will still shoot less than 1" groups with Sierra Pro Hunter 130gr over RL22.

My son will hunt with it this year. Something sentimental to me for my son to take a deer with my dad's rifle.

 

[NEWHunter]

This will be season number 30 for my Browning BAR in 7mm. It’s the only centerfire I own. Bought it new just before I turned 12 with a $125 gift from my Grandpa and about $500 I made mowing lawns. I added a leather Browning sling, but couldn’t afford a scope right away. After a few more years of mowing lawns and the lack of a scope costing me my first buck I put a Leupold Vari-X II 3-9 on it.


Someday I hope to add a nice shooting bolt action with a synthetic stock and a higher end scope to the collection. But that likely won’t be for a while.

 

[Boarmaster]

Not quite 50 years but my first bolt action rifle I bought was a ruger tanger in 30-06 In 1986. It was the only rifle I used from 86 thru 2008. Still in use today although I have other rifles I use more these days.

 

[Farmerj]

Closest I’ve even got to hunting myself is this I got in 1983 my parents gave it to me for Christmas that year.


Dad passed his Remington 870 wing master down to me that’s been used on and off since he bought it in 1952. I use it for upland game and it’s still my go to slug gun for deer. Was the first gun I got my first deer with when I was 16.

Two guns I will never part with.

 

[Red-Team 98]

Have several from a
Marlin 39 Mountie 22 lever
Browning 22 Auto
Browning BAR grade 2 30-06
Rem 600 in 6.5RM
Win 70 XTR from 1979 in 30-06

 

[Mustangs Rule]

I was just thinking about the father of my closest friend as a teen. Hs dad was a WW2 vet. He served as a tanker in the Battle of the Bulge. He was pretty deaf and talked real loud.

He owned only three rifles. A Marlin 39 .22, a Marlin 336 in 35 Remington and a Savage 99 in 300 Savage.

His two sons grew up using these three rifles.

 

[1100RemingtonMan]

I have hunted with the Remington 700 BDL 6mm Rem since I bought it new in 1976 and the Model 70 Pre-War 300 H&H Mag around 1977 so not quite 50 years.
I just put a new scope on the 6mm Rem a couple years ago.

 

[Steiny77]

Dad gave me his old 60's Remington 721 many years ago I recently had it re-barreled it, bedded and some trigger work and passed it on to my nephew.
Have my grandpa's old model 12 Remington pump .22. He bought it as a teenager, probably around 1920's.

 

[Gr8bawana]

Not quite half a century but 43 years now on my Rem. 7mm mag bought from Big 5 in Vegas 1980. The twin 700 at the bottom of the pic I bought for my wife in 1984.

One of the first deer taken with the 7mm. How the years go by.