what'cha got there!

[turfman]

What'cha got there the guy at the range asked me. 9.5 manlicher schonauer I told him. You hunting with that?  Yep.  Why he asked. We went through the motions of why I wasn't using something modern, the merits of using modern weapons; and I refuted that I have used in the not so recent past nothing but modern and was getting nostalgic.

With all of the new gee wiz rifles and calibers brought out in the last 5 or so years I think I'm going the wrong way. I think I'm just getting older and can appreciate the qualities of something other than new.

In the last 5 years I haven't used a cartridge developed after about 1910 or so with the exception of my .264.

I look at mine and my famalies gun racks and cabinets and there some truly beautiful old rifles, shotguns and muzzleloaders that didn't need to be retired or left alone anymore.

In the last 5 yrs I have taken game with:
1873 winchester in 32 20
1841 mississippi rifle in .58
1895 winchester in 30 40krag.
1896 krag.
1894 winchester in 25 35
1903 springfield in 06.
1884 trapdoor springfield in 45 70
remington rolling block in 43 spanish.
Custom 1895 mauser in 7x 57
and hopefully this year I'll use that manlicher to get something.

I guess my question is: Does anybody still hunt with their grandfathers rifle anymore or have they "retired the weapon"

Turfman.

[Lee D.]

My main big game rifle is a 6.5 X 55 with a 4 digit serial number. That makes it almost 110 years old.  I also carry at least once a year my Grandfather's model 81 rem. (300 Savage) and my other grandfather's model 71 (.348).  They all still kill things just as dead as any of the new stuff would, and I feel that in some cases they are better.  Besides not having to spend a lot of extra money.  I still have more modern/expensive guns but only because I want them, but more and more I find them staying home and the old guns on the end of my arm.

[John Y Cannuck]

My newest gun is close to fourty years old. Most of the rest are at least sixty. And I do have and hunt with my grandfathers old SMLE Mk1.