Also got mine in the early 70s, still have it & use it. A few yr. ago I had it opened to take steel shot. They seen to be indestructible. I fell in the mud during a trip to the salt pond and filled the barrel with mud, took if off cleaned it out with a stick, flushed some water through it and carried on shooting. When I got home I gave it a shower with G96. It may not be the fanciest thing on the marsh put it sure works and that all that counts.