Was looking on the local websites and found a guy selling a Winchester Model 17 in .22LR.

I emailed the guy and asked him what that was as I had never heard of one...and he responded it was from the 70's.

I decided I would go out on a limb and check it out in person...thinking that he was mistaken and it was not a winchester. When I got there I was amazed to see not only it was a Winchester, but a Model 77 (not 17).

The serial number is within 4,000 of the first produced, and markings indicate it was from late 1955. And it is a tube feed which means it is one of only 10% that were not clip fed (out of 217,000).

Definately a cool find and I will be keeping this one with my '60 .300 H&H.

Went out shooting with it yesterday morning and had a blast! I could not believe how accurate the rifle was. I am excited!

was my first 22 auto. long gone, but i bought another one

In 1956 all I wanted was a BB gun, my father was not keen on having one in the city. He told me if I worked and saved enough to buy a bolt action .22 he would match the money to buy me a semi-auto .22. In less than a year I had done enough chores and odd jobs for neighbors to accomplish the task. I later earned money for a Weaver B-4 scope. Both are still prized positions and still very accurate. I have no idea how much game I bagged with that rifle, but I killed 50 jack rabbits one day near Roby, Texas and got a box of shells from the rancher as a "thank you". Great rifle and great times.

Cool story dall85! Ive been around roby and rotan before. This rifle has an old weaver on it with a fine target dot crosshair.

You ever eat at the Silver Spur in Roby? I was 10 years old and my dad was building a natural gas processing plant and obtained permission to shoot jack rabbits on the ranch. We killed over 200 in a year that seemed to make no difference to the population. Jack Rabbits were everywhere. Lunch and dinner at the Silver Spur were real treats.

I am taking the rifle out this weekend to try and dispatch some pesky beavers. I have put a new scope on my rifle but still have the old El Paso Weaver.

A perfect gun to teach a kid to shoot!