Guns -N - Stuff.

[300Ultra]

I'd like to start a topic that I think is a real winner. Lets talk about guns and loads. Hunting past and present. The future is okay too. Scopes,stocks,mounts. Dies & powder too. Just an open forum the likes of which might be held in the corner hardware or gun shop. Remember how Dad and the fellas would stand around and tell the same old stories time and again? The good old days when good enough was good enough. You didn't have to have the cutting edge everything just to qualify to participate. I miss it. The latest isn't always the greatest. Now for the kicker. There is always a kicker. No Barnes and no 6.5! If we can't run 10 pages of good hearted story telling with out the word Barnes,or 6.5 whosywhatsit being typed then shame on us. There are more than enough threads revolving around the 6.5 and Barnes to satisfy everyone for a while I think. Come in. Grab a stool or a pop crate and talk a spell. No cussing,Barnes,or 6.5 .

 

[300Ultra]

Anyone beside me grow up standing out at the mailbox waiting for the latest Field & Stream? I LOVED the ads in that old magazine. Read them cover to cover too. I used to revel in a box of new 30/30 cartridges as well. Nothing finer than taking my firewood splitting money to the local gun shop. Creaky wood floors and all. To buy a new box of rifle ammo. We're talking 1974 now. The ads in the magazines of the day were so much better than now. The old Core Lokt ad with the box of 30/06 180gr Core Lokt round nose lying opened on the camp kitchen table. The red flannel shirts and Woolrich coats. Stuff to make a boy of 12 or 13 loose sleep for a week before opening day.

 

[effendude]

I believe many of us on the forum are of similar backgrounds. I grew up attending a "Northwoods Deer Camp" from the time I was 4 months old. My father's family treated deer hunting like a religion. The same stories were and still are told around the table under the gas lights and the wood stove each season. I must have inherited the gene. From as early as I can remember, I have read every story about hunting that I could. I even looked forward to haircuts at the small town barber because I could read the magazines while waiting.

People often ask why I hunt. I usually tell them that it is what I was meant to do. I can't explain it, it is just me. I have been fortunate in the past few years to be able to hunt different animals in different parts of the country. This desire isn't to kill things, but to experience the world on a more basic level. If I kill an animal, so much the better, but I pass up far more than I kill. (Other than prairie dogs) ;D

I love bowhunting too, but guns and especially rifles are my passion. I got into competitive shooting to become a better hunter. It is an opportunity to shoot more, hone skills, and meet like minded people. Finding this web site was a great day.

I still have the first rifle I used to miss my first deer and kill many after when I was young. It is a Remington Model 14 pump in .35 Remington. It was my Grandmother's before she gave it to me. I also have my Dad's Model 12 Winchester and Grandpa's Model 100 Winchester, my first scoped rifle. Boy was 2.5X alot of scope in those days. I don't use these guns anymore, but each time I see them in the safe, all the memories come back.

Scott

 

[jonbearman]

I can remember waiting till the next guns&ammo to come out with all the cool pics in it.I can remember wanting to own a remington 870 brushmaster(slug gun) but couldnt afford it. I can also recall sitting in a mom pop gunshop shooting the breeze with Big Lee an older friend and we would pass the afternoon talking about guns.It was gratifying just to hear him recant hunting stories. I would buy a gun almost every week from him(I had an affection for single shot shotguns) and what ever else walked in off the street.This guy had the best prices around. Back then I would have been proud to own a brand name gun. Things have changed drastically now and I own more guns than one man needs. I have become very interested in precision shooting,in fact I love it.My favorite caliber is .30 anyways,so I must be normal right.LOL

 

[jonbearman]

Scott get out and shoot them just to relive the experience and the fun of cleaning and the smell of hoppes killing several hundred brain cells,but it was worth it.

 

[Nodak7mm]

Wow, what a memory jogging thread. I have my dad's & grampas deer rifles, I have all my gun mags stretching back to the late 70's (another prob within itself, as I can get myself to toss em). Gone full circle in many ways, no interest in compounds, back to stickbows... Want to take my Grampa's deer rifle and take a nice fat doe with it this fall... Maybe.. If my daughters want to go (college yrs starting now)

I will come clean and admit the hunting fire is dimming a bit... :-[ Times have changed, land ownership has changed, Grampa and old Art are long gone as are the deer drives of my youth. Everyone is scattered throughout the country and I really prefer a corn/bean fed ribeye to any wild game anyways. How many will admit that....? I wont shoot anything barring varmints, if I dont on intend on eating it..

Remember when hunting Honkers was like hunting deer? Up before school and off we go to freeze our keister off in some field for 2 geese max.. Now, they are basically at pest status, dang near.

Scott, remember back in the early 70's when some zones (N. MN) were actually closed due to lack of deer?

Now one has to contend with road hunters, idiots and stoopid mo-fo's. Sorry even tho opportunities for game seem to have increased, herds and flocks have increased, but it just dont seem the same. Maybe I have changed...?

I really miss spearing "Nordens" with Grampa after barn cleaning on Saturdays in the winter... I have a couple of my Grampa's decoys...

Gramma used to pack a lunch for all of us. Fresh buns, roast beef or pork, hot coffee, cocoa, bars/cookies and if lucky, "Lefse'".

My Grampa always kept a few hearts and livers...... Bleech.......... (Lol)

I hunt for giving my kids memories to look back on, to spend time with them, to be with them.. Looking forwards to getting my fire back someday. Its not what you hunt or where you hunt.. Its who you share the hunt with... (I had a bad yr last yr with current hunting arrangements and am still pi$$ed, maybe thats why my fire has dimmed....). Maybe my kids will come home to hunt.... ..

Lotta good memories and with luck, many more to be made..

Rod

 

[300Ultra]

Great stuff guys 8). Sounds like folks was folks no matter where we hunted. I have to agree too that 2.5 X was indeed a lot of scope. My first "new" scope was a 4X Weaver. Man I thought I could feed the world. Loved getting the M94 off the gun rack and just holding and looking at it. The Weaver made it look like some kind of high tech tool. I've run through something like 40 maybe 45 rifles since 1974,but never felt as warm and fuzzy about any of them. Heck I hunted groundhogs with it. Power Points for woodchucks though. I wouldn't dare fire one of my treasured Silver Tips at vermin. I ran with a couple youngsters that had fathers who traveled to far away places in pursuit of critters. They had the M70s with the BIG 3X-9X glass. Who in their right mind needed 9X ! Couldn't imagine. Heck I felt guilty about putting a 6X Weaver on the 721 30/06. Figured I was done hunting in the "brush" now. I was wrong of course. Worked just fine in the woods,but I was "big time" now.

 

[300Ultra]

Okay,I just searched up Lefse. Now those sound GOOD! I never heard of the like but they have quite a following. They do sound,and look tasty.

 

[effendude]

Lefse is a Norwegian delicacy. My elders trace back to Germany and Sweden for the most part but I have enough Norwegian blood in me from those frisky Swedes crossin' the fjords for some fun that I love Lefse.

Lefse is best around Christmas. Try to remember and PM me when the season comes. I will send some to you.

Scott

 

[Trevor300wsm]

So much to say in regards to this thread. So many emotions, both good and bad. I'm 32 now, been hunting all my life. Although my memories of the "good ole days" don't stretch back as far some of yalls, I still can recall upon a better "time" versus how things have become in today's times. I lost my dad back in Jan of 2008 unexpectedly and at the same time lost my only real hunting & fishin partner. It's certeinly changed things for me. I still hunt and still enjoy it, but doing so alone just isn't the same. I'd love to meet up with a good hunting buddy, but so far it just hasn't happened.

Things (society) have changed so much and I often find myself yearning for a time long since gone. A simpler time that many of you can easily remember. Hunting land that you didn't have to pay to use. Trucks made of good solid steel. Gas that was less than a $1 a gallon. Dogs and kids riding in the backs of pickup trucks. A good hunting rifle in your truck wouldn't get you harassed by a cop. A decent "real" country song on the radio. I could go on, but I'm sure you all know of the times I'm referring to. Things just aren't the same anymore. It's all about media, money, and a more "Politically Correct" America.

I still have my first deer rifle. It was my dad's .270. Its a early 80's model Weatherby Vangaurd VGX Deluxe (back when Vangaurds were nice). He passed it on to me when I was 9yrs old. It was a tank of a rifle for a 9yr old, but I was accurate with it. I had already be taught to reload and I stood in a kitchen chair at the bench doing my brass prep, charging, and seating on the old RCBS single stage press (still using it today). Back then, the go to bullet was a 130gr Nosler Partiton. The old Weatherby had a long throat and I could seat those noslers way out there.

My last hunt with my dad was in Nov of 2007. We went on a weekend rifle hunt over by McGee Creek Dam. I was able to shoot the biggest buck of my life that weekend and I did it with my dad. We had a great hunt. We stayed in a lil cabin, cooked some good steaks over a open camp fire, drank a lil brown whiskey, and had a few laughs. If I'd only known....

I got into long range/Precison shooting in 2009. It had always interested me, but dad never was much into accuracy beyond "minute of deer" at 200yds. A hunting rifle was to be zeroed at 100yds and you sure as hell weren't supposed to be twiddling with the turrets. Up until then, I thought a Luepold 3-9 Vari-X III was the Holy Grail of optics. My knowledge and shooting skills have come so far since then. I think my dad would be pretty tickled to see me lay out prone and smack MOA or less steel at 800-1000 yards with cold bore hits these days. I'm sure he'd be forced to build a rifle and try to one up me as he normally always did. I plan to keep hunting and keep chasing the accuracy ghost for as long as I can. I wish my outlook on the future of hunting was better, but it's not. I'm so thankful for states like Colorado and Wyoming.

I plan to make a trip back to the rockies this fall, maybe for 2nd season rifle. I sure wish dad was still here to go. I'll most likely have to go by myself as I havent encountered anyone with a desire to chase elk with me, much less the salt to actually make a commitment to go and stick by it. However, I'll still make the trip and atleast one of those nights under the stars I'll pull out the last bottle of Crown XR that dad drank from back in 2007 and have me a lil drink in celebration of his life as I've done all the years past since he left.

 

[300Ultra]

Lefse is a Norwegian delicacy. My elders trace back to Germany and Sweden for the most part but I have enough Norwegian blood in me from those frisky Swedes crossin' the fjords for some fun that I love Lefse.

Lefse is best around Christmas. Try to remember and PM me when the season comes. I will send some to you.

Scott

Now that's just too cool 8). Thank you Scott. I'll give you a holler up around Christmas. Thanks again, R.J.

 

[300Ultra]

Trevor300wsm, nice post. I may be 17 yrs older than you are,but your experiances and memories are no less special. Sounds like your Dad would be proud. I'm trying to instill the same values in my children,without being pushy. I want them to want to enjoy the outdoors and firearms as I do,but they have to "want" to. So far so good. Though they're girls,they appreciate hunting and fishing as I did at their age. Good for you keeping the spirit alive. Sounds like you have the LR accuracy thing headed the right direction as well. Kepp puttin' them in the X buddy,R.J.