favorite nostalgic hunting rifle

[randyt]

I was wondering if anyone has a older rifle or rifles that has sentimental value that gets used for hunting on special occasions. Something that gets used once in the while for old time sake. any thoughts?

[hunter63]

Yeah, the old Winchester '94 in .32 special get carried at least a day during the season.

Lots of deer with a $50 dollar rifle...Gave a guy the $50 bucks for it when he was going thru a divorce, summer of 1970....with the understanding that I would sell it back to him if he ever wanted it back.

So far I still have it......

[Batch]

I had a co-worker that asked me to keep his Marlin 336 in my safe. many years later he asked me if I still had it and what would I give him for it. I said well I already have a .30-30. He said give me $50 for it. Done.

[randyt]

I have a 30-40 krag that bought when a youngster, it gotten away from me for many years but then came back in a trade. I would like a marlin 336 but have not picked one up yet. I had a 98 marlin pump shotgun for awhile.

The one that got away was a norwegian krag in 6.5x55 swede, wish I had held n to that one.

[kyratshooter]

The first year I was married to my late wife I made her a custom Kentucky rifle for Christmas. A nice slender poor boy flintlock rifle with walnut stock in .45 caliber.

She was thrilled with it and carried it hunting, shot competition with it and used it for many battle reenactments at historic sites all over the southeast and Midwest.

Every year the rifle gets a workout during BP season.

[natertot]

Mine is not a rifle, but a shotgun. My grandfather bought a brand new Remington 870 Wingmaster in 20ga when he got out of the Marine Corps in '56. As I was growing up, he loaned it to my dad so he could do pheasant hunts out in Iowa. Once I reached late elementary school, I was permitted to tag along and watched my dad with that gun to take out small game. It was the first shotgun I ever shot. I was in junior high at a turkey shoot and the first shot ever and I won. Beginners luck, I am sure. A few years after that, my folks got divorced and the shotgun got returned to my grandfather since it was my mothers dad. Didn't see it again until after I graduated boot camp. My grandfather pulled it out and told me it needed cleaned. I went to the back, ran a box of shells through it and cleaned it then returned it back to him. A few days later when I was about to head back to my ship, my grandfather pulled it out again and said it was mine, forever.

I now shoot it on occasion at the trap range and will take it on a small game hunt during fair weather. I will never part with it..... ever.

[ninjasurvivor]

I actually have an old trusty .22 bolt action rifle that my dad gave me. He said it was from around the WWII era. I forget which brand it is to be honest. It has camo tape on it which covers everything up. It's not even a 10/22 semi auto, nor does it have a clip. You have to load each long rifle round by hand and cock the bolt. But I've had some awesome squirrel hunts with it. You really focus on accuracy and shot placement when you don't have the luxury of semi auto. Last time I used it I shot a raccoon in the head and made my own coon skin cap with the fur.

I was in an ATV accident with it once. The gun was strapped over the front wheels. I went over the side of a hill and crashed into a tree. The ATV flipped over and pinned the gun under it. Amazingly, the gun was unharmed. A lot of kills and a lot of history with me and that gun. Sentimental value.

[blackfinger]

I have a single shot .22 that my dad got for his 16th birthday in 1933. He taught my mom to shoot with it when they got married, I learned to shoot with it and so did my son.

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[hunter63]

Very cool....there was and still is a .22 single shot as my first rifle as well.....


The story:
When I was about 12 years old I had a paper route, and delivered to a hardware store.
They had a Savage 22 SS bolt, listed for $13 bucks.
I gave the guy his paper for free, for forever it seemed, @.40 cents a week till I had paid it off. Comes to about 32 weeks.
When it was paid off, I stopped in on a Saturday to pick up my first real gun.

At that point he just laughed and told me that I needed to bring my father down) to pick it up as I was too young. (Hadn't said anything about this before he made the deal).
He figured that my father (who was a friend) wouldn't let me have it and I was screwed out of all the free papers.
That's when I learned that there are a$$ wholes in the world.

So, I rode my bike to the Ranger Station, my father worked for the DNR as the District Ranger.
I told him what had happened and I don't believe that I ever seen him so pizzed off, and learned a few new words that day.

We went back to the store in his car and he lit into the owner about screwing over a kid, a friends kid at that, and when it was over I had my 22, plus 2 boxes of shells, a case and a new hunting hat.
That was the end of a close friendship that day, they stilled talked, but it wasn't the same.

I still have that rifle, and it's had maybe 10,000 rounds fired thru it, at rabbits, squirrels, rats (at the dump), pigeons (from in the hay loft), so many bottles and can and about every thing you can think of to shoot at.

My kids shot it till their finger were blistered from reloading the single shell....and ask to stop....LOL

[ninjasurvivor]

That's cool to see a kid with a trusty old rifle. He'll be on here one day when he is old telling these same stories.