My dad did most of the gunning in the depression. Grew up in Claysville, Pa. where there were no deer at the time, so the small game caught hell. He used a Savage Model 219 single shot 16 ga. Cylinder bored.
He acted like it was pretty routine to get a small pile of game, give some to friends who needed it worse and take the rest home. He also raised chickens and rabbits, so they went into the pot.His father was one of the lucky ones....had a job as an electrician through the great depression, but the family still had to 'take in boarders' to make ends meet.
I still have the gun....
I still have the old Remington # 1 rifle that the old man in town gave my grand dad. Appears to be a work of frontier gunsmithing. Looks like someone took an old slow twists, octogon muzzleloading rifle barrel, cut off and threaded the muze end and fitted it to the action. There are two filled dove tails that look to me to be where old wedge tennons were on the bottom flat forward of the forearm. The "extractor"started out life as Mebbe a 8x32 bolt. And run into the breechblock just below the chamber. A groove was cut in the bottom of the chamber to allow the then filed sharp bolt to grab the bottom of a fired case and extract it when the breech block is opened. I should post photo! Perhaps tomorrow!
