Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters The worst you ever tore up a rifle?

Who was it here on the fire that found the Mossberg 930(?) wrapped around a tree while hunting. I remember reading it here several years ago. One of the funniest comments I ever read!!!!

When I was a teenager, a buddy and I were shooting shotguns. His was a newer model 870 Wingmaster, I was using my father's 50's model Wingmaster that he got from my grandfather. He wanted to shoot mine, so I let him. The first shot sounded funny, but he cycled it and fired again. The barrel split just past the end of the forearm. The first round had misfired and plugged the barrel. Luckily our barrels were interchangeable so we put his barrel on my dad's gun and he bought a new barrel to put on his. I don't think I've ever told my dad that the barrel on that shotgun is not the original.

Whoa, that about takes the prize!

Reminds me of my uncle. He had my Grandpa's 870 12 gauge and plugged the barrel with mud or snow. When he shot the end of the barrel split. He took it to the gunsmith and had the barrel shortened 2" and never told his dad he did it.

Not a rifle but my old Mossberg 500 12 gauge has led a particularly hard life. Leaned it up against my truck on the side of the road in the dark one opening morning of deer season and my wife promtly came around the back and knocked it over onto the tarmack. Dinged the stock and put a couple nice gouges in the aluminum receiver. Killed a buck with it later that morning anyway. Took it home and dragged it out into the back yard to take some pics of the deer with me and my trusty Mossberg. Two days later wanted to go hunting again and coudn't locate my gun anywhere. Then I remembered the pics taken in the back yard. Damn ! After taking the pics I had dragged the deer into the garage to skin and forgot the gun left laying on the ground. Wouldn't have been so bad but it snowed 6" the night I killed the buck so the gun had been out there covered with wet snow for 48 hours. Amazingly didn't hurt it much at all. After fishing it out from under the snow I brought it in, stripped it down, dried it out, scoured some light surface rust off the barrel with oiled steel wool and she was back in business and none the worse for wear. That same gun has also fallen 18 feet out of a deer stand, been banged around mercilessly in a canoe while duck hunting and been completely submerged in muddy water a couple times. All that and it still works perfectly and has never missed a beat in 20 years and thousands of shells. Anybody who says Mossbergs ain't tough doesn't know their azzhole from their elbow.

Tough gun!

My old nylon 66 coon gun got the hell beat out of it too. That thing lived it's entire life behind the seat of a pickup. Never brough indoors, never cleaned, tromped on by muddy hound feet hundreds of times, beat several coons to death with it and even ran over it with my truck one night. Aside from muddy tire prints across the stock, no lasting damage. Still worked good when I got rid of it.

I've dinged up a couple pretty good, but once I went to the Ruger Zytel boat paddle, I'm not sure anything can significantly damage those. They are tough. I've got a few of those and really appreciate their ability to survive.

There was a cold winter hunt.....a sled load of meat...... and a cased rifle- a Ruger #1- which had slid down alongside the hard-frozen meat...which was followed by a snowstorm....the kind which bury things under big drifts.... Thanks for the reminder of that! (Rifle still shoots very well though...... a lot, lot better than it looks. )

Have not torn one up but once fell with my full weight landing on a Weaver 3-9 scope mounted on a Ruger #1 while in the midst of a stalk on one of my largest mule deer ever. A good dent in the scope and my confidence lapsed such that I did not even attempt a shot. Retrieved a backup, but never found the buck again.

Next check at the range found it 9 inches left of center at 100 yds. Probably would have been either a gut shot or clean miss depending on orientation of the deer. Man, that was big buck.

Much as I despise Ruger, well I've gotten over it... you are right on the boat paddle ones..

I'm thinking we should try to find a couple to beat up in AK...

A buddy sold his 300 win mag one... I almost wanted that, but its a compromise caliber for me anymore...to big and not big enough... something like a 223, an 06 and a 375 would be 3 good ones... though I'd prefer the 06 to be necked up a bit.

I once was leading a tough mountain horse down a god-awful Yukon canyon choked full of willow and slippery rocks. Made it to the bottom and the shore of the lake where our spike camp was located just as it got dark. Realized then that my scabbard was empty and somewhere on the mountain was my Rem 700 classic .35 Whelen. The next day, after a poor night sleep, another tough climb and a hopeless feeling search I found it, halfway down that canyon submerged in the stream. Poured the water out of the action, replaced the cartridges in the magazine, and went on to shoot a really nice mountain caribou that afternoon.
The rifle was not damaged in the least. I had sealed the action inletting with urethane, and the Zeiss scope was perfectly water tight. Good thing, since we were a long flight by float plane from the nearest road, we had no radio, and even if we could have gotten out to the road we were another day travel after that to a gun shop.
so I didn't wreck the rifle, but knew what it feels like for a little while anyway.

Bent a barrel on an M16 and broke the M-203 that was under it on a combat jump into Grenada in my youth.. Thought I had busted my leg as I had landed on the rifle and was on the runway. Lucky for me I had a suppressed MP5 in the ruck and a .45 in a chest rig...

I put a scratch on one of my model 70's a few years ago.

Don't ask......





My Marlin's new name is stumpy!

K O O L story. I think the smile on your face says a lot.


Jerry

C'mon you gotta spill it now....

+1 or +P, whichever you prefer.

I loaned a restocked Arg '91 to my second cousin. It came back broken at the wrist with no explanation. Thankfully it was my loaner.

Cousin survive?