Patterning Tonight

[Dean Romig]

This little rifle has a looong story.

It was given to me about seven or eight years ago by a client of Kathy's whose brother in northern VT passed away. In fact, she gave me about five or six of his guns. :cool:

Anyway, when I looked at this one I simply relegated it to a corner it was so rusted and the bore was full of what I thought was rust. A junker to be sure.
The screws were beautifully nitre-blued to a beautiful peacock blue and the barrel and receiver had beautiful factory bluing. Problem was, the barrel and receiver were caked in rust, the thumbscrew was missing, there was no clip, and I don't know where the bolt got to. So, into the corner it went and stood there for a couple of years. Then I remembered Edgar Spencer was a .22 rifle collector so when we got together at Addieville a couple of years ago I gave it to him. I thought and Edgar confirmed that the bore was pretty well done in.

More than a year ago he told me his tale of woe that he hadn't been able to find a clip for it. :banghead: Well last fall when I was in grouse camp looking in a container for a nail or a construction screw to finish a project I came across a 10-shot clip. I thought it was for a pistol but I sent it to Edgar anyway to see if he could make it work.
Well he ragged on me something fierce for holding out on him..... it was the EXACT clip for this model Savage pump. I remember it being in that jar at grouse camp for at least a decade... what a stroke of luck that it was the exact clip for the rifle.

Then I found the bolt a few months later and you should have heard his utterances of exasperation! :nono:

Edgar got to talking with Dave Suponski, machinist extraordinaire, and talked him into making a new thumb screw so the two halves of the rifle would stay together.

Dave dropped the little Savage off at my house a couple of weeks ago when Kathy and I were away. My neice and her husband were staying at our house with their two little childred....:whistle:

Imagine what crazy thoughts ran through their liberal little brains when this shaggy-looking desperado came walking up the steps with a rifle in his hands :eek:

I had given the Savage to Edgar but he seemed to be giving it back to me... and just in time too.

I have a chipmunk and squirrel problem both here at home where the chipmunks have bored tunnels beneath my brick walkway and in Maine the squirrels have got into my tool shed and are making a mess of the place with pine cone husks piled two feet high everywhere.

Tonight while rummaging through my "stuff" in my gun room I found, quite by accident, about 15 crimped .22 UMC shot cartridges so I gave it a whirl.

The bull is about 1/4" diameter on a sheet of 8 1/2" X 11" copy paper and I shot from about 15 feet (muzzle to target) but I pulled it off to the right just a bit but I'm delighted with the pattern. Well, all except for that flyer at the 5 o'clock position :eek:

I think this little Savage will take care of business just fine.


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[Jim DiSpagno]

Cute little pump and Edgar and Dave did her justice. Now for you to do your part Squire. All kidding aside. That little Savage should give you many more years of service and is easy on the eyes. Very nice

[John Davis]

Very Cool.

[edgarspencer]

Then I remembered Edgar Spencer was a .22 rifle collector so when we got together at Addieville a couple of years ago I gave it to him..

I'm pretty sure George delivered it to me in CT.

Despite my horror and disbelief that so rare a gun could be this mistreated, After striking the barrel and action, nearly all the pitting disappeared, and it took a nice cold bluing.

[George Lang]

Great little gun Dean. The Savage model 03 was one of my Dad's first guns and I still have it and use it regularly for chipmunk and squirrel control.

[Dave Suponski]

Whoa! Hold on now! What’s this”Shaggy looking desperado” stuff???!!!!

[Phil Yearout]

What a cool little rifle!

[Dean Romig]

Whoa! Hold on now! What’s this”Shaggy looking desperado” stuff???!!!!

You don’t really want me to explain it publicly do you?...:shock:






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[Dave Suponski]

:bigbye::whistle:

[edgarspencer]

Whoa! Hold on now! What’s this”Shaggy looking desperado” stuff???!!!!

Does it really require an explanation?

[Bill Zachow]

Dean, Sylvia and I also have a chipmunk problem here at our farm. They drive Sylvia crazy by digging up her potted flowers on the back deck. They apperently like the roots. For attempted control, I use a pre war Winchester model 61 in shot only. It gives a perfect 12” pattern at 20 feet and really does the job.

[Dean Romig]

Bill, I patterned it again last night at about 28 feet and still got an effective though not lethal pattern. I will certainly take closer shots, given the opportunity. Though, like coyotes, I consider them ‘vermin’ and deal with them accordingly.






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[Todd Poer]

Do chipmunks go on cycles like grouse or is it just less predators to control them? I swear we are being overrun by chipmunks as well. We are also seeing more foxes and other predators like hawks and owls but not as much as you would think.

They used to say feral and outdoor cats were worst predators on chipmunks and small birds but maybe there are less of those running around. Did have a big old tom cat that liked to chase and play with them to death but he passed. At any given time at my house you can see a chipmunk or two. Lazy hawks though is not targeting chipmunks but did get one of my cardinals and a blue bird.

[George Lang]

Best medicine for munks and squirrels are 22 cb caps. Accurate, deadly to 50 ft and quiet. Difficult to single load in a pump but not impossible. Been using them forever and they do not disappoint.

[Dean Romig]

In my neighborhood I need to consider my neighbors in case of ricochets with a single projectile. Otherwise I would be using something cheap and easy to find... like a couple thousand rounds of .22 LR in my ammo drawer in my gun room. :D





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[Dean Romig]

Do chipmunks go on cycles like grouse or is it just less predators to control them? I swear we are being overrun by chipmunks as well.



Bill Tapply used to hold fast to his Dad's premise that a year with an abundance of chipmunks would be a year with abnormally high grouse numbers.

Click here and see Chapter 15...... "The Chipmunk Hypothesis" :cool:


https://books.google.com/books?id=sswLsbw5eZYC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false





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[Mike Poindexter]

Dean, Edgar and Dave: What a neat story. This is one time when a good deed not only goes unpunished, but rewards all it touches. Thanks for posting.

[Phil Yearout]

Dean, what is the model of that rifle? I've never seen a pump action rifle with a clip; everything I've seen has a tube magazine. But then, I don't get out much :).

[edgarspencer]

Phil, I'll answer for Dean as he still thinks it's a Marlin. It is a Savage, model 1903. They aren't rare, but not common either. Decent ones go well over $500. They were expensive to manufacture, and couldn't compete with the Remington model 12, or the Winchester 1890, and 1906

[Dean Romig]

Thanks Edgar....





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[edgarspencer]

:bigbye:Thanks Edgar....





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[Tom Flanigan]

OMG Dean....killing cute little chipmonks. When I was a kid, I used to bowhunt them with rubber blunt tips. No matter where you hit them, they would die from shock. I pulled off the tails and saved them in a envelope, like I did to keep track of the number of grouse I shot each year. I would pull one tail feather from each bird and put it in an envelope with the year marked on it. I stopped shooting the poor little chipmonks years ago. Now I feed them birdseed. I like to see them in the yard. Fill their little bellies with birdseed and they will probably not touch the roots. It's a better solution Dean :)

[Dean Romig]

I don’t generally bend to the whims of chipmunks Tom.

I have property to defend. My brick walkway is already beginning to sink in places.





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[Tom Flanigan]

You're a hard man Dean:)

[Dean Romig]

Their stripes are cute but in this situation I view them as vermin... just like rats and mice.





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[Dean Romig]

0ops - wrong thread.




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[todd allen]

Bill, I patterned it again last night at about 28 feet and still got an effective though not lethal pattern. I will certainly take closer shots, given the opportunity. Though, like coyotes, I consider them ‘vermin’ and deal with them accordingly.






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Maybe you could get Briley's to choke-tube it.

[Dean Romig]

I had actually toyed with that idea. I would need them to ream the bore to remove any remaining rifling and then have them make two choke tubes (fittings) - one light mod and the other extra full... depending if I'm after squirrels of chipmunks.





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[Mark Ray]

Dean,

Oh the Humanity!

[edgarspencer]

To preserve some some collector value, I would suggest investigating having the bore relined.
A place in Kansas called the 90-06 Armory used to do this and I have has a couple pump Winchesters worked on by them. The work was done with absolutely no outward appearance of a sleeve, as it was done from the breach end, but not thru the muzzle end.
A quick google search shows a business by that name, but seems to be an AR type weapons manufacturer. Perhaps a call to them might get you closer to the center of the target (over and over)

[Tom Flanigan]

Dean,

Oh the Humanity!

Are we sure that's a chipmunk? It sure looks like a Rocky Mountain ground squirrel that lost his way and wound up in Texas. They are almost tame in the Rockies. I admit to taking pockets full of bird seed to feed them. I would never let the barrels of one of my Parkers end their existence. I like them too much. It takes a heart of stone to kill one of the cute little fellows. Andover folks are know for their New England hardiness and hard hearts :).

[Dean Romig]

No..... I'm probably the only one. :draw:





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[Richard Flanders]

Up here it's red squirrels. I use a Savage mod 29 pump and a vintage Marlin mod 92 lever gun, both using CCI CB shorts for the job, which are perfect. Both guns cycle them fine and they are very quiet.

[John Dallas]

+1 Rich. Red squirrels are destructive little buggers