Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Definition of a "grey rat"

No he didn't. I made that conclusion. But I always put bore condition at the top of the list in accessing the usefulness of a firearm. But this is just rhetoric put forth for the sake of arguement in defining what this thing is we call a "Grey Rat", and the bore is just part of my criteria. But I think we are all guilty of acquiring firearms with less that desirable characteristics and gawd knows I've had a few tucked in the back of the "safe" myself. The disease runs deep!

Maybe it's a dead rat. I am not inclined to shoot something that rough.

Put it in a gun vise, tie a string around the trigger, hide behind the car, and let 'er rip. 😏

I did that with a questionable 50-70 Springfield for a friend one time after I had cleaned it up and procured him some ammo for him. It didn't blow up after a few shots, but I still wouldn't have wanted my face close to it. He's still alive and has all his digits, so it must not have been as bad as it looked.

call it a well used well abused grey rat. If only it could talk and tell us what it did for its first 100 years , how many ranches it visited ,how moch game did it bring down ,
, was it left out in the weather or in the barn wet ? did it become a truck gun ?

I have a 38-55 TD ser no 70xxx not as bad as yours, came out of cattle country a well used tool.

what caliber David

Or, if not too far gone, then maybe its time to tickle that fancy for restoring a 99. Heck, it looks like there are a fair number of smiths out there who make good trade on restoring Winchesters and Marlins, so why not a 99? Done right, it would give the old rifle a new lease on life.

Here's another twist on restoration. You are a Hot Rod kind of guy. Get it back in good working order and call it a Rat Rod!

I always chuckle when hearing of "tying a long string on it to fire it". Sure, it may well sustain firing a couple shots that way, but what about subsequent shots out of a dodgy gun with your eyeball 6 inches behind the cartridge? "Do you feel lucky, Punk? Well, do ya?"

As I said in my previous post, I sure wouldn't shoot the thing, but he wanted to know if it was capable of firing without blowing up, which it was that day 🤷‍♂️ As loose as the hinge was and as worn as the locking lobe looked, I think the odds of it going kablooey eventually were pretty high if it gets shot much.

I don't know how much (or at all) he has shot it, aside from a few rounds that day after it didn't explode after those few string shots. That's been probably 15 years ago now.

I can't mess with it. It's probably got a great history. It's perfectly happy sitting between serial # 10.4xx and serial number 15.7xx. Those two qualify as gray rats. 15.7xx has a 1/4" S stamped on the bottom of the receiver and 210 stamped on the right side of the barrel. Possibly a sheriff's department rifle? A search of the area it from per the historian letter didn't turn anything up.
Norm, all 3 are 303's.