Gosh BigBill, now we're really going a ways back. Let's see, the first was an Italian 6.5 Carcano. Believe it or not, I liked the way they shot and how the bullet hit. I worked for a private, ummmm, 'firm' in Peoria, Il in the mid-60s that got caught up with the Warren Commission's testing of the Carcano rifles to see if Oswald could actually have shot JFK with one. That 160 gn rn bullet didn't move very fast (2200+ or maybe 2400) but it hit like a ton of bricks. Some of the ones I shot were pretty accurate, some were definately not. I even used that hunting in Co for a while but then felt the need to go to something larger.
Then came my #1 MkIII SMLE, and with 174/180 gn loads she was purdy dang good. The 205 grainers though were serious medicine, at least at the time, although now you would prolly need a 700 gn boolet to do the same thing. Anywho, I wanted something a bit larger, and a friend had a 30-06AI, which I thought was just the thing and went a bought a 1917 Enfield in 06 but never got it rechambered, just used the 06 (for the next 25 years).
But, since then it has been mil-surp city. Mikey.
