Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Is it good sense or just middle age?

I'm not sure which is more of a stunt:

1) Shooting a .22 Hornet
2) Shooting a .223 Rem downloaded to shoot .22 Hornet velocities.

Help he out here. I'm just an apprentice looney.

Shaman, my humble opinion is that #2 is the larger stunt, if precision is the objective.

Let me know when you beat 1/2" @ 100 with the .223 mousefart.

I kneel before the load density gods,

Dan

PS: I know that's off topic, sorry.

There you have it.

Ron,

Thinking like that and expressing those thoughts in a public forum certainly qualifies you as "loony".

Accomplishing those ideas would put you front and center of the dais at the "Loony of the Century" banquet!

Geno

PS My looniness for revolvers might ONLY include every barrel length of S&W 27's.

PPS well, maybe a few more

Funny I look back and while I've owned some really nice rifles and had a lot of fun . Like most when starting out as a newly. We'd I didn't have the. $$ to buy nice guns or really many guns at all so horse trading was the order of the day. I've owned sone nice rifles such as Browning safaris, a really nice Ruger #1 bbs version that I later read there were only 12 or so made in that caliber as well as various savage 110, 700s Ruger. 77 . If I had to start over again today I'd find myself nice all round rifle in something like a 308 or 7-08 maybe a delux kimber or maybe a classic Mauser sporter. Then I'd buy a really nice 20 sidelock sxs along with a good 12 ga semi maybe something along the lines of a Beretta390. That would serve as backup , turkey, waterfowler. A nice 22 rimfire a pistol or two and that would be it. But basically a really nice hunting rifle and really nice bird gun along with a couple of supporting chapters and hunt the crap out of them.

In retrospect I surely could have done ALL my hunting & made all the shots I have with 1 (ONE) 270 Win on deer.
I would have been happy long before I was with a Ruger 10-22. (It took me a while before I got my first one).
1 good 22 Mag.
1 Ruger Mk II 22, target model w/adjustable sight.
& 1 good 12 ga. I've always been an 870 shooter, likely why I love the Model Sixes.
& 1 S-W 6906 - 9mm.

That's a total of 6 guns. That's only a fraction of what I've had......

Oh well, I would have probably spent the money on whiskey & women and wasted the rest.

Jerry



That last line isn't originally mine ! Don't remember where I heard it first .

I used to be a rifle looney, but now the ardor has waned somewhat. I still love them, but how many (and new calibers) do I need?

This topic is so true for me. I started downsizing my rifles about 2012. That was the last year I went deer hunting and shot my last deer. Just felt like sticking to upland birds instead. I mean, a few shot quail or grouse are a hell of a lot lighter than any damn dead deer. So, a few rifles went down the road to buy new shotguns, a few went to my older son. I simply enjoy going to the trap range and after upland birds in the season. Still trying to get even with those Chukar tho. Rifles left: Ruger No.1 in .30-'06, Sako Finnbear in .270 Win. and Mod 94 30-30. A couple of .22RF rifles and four shotguns. .38/.357 and .45 Auto. The wanting and buying are done. I can't believe how much I enjoy those shotguns once I retired.

R Tom

I could thoroughly enjoy rabbit & quail hunting w/o any rifles BUT things have changed so much in property usage.
Small farms have virtually disappeared--subdivisions are covering thousands of acres HERE where I used to hunt.
I haven't seen 1 covey of quail in over 6 yrs.

I'm deer hunting on 70 acres of family 'private' property so.......

Back in 74-76, a cousin said to me, "you are a rifle freak", he was a handgun freak.

For whatever reason rifles are in my blood. I can't help it. grin

Jerry

I was the same until my Government started acting like they did not want me to own one. Now I have one. miles

Whole lot of wisdom in those last few sentences. That's the direction I'm heading.

Don't buy new guns here...

invest in powders and components...

also been upgrading scopes from time to time...
as my eyes seem to be more picky on what they will focus on...

This AM I got my 8 RM and 300 WM sighted in and ready to go this Fall. I did a little shooting a few days ago but it was Sunny and [b]HOT, so I quit. This AM we are still cloudy and even now the temp is 74*. I do shoot in hot WX but only if I can get in the shade. I'm glad to be getting ready for this yr season.

I still have some work to do on my 284 W. I'll get it ready and wait till another cool AM.

THANKS ALOT River Rider

Jerry

I am at the age now that I am selectively selling/giving away a few guns to special people I know. My son or grandson does not hunt or shoot and I think their wives are a little anti gun anyway. I will pass a few family heirlooms down to them .

I don't want to kick off and have my firearms end up in an auction or sold for pennies on the dollar like you here guys buying them from old widows.

Same here Saddlesore, from 40+ down to six now and have selected two more to pass on.

fwiw,
That says a lot... I had a friend whose father collected guns and reloaded ammunition as his sole source of income in his later years. Aside from Social Security I suppose. Small home with a big basement and three safes. Two belonged to the father and one belonged to my friend... Strange family component would not begin to describe these people. Knew him for 12 years before I found out he had a sister here in Virginia, right in town 15 minutes away, that he did not speak to, which struck me as strange as the rest of the family was in Ohio. At any rate the older man passed and my friend showed about as much grief as someone who lost their car in the Walmart Parking Lot. He made zero plans to go home to visit or spend time with his mother, his sisters, or his brother Rob who has Down Syndrome. My brother, may he RIP, went to their home back in about 2000 to put in a new set of steps to the basement as a favor. He typically did free standing curved stairways in multi-million dollar homes, however, at the time we were all close. He made a friend of Rob who was elated to be able to help...

At any rate when said "friend" decided to go home to clean "his safe" out and to pick up a few items for his boys, always a BS excuse to pick up what HE wanted, there was a slight snag. I should mention this fellow has had access to more military antiques than you could shake a stick at during his time in the service and boy did he ever help himself. He was not alone in that. He walked in, spoke briefly, did not hug his mother, and went straight to the basement... It just so happens that the "girls", his sisters, came across three combinations in his father's paperwork. You can guess the rest... A lifetime of theft and collecting, with a great deal of overlap between the two, were wiped out in a flash by his father's "friends" who paid pennies, a damned few of them, on the dollar at a Saturday Sale that began at 9 AM and was over by 9:45... One of the few times in his life that he has gotten the raw end of the stick when it came to a gun deal... When I asked him about a year later how his mother and Rob were doing I got a shrug that spoke volumes... I later found later his mother is now living here in Virginia with one of his sisters and Rob lives with them...

It was about that time that I got a bit pickier about with whom I hunt Bobwhite... I have found that there is NO HONOR amongst the VAST MAJORITY of these "friends" and it truly does tarnish the "collecting" spirit. Collect money so that you can spend it wisely and "collect memories" with those you love. All of these possessions that we mistake for assets are largely an illusion and can be taken away in a heart beat. In a literal heart beat.

The experiences you have with those you hold dear cannot... Hence I have slowly begun to simplify.

I have seen homes cleared of people's lifetimes acquisitions and you know about 95% of what MOST folks "Collect" goes in a 30 yard dumpster. NOT ALL for certain, however, the VAST majority.

I have fallen for all of this myself. Buy, buy, buy or it won't be available tomorrow. Here we are and it is tomorrow. The zombies are at bay(for the moment), suppressors are still legal (I bought 6 last year), Powder is still legal and being made(200 pounds last year), primers are still available, and guns have NEVER been more available. I am not saying I am against that in any way. It is just that having fallen for it on several occaisions you start to become somewhat of a curmudgeon. I am beginning to think Colonel Cooper was REALLY was on to something...

The difficulty is finding the right young person, I feel old at 42;-), who is worthy of what I have to give them. I wonder if they had to work for it if it would mean more. Honest to God I believe there is a sizable crowd who would take a high end gaming system to an Echol's Classic... If unaware of sales value and threatened with death via contract killer FOR SELLING IT, I really don't know how many of them would choose a Classic, not a Legend as black rifles are clearly for sale at Walmart, over a video game. Society is changing. My hunting partners are growing old and dying off.

I was talking to CSMC about their new Model 21 O/U, specifically when the 28 gauge model would be introduced, about six or seven months ago. The young man sighed and said it likely would not be introduced. He said that if they had known then what they know now they would have never invested in the 20 gauge 21 O/U... I asked why as I was truly perplexed. He said that they "We lose 10 and maybe get 1 back...". In short upon further conversation he said the "older guys" who used to really patronize us are dying off and they lose ten and get maybe one young man in return... It is fiscally untenable.

Hence, I plan to make some on the spot gifts for the worthy, as dealing with most, not all, dealers leave the faint smell that I've stepped in processed Alpo in the air. Not worth the sales process...

The rest? I hope to die with burnt out barrels, nicked and dinged wood, and few to no pristine PROJECTS... To be left to a huckster, like some who haunt these very boards, to sell for a quick buck? That bothers me... It also bothers me I see too few young men or women of merit who are INTERESTED in owning such a rifle, shotgun, or pistol... I am done buying for a good while unless it is spectacular and I can't deny my desire to own it and USE IT...

Sorry for the disjointed book...

Regards, Matt.

SAD events for sure !!

Some family are NOT! KWIM ?

It's better to redistribute what you want rather than others that don't give a FLIP.

Jerry

My problem is I don't have any NEW guns except for two muzzle loaders. I sold a Ruger SBH and Marlin 94 last week to a fellow on here. Everything else is from the 70's at the latest. I gave a nice Fox Sterlingworth SxS ( 1936 production) to my godson and and 1911( 1912 production) to the son of a very good friend of mine.

Trying to figure out what to do with a 1906 Colt SAA and Marlin 94, both about 1906 production

s s

Honestly I'm NOT asking to buy the SAA (aka Peacemaker). I would love to own one but it'd just be
a matter of having it. I love EM.

Good luck in your quest.

Jerry

They are both in 38-40. I came by this one from my brother who gave it to me.Seems he has one of those Buckeye Special Rugers in38-40 and liked it better.I can't give it back to him as he is older than I and in the same boat. No one to pass it on to