I thought I would pass along the other guns in his notes. They are just guns, nothing special except that he owned them and now I own them and there are memories. Some memories are in his notes.
Cheers,
Jack
The Rabbit .22 calibre was the first new .22 I got. It cost about $6.45 and took 4 cords of spruce cordwood and some spare money to pay for it. The cordwood had to be delivered to Paddockwood. This was around 1940.
Dad was raised on homestead land in Northern Saskatchewan. Paddockwood was the closest town. This is a tiny .22 single shot. It became my plinker as a kid and was not appreciated by the gopher population. I thought I would clean up the stock when I was in my early teens. Electric disc sander no less. It is even tinier now.
The .22 highpower hornet was purchased around 1960. It is basically a varmint gun and hasn't been used much, as most of my hunting was done for food
This gun is a Winchester Model 43 bolt action with 3 shot clip. I shot it a few times as a kid but it languishes in the steel tombs because I'm also not into varmints (although I have lots of recipes for varmints). I recall Dad shot a few hawks and owls with this rifle under a scientific permit for taxidermy and education purposes.
The Winchester lever action 30/30 was the second big rifle I owned in northern Saskatchewan. The first rifle was a 32-40 but wasn't liked very much and was traded on the 30 30. I didn't get much game with the 30 30. I can remember only one deer and a coyote being shot with the gun. Jack shot a deer on the run with it in the Porcupine Hills about 1963. He was with Milton Henders and Stan Henders and myself. In the Waiparous area of Alberta he shot a bull moose on the run in heavy black alder cover at about 10 yards. Art (moose) Swanson shot a moose at the same time. It took us all day to skin and butcher the two moose and get them up a steep ridge by 8:30 at night. We came back the next day - a Sunday and back packed the moose out.
This gun is a Winchester model 94. The SN is forever in my memory bank because for some reason I thought it was neat as a kid - 195963. It has nickel steel octagon barrel and is 1899 manufacture. The butt stock was drilled through at the neck with quite a hole (1/2" or more bit) and had both sides covered by a star taken off the old 5 star whiskey bottles. Somebody thought that was neat. Family considered alcohol to be sinful so I'm not sure they ever knew what those stars were (if 'tis a sin, I'll be joining a few of you in the warmth of the nether regions in but a short while. I'm thinking there will be lots of Scots and Irish lads to keep the party going). I took a friend out to the Waiparous one day. He had no gun, so he carried the 30.30 and I "rented" a .308 for the day from a sporting goods store in a shopping mall (try to do that today!). He slipped and fell in the snow and the butt stock broke clean off the rifle. About 20 years later I had it restocked and all parts were cleaned and re-blued. About 10 years after that it was finally re-assembled. It languishes in the steel tombs but does look nice.
The Savage autoloader. I got this shotgun in the mid fifties. I never really liked this shotgun. It was heavy and had a polychoke on it. I loaned the gun to Len Gorsche and he got to like it very much and purchased a new autoloader but didn't put a poly choke on it. I loaned the gun to Mac MacDonald and he blew the poly choke off but got it fixed. The price for the fixing it was $6.00. It got so the gun wouldn't load properly so I didn't hunt much with it. However, Jack shot his first sage grouse with the gun. I used it a little bit after that but something went haywire with the gun and when you fired it, it would pump another shell in the barrel and discharge before you could get your finger off the trigger. After that, I considered the gun too dangerous to use.
I also got my first rooster on the wing with that gun. It truly is a heavy gun. I completely disassembled, cleaned and even thought I had found the problem in the trigger mechanism. I replaced a spring and another piece. Gave it a go and it worked. Then, one morning my old huntin' partner and I headed for a good spot for ducks and geese. In the dark the trail seemed to be getting more faint. I had a look out the passenger window and saw we were in water. I casually mentioned that to my partner who stopped, with the intention to back up. Once stopped, the truck sank in the muck to the frame. Not to be deterred we got out and hiked to cover and waited for birds. A lone speckle bellied goose was coming straight to me. At just the right moment, I stood and fired and the goose dropped. Probably hit by both rounds, the second unexpected. I told my partner I would have to wait near the truck to nurse my sore shoulder while he hiked about 3 miles to a farm house. The farmer had a good laugh about our situation and knew exactly where the truck would be. A tractor and a set of harrows and about 50 feet of chain got us out of the muck. My shoulder felt much better once my partner had completed the hike and managed to find somewhere in the muck to hook the chain. The afternoon was still ahead of us and there would be roosters. (Dad's VH would get me through the rest of the day). That would have been in the early eighties. The Savage languishes in the steel tombs and every once in a while I want to open it up again to see what the heck is the problem. But then, there's always something else to do and tomorrow's another day.
Cheers,
Jack
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Hunt ethically. Eat heartily.
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01-20-2011, 08:02 AM
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