Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Hunts with special guns

Killed a deer with the .44 Henry my FIL left me the fall after he died. We had been planning to hunt together, but he never made it. Hope it made him happy that his gun got to go, anyway.

Like old 44 rimfire Henry?

Old Family .30-40 Krag



Great Gramp's 1941 Win 70 in .270 Win

His Ithica 37 16 gauge:

Old .300 Sav that's been in the family for a while,:

Sav 1899G in .250-3000
A few more heirlooms:


Sav 1899H in .22 Hi-Power



Somewhere I have some pics of a 26" wide mule deer taken with a Sav 1899A in .303 Savage that was also Great Grandpa's (whom I never met).

Those pics are great, Tinman!!!!! Great guns too!!

A few years ago, I discovered up at my wife's cabin in PA, a very dusty old shotgun that had seen better days. CCH was all gone, stock finish was rubbed and a few dents and the charging lever was bent. It turned out to be a 1926 manufacture, Ithaca New Improved double (NIB). The gun was tight however, so off it went to Diamond Gunsmithing in Ithaca, NY for a full restoration. The gun probably hadn't been used for fifty years. So when I got it back, I took it hunting with Hatari and Pugs in Georgia. A little too much gun for quail, especially choked M/F, but I had fun with this old gun:

Two of them, special to me anyway. One being my grandfathers old savage side by side with the Damascus barrels. I devised a pyrodex load using a regular wad I found. Seemed like I couldn't miss with that old shotgun. Second being my dad's old 1905 S+W 32-20. You had to hold low left with that gun, by the time you get to 30 yards you are holding in the dirt with a woodchuck. I killed a good number of woodchucks with that gun, missed a good bit more. When the beans would get up too high for rifle work I started hunting, stalking, on foot. I carried both the 32-20 and a scoped Security Six.

As a side, don't accidentally fire one of those BP loads in your 1100, messy. I went out and accidentally pocketed the Pyrodex loads. I had to use the gun as a single shot. I got into the bunnies and fired 9 times. What a mess to clean up.

My grandfather’s M94 30-30. He used to hunt the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in late 40s and 50s with it. He taught me about the outdoors. It’s my most cherished firearm.

The only firearm I inherited was my Grandfathers Parker Shotgun. It is one heck of a shotgun. Two sets of barrels with correct serial numbers, ejectors and a leather leg of mutton gun case. 26" IC/mod and 30" mod/full. A hunters gun. When I got it, my dove hunting opportunities had pretty much dried up. I took it to a couple of local skeet shoots and did well with it. When my son graduated from College, I passed it on to him so that I could watch him enjoy it.

My grail rifle growing up was a Marlin 39 Carbine. My Dad didn't like the idea of a 22LR for some reason and I never got it when I was young. When I had sons that were grown and gone, I found three of the 39 Carbines over a period of years, bought them and gave each son one. They probably didn't appreciate what being able to give those rifles to them meant to me, but I hope that they will be able to pass them on to their sons one day. If I run across another 39 Carbine one day, I'm going to get it and keep it for myself...When I get it, we are going to have a family squirrel hunt and the only allowed rifle will be a Marlin 39 Carbine. Can't wait!

That's the way it was for me. My dad saw that dangerous for one mile and considered that we live in flat country, unlike the mountains he was raised in. I traded into a 22 at 14 years old. So dad said I could only shoot shorts and since it was a JC Higgins M31 and a semi auto he thought it would only shoot shorts single shot. I never told him it would cycle shorts. The thing is I killed as many squirrel with those shorts as I would have with LR's.

My extra special old gun would be the Savage 99 in 30-30 that my grandpa carried while doing posse duty chasing Pancho Villa.
It has taken a few deer since.

Same reasoning used by my dad. He was Navy and I guess all he could think about was where are those bullets going to land. My brother and I both got Marlin 336's in 44 Magnum. We had red about barking squirrels and dang if it didn't work. We could kill a squirrel and it wouldn't have a mark on it.. I think most of the time the bullet stayed in the limb. That wa our story anyway... never got any complaints from the neighbors. I was 18 before I got a 22lr.

Before my dad went into the Navy in 1943 his two firearms were a Mod 67 Winchester single shot 22 and an Iver Johnson Champion 16 ga. single barrel break open shotgun. They both reside in my safe now. The 22 was used on all kinds of small game but primarily as a woodchuck gun back when all the local farmers were at war with 'chucks. Out to about 50 yds. just about any head shot will anchor them in their tracks. I was helping a friend cull woodchucks in the early 1990's and just had to recreate the old fashioned rimfire 'chuck hunting experience that was once so common before we all began popping them at 200 yds. with a high power, centerfire, scoped rifle. On his old 16 ga. shotgun; I got the barrels re-blued, receiver re-casehardened, and some other work done on it over 40 years ago. My next project for that is a pheasant, as it probably hasn't taken a pheasant since about 1939- 1942, or shortly after WW2. Never had time for that project but now that I'm retired it's on my projects list and I know of a nice pheasant hunting preserve which is about the only way I can even find a pheasant these days.

Thanks guy with a Woodie....I enjoyed getting those pictures. Good times...

Yeah T, cool pics, wish I had the opportunities to hunt as much as you do. Please explain to some of the folks here how you manage to kill stuff with old guns/cartridges with little tiny scopes that don't have a 50mm objective lens.

I guess I could say anytime I hunt with the 870 Wingmaster is a hunt with a special gun as it was given to me by the family of my best friend and getting in trouble compadre when he passed. Only knew him since we were in 4th grade. Still have the family phone number memorized I called it so much. I got a nice turkey in AZ with it, and numerous quail and some pheasants too. Oh, lets not forget my first two (and so far only two) ducks.

Another successful hunt with a special gun would be the javelina I got a few years back with my first relatively expensive custom gun, a Hamilton Bowen revolver in .256 WinMag (with a 25-20 cyl also). I hope to get another some day, perhaps with the 25-20 cyl installed.



I like the way that pig looks in this pic too :