Friends,
The thread on what was the first caliber that you reloaded, got me to thinking of my LONG-AGO "college daze" of the mid/late-1960s & the FIRST "high-powered rifle" that I bought for myself: an "as new" but about 70 year old S-A War vintage Model 93 Mauser.
(LOTS of rabbits, coons, coyotes, feral pigs & other small/medium game fell to the Spanish FMJ loads. WT deer got the FMJ bullets "pulled" & re-loaded with about 175grain FNCB, courtesy of my freshman biology prof.)
I paid 10 bucks for it from THE COUNTRY MERCHANT in my little college town & once I got all the grease off of it, it looked BRAND NEW & shot GREAT. I was REALLY pleased to NOT have to borrow a rifle to go hunting!!
The motto of the store was: "If we don't sell it, you don't need it."
(That country store had literally a 55-gallon plastic barrel-full of the Model 93 rifles, with a hand-lettered sign that said: "7x57 Mauser rifles -10.oo cash & pick your own poison". Moreover, 3 boxes of Spanish FMJ cost ONE BUCK in 1966.)
yours, tex