The lure of the single shot .22 rifle..

[ironglow]

  Sometimes I just like to take my old model 67 Winchester out to ho 'chuck hunting.  Sure, it isn't like an AR15 or a .204 Ruger..but it has a lure of
  it's own.

  Quietly still-hunting along the edge of a woods..when i see a woodchuck within range, I just snick a CCI standard round into the chamber..

  With that 27 inch barrel, it is a  conveniently quiet assassin..  No, it won't roll up any record breaking numbers of kills, but that is not the point.

  I just like the look and feel of old time walnut and steel..  Is it nostalgia, remembering that old single shot .22 that was our first gun?

  Or is it just something old, white haired guys savor doing?  ...And am I alone in this pleasure?

[orerancher]

I have a "Thing" for old .22s...own many, the single shots are among the favorites...
You are not alone.

[Graybeard]

I'm no longer able to walk the woods or fields.

I also didn't have a single shot as a first rifle. The first one I was turned loose with was a Winchester Model 74 semiauto rifle that was loaded thru a tube in the butt stock. It wasn't my rifle tho it was dad's.

Sadly I have forgotten what my first rifle was. I let it go too many years ago to remember for sure. I do seem to recall it being a Steven's but dunno the model number. My best recollection is it was a tube fed rifle. I've done a lot of searches to find what model it could have been and come up empty. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong.

I do have single shot here t ho. It's a TC Hot Shot. It's a slightly smaller version of the Contender. It was an ideal little rifle for my grandson Wyatt. Up in my attic is the box it came in and it has a spacer to add to the butt stock to make it a proper 14" length of pull. But Matt has taken all of my ladders away from me so I can't get up there to get to the spacer.

Prolly just as well, I fall a lot and have taken a fall a long time ago while coming down from up there. It was a pretty nasty fall. I was knocked out either when my head hit and broke completely a wood kitchen chair that was my reloading chair or maybe when my head hit the concrete floor.

I had to be taken to the emergency room for stitching my head back up.

These days I fall alot and have tumbled from ladders a few times, I guess a few too many which is why Matt took all of my ladders.

[ironglow]

  Glads to see I am not alone... yes, even though I don't tramp the woods and fields as much as I used to. 

   Sorry You have trouble falling, Bill.  ..But a fellow can get out theold .22, clean and oil it...and reminisce of all those old days spent , hunting
     squirrels..

[JBinMN]

I think there is something to be said about one remembering the "old times" of going out by yourself & hunting.
 Either for the first time y a did it,or something along those lines..


A "memory, or memories...


No matter what "platform", be it single shot rifle, a lever action, a single shot, pump or over/under shotgun...No matter. Not even the caliber is all that important....

Just the "remembering", is all that matters, as far as I am concerned..

I am just happy to remember that my old man told me... "Here is 5 rounds. You bring back five of anything. Rounds or game. Fur or Feathers, But , 5 rounds is what ya get and what matters is what ya do with 'em when ya have to feed a family."

My Dad was born in a log cabin just outside of West Augusta, VA. in about 1921. Yes.... Born in a log cabin, and, as a matter of fact, is buried in W. Augusta cemetery not even a mile from where he was born. ( You can see it on the internet if ya look it up).

He grew up thru the Great Depression & he learned that when ya go out to "feed the family", you don't waste a round. They just did not have the "extra" to waste. "EVERYTHING" meant "something", and you "waste not to want not".

Anyway... I rambled...

Miss my Dad a bit.  Whupped my ass good when I deserved it. Don't miss that too much. He taught me a LOT though. Not many around any more that could do as good on  teachin "Old School". Not many I know anyway.
He'd be about 103 now if he was still around...

Yeah... tough ol bird, all of them were back then... but yeah, I still miss him..


YMMV, of course...

[gene_225]

I do like old .22s also. Gave my dads Winchester 67 to my son years ago. I think he still has it. I still have my first, a Marlin 100 my uncle gave me. Only shoot on the range any more. Between heart and other problems, going out in the wood alone no longer seems wise.