Old Faithful

[Echale3]

Mine was an 870 express 12 gauge with a rifled slug barrel that accounted for a lot of deer when I lived in Indiana, and I'd switch barrels out to a smoothbore for rabbits and turkey when deer season was over.

Now that I'm back south of the Mason-Dixon Line, my go-to is a LH Savage 11 in 300 WSM. The 300 WSM is a bit of a case of overkill for deer, but the rifle was a gift from my dad and it's accounted for quite a few deer here in SW Virginia..

[kawasakifreak77]

Guys you need to share more pictures of these wood & steel workin' guns!

Mine isn't old at all but has been totally reliable in all conditions. A semi custom 300 blackout bolt action, suppressed of course:



It started life as a Micro 7 (remington model seven built by AAC with a 5R barrel) but I layed it in a youth wood stock. I don't have a plastic stock in my safe & I'm not starting now! I had my smith put iron sights on it & tweak the action a bit. The bolt is greased lightning & the trigger breaks like glass.

Last winter on me & my dad's annual hunting trip an ice storm rolled in & by morning I had to use my lighter to unfreeze the action. I once made a pretty serious boo boo trying a new load. It was so hot the brass was frozen inside the bolt face! The headspace has been pretty loose since then but I have so many cases fired in this rifle alone there's no worries. The stock looks like a beaver got ahold of it, its been through the ringer & never skipped a beat!

I've taken all manner of small game for the pot & eliminated lots of varmints with it. I pretty much don't leave home without it.

[Four Fingers of Death]

My old favourites were an Interarms MkX (Zastava M70) 3006 that had a rather noisy RamLine stock and a Sako in 223. They accounted for most of my hunting and were always reliable.

The front stock screw with the 3006 used to walk as a result of the plastic stock flexing under recoil and wasn't a problem after I worked out what was going on and nipped it up before each use. My son now has it and it is affectionalely known as 'Old Painless.'

The 223 I had rebarrelled and the gunsmith fitted a heavier barrel than I ordered and gouged out the lightweight stock to fit it, spoiling the rifle. I lost interest in it, stuck it in the safe for a few years, used it fr awhile then sold it.

I have a swag of rifles now and don't seem to have any real favourites, although a pre Hawkeye or whatever they call them now 300WM Ruger M77 Mk2 is performing well and winning favour, as is my little 223 Ruger American Compact which is shooting the pants off another 223 that I have that cost me exactly twice as much!

[pls1911]

Ok I've been off line awhile, but have to add a line here.
I'd say a favorites choice "depends... "
--- '93 or 36 pre micro groove Marlins in 30/30..
--- Colt .45 in a Blackhawk or Redhawk
--- Remington 870 in any gauge
--- 45/70 in a Sharps or Rolling Block

All with cast bolts or shot of course!!

[kir_kenix]

Old Faithful...that's going to be tough. I would have to say my late 80's Remington 7600 in '60 with fairly nasty looking laminate wood (second set). Not sure why, but I love pump action rifles and I've acquired several 760's and 7600's in several calibers since.

I've shot a ton of whitetail, mulies, antelope, coyotes, a few black bear, 1 mountain lion, elk, swine, etc with this rifle. Was wearing a Leupold 2.5x for about 15 years until this last year when I was home on leave and I banged the scope a tree stand step. Dropped a 1.5-6x32 "Scheels" brand scope on the old girl and took home a big doe the next evening. Accuracy is nothing to write home about 1.5 moa with various j-words and nearly equal with a variety of cast boolits. Carries easily, points like a shotgun, and hits like an '06 should. Cold blue splotches cover where my gloves have worn through the original finish, and the second laminate stock is peeling where it has gotten dinged. One of these days I'm going to have it bead blasted and parkerized.

My wife has gone a similar route...on older 760 gamemaster, also in '06. For some reason she wanted these goofy (to my eye anyway) "see through" rings and an old Tasco 3-9 she dug out of the scope orphanage box. She took her first rifle antelope with this rifle, and carried it during the first Nebraska Mountain Lion season. I suspect this will remain her "old faithful"/beater whenever she doesn't want to scratch up her sporter Krag.

I love rifles that you can tell have years of honest use and have developed a bit of character. These are my favorite to find at gun shows and pawn shops, especially old lever guns. Who knows how many hunts they have been on, and how many generations they have served faithfully for? I hope my kid (7 months old) will appreciate my worn out 7600 when he gets it some day and understands how much time I spent with that rifle to give it all of that "character."

[Four Fingers of Death]

It seems you either love pump rifles or you don't fancy them at all. I carried an 870 Wingmaster at work amd hunted with one exactly the same and when the foolish Government banned them, I picked up a 7600 Police Patrol in 308W (the fools making the law were determined to bam pump action shotguns, but didn't know about pump action rifles or lever action shotguns for that matter).

I have since picked up a 358Win barrel (a Sydney based company makes the barrel extensions).

The 358Win barrel is a bit longer at 20" as opposed to the 16.5" 308Win barrel.

I would never have bought a rifle with such a short barrel, but had a big credit at a store that was about to be closed and go into recievership. I walked in, my mate whispered that I should collect a rifle and cancel the credit immediately as the other partners were at the accountants drawing up paperwork. There was nothing I fancied in the shop when the Remington rep walked in. The Police Patrol was the only rifle he had on him, so I ended up walking out with the Patrol and 120 rounds of Rem factory ammo in pretty much every calibre I shot. I buy 120 so that I can always come up with 100 reloads).

[kir_kenix]

Yeah, pump action rifles aren't for everybody. I've found they are alot less finicky to ammo than most semi-autos, and nearly just as fast. Whenever I visit the family and hunt in western Michigan, I find it difficult to find a shooting lane that affords much more than a 75-80 yard shot, so .5 moa is hardly necessary. They seem to be pretty popular up there (Michigan) and my hunting guide in Maine said they were extremely popular in the woods there too. '06 still shoots flat enough and the rifle accurate enough to be used on my farm here in Nebraska where its a "little" more wide open.

Four Fingers of Death: I also have a .358 win somebody had done on an older 760, but with a 16 or 16.5" barrel. I haven't shot it much (mainly pistol boolits at 25-50 yards), but it would no doubt be an excellent big game rifle around these parts.

The only thing I don't really like about the Remington pump guns is the trigger. My gunsmith worked over my 7600, but he warned me he couldn't do miracles because of the geometry of the set up. Honestly it's not much better than it was before he worked on it, just a little less creep. Oh well, they were never designed to be bench guns anyway...even though I see people bragging theirs shooting sub moa on the internet. I've had a few groups creep under that magic 1", but there is no way I could honestly say that any of mine are legitimately any better than 1.5 moa, some more like 2 moa.

[trails4u]

Sentimentally, it's my old Rem 742 in 30-06. Was a gift to me from my old Scoutmaster years ago, when he left the country for England. He couldn't take it, so I got it. Not a shooter by any means....I'd say it 'patterns' at roughly 6 inches at 100, no matter how hard I try to find something it will shoot better. I try dutifully to kill one deer a year with it......mostly because he cursed it for a *** with a bent barrel when he gave it to me. It's probably put more meat in the freezer here than any other.....just because.

Not so sentimentally....it's the Tikka T3 Hunter in stainless/laminate that my wife and kids saved last year to buy me for my birthday. Sonofagun is a tack driver....better shooter than I am!!

[JSnover]

An old Hi Standard 12ga. pump (20-6). Good for most anything in thick brush, light and handy for sneaking through the swamps back when I used to do that sort of thing. Hard to beat for home defense, too. I replaced the wood and upgraded the sights a few years ago. Thought about getting it re-blued but I dunno. Seems like telling a woman she'd be gorgeous if she wore some makeup; don't want to upset the balance of the universe.

[Texas by God]

It would have to be the Tikka T3 Hunter 25-06 my wife gave me for my 50th birthday. So beautiful, so deadly. Just like her! And my ugly 1958 Browning A5 skeet gun w/Cutts Compensator. Imade a triple on dove with that heavy thing! And my first two guns- a Nylon 66 and an H&R Topper jr. 20 gauge. I would trust my life to any of those. Best, Thomas.

[hillbill]

mine is a old model 7 rem 243. had it for 30 years or better. shot maybe 50 deer with it. have never fired it at a deer that did not die in short order. a couple i missed first shot and hit second shot.

just this last season killed a massive 300lb buck with huge 10 pt rack at just shy of 300 yrds.giant deer for my area.

for a pipsqueek round and 18 in barrel not bad.

[koehlerrk]

My version of Old Faithful would have to be my Swiss K31. Dang old Swiss Miss shoots like she has eyes of her own... I can say that rifle has made me a much better marksman over the years, and any missed white tails have been my fault. The hits though... the rifle gets half the credit, and other than three clean misses and two finisher rounds, every other deer has been one shot kills. As of last year, that's been 32 dead deer in fourteen years. Distances have been from spitting distance to 300+ yards, the old Swiss just keeps putting meat on the table.

[tygar]

I have to say, that I have a number of "go to" guns. A Sako 22-250 (now a AI) for varmints, custom Rem 700 .308 for medium game to 500yds along with a Kleinguenther 7mmMag for the same. For moose, elk, griz/brown, 2 Kleinguenter .375s, or a Mark X .375. All are .5 moa or better & smack the dog poop out of whatever they shoot.

[longranger]

All of mine qualify as "Old Faithful" however a favorite is a 98 Mauser 338-06 AI 20" Shilen barrel and gorgeous.

[izzyjoe]

Mine is a mark x 270, that was used when I got it from a pawnshop, it actually belonged to an older guy I know, and he didn't take very good of it. I've killed 15 deer with, mostly using fed 130gr power shoks, cause they shoot the best for factory loads, the last two were shot using
handloads. 130gr sst's, and a big dose of 4831! But it's the rifle I grab when deer season rolls along, I use a Marlin 30-30 sometimes, but the 270 has spoiled me!

[ammohead]

Somebody say they wanted pictures? It is not wood and steel but pretty is as pretty does.
[IMG][/IMG]
My "old reliable" in 338-06 built by my good friend Steve Zihn back when he lived in NV. A 190? Danzig action. A lady friend starting out learning engraving did some work on it for me.

[IMG][/IMG]
Putting my monogram just ahead of the bolt handle and some more scroll work to dress up an old war horse.

[IMG][/IMG]

[GLynn41]

For me "Ol Faithful" is a 5.5" Redhawk in a .410 GNR-- 41/454-- and a Mountain mold for a 255 gr WLNGC or same in a cast soft point over 27.5-29grH110 mv is 1480-1580-- - it can go up to 1630fps+ but I have only done it once just to see--

[Four Fingers of Death]

She was doing ok for a beginner Ammohead.

[ammohead]

FFoD,

Shame is she gave it up. I ended up buying her GSR setup when she needed money so I have begun to teach myself. So far I am no where near her quality but I only do stuff for myself as of yet. I need to force myself to practice more. I have some rifle projects that I would like to be able to embellish and not mess them up.

[Four Fingers of Death]

My mate used to practice with lead. I melted some linotype into an inch deep bottom of a 6" coffee tin. When he finished messing it up he would bring it around and I would hit it with the torch and remelt it for him. he was getting ok and starting to do small work for friends and then moved interstate.