If you like the period around when Leanwolf''s neighbor was working "the Nations," try reading Douglas Jones' novel "Winding Stair" and some of the his related books.
When I was a ranch kid in the 1940s and '50s, most ranchers still couldn't afford repeater or double shotguns.
Hunting birds was for "city people" (not a compliment where I lived and if you had called somebody "dude," you might have got some amateur dental work....). Nobody shot anything "on the wing," and the most common shotgun was a single shot .410, usually of the hardware store variety. But they worked, and worked, and worked, just like their owners.
The only place I ever saw cartridges sold as "loosies" was a the pawnshop on the wrong side of the tracks, tho.
