Part Two:

I’ve never been a purist, or a specialist, or a collector as regards guns, and in thinking about it, cartridges have intrigued me as much or more than any platform. In shotguns, SxS’s, then O/U’s, then all others are in order of my interest. I’ve had shotguns from .410 through 12, but no 10 gauge, the biggest impediment to the latter being weight, and I have only hunted geese from blinds twice.

Some like to hunt and the firearm is just a tool to use. Some are interested only in works-of-art firearms, top-dollar guns and not hunting. Some like to hunt with very nice guns. I’m modestly in the latter group, liking to hunt, but with a gun of good quality if not really a piece of top workmanship or an elite gun. Hunting with both shotguns and rifles is available to me, so I’ve always enjoyed both.

While adding a fine O/U was mentioned, and I’m still thinking on it, so are the realities of a septuagenarian crashing (pun intended here) in on me. A month ago, in northern Minnesota, on a fishing trip with my wife, I tripped over a tie-down cleat on a dock. The tibial bone bruise and torn medial meniscus with the accompanying swelling really slowed me on my last pheasant with another three-day trip planned for December. Healing in the seventh decade is measured by a monthly calendar, and aftermarket parts start to add up (rarely as good even in the short term as those God-given). All of it signals to less being more.

However, I still have and use an Anschutz 22, a .223 (an AR — truth be told, an ugly but efficient machine), a CZ 204, a small shop 243, a semi-custom, very light 284 Win, a Ruger American 350 Legend (never would have happened except I’m in Iowa). This summer I hit the off-ramp again and picked up a Savage 99A in 358 Win. (Iowa changed their deer hunting reg’s to include this cartridge).

If I ever go elk hunting again, I have two rifles that would work; for western deer, I have three that would work. Perhaps none would be ideal for either hunt, but they would do.

And then there are the shotguns. And then there is reality.