What was your first big game rifle, and do you still have it?

[Derek44]

First rifle was a Marlin, not sure the model, but an older 30-30 saddle gun. I was 12 and my dad was nervous of the half @#)(# safety that came with a lever action gun. A friend of his down the road had a bolt action “western auto” 30-30 that he let us use the first year I hunted. “Age12”. I shot my first buck with that western auto that year and decided to trade the ol lever action from my grandpa for that gun. Seemed like a great idea that day, but I’ve regretted it ever since. Still have the bolt action though and have killed a couple deer with it. Still miss the marlin though. More so because it came from grandma and grandpa. Sure wish I could get that one back.

*edit* hahaha. apparently the system didn’t like my spelling of half….how to change this…. Say caulk??? Hopefully that one doesn’t get censored.

 

[tarheel]

Iver Johnson’s Arms and Cycle Works 20 gauge single shot. Was my grandfather’s, then my dad’s and now mine. Will eventually be my son’s. Growing up in OH, it was shotgun only for deer.

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Good old Champion. My first was in a .410, a real squirrel getter.

 

[tarheel]

I grew up in a shotgun society but after returning from SE Asia in '65 I bought a matching numbers Model 98 Mauser for $25.00, a real rarity in the surplus market of the day. Collected my first big game, a 300 yard running doe antelope with iron sights, not a tale but the Gospel truth, up above Irish Canyon and Vermillion Creek in far NW CO.

 

[F250]

I pitched thousands of bales of hay during the summer of 1970 to buy a used Remington 760 in .300 Savage. Shot my first Whitetail buck with it. Sold it to a farmer friend so I could buy a longer range rifle for work.

 

[Nicoli7153]

Mine was a 1979 Marlin 336 in 30-30. Cost me 370 bucks at a trading post in Dodge City.

@Nicoli7153 how’s it treatin you?

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Great!!! Love shooting it. Brings back memories of my first deer. Taking it into the north woods at home this year after I get back from my western forays.

1981 first time deer hunting ..... Marlin 336CS

 

[Joe39]

First rifle was a Marlin, not sure the model, but an older 30-30 saddle gun. I was 12 and my dad was nervous of the half @#)(# safety that came with a lever action gun. A friend of his down the road had a bolt action “western auto” 30-30 that he let us use the first year I hunted. “Age12”. I shot my first buck with that western auto that year and decided to trade the ol lever action from my grandpa for that gun. Seemed like a great idea that day, but I’ve regretted it ever since. Still have the bolt action though and have killed a couple deer with it. Still miss the marlin though. More so because it came from grandma and grandpa. Sure wish I could get that one back.

*edit* hahaha. apparently the system didn’t like my spelling of half….how to change this…. Say caulk??? Hopefully that one doesn’t get censored.

Mine was a ruger 243 took several whitetail with it and now my sons use it to do the same thing. Always been a good shooting gun

 

[Mallardsx2]

This is the first "big game gun" I ever bought. Still have it and it still shoots as good as the day I brought it home.

Browning A-bolt II SS Synthetic with Boss in 300 WSM

The gun is ridiculously accurate. I can't believe they stopped making them.


Used it this year to kill me a bear.

 

[Fredrickeder]

Got my dads .270 Alexandra arms mark x still have in but looking to get a more compact and littler rifle. In the future.

 

[44hunter45]

I shot my first big game animal with my dad’s Remington 742 Carbine in 30-06. Neither he nor I liked that rifle and it was eventually traded off. My first very own centerfire rifle was a left hand Remington 700 in 7mm RM my parents bought me a year or two after I started hunting. I had saved up some money and topped it with a Redfield 3-9 Widefield scope that had a fancy ranging reticle (see internet photo below). I shot my first deer, my first nice buck, my first few elk, and a bear with it. I got into archery and traded it for a 22-250 just after I got out of high school. I have never gotten too attached to any gun.

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I have Pop's 742 in the back of the safe. He killed his last deer with it here on our place a few years back. My boys and I have tipped over a few with it.
I shot a double on coyotes with it once.

 

[Sheltowee]

Remington 870 with smooth bore slug barrel. Tasco 4x scope.

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I just involuntarily twitched. An 870 Express in 20 gauge with a rifled barrel and a Simmons Pro-Diamond scope (probably $20 at Wally World at the time) on top was my first deer gun at age 8 or 9. I was so small we had to have the stock cut all the way down to the bottom of the stock bolt, and then a slip-on recoil pad squeezed over top. That thing beat the everloving brakes off of me. Still have it and shoot a couple of dove with it every now and then.

First big game rifle was a Ruger 77 MkII in .308. Still occasionally use it about 25 years later-- killed a cow elk and a couple of deer with it just last year.

 

[Bowmannate2000]

Parker-Hale .30-06. grampa let me use it my first couple seasons. After I shot my first buck with it, he said it was mine.

Still have it and hunt with it, though I replaced the scope a couple years ago (old scope in pic).

 

[FairWeather]

I had a 308 Ruger Scout that I bought to go out on a black bear hunt with a friend right after we got back from our deployment. Never did find any bears, though.

Ended up selling it a year or so later to buy plane tickets back to visit my family
In Ohio.

I miss that rifle, and I’m seriously considering getting another one….it’s just hard to justify the expense when the 308 savage 11 I have now shoots 1MOA groups with just about everything.

 

[HSi-ESi]

Browning BLR in .308 I originally put a Weaver K4 on it and used that scope for about 20 years. I paid $40 for the scope at the Billings Gun Show, as I was basically broke after buying the gun. The scope finally developed a leak and would fog occasionally - so I put a Leupold VXIII on it a few years ago.

It still shoots great and I carry it from time to time.

 

[SFC B]

Nobody in my family had any history with hunting or guns (still strikes me as a little odd being from the Midwest). My first rifle is the cheap, POS, Remington 710 package in '06 I paid $275 for my first hunting season at Ft Lewis when I was a weeeee 34 yoa. Horrible stock, action, trigger and crappy Bushnell scope BUUUUUUT the dang thing killed everything I ever shot at with it. My first deer, first two elk and first coyote. As bad as everything about it is/was it would shoot MOA easy with either 150 core lokts or Federals loaded with 180 partitions. It is currently in the safe waiting attention. Almost 10 years ago now I was preparing for my first antelope hunt at the range and my normally accurate POS suddenly was crapping the bed to a point where I had 3 shots that barely were on the paper of a large target. When the range went cold I took it to a table to find the scope moving due to a screw in one of the bases having sheared off in the action I will keep it and eventually get it fixed but not really interested in hunting with it.....it will just be part of the family story. I don't get rid of guns....so far anyway.

 

[elkfanatic]

Dad let me use his .50 cal tc hawken for my first deer at 12 years old. He's still got it but doesn't shoot it. My first big game gun of my own was a used 12 ga. Mossberg 500 with shot and slug barrels. That gun was my constant companion and got used for everything . Deer, coyote, fox, ducks, geese, rabbits, squirrel, doves, groundhogs ,no game animal or varmint was safe from it.. It's beat up and doesn't eject shells anymore. Could fix it but it's earned it's right to rest in peace in my safe.

 

[BAKPAKR]

Parker-Hale .30-06. grampa let me use it my first couple seasons. After I shot my first buck with it, he said it was mine.

Still have it and hunt with it, though I replaced the scope a couple years ago (old scope in pic).
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I shot my biggest buck with my dad’s Parker-Hale in 300 WM.

 

[OntarioHunter]

October 6, 1964 I turned twelve, the minimum age to hunt in Montana. After blowing out the candles, Dad and Papa presented me with a sixteen gauge Model 12. It's still in the gun safe but I gifted it to my daughter a few years back on her birthday. We have hunted partridge a few times with it. The same year I sort of inherited the WWII Springfield Dad rebuilt two years earlier. He had just finished a second Springfield for himself. Since then I have used it to kill thirteen elk, over a hundred deer, one pronghorn, six moose, and a bunch of African animals.


Edit: Look closely at the old photo. You'll see the cast on my right hand. My brother's head proved to be harder than my knuckles. It wasn't the last time we tangled but the only time there was anything injured beyond my pride. We still hunt together every fall. Fifty-nine years in a couple of weeks. Those were our first birds. His mallard was banded.

 

[VOLhunter]

Remington 7400 synthetic 30-06. One of the happiest days of my life was selling that POS! Bought a Browning A-Bolt LH Medallion 30-06 as a replacement 20+ years ago that still gets the honors for first day of every year's season.

 

[Hem]

Late start to things coming from a non hunting family. First started hunting in Montana in '89. I was determined to hunt with bow or blackpowder. Shot some deer with both, but no elk.
I was walking out of a Bozeman pawn shop in '93 when I held the door for a guy who had a gun case headed in. Asked him what he was selling. 1982 Browning 30.06 for $300. Bought the rifle and killed my first bull that Fall.
It's a back up now with its Leopold straight 6x. Great rifle that has always shot well.
I had Nagorski in Belgrade rechecker the stock and spruce up the finish years ago.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Not counting the shotgun for slug hunting whitetails, I bought a Savage 110 in .270 for a caribou hunt. Never went, still have the rifle, only killed a wild, roaming dog that was hanging around bothering the boarding kennel dogs. Stuck it in the safe years ago never to be seen again! Wonder what kind of shape it's in!

Probably just bones and hide by now.