I just cleaned up, recrowned and fixed the safety so it would work properly on an old Winchester, can't remember the model but it was not a 70, in 243 Win. that a little boy from my church was given by a step grandfather. I bought him a pretty good scope for it and worked up a load and loaded up 50 rounds and gave it to him. He has already killed a deer with a cross bow hunting with his grandfather and he is just 6 years old. He told me that I was his adopted grandfather.
My Dad did not deer hunt. He small game hunted and started me out at about 4 years old going with him squirrel and rabbit hunting. When I was 12 I wanted to deer hunt. The man that lived across the road who was also my Sunday School teacher deer hunted. He told me that if I would get me a high power rifle he would take me deer hunting. I worked my butt off shoveling snow, mowing yards, putting up hay, working in tobacco fields and anything else I could do to make money that next January through October 1969 and had $45 saved up. Dad took me to a store like a Kmart that always had a shopping cart full of old military rifles for $25 to $30. Most were usually Mauser 7 or 8mm. This time the shopping cart had cardboard boxes with rifles in them in the cart with a $40 price on the cart. Dad opened up one of the boxes and pulled out the rifle and turned to me and said "This is what you want." My Dad was a WWII vet. Turned out the rifle was a Remington made 1903A3 Springfield that was in UNISSUED condition. Dad got it and a box of 150 gr soft point ammo for my $45. My neighbor kept his word and took me deer hunting every year with him until I moved away. I will always remember him and always went to visit him when I came home for a visit and we always talked deer hunting. Now I was maybe 80 pounds soaking wet and that rifle KICKED. But I learned to handle it and shoot it without flinching and became really good at judging yardage and setting the that rear peep and learning where to hold to hit at what ever yardage. I had a good ammo supply because I had a cousin that was in the National Guard and every month when he went to muster he brought me a 250 round can of ammo. Never did see a deer while hunting with that rifle because at that time deer were few and far between in the mountains of TN. When I was 17 years old I decided I needed a shorter and lighter rifle so I sold the 03 for $45 and bought a Marlin 336 30-30 Win from my uncle. That next season I saw my first ever deer while hunting and killed it. It was a 5 pt. that weighed 163 pounds field dressed. It was a monster body wise for the area. My neighbor helped me drag the deer out and load it in his jeep. I think he was more excited than I was.
