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Something Ive always thought about, back in the 1920s and 1930s what did the gun heads use on ground hogs, crows, foxes, etc. Most likely a 22LR, or if you had the cash a 22 Hornet or a 220 Swift. But I imagine most farmers and ranchers just used a 30-06 and once again if they had the cash put a scope on it. Any input? Regards, Jericho

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About that time there were still a lot of .32 RF hanging around. My great grandfather used one for stock killing and farm varmints.


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Winchester '92s and Marlin '94s and various single shot rifles in .25-20 WCF and .25-20 SS were popular varmint rifles that also got used for deer rifles by country folks who only had one rifle. That trend started with the parent cartridge, the .32-20.

Practically nobody but a few Eastern proto-geeks had specialized rifles just for varmints. (Those few rifle loonies gave us many of the shooting improvements that we all consider standard now. And essential. Like sporting scopes and handloading tools.

The first common .22 centerfire, the .22 WCF that was the parent case of the .22 Hornet, just didn't catch on until the Europeans started loading it with smokeless. Most of the original .22 WCFs (which began in 1885) show what happens to blackpowder .22s when they aren't scrupulously cleaned....


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Grandpap used a 25-35 leever gun

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22 or a shotgun around here back in the dirty thirties. My Grandad says he almost never saw a coyote back then and if someone saw one go in a thicket somewhere and not come out they’d get a bunch of guys together and circle them up and do a drive. Only other varmints around here were coons, skunks, opossums, and hawks. All of them were handled with a 22 or birdshot. Great Grandad did shoot a bear out of a tree when he was 16 out by his folks’ homestead. That was in 1919 and he used a shotgun which more than likely was full of birdshot.

Weren’t any deer around and no season if there were any. The banker in town had a 270 that was about the only CF rifle I’ve heard of being around back then. The only reason I’ve heard of it was that he’d loan or rent it out to guys going out of state to hunt and Great Grandad took it to CO one year and shot a bear.

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my grand dad used an early Savage 24 I know, with 22 LR on top and 410 on the bottom..
I still have it..

I also have a Marlin 93, that belonged to a friend, who's wife never wanted children, so it was given to me by his wife when he died.. his grandfather bought it new in Indiana in the late 1890s.. it is chambered in 25/20... originally it had an old Lyman scope on top, but that was long gone before it came my way...

i have ammo for it, but have never shot it...


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Seems like shotguns were preferred by a lot of homesteaders in this area, although I have a Win model 1906 (22 RF) that was manufactured in 1912 and ended up with a local. There are quite a few old Win. Model 94s in 30-30 around also and several Savage 99s.

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My paternal grandfather was pretty fond of his 25 Stevens. He used it mostly to protect his chickens from predators, both four legged and avian. Back then there were no regulations on shooting owls and hawks and he made quite few of each regret their dietary indiscretions. More than a few skunks, raccoons and foxes suffered the same fate. He shot an occasional woodchuck but unless they were a major problem for him he left them alone. I know that rifle went to one of my older cousins who never developed an interest in guns. I always wished I could have ended up with his old rifle. I have no idea where it ended up.


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Coyote and wolf numbers were beat way down by the use of 1080. There weren't many of these varmints to shoot like there is now.

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They used 1080 100 years ago?

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Originally Posted by huntsman22
They used 1080 100 years ago?

They used strychnine baits earlier than that I believe which led to 1080. Not sure the exact dates, but pretty early on. I think it was taken out of use in 71 or 72.

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Savage 22 Hi-power might of been an option.

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32 Rimfire single shot

25/20

32/20

22 Long Rifle

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I had a half dozen Winchester 1890 pumps in .22 special. Guessin' that's what they were for since .22 special is a bit much for "gallery" shooting.

Hide/market hunters in my area liked the .25-20 a lot. The old 60 grain HV HP load got used for some interesting things. I killed 4 black bear with it, some with my dad's Win 92, some with his grandfather's Savage bolt action.

The "big guns" in the area were .30-40s, mostly Win 95s but a few Krags as well.

Tom


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Growing up in rural Missouri when I was a kid, almost all the old farmhouses had a .22 rifle, usually a single-shot bolt action of some flavor. Our nearest neighbor had an old Winchester, IIRC. Dad was the odd bird, he had a Stevens repeating bolt-action. Usually, it was a cheaper gun, at least in my part of Chariton County, where most everyone was poor.


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I wasn't around 100 years ago, although it does feel like it sometimes. But, I was born in 1950, so I will tell what I saw from that time period.

I was lucky to grow up in family that hunted, and carried guns on a daily basis. There was no deer season here until the early 1960's here, so deer rifles were practically non existent. You did see a few 30-30's and some old military rifles around, but that was pretty much it. My dad had a Marlin in 25-20 at one time, and then a Marlin in 32 Special, which he eventually traded for a Remington 760 in 30-06 as we began to get some deer here.


Varmint hunting meant groundhogs, crows, and any other critter that was considered bothersome around the farm. I knew only a very few people who had a centerfire rifle that was especially dedicated for groundhog hunting, and they were usually a 222, although I knew one fellow with a custom 22-250. Everybody else, including me, used a 22 LR. Most farm people had a 22 rifle and a 12 gauge shotgun, and that was usually it. Unless they were a dedicated hunter, they didn't need anything else.

There were no turkeys, no coyotes, very few deer, and our hunting opportunities were limited to small game such as squirrel, rabbits, and quail. Therefore, we didn't need a variety of guns. I put a Weaver C4 on my Remington 511 22 rifle, and it became my "varmint" rifle. I killed a pile of groundhogs with that rifle over the years, and I still have it today.

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The .22 centerfire craze took hold around 1930, with the development of the .22 Hornet by Wotkyns and Woodworth who were engineer-types at Springfield Armory. They used a M1 Springfield (M1903 adapted to .22 rimfire), converted to centerfire. It was essentially a .22WCF but with hot-for-the-time smokeless powder instead of black, and a .223 bore and jacketed bullet. (.22WCF utilized a .226-.228 lead bullet) Strange that W-W started offering loaded ammo before any factory rifles existed for it- the Savage 23-D and Winchester M54 Hornets didn't appear until a year or two or three later. After that the shooting world went crazy for all manner of .22 wildcats based on about every small-medium capacity CF case available at the time, and a few more factory CF's to boot- all during that 10 year period before WWII.


Before that, like has been noted here, guys whacked varmints with anything that fell to hand but it wasn't a real sport as such among the general public, except for a few real rifle loonies who pestered guys like A.O.Niedner to build them .25 and .22 CF's on specialized rifles, more often than not with necked down .32-40 and .30-40 Krag cases. After the Hornet and all the rest of the bunch arrived in the 30's it became a real pastime for a whole lot of folks. As noted there were loads more groundhogs and prairie dogs to shoot at than there were deer, so for a lot of guys varminting became their main hunting pursuit.


Before the Hornet, pretty much all .22 work was with .228 bullets, as that was the diameter for all the .22CF's that came into being during the 1800's/early 1900's- .22 Maynard, .22-10-45, .22WCF, .22 Savage High Power, etc.

I just finished re-reading C.S.Landis ".22 Caliber Varmint Rifles", published 1946. If you want a fascinating read about the history and development of varmint rifles in the U.S., that's the book for you.


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I have a 1946 Am. Rifleman that talks about varmint calibers, especially coyote rifles.. The guy with the info. Mentions having a .22-15-45 as one of his first rifles.. Mostly used on gophers, jacks, etc. His next rifles were Marlin 25-20's.. From there he moved to Marlin 25-36's and he mentions buying a 5x Malcom scope.. He also began using a 22 Niedner.. A .32-40 case necked down to .22.. It used a 60 gr. base band bullet made from .22 short cases.. He also mentions shooting out several Marlin lever action .22's.. I suppose on gophers and such.. He said in 1912, he bought a Savage .22 Hi-Power.. He sent it back and had a solid frame and a heavier .22" barrel to replace the take down model he first bought.. The Niedner and the Savage got a lot of use on coyotes, and he had scopes on both.. He briefly tried a .22 Newton.. A .30-40 Krag case necked to .22.. In 1935 he bought one of the first .220 Swifts.. In 15 years, it will be 100 years old.. Very interesting article from times long gone. Hunting coyotes in below zero weather from horseback made for some tough customers.. Some years he shot upwards of 60+ coyotes.. It seems he was employed as a coyote hunter.. He also shot a number of Lobo wolves.. He mentions killing those with the Savage.. Elmer Keith wrote of hunting coyotes for their pelts and using a .44-77, the old .30-06, and in 1925 a .300 Hoffman magnum...


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An excerpt from my grandfather’s memoirs:

”My father owned an 1886 45/90 rifle and during the noon hour he would see how many ground dogs he could hit as they sat up by their hole. When he hit one it would turn them wrong side out and all you could find was small pieces. Sometimes I would pack water from the spring and force them out of their hole then hit them with a club; they could not run as they were too soaked.”

When my grandfather was alive, I remember him telling me about the indians admiring that rifle “it throw heap big rock” is what they would say. GGfather was a miner, farmer, laborer, rancher and whatever else he could do to eke out a living in Southern Utah.

Last edited by Ben_Lurkin; 02/21/20.

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Originally Posted by keith
32 Rimfire single shot

25/20

32/20

22 Long Rifle



My great grand parents and great uncles were great hunters around 1885-1920's. . I remember then when I was just a little boy, they had Winchesters in 4 gun racks, multiple racks. The back porch was full of dried Hawk and Eagle claws(early 60's). They had made trips out West hunting deer and elk as their dads had done before them..

Anyone that was a serious hunter had Winchesters for varmints and big game.

My great grand pa would sit on the front porch shooting Carpenter bees with a 22 single shot..

We grew up with loaded guns all over the house, we knew not to touch them or an azz whooping was sure to follow.

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