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Savage 93FS is stainless. Light in weight, shoot .22 CBs in a MCACE chamber insert to kill traded animals and keep the magazine full of .22 Magnum ammo for that "just in case" situation.

I started out with a single shot .22 Ithaca lever gun. I got a little older I picked up a High Standard 9 shot revolver. I used to use .22 short hollow points because they stayed in a head shot fox. We had some seriously big coons around. One morning I checked a railroad bed and the first set had a big coon in it. I shot him in the head and he went right down and just laid there. I was in a hurry and thought nothing of it. I did not bother throwing him in my pack because I was coming back that way anyway. When I got back the coon was sitting there like the RCA dog and really pissed off. I got out a .22 long and shot him. When I skinned him I found the slug had gone through a sheet of muscle across his forehead and just flattened out on the skull. When coons get older they can have muscle a 1/2" thick on their heads. That was the end of the .22 short hollow points for me. I started just using shorts.

I started off trapping in the north country of New York and carried a Winchester 67, single shot 22. I always used the standard velocity solids, mostly because that's what we got at the rifle team and could buy them for 50 cents a box. I progressed to a 22 magnum, but even with FMJ's, it was hard on fur at close range.

In later years when I trapped for a living, I carried a variety of guns. My first trapline handgun was a Charter Arms Pathfinder 4". It really was a great gun for the job. Very accurate and light. Wish I still had it. When I was coyote longlining and trapping big ranches where I could drive to nearly every set, I kept an old 1902 Winchester single shot behind the seat and a handful of CB shorts in the ash tray. That little rifle killed more coyotes than all my varmint guns put together.

Along the way I picked up an old Ruger Single Six, from before they had auxiliary 22 mag cylinders. It became my trapline gun and sent the old 1902 into retirement.

I killed a lot of coyotes, coon, beaver, bobcats and skunk with the CB shorts. The CB shorts are a solid and seem to penetrate better than the short HP's. One of the tricks I learned with skunks was to lung shoot them with the CB shorts and just wait a few minutes. Head shots tend to cause them to involuntarily discharge. The lung shot with the CB doesn't seem to bother them enough to spray. In a minute or less they just fall over. If you step up to the standard velocity LR or high velocity HP and lung shoot them, they'll spray.

If a handgun is out of the question due to his age or state restrictions, I would consider one of the Savage Rascals. They are very light, accurate, and with a synthetic stock, nearly kid proof.

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Hi Standard Sport King 22Lr or a Marlin Bolt with Rem CBees.

Hey Mart, do you still have that Single Six? I bet it looks like "It's been there" with a lot of character to it.

Yes, I still have the gun and it is one of those never sell guns. Been with me too long and too many good memories with it to ever let it go. Someday I'll make some young trapper happy with it.

Actually its appearance belies the thousand of miles its traveled or the hundreds of critters it has dispatched. Other than some pretty significant holster wear it has held up very well. I always kept it wiped down and never stored it holstered.

The old holster has more character marks than the gun. I was pretty poor back in those days and I could neither find nor afford a new left handed holster for it. I didn't like the nylon ones as I was about to wear through my second one and wanted a left handed leather holster for it. One of the gun shops in town was always coming across box lots of stuff from estates and he always had used holsters. When I bought this one for $5 it was right handed so I cut the stitching, reversed the holster and resewed it. Twenty years later it's still serviceable, albeit needing a little mink oil.

Great !!! Nice to see stuff used not abused.. Real Character there..

Awesome, thanks for sharing it and the holster. Great story. Love the look of the wear on the gun.

If anyone else has some stories and picks of their well worn trampoline or woods bumming gun, It would be great to have you share them here.

I like Super Soakers for 'trampoline' use......great fun on a hot day....

This is the trapline gun that preceded the Ruger Single Six. It is a Winchester 1902 that I found at the same gunshop I got the holster for the Ruger. That was somewhere around 26-27 years ago. It had a broken and poorly glued together stock and I bought it for $25. I used it a few weeks like that but an inadvertent bump one day and the glue line broke.

I had a slab of maple just thick enough and long enough to make a replacement stock. I stuck the stock back together as best I could and traced the outline. A few hours with a jigsaw, horseshoe rasp, round rasp and sandpaper and I had a utilitarian, workable stock.

It rode behind the seat of my truck for years, even after the Ruger came along. I used it mostly for dispatching trapped coyotes. Most of my coyote lines back then were run on big ranches and farms where I could drive by nearly every set. I used CB shorts and CB Longs to shoot the coyotes. I always avoided using Long rifles in the 1902 as it was stamped for Short and Longs but not LR's. The CB shorts or CB Longs never failed to finish off the coyotes. Along the way I found that skunks shot through the lungs with the CB rounds usually did not spray. They would flinch a little at the shot and within a minute they just fall over. Worked way better than head or body shots with LR hollow points.

When I met my wife I worked seasonally for the Forest Service and trapped coyotes, beaver, bobcat, mink, raccoon and muskrats throughout the winter. The coyotes and beaver were the mainstay where I made most of my income and the rest were welcome additions and a nice diversion from the coyotes and beaver. We didn't have much for an annual income back then but all our bills got paid. We ate deer, elk and wild birds almost exclusively. There are times I miss that life a lot.

Super soaker is a great trampoline gun, you are right about that(DAMNED AUTO CORRECT).

Awesome resourcefulness on making the stock. Great background to your trapline exploits

mart, sounds like you have had a pretty interesting career.. Have you ever considered putting it into print?? Would make fine reading for many of us here on the fire..
I have seen a couple little paper backs telling of hunts, trapping, guns, fishing etc.. They may not make you famous or a million, but some of us sure would enjoy reading them.. I must have a dozen little books like that from years ago, to the present.. Just saw one down town about a guy from Oregon.. Plan to go back and check it out when I have my reading glasses with me.. Think about it.. I'll buy the first one!!

I'll buy the second

It has been interesting and my wife has said the same thing but really there are better trappers and hunters with better stories than mine.

That may or may not be true, but you have great stories to share and can "spin a yarn" so it is enjoyable reading

mart, I agree with Robster, great stories we enjoy reading.. think about it..

I've always found Mart's posts to be polite and informative.


Don't know why bother to I read em though. We obviously have nothing in common.

Field, I am sure you jest!!! Wish I had spent more time trapping.. Something I did a bit as a kid, but then got caught up in schooling, marriage, etc.. Now that I am retired, I should give it a go, but have so many projects going I really don't feel I can start another.. But the stuff on trapping here makes up for not being in the field..
Hope you all have a great season..