How have hunting rifles changed as you've gotten older?

They are not all wood and blued steel.

Lots more iron sights, you couldn’t get a new rifle without them and “back up sight” was a term not yet coined.

“Pie plate” accuracy at 100 yards was the goal.

Generally chambered in something more powerful than what is used these days. 30-30 was viewed as “the little .30 caliber” Now its more powerful that lost of stuff people are using.

Very few semiautos most were bolt, then lever and a few pumps.

You could buy ammunition at a hardware store because they only had to stock a handful of calibers.

Now synthetic stocks are more popular, all weather and durable. Even the cheap rifles are quite accurate.

Back in the day, milsurp rifles were often found in a barrel at the gun shop for $25.00 or so.

A good hunting rifle could still be found under $300 before Covid; The Savage Axis.
Wood & blued steel was by far more common, but there were some synthetic stocks available as aftermarket items; The Ruger 77 I had for the moose hunt had a McMillan stock. Before that one (1990) I had put Bell & Carlson (anybody remember them?) synthetic stocks on my 742, for some reason I can't remember. Iron sights were on virtually every rifle, and see thru mounts were fairly common. Despite the funny cheek weld, they were pretty accurate. (at deer hunting range, anyway)

I still remember the 'new gun' smell the of the Mossberg 500's in the rack at Holiday (a regional gas station chain in Minnesota, mostly in rural towns) on the way up North duck hunting. We'd stop and fill the truck up, and optimistically buy a few more boxes of shells, Holiday brand, made by Federal. The wildlife art on them was by Les Kouba-I now collect those boxes.

The typical Minnesota deer camp guns were, c. 1976 ; at least one Winchester 94, and also one Marlin 336, and the owners would argue back and forth the merits of each. One Remington Model 14 or 141, and one Remington Model 8 or 81. Those hunters were usually in their 60's, unless someone was using Grandpa's gun until they could buy a Savage 340 .30-30 bolt action (for some unknown reason my friends were enamored with this gun) or at least a Lee-Enfield or other milsurp. There was always that one guy with a Remington BDL or Weatherby, with the stock so shiny the deer could see them coming a mile away. Never got a deer , but sure looked good doing it. Then there was the guy who never had the same gun twice year to year. (This was my Dad in our camp.) Sometimes he'd even hunt with 2 or 3 different guns over the 10 day season.

Most of the gun magazines back then had articles on sporterizing milsurps since they were a dime a dozen.

I remember seeing greasy Carcanos on a dump table in Modell's, a sporting goods chain in NYC, for $11. And a barrel full of Martini Cadets for $10 each at an Army-Navy store in lower Manhattan.

Lever actions, Marlins and Winchester, were also very popular for the eastern woods hunting in NYS.

I still can't come to grips with seeing people in the woods deer hunting with an AR. Being in the Army training in 1967-68, to me they were indeed assault weapons, not sporters.

Bought my first rifle when I was 18 (I'm 79 now). Sense then I have purchased a Browning A-bolt (.30-06) and finally a Browning BLR (.308). The first rifle I still have (.30-30 Winchester 94).

No changes here in 61 years.

Few or none of the weirds calibers like the 6.5 Mongoose, or 7mm TV Channel,

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The 6.5X55 and 7X57 were 2 of the 1st smokeless powder cartridges made in the 1890's. Prior to 30-30. Looking back on things we haven't improved the cartridges all that much, they got it right the 1st time. Modern bullets and powder are the game changers.

5. No plastic butt plates.

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I have guns made in the 1930's with plastic butt plates. Colt was using plastic grips on the SAA in the 1800's

A good hunting rifle could be bought for under $300 EASILY. My 94 for around $100...

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Thats true but requires some perspective. I paid $175 for a Remington 700 ADL back in 1975 which sounds great until you factor in wages in 1975 vs wages in 2022. Factored for today's wages a $1000 rifle today would have cost between to $175-$200 in the 1970's. Your $100 Winchester 94 should cost about $500-$550 today.

Hunters have always found ways to make lighter "Mountain" rifles, although they may not have used that exact term. The Remington 700 was initially offered with a 20" barrel in the 1960's to cut weight. The model 600 introduced in 1964 had an 18.5" barrel and weighed 5 1/2 lbs.

To me the biggest difference is that the number of hunters has declined dramatically in the last 50 years. While the number of rifle shooters has increased. In the 1970's virtually all rifles were designed primarily as hunting rifles. If used for anything else, they were modified.

Most rifle shooters today are either into AR's, or precision bolt guns. Manufacturers are making guns that sell. Hunting rifles don't sell. And the guys who still do hunt are spending more time at the range shooting than previously. Back in the day a box or 2 of 30-06 cartridges would easily last a year. Today I go to the range at least twice a month and often once a week and go through 50-100 rounds every time.

The rifles that I use for that aren't your typical hunting rifle. And I still hunt more than most. I spent 20-25 days in the woods this fall deer hunting. It's only natural that I'd carry the same rifle I shoot every week or so at the range. It is the one I have the most confidence in.

Hokkmike said:

I became a serious hunter for the first time just after 1968, the bloodiest year of the Viet Nam War (thank you Veterans!). My FIRST rifle choice, not knowing anything about shooting was a Winchester Model 94 in .32 WS. It was a handy little gun with a small kick and a burr in the butt plate that kept ripping my cheap plastic jacket. I wised up and filed it off.

Back in the day:

1. A good hunting rifle could be bought for under $300 EASILY. My 94 for around $100...

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$300 in 1968 would be worth $2,396 in 2022. LINK

Can't believe you had the money to pay $300 for a hunting rifle back then, I can get a nice mid grade (Tikka, Browning, Ruger, Winchester) bolt action for $130 in 1968 dollars today. Hunters back then must have been rich!

Hokkmike said:

2. Blued steel and good wood were the offerings for the time - pretty to shoot and look at, No plastics.

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Blued steel and good wood are great to look at, but out west here humping up granite shale, through scrub brush, not sure how pretty the wood or blued steel would look after years of hunting. But I do enjoy blued steel and good wood.

Hokkmike said:

3. Few or none of the weirds calibers like the 6.5 Mongoose, or 7mm TV Channel, or any other of those high pressure over bores.

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The gun industry learned along the way that if we spend more money on the marketing department and use the customer as our quality control department we can develop new cartridges and capitalize on components and ammo.

Hokkmike said:

4. Fewer mountain rifles, floating rifles, or other "gimmick" guns were available.

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Well, I'm sure out east one is not humping/schlepping their gear up and down mountain valley and ridges for miles to get a shot at 1 maybe 2 animals they have tags for. For me, I welcome any 'Mountain "gimmick" Rifles'. In regards to 'floating rifles,' I assume you mean free floated barrels, if so, yeah I welcome those as well, as we have greater accuracy in out of the box rifles nowadays than one would buying a $300 rifle (1968 money) and spending another $150 (1968 money) on. And just to don the math that would be $450 (1968) = $3,596 (2022)

Hokkmike said:

6. No pink camo patterns.

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I agree, they are hideous and in my opinion dumb. But you know what they say about opinions...mine included.

Hokkmike said:

7. THE cleaning agent of the day was Hoppes #9. (country girls used it for perfume where I lived)

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CLP is hard to beat.

Hokkmike said:

8. We used stiff cleaning rods - no cables. (what is a "bore snake?"....)

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Quality bore snakes I find are quite useful for a quick delousing of a barrel after a range session. Are they a replacement for stiff cleaning rods with jags and brushes? No, but useful nonetheless.

Hokkmike said:

Now don't get me wrong. Some of the newer stuff is great. Really great. I got a friend who bought a 6.5C package and he really loves it. Lightweight mountain rifles are the cat's meow. So, I am not slamming new stuff - juts reminiscing and having a little fun.

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To wax nostalgic I think is something we all do as we get more years under the belt, but perspective is always great to balance one's nostalgia out.

I remember when you could by ammo at the general store. And did not have to show your age.

jmr40 said:

Modern bullets and powder are the game changers.

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Very true.

Mass produced rifles from good manufacturers like Ruger and Savage are of high quality in terms of accuracy at fairly modest prices. They typically have plastic butt ugly stocks (like the Ruger American, which I spray painted in a camo pattern) but in spite of the looks, they perform at a level of accuracy one would not have expected years ago with an off-the-shelf rifle from a box store. At least with the plastic furniture, things like swelling and cracking aren't as much of a concern, along with the normal wear and tear from toting a rifle through the woods, up ladder stands, etc. While they don't have the good looks or the "soul" of those older rifles, they do darn good at what they are meant to do.

entropy said:

avage 340 .30-30 bolt action (for some unknown reason my friends were enamored with this gun)

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My dad has one of those things.

CoalCrackerAl said:

I remember when you could by ammo at the general store. And did not have to show your age.

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I remember riding my bicycle to Kmart when I was 12 or 13 to buy my 20 gauge dove shells.

Speedo66 said:

I still can't come to grips with seeing people in the woods deer hunting with an AR. Being in the Army training in 1967-68, to me they were indeed assault weapons, not sporters.

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I have very successfully killed several deer and hogs with AR's in both 5.56 and 308. All 1 shot stops, with the longest runner going about 50 yards before piling up- most DRT. Once the bullet left the muzzle, no difference between those AR's or any other type of rifle in how things happened. The animals didn't seem to know the difference. Just like delivering a 30-06 with a vintage Winchester 70 VS a Springfield 03 in original military configuration (probably skip the bayonet, though).

FL-NC said:

My dad has one of those things.

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Shot mine yesterday

When I started I used a 12 gauge pump rifled shotgun. That evolved into the bolt action 450 BM I have now. There was a 44 Mag lever gun in the middle somewhere.

My first (and still current deer rifle) 1979 Rem 700 varmint in 243 with a Leupold scope



Now a lot of em use something like this

Ah, the "goode olde dayes"--far too easy to wax nostalgic over those.

Glossy-paper hunting magazines interleaved among the Penthouse and Playboy magazines at the barbershop. Which had it's own unique smell to it, too.

Per all the gun magazines, the ideal was a Model 70, as everything about the 70 was perfect. Which is why there were so many articles about ditching the stock and barrel and putting some exotic profile, length, or caliber in the thing. Oh, there were people using those oddball self-loaders like the BAR (which, confusingly, looking nothing like a Model of 1918). And, of course there were the lever rifles, Winchesters and BDL and the like.

"Standardized calibers"? Yeah, every magazine had some wildcat or "Ackley improved" article in it. The shelves had all sorts of things upon them. From 260 to 270 to 280; 6.5 usually meant x55 'swede,' but you could get Carcano .5 as well. Oh, and 30-40krag, and 7mm-08, and on and on.

Sights could be iron or glass. Lyman, Beeman, Marble, Weaver, Redfield, Burris, Leupold, even Zeiss.

It was not easy to be a Fudd back in ye olde dayes. Why, you might spend as much on a rifle as for a used car. Which might get you sniggers at the Rotary Club lunch, and outright derision at the barbershop. Or not.

Here's a link to the Remington Dealer ammo catalogs over the years:
http://www.cartridgecollectors.org/ammunition-catalogs/Remington

Here's the revised Dealer Price catalog for 1970, when I was ten years' old: http://www.cartridgecollectors.org/content/catalogs/REMINGTON/1970-Rem-DuPont-1 Apr-Dealers Rev.pdf
Jump to page 7 for centerfire rifle, and note how many calibers are available. (Also, Remington-Peters was in a separate catalog, too,)

Now, imagine working at Vista, and today, there's some dude in a faded flannel coat who will buy a box of any one of those calibers (ok, Bee, and 222mag and 303sav are less-likely)--what do you get the factory set up to run off.

The old-fangled was once the new-fangled.

BreechFace said:

$300 in 1968 would be worth $2,396 in 2022. LINK

Can't believe you had the money to pay $300 for a hunting rifle back then, I can get a nice mid grade (Tikka, Browning, Ruger, Winchester) bolt action for $130 in 1968 dollars today. Hunters back then must have been rich

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This is the fact guys conveniently overlook. With an Engineering degree my first job in 1973 paid $11,800 a year. $200 a week was a good paycheck

The difference was very, very few hunters that I knew had more than one or two rifles or shotguns

This is also why so many guys sporterized milsurps

Until a few years ago, Indiana was shotgun only for deer, so rifles were varmint only unless you had enough money to go out west

I started hunting in the Midwest in the 1980s most hunting was done with shotguns. Rifle hunting locally was limited mostly to 22 rimfires for furbearers. Pheasants and small game were much more important than deer to a lot of people primarily because tags were by lottery and seasons were short. (Of course waterfowlers were and still are their own breed.) Seemed like darned near everyone either had a 12 gauge 870 or 500, or if you had something special it would be an 1100. Old timers showed up at the check stations with A5s or an old hardware store branded bolt action shotgun during slug season.

Most of the people I knew with a 'big game' centerfire took annual out of state hunting trips. Deer in Missouri, Wisconsin, or Michigan. Canada for moose and caribou. Colorado or Idaho for elk and mule deer. Alaska for moose, caribou and bears. Just about all of them had a 30-06 or 7mag model 70 or 700 with a scope in either tip-off or see-through rings. Checkered wood stocks, white lined, with blued steel. I do recall one person who had a Weatherby. I never heard anyone talking about being undergunned. The only real debate was between 220 grain Remington corelocks versus 180 grain Winchester power points.

The more accuracy claims they make, the more bullets they seem to hold.

FL-NC said:

I have very successfully killed several deer and hogs with AR's in both 5.56 and 308. All 1 shot stops, with the longest runner going about 50 yards before piling up- most DRT. Once the bullet left the muzzle, no difference between those AR's or any other type of rifle in how things happened. The animals didn't seem to know the difference. Just like delivering a 30-06 with a vintage Winchester 70 VS a Springfield 03 in original military configuration (probably skip the bayonet, though).

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Everybody knows AR's work. But a lot of us older types still think of them from our military days. I know I do, which is why I don't and won't have one. People who like them are fine by me, they're just not my style.

2 major changes

1. They are heavier than they used to be.
2. They kick harder than used to.

In the past century alone (in the US... other countries are very different) there have been three generations or so. I say. This is my experience not science, but I have been around a bit, know people, seen their walls and safes, traveled some even back to the 80s, always asked a lot of questions:

• Interwar (a bit) and post-war mostly, LOTS of milsurps. Many slowly evolved into "sporterized" but it was okay many places to carry around a cheap as-issued bolt gun. Most changes were driven by need, so remove weight by removing accessories they don't need, cutting back stocks, remove over-precise sights for woodland stalked/opportunistic game, etc. Hence the sporterized guns are wildly variable.
• 70s-90s, as the hard work of the post-war era paid off and people have money, paid of the house, even retired off pensions, dedicated hunting rifles ruled and scopes slooooowly became in favor. Milsurps get handed down, left in the safe or on the wall, rot in the barn or side of the tractor, or are sold for pennies and the collector market starts in on snapping up those unmodified or recoverable. Self loading guns find their niche mostly with commercial hunting origin guns (7600, etc).
• This century, scopes are nearly required, the best material for the job takes over from pretty so stainless and plastic, and military-origin (if no longer milsurp) first displace the commercial self-loaders, and increasingly simply everything.

Some variability in region. E.g In the 80s I saw plenty of specialized mountain guns in... the mountains! Stainless, floating, plastic stocks. Scopes were used earlier for mountain game, plains stands, etc, and there were brief forays into low power scopes and red dots in wooded areas to "see through" brush, etc.

Some variability in class. Rich suburbanites tend to pretty guns, skewing the market and appearance of popularity vs what's in the field the most. Shiny wood and blue is nostalgia for many. Which is fine, if the one-weekend-a-year hunting trip is connecting to when grandpa used to take you and is a decent market but is an increasingly small in-use percentage.


Inflation is IMPORTANT. So you go into a gun store in 1950 and there's a barrel of milsurps, $25 each. A brand new in box Model 70 is $110, and that's $1200 adjusted for inflation. They go for $900 on the shelf today so that's /cheaper/ for similar grade.