Old guns

Just seeing if anyone had anything they were stoked on.

Bad idea starting threads. Take care dudes

Old, as in still using old guns? I only have a couple guns that were built after, even, 1950. Got a couple that are on the other side of 100 and still will be used for the proper season (upland birds-Win-12 and close deer-Win-94). Not only do they shoot well enough for me but they, to my mind, are a damn sight prettier than the modern models. Real wood, for example.

right now i just have that old Sportsman 20 gauge (A5 clone) and the Superposed 20 gauge, and the Colt Woodsman .22 from the 1930s... wish i would have kept some of the others i had in the past...

probably wont shoot the Sportsman, just hangs out, the Woodsman is a fun little pistol...

Superposed is lovely, but i need to get the rib fixed.. might just shoot it till it falls completely off... been having too much fun with the Franchi tho...

Not many left, but a couple may qualify.

We have a couple M1 Carbines,one a WWII and the other a Korean War veteran. Both in minter shape and great little shooters. One pre 64 Model 70, two Winchester Model 42 .410 pump shotguns, both as new with factory upgraded timber and bird hunting scenes engraved. Again, fun to shoot even with the safety’s in the wrong location.

Possibly my oldest Ugi* side side in 28 Gage qualifies ?

How old does it take to really qualify as Old ? I know I now qualify, and my old sxs is about the same age.

* Ugartechea

Using?

Not really.

Stoked about?

I do take out the M1 Garand and shoot it from time to time.

The rest are pretty much Safe Queens.

Every year I say I’m going to shoot a deer with one of my lever guns...but I don’t. A couple generic pre-64 Mdl 94’s from each grandfather in .30 WCF. One is within the first 15 years of production. Another is a big-bore 1886 45-70, in excellent shape that has a 5 digit serial number, that a great uncle owned. Need to get a Cody Letter on it. I’ve killed deer with my (3) pre-64 Mdl 70’s, and while they’re great, I still prefer my Sako’s.

Have one prized Winchester .22 WRF model 1890 Deluxe that actually appears to have some value, got it from a board member here quite some time ago, took that, my grandson and a mint Marlin 1892 .22 Long over to the Curlew Ranch last 4th and taught the ground squirrels the meaning of the word respect, both those rifles are shooters. Have another 1892 Marlin in 30-30 that I've killed some deer with, love carrying the old stuff in the woods, feels right.
Would like to find and old Hepburn rolling block in 45-70...or any caliber really, will pay if you have one...?

Because....fuckit.

Makes me smile that you and your grandson are getting some use out of that .22 WRF

Even though it was my father's rifle, it was really nothing more than a Safe Queen. I do have fond childhood memories or popping a few Idaho ground squirrels as well with that rifle. It's always been a good shooter a killer of varmints, for sure!

Rifles are meant to be used and enjoyed.

Had a couple old guns that were kinda interesting. One was a Remington Model 29 pump shotgun. Still in high school, but flush with money from a grocery store box boy job, I bought the firearm from a coworker's grandpa for $15. That Remington was as tired and worn out as the old man. The shotgun had a 32" full choke barrel. It had enough play between the barrel and receiver that leading your target was as easy as taking dead aim, flopping the barrel to the fullest range of its travel and squeezing the trigger. A miss was almost guaranteed.

The most interesting thing about that shotgun was that an experienced senior gunsmith and collector of firearms told me that Remington never made a Model 29 shotgun. Earlier today, there was one listed for sale online for $400.

I sold the Remington Model 29 when I received a pristine Winchester 1897 shotgun from my grandfather. He was an old farmer who took great care of all the equipment he owned. Even his garden tools were heirlooms; meant to be passed on to the next generation. I hunted with that shotgun for a half dozen years. I finally tired of tearing the top of my thumb joint when the slide rode over it. Working the hammer when your hands were almost frostbitten was problematic, also.

I sold the '97 to a hunting partner, and bought a 12 gauge 870 Wingmaster with the proceeds. Now, it's an oldtimer!

i don't have anything too ancient, but i do have one of the first remington 760s that was ever produced. they start at serial #4000, mine is a couple hundred above that one. it was my late father in law's, and had been sitting in my mother in law's basement for about 20 years.

i shot a box of ammo through the thing when i got it and decided it was more of a wall hanger, it's pretty beat and the lack of a recoil pad combined with a narrow butt makes it one of the nastiest kicking rifles i've owned (and i own and shoot a .375 ruger).

i've also got a couple old model 99 savages, in .358 and .250, now, those are the ones that go out in the field with me

I didn't think I had any old guns, since the only ones I have, I have had since I was a kid...and then I realized that those are old guns lol.

Fish on...

Todd

Now you’re talking !

I think the .250-3000 is one of the best deer hunting cartridges ever. I used to shoot a little .243 for whitetail over on the dryer side of the state. After a couple of good hunting years with the little 6mm, I had two rather dismal experiences with the cartridge. My hunting partner of the time talked me into using his backup rifle model 99 in the .250 for our late buck hunt that year. I agreed, and after a great hunt, with a one shot bang -flop harvest, I switched to the .250 and never looked back.

I like what Todd said. Many of the guns I have I grew up with as they were my grandfather's, Dad's, great uncle's. So, they have been around for a long time. They can't be old because I'm not. Or maybe I am.

Same here with the grandpa guns. I sold most of my new guns and have only kept the hand me downs. All Remingtons. When he passes I'll have an armory of old guns I've haven't even seen. The oldest one I have now is a Remington Model 24 22LR. Was manufactured between 1922 and 1935. I was shooting it recently and a small piece of broken steel fell out of the ejector and it won't load a second round. Need to figure that out. Cool old gun with a whole lot of mileage.

Not that I'm looking forward to his passing.

Might be a little ejector piece. That broke on a .22 auto. I have the part but just can't get it into the right place. Probably need a gunsmith. My favorites are at or past 100, but still fun to shoot. That, and they often just feel right.

After my Dad passed I bought some guns I had drooled over for decades. A 12ga SS (the ONLY gun for waterfowl) and a .45 LC Single Action. I was looking at a number of them and was almost settled on a Ruger. Then, the dealer handed me the Baretta. It just crawled into my hand and snuggled down. Damn thing just fit. When I was learning to shoot, or fish, the gun/rod was simply and extension of me. The better it "fit", the better it worked.

Not that I disagree, but I’d like to hear the story behind the “ONLY” gun for waterfowl as described. There’s a few old pumper gun guys that can’t imagine anything else used for those wet birds. But, then again, I’m a 20 Gage scatter gun shooter, so a grain of sand may be desired.

To my mind, you hunt waterfowl over decoys (ideally wooden) with a side by side and a retriever. That's just how I see it done. Actually have been more successful with my double. But, a pump is for pheasant, over a nice pointing dog. Just, I guess, my view of "classic". Basically, shot what you like and **ck the naysayers.

Having a variety of pointing dogs as well as retrievers here in the clan, we have found that with good dogs, training, trialing, testing and hunting, either can and do crossover between waterfowling and upland hunting. We have Setters and Britts sitting in the blind retrieving ducks with Labs, and the Labs pushing up birds to the gunner in the uplands.

What’s a bit interesting is training them to actually hunt together at the same time. Not to bad in the blinds with waterfowling, but a bit harder to do in the Pheasant and Quail cover. Something about a flushing dog like our Labs stealing a Red Setter’s point will have the gunners and handlers really mumbling...

Now as to the REAL place in bird hunting for a classic SxS to show it’s roots ? That would likely be chasing after Setters and Pointers in the woods and uplands, with the old three shot pumps and semi autos sitting in the muddy blind with the ducks and retrievers.

But, it’s always fun to break outta the old mold, and try new things. like Jump Shooing Mallards or Teal along a river or creek when chasing Huns and Quail in the thickets . This you do with an ultra lite 28 Gage three shooter that you carry cuz you’re walking three miles to get there...

Browning BPS with a Chesapeake Bay Retriever.

There really isn't any other way.

Waterfowl or upland.

My first pheasant hunting was with a Lab and a Brittany. They worked well together. The first dogs my wife and I got were a Chocolate and a Brit. They hunted together for whatever. Couple stories from those two.

On one OD over at Moses Lake/Potholes I picked up almost a limit of Mallards and Pintails that were crips. That evening, out in some sagebrush, the two pointed. When the bird flushed there was a riot of color and a "quack". Pheasnats don't quack. It was a drake Mallard.

You have to use a retriever to hunt birds; they saved us so many times finding birds.

Two thumbs up for this pairing, and a “Way Up” if your BPS is the 22 inch 20 Gage Upland Special !

The safety is well located, good weight, and a nice quick English stock. Hell , it even has the proper length barrel for a great Grouse gun in the woods. If given a choice however, I’d probably have a look at the Remington 870 Upland special, again in 20 Gage. They just have the safety in the proper pump gun location, IMHO...


Add another thumb up if you don’t have to carry a short piece of 2x4 when hunting.

15 weeks old

^^
Awesome picture.

Fish on...

Todd

Agreed. First production year in 12-bore. Chessie was a blonde, 115#, big-headed brute that could easily carry around a basketball or softly hold a #2 pencil. He loved to field trial train and hunt. Pard and I would sit in a platform blind and converse. When the dog started to softly whine, there were always distant flocks to call to. Miss that big lug....

Nice pic.
Mine was Deadgrass and would launch just like that.
Lived to be almost 17.

I believe that bird hunting is simply an excuse to have a huntin' dog. They bring such joy, and heartache. Our first Chocolate, who was a great finder and retriever of ducks, was also well known for climbing apple trees as she loved to fetch and eat apples.

I should add that there is actually two closely related breeds that are generally covered by the name "Labrador". The true Labrador is rather easily identified as a highly trained, easily directed (hand/whistle) signals to find birds, its willingness to follow all commands, and so on.

The "hidde" breed is the Labbadork. It is most easily identified by looking into its eyes. One moment, there is deep wisdom. The next? You can see right out the earholes. "Dorks" are often seen in the front seat of vehicles, in chairs in the house, sleeping on the bed. They are also seen in the field where they may not always recognize their name, may not always follow your directions, but bring back the birds. Also, the Dorks we have had have been willing to die to protect their family; you don't want to be pissing one off by hurting their family, especially their children.

Great pic!

I like the “lab-dork” reference too! I’ve had 3 labs of my own since I was 13yo. All 3 have been priceless in their own way, and I can’t imagine going through life without one. Current one has always been a dork, but only cause we allowed her to just be a pet...she just turned 11 and so far (knock wood) she’s doing fine. The other 2 made it to 13.5 and 14.5, and both were hunted extremely hard. All 3 rank higher than most people I encounter on a daily basis...

Never had a lab. Instead, I grew up with Golden Redorkers. I've always felt that dogs are pretty much worthless unless they are doing what they were bred to do.

Our last Redorker loved to work the asparagus fields, tail a wagging like crazy when on a bird, and would be relentless in her pursuit until the bird flushed. The look on her face when you missed a bird was priceless. Once a bird was down, she would high tail right to the bird.....

...and here's where the Redorker lineage took hold. She would find the bird, sniff it a bit and either sit there and wait for someone to get that nasty dead thing away from here, or she'd lose interest in that dead thing and start finding the next living thing to flush.

Waterfowl hunting was great! She'd stay in the blind, wag her tail in earnest when the mallards came in close, and would bolt out in the water on command. As a damn near Olympic caliber swimmer, she'd race out and tangle up in, and drag with her at least 4 decoys and their strings/weights. Once at the fallen Mallard, she'd circle the bird making sure that it was dead, or it if wasn't dead yet, would contain the bird until the bird died of laughing. Once the bird was dead, she wanted nothing to do with it and would swim back to the blind, taking another 4-5 decoys with her and would get to the hunters, deposit her pile of decoys at her feet, shake off her fur and get everyone yet, and would turn around, sit down, and wait to do it all over again. In the meantime, whomever shot the duck(s) had the fine pleasure of getting to retrieve them any way they could.

I once hunted with one of my Dad's lawyer friends along the Walla Walla River on a icy cold January day. The guy as a bit of a scatter gun noob and pretty much at anything that was flushed or flew on that day. He managed to hit and dump a mallard right in the middle of the slow, meandering, cold as hell river (ice was in the river) river. Our Redorker was on that bird like lightening! SPLASH! In the freezing, ice filled river she went! What a good girl! She quickly found the dead duck, swam around it twice to determine it was dead, and swam back to me, shook off all the ice water off of her and on to me, sat down, looked up at me with those loveable Redorker eyes and silently said "DO THAT AGAIN! THAT WAS FUN!" As the dead mallard slowly floated away down river.

Oh hell no! No way was any self-respecting Weekend Warrior, West of the Mountains City Attorney let his one and only mallard (probably is first ever) get away. It was a nice sunny morning. Albeit about 15 degrees. He stripped down buck ass naked, got in the river, swam out and retrieved his own duck! Son, hold my shotgun and watch this!
a) I've never laughed so hard in my life.
b) I'm still slightly traumatized to this day.
c) I got good at *not* shooting birds over water unless there was
another dog there, or had a way to get them without getting
naked and wet.

As for a family dog, our Golden Redorker was top notch. This dog would play anything with us for hours on end. Her favorite past time was to roll a brick in to our pond, dive in to get it, stay submerged for minutes as she tried to get the brick, would pop to the surface (coughing and chocking) with the brick, haul it back up on the land, only to use her nose to roll the brick back down in to the pond. Rinse and repeat. She would follow us in to the bowels of Hell if we asked her too. She was ultimately killed by a car when my Mom took her for a walk. She lunged/went after another dog across the road and went and done got runned over.

As for her ability to defend her house.....

She was fiercely loyal and you'd best be on your toes if you came up and knocked on our door. First thing you'd hear is the barking. Barking that sounded like someone may be choking. Slightly muffled, but constant.

When the door opened, you'd get charged. Mostly you'd get charged and get a nose in your crotch and right in the balls. If the nose-to-balls maneuver didn't disable you, her Tail Wagging of Death normally finished things up. If all else failed, she'd just lean on you, in an attempt to knock you over and lick your face.

Else, you would be greeted at the door and get chatged with a Redorker that had no less than 3 tennis balls, 4 sets of underwear, and 8 socks in her mouth, all while viciously barking at you and wagging her tail at you in an attempt to break your legs.

Gotta love Golden Redorkers.

PS. Best Golden Lab I have never met was Bob's dog. Rainy. That was one loveable and kick ass lab.

His new one, Sunny, seems a bit flaky, OTOH, I only met her as a puppy and never did warm up to me.

We have one of each, the Golden Redorker and Chocolate Lab. Redorker has the same temperment as above, except just prefers to play the keep away game and in summary that just drives me nuts..

The lab on the other hand and in my personal opinion is actually a worthy dog. She will play fetch until her tongue is dragging. She just turned 1 and has quite the solid attitude, seems to only give a crap about retrieving as she's always dropping the bumper at your feet and gives you the stare. It's that stare only a lab can produce.. This year will be the first year over the decoys, will see how she does but I got a feeling she's gonna turn into a good duck dog.

Keith

"When the door opened, you'd get charged. Mostly you'd get charged and get a nose in your crotch and right in the balls."


Sounds like Todd's place.
Guys here speak highly of his roommates.

Our Brit was (generally) a great retriever and all around bird dog.

Once, she had ahold of a rooster by the tail. Got hime revved up, let him go, and my dad missed. He said she was rather pissed at him when she looked at him.

One time, she was retrieving a quail my Dad shot. She went out in the filed, got it, and set it down in the ditch halfway back to Dad. He had to go get it.

Hunting pheasants again, we dumped one in a creek in high flow. Susie jumped in, got the bird, and then got tangled in a willow. Was stuck, wouldn't/couldn't get out, was thrashing the water, so I waded in. When I got there, in belly deep water, she dropped the bird and swam to shore, leaving me to bring the bird in.

Gotta be smarter than the dog.

I've had a few Weimaraners that cam from good breeders, but I never got around to getting them out hunting. They were mostly just lazy cuddle rats. Super smart, though.

Great stories!

Parker, I have always enjoyed your write-ups; some classically funny chit man!

I have a "sharps old reliable" 45-70 military issue M1878. 90%

I have a remington falling block buffalo gun 45-70. 85%

Winchester 1895 30-40 craig military issue carbine.

Winchester model 94 35-35 1912.. re blued and 2nd stock.

Winchester model 50 .22 1920's