It's been many years since I had to part with my model 94 Winchester 30 -30, but I remember it well. When I was a young man which I still feel like I am even if my body tells me different at times, I bought my first deer rifle. It was my Winchester 30-30 model 94. Man, I loved that gun. I was young and it was awesome looking to me back then. Although it may still be awesome looking to some because it was an original built Winchester with screws and wood and steel. Not popped together with almost real material. It was the real Winchester with a saddle ring and all.
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You would never believe it. I bought that thing for a $120.00 at the time from a gun dealer who was a retired police officer. But he kind of knew me a bit, we were friends. He knew I was a local county farm boy who wanted to buy my first deer rifle so he gave me a deal on it. Don't get me wrong Winchester still makes a good product today but it was a great buy for an authentic rifle like that. An original. I remember one of my deer hunts with it. I was young and hunting with my brothers-in-law in Wausau, Wisconsin. At the time we were hunting on some private land with the owners of the property because they were related to one of the my brothers-in-law. It was cool. I can remember being impatient. Sitting and waiting for deer and deciding to go walk and look for them. Thats funny. When you're young you don't always know better. You have to learn.  I remember walking through the woods with another guy, a son to the land owner. There we were walking through a beautiful snow white November in the north-woods in the middle of their property with a river running through it. We were trying to be quiet, when a whitetail deer, a doe, a big one came bolting out of the thicket to our left and jumped a fallen tree right in front of us by the  river. Man, it was pretty to see.
There I was  with my pride and joy Winchester by my side and him with his  rifle I think it was a Remington 30-6 and neither one of us got off a shot. We should have had her but young and not so experienced can be a bad mix when hunting. So you learn the hard way and I did. But not there, just yet.
I sat leaning down by an old big pine tree one time. I got tired of standing so I decided to sit for awhile.  I rested against a big old tree with my Winchester 30-30 laying across my legs with my big  hands firmly gripping it waiting for that deer. At the time you were allowed a doe or buck. Anyway, there I sat on a snow covered ground and started knodding off when I thought I heard a noise behind me. I turned to look over my left shoulder and there she was. A doe looking me right in the eyes. I fletched a bit to grasp my rifle. Then she fletched. I tried to move a bit more and she fletched out a move or two. I knew she was going to dart the other way. So I went to give it my all as quickly as I could and BOOM she was gone in a second running all out right back in the direction she came from. All I saw was a whitetail after that.
Guess what? I don't do that anymore. Now as I'm much older and hopefully wiser I hunt quietly and more cautiously when it comes to those whitetail beauties. I mostly tree stand hunt these days but I occasionally ground hunt.  As far as my Winchester, it was stolen on me. Someone broke into my bachelor-pad (my mobile home) at the time when I was working and stole my gun. It was more then likely someone that I knew at the time. I think I may have had a pretty good idea of who it might have been but I was never able to prove it. A gun vault is the best solution. That was a long time ago. I'm kind of over it now. The best thing to do is move on and buy the things I need. Although still to this day I get a knot in my stomach when I think about it. I like my deer rifles no matter what kind I buy. I buy them for a reason.
GOOD LUCK HUNTING !
Dean Romano
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