I got out of Uncle Sams Army in June 1969 just to put this tall tale in perpestive. That fall I was browsing the credit union paper of the company I was working for and saw an ad, used Win 97- $25.00. I called the phone # expecting it to be sold but nope he still had it. While driving over I fully expected it to ne a worhtless piece of junk since it had not sold. When I arrived at the address I was invited in and the fellow went to the closet coming back with a pretty nice unmolested 97, steel but plate, with 32" barrel. I didn't even look it over, I handed him $25.00 and left.
I have shot thousands of rounds from that 97 and at that period of time pheasants were thick on our farms. Shot several deer with it also. One rainy hunting day will always be remebered. My friend from kintergarten, who had just gotten back from the Army, was a new member of the local P.D. and I were going deer hunting the next day. That evening the weather forecast a day of heavy rains so I gave the 97 a pretty good wipe down of rig grease because I knew it would get soaked. We didn't have any luck so about 2:00 had to call it quits since he was working the second shift. We started a walk back to the truck in the rain and came over a ridge only to jump several deer hiding in a pocket from the rain. Up came the shotguns only to discover no antlers and we both had buck only tags. Well my 97 was cocked and between the rig and the rain my thumb slipped of the hammer and put one in the ground about 20 feet in front of us. That gererated some interesting conversation.
I still have the 97. It is Rig wiped and sits in the back row of the safe retired. When I see the long barrel sticking up above the rest my mind goes back to the days of real hunting, it never missed a beat or let me down and we were out in the ugliest of weather .Heck I still live by that retired detective.
