Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles My old warhorse......

So was pilfering through one of the safes this morning and pulled out a very well worn 700 BDL 300 win mag. No longer in its wood stock ( but I still have it ) it has a vari-xIII 3.5-10x50 on it (the first year they came out) . I got this gun in 1987 I was in the ninth grade I wanted to start deer hunting.... had to give up football to work after school to make money to get it (we weren't dirt floor poor but mom and dad wouldn't not help said I needed to earn it) so sweeping floors taking out garbage from school cleaning up the property after Friday night football games cleaning toilets and cutting grass and washing cars if there was daylight and an opportunity to work I did When I finally mustered up the $385 to get it dad signed the paperwork and took care of all the legalities and handed it to me a few years later I added the leupold it's been on it ever since sitting on a redfield bar and redfield quad Allen screw redfield rings I have killed any and every legal animal and tons of paper and targets with it..... it's not a super sniper anymore but it will shoot 1" groups on it's worst day...it shot just a little under an inch with swift 180 scirocco ammo today at 100 yards It's with me now as I write this hunting again it's 33 years old going on 34. I guess you could say there is a little sentimental attachment to it. Love my old 300 win mag

Cool story. Nice rifle and bought when they made them correctly.

Live, I know the feeling.. I had mine built in about 1970 .. My first successful season using it was 1971.. It has been on the job ever since.. Also it has been rebarreled, and had the stock cleaned up and checkered several years ago.. Same guy that made the stock did the work.. I mostly use it for elk now.. Have lots of other rifles these days, but when the chips are down, it is the one I pick.. Just to say I did it, I killed my fall gobbler with it.. No more lost meat than any other rifle.. Had him for Thanksgiving.. Love mine also..

I remember new BDLs for $385. Great story.

I bought my first for $135. plus tax from a Gibsons in Dallas, circa 1972,

Good story, got an old Stevens 12 gauge double I bought at a Globe store in 1969 on Shepard drive. I still have it. I cut yards for 2.00 apiece to get the 60.00 to buy it.

Memory lane for sure. In july of 1970 I bought a lnib 700 adl in 7mm mag with dies 2 boxes of bullets and 4 boxes of brass for $125 I was sure I got screwed .in 2014 I had to have the original Hart ss barrel replaced. New rem take off barrel $50 and $100 to put in on ready to roll. It has a tighter chamber now than ever and it shoots very nice indeed never part with it. Mb

Cool story, thanks for sharing. I sure would like to have the 80s model 308 ADL that Dad bought me. It was stolen out of my truck at the little store a few hundred yards from the house and never seen again.

Used to be one a few blocks away.
You could buy whatever to hunt or fish with,
the clothes and footwear to wear while doing it,
and food and drink to sustain you while out

Fantastic store. Sure miss em

I hear you. Mine is my old Ruger tanger in 30-06. Still in its unmolested form wood stock and ruger rings. When I bought it from my brother for $100
Back around 1989 or 90 it had a tasco scope. He had a girl he wanted to take out and needed the money.

I upgraded that scope to a bushnel trophy that I used for a long time until I bought a VX3 for it. It is still clover leafing 3 shot groups with green box 165 grain Remington coreloks at 100 yards and still tossing that 4th and 5 th shot out about an inch at 1 o’clock. I don't use it anymore but will never sell it. I doubt time will allow me to kill more game with my current workhorse that I have with the old tanger.

I reckon I made a pretty good deal on that rifle. I still have it and cherish the memories hunting with it and my brother married that girl and went thru a nasty divorce.

I killed my first deer with that old shotgun, come to think about it.

The one I went to was on Westmoreland in Oak Cliff. I went to Sunset HS. Loved Dallas back then. Great store even sold reloading supplies.

My firsty was a Savage 99 Featherweight in 300 Savage. Bought it in early 1960. At a wholesale price. Paid for it working at a restaurant cleaning tables and being verbally abused by the waitresses...... was a pretty good job in that small town. 4 years later put a Weaver K4 Post n Crosshair on with a Pachmayr tip off mount. Took a fair amount of whitetails with that rig. And a mule deer in Montana Sometimes with the scope off to the side for close in/fast moving critters. The post worked very well in dim light/brush conditions. The light weight and the shape of the stock means that it recoils pretty good. Overcame that and the not-so-light trigger pull.

Bout 30 years ago started reloading for it. Now have a moderate load of IMR4320 pushing 150 gr Hornady Interlocks. Easily does 2" groups. Sometimes better if I am any good. Great to use in the brush when i still hunt.

We've grown old together. I call it 'The Original' and its aged better than i have. Sill looks pretty good.

Guy at the shooting range was lusting at it and asked, "You ever thought of selling that rifle?"

Told him, "You dont have enough money."

The Original is going to my son, and maybe my grandson.

What a great story about a great rifle and the rifle's owner.

Thanks for the great story. I too have a very well worn 700 BDL in 300 win. Mine is several years older and still topped with original 3-9 Leopold. Mine is on its 3rd (another take -off) new barrel , and has always been very accurate. I do not carry it as my main hunting gun anymore but it goes to camp as a backup. In the 70's several friends I had used to compete with standard barrel and scope at up to 1000 yards, it is amazing how many ended up buying Remington 700's too.

Got a tang safety Ruger in 30-06 the same way. 360 bucks.

Sure wish I still had it.

I paid for all of my first guns, first .22, first shotgun and first deer rifle {Win. 94}, with money I earned on my trap line, throwing hay bales, shoveling shyt and mowing lawns. Parents gave me my first pellet gun for Christmas but after that was on my own.