Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mule Deer-17 Ackley Hornet article

John I've been trying to retire more for almost ten years. If you get it figured out please let me know. Thining the herd is a good thought but I just go from rifles to shotguns and now it's revolvers. I await a custom #1 which should be done by deer season. It's a never ending cycle........and I love it.

GSPfan,

Writers generally don't ever retire, they just write less. My semi-retirement has been relatively successful, since I'm now writing half as many articles per year as a decade ago.

Have reduced my centerfire rifle collection by about 1/4 this year, but gained a little in shotguns. Bought three older side-by-side 12s, a "Birmingham" British 12, basically a Webley & Scott boxlock extractor gun slightly remade by a small shop in Derby, a Sauer back-action sidelock hammer gun made in 1911 in excellent shape but with 2-1/2" chambers, and a W.W. Greener boxlock ejector made in 1895, with Damascus barrels. Have taken birds with all three so far this fall using appropriate handloads--but also got all three due to very decent deals. So with the rifle sales am still well ahead!

I deal with seniors on their Medicare benefits so I don't ever fully retire either because I take care of my existing clients and do referrals. The shotguns sound nice I haven't bought one in over a year but the rifles keep popping up and vintage S&W revolvers have taken over most of the discretionary funds. With the shotguns RST shells are your friends. I load their hulls exclusively and 12's, 16's 20's & 410 are all 2 1/2. I have really come to like their 2 inch 12's in an English light game gun. It's the only 12 I hunt with.

I deal with seniors on their Medicare benefits so I don't ever fully retire either because I take care of my existing clients and do referrals. The shotguns sound nice I haven't bought one in over a year but the rifles keep popping up and vintage S&W revolvers have taken over most of the discretionary funds. With the shotguns RST shells are your friends. I load their hulls exclusively and 12's, 16's 20's & 410 are all 2 1/2. I have really come to like their 2 inch 12's in an English light game gun. It's the only 12 I hunt with.
I'm just getting back from a month of grouse hunting and Rifle along with some others are waiting so I look forward to your article on the 17 Ackley.

Am familiar with RST ammo, but I get paid to write about handloading. Plus, I've killed enough birds with various kinds of shot (whether lead or non-toxic) to understand how they work in the field, including various sizes/hardness of lead shot. Started using Bismuth in the mid-1990s, and since then have used various other kinds of old-gun friendly non-toxic shot in gauges from 28 to 10 to have a pretty good handle on how they work.

Keep telling yourself that!

The proof is in my "firearm" bank account, which has almost tripled this year.