I grew up with my Dad who had Polio in 1944
He has one functional arm....
So I grew up helping him hunt age 7 to 11 we made a lot of "shooting sticks"
Black tape- wood or aluminum tent pole'- creations then sprayed green" my Dad is also very color blind so I chose colors for him at that age. I started Big game myself at 12 but have always gutted Dad's deer since 7 yrs old.

SEMI- Autos in Calibers with lower recoil were His thing.

Ruger .44 mag Deerfield was one
Remington Semi Autos were the rest.

Brownings were too heavy Dad said

The Ruger .44 never jammed for us...still have and use it
The Remington s were another story....Dad bought and sold many

WHAT are Your experiences with Old School NON BLACK GUN rifles

Thanks for share. As I read this it made me think of haw tribulation can make some one a stronger and better person. I'm sure helping your dad at seven didn't seem like a burden to you. You love your father and you become a better man husband and father because of this. It's cool what you learned about the guns at a young age and handling deer and such.
Rich

the first rifle I bought when I was 14 was a Rem 742 in 30-06.

the 740-742-7400 needed extra care over many other guns but kept clean , lubed and fed the right ammo it functions well.

the Rem semi autos had a lifespan and while it was a lifetime of hunting for most people. if you got into cases of cheap M2 ball you could wear them out target shooting.



I do need to point out that the term OLD SCHOOL has issues , the AR-10 and AR-15 were designed and in service before the Ruger 44 cal deer stalker carbine.
and while the 740 was designed in 1939 it was not released till 55 at nearly the same time as the Ar-10 .
the 742 was 1960 to 1980

to truly old school we should be talking about model 1907 Winchester and the like
the 1907 lent much of it's fire control group and magazine design to the M1 carbine.

so Wood and bluing , aka looks and not function are the only thing delineating the difference and you can get them with wood and blued looking.
https://www.bearcreekarsenal.com/22...ength-gas-system-wooden-stock-rifle.html

Old School
Is A misnomer then - a generational term for me means something different to others I guess.

I was trying to mean

More traditional meant for hunting type

My mom's das hunted with a 30-40 Krag, Dad's dad used a sporterised 1903 Springfield and Dad used a 1943 Czech made Mauser rebarreled to 30-06. I've carried all of them hunting. Old school now, yes. But kinda like the "black" guns of their day. Mil surplus firearms.

I have and will hand down both a 740 Woodmaster and a Savage 99 that are family guns that have history.

There were a lot of deer taken with both.

I just like to point out the false narrative sold that these are the newest hottest thing they are >60 year old designs

or that they were exclusively military , they were sold to civilians before the military picked up contracts on them.

and also that nearly ALL of your bolt action hunting rifles are designed off the Mauser pattern turn bolt magazine fed military rifle design the Win M70 and Ruger M77 being near identical copies with changes to the safety.
the Mauser was exclusively military at first.

I have always been a bolt gun guy myself. I started with a 30-30 pump, graduated to a 30-06 pump and then switched to a 280 bolt when I was 18 and have hunted only bolts and single shots since.

Ok GCPete

Which Semi Auto
308

Old or new but not AR type was most reliable. And can still be Found to purchase ?

My semi auto experience is 99% with military rifles and as I tend to keep them clean, jams are a non issue. Until you chamber the AR platform in calibers that are not 223 or 308. I took me a while to get the Grendel AR15 and the 458 SOCOM AR15 to run right but thats the only function issue I have had . Mine are M1Garand M1 Carbine M1A and various AR platforms.

Most reliable semi ever made.
Never jams when filthy or at 40 below.
Tons of shells available,almost no recoil good big game at medium range,and good for smaller game too with fmj.
Inexpensive to buy,lots of them around,and can field strip with a bullet.

negatives-heavy weight,loud not a tack driver,but plenty good enough for its range.

^ true dat! tuff to beat an SKS for the money. they were under a hundred bucks back in the 90's & a 1200 round crate of ammo was about the same. the u.s gov't banned importation of weapons and ammo from china during the clinton admin. now they get around 500 for the same rifle. (made in Yugoslavia or elsewhere) a friend brought one home from 'nam as a souvenir, he says its only been dropped once.

most reliable probably the Galil 308 , darned if it doesn't look like an AK , so your probably not going to like it. the HK91 is probably the next and the G3 is really just a hk91 clone

I assume while not an AR platform your going to exclude the FAL , G3 , hk91, AK based guns

that basically leaves you with M1A and shortened M1A variants or M1 Garand conversions like the Navy M1 308 or the Italian BM-59

so so many semi auto rifles failed , for the lack of an adjustable gas block, there is just too much variation in ammo and powder burn rates used in hunting calibers so they either beat themselves up or don't cycle reliably.

the Rem 742 was supposed to be better in short action calibers like 308 because it didn't beat it's self up as bad as 30-06
it still needed to be kept clean and lubed better than any of the battle rifles.

the Winchester M100 was prone to catastrophic failure which made it much worse than the 742

so still being made to day M1A variants or go black

then if you want to mount optics on it and do that well

wait why are we trying SO hard to avoid AR platform rifles , they do optics really well.

the M1A and variants is about your only real dependable option.


the SKS , Mini 30 , and other mid power cartridge guns definitely had a place they just didn't have the case capacity to batter apart a gun not built like a tank

Jeez, no love for one of the most iconic designs ever the browning automatic rifle. That until the Remingtons came out was truly one of the only way to get a full sized rifle caliber in a semi auto. SKS, m1 carbine, all other examples.

If anyone is reloading for the Remington semi's, it's best to use small base dies. Will go a long way in preventing malfunctions.

never tried one so I don't know much about them

with a delineation the BAR M1918 being a very different gun from the BAR MKIII semi automatic rifle

not really, depends on chamber size, My 742's do not need small base dies.