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Joined: Aug 2018
Posts: 1,709 Likes: 1
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Aug 2018
Posts: 1,709 Likes: 1 |
They could have been as popular. I have two bolt action rifles, a 1948 M70 and mid-ish 1960s M700. I can't recall the last time I've hunted with either. But I think walking miles hunting probably depends on where you live. When I lived out west and when I hunted in Wyoming, I did a lot of walking and stalking. When I lived in KS not so much, if walking chances are anything you where hunting would know you were coming from a long way off. In northern MN it is about damn near impossible to walk for miles through the alders, brush, Fenn's, swamps, 4+ feet of snow, etc. It would be nice if we could because the average temps during dear season around here are -10 to -20, movement would help warm a guy up. Not disagreeing with anything that has been said, just pointing out different perspectives.
The M70 I mentioned is by far the heaviest gun I have. Never weighed it but I don't care to lug it around. I have always thought lever guns where popular for hunting because before optics were widely available to the common hunter, or maybe even before modern game laws, you could fire off shots quicker than a single shot or bolt action. Plus they are light. Now everyone seems to be into the newest magnum or 6.5CM *shudder*. Around here I get to hear stories of guys using their CM or Magnum to shoot a deer 50 yards away, or even better from the window of their truck.
For some reason the 336s are the most popular lever gun around here. I own a few and like them, but often ponder what makes one make and manufacturer more popular than others in different areas
Last edited by damnesia; 02/04/23.
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Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 5,176
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 5,176 |
My take: the 99 was/is an excellent hunting rifle, certainly in the top ten of all time. But, where it really shines is in the hands of the hunter who doesn't sit on his butt in a tree stand or a blind all day, the guy who covers some territory while seeking Br'er Whitetail. Some are better than others in that regard, especially if unencumbered with optics (my all-time fave is the aperture sighted M1899H, I wouldn't have done it with a scoped R). The butt hunters are served well with a lot of other choices too, which for that purpose may well outshine the 99. The 99 had a lot of thought go into it to make it a companionable tool for the still hunter, who was the most common guy in the woods back then.
I wonder if it would enjoy the same popularity if it were freshly introduced today, in an age when few guys roam the woods for miles and to whom the ideal deer rifle is a scoped high velocity bolt gun? (And those same guys who when they do strike off on foot insist on lugging those same rifles.) The same could be said for the M94 and 336. Mind you, I'm speaking to what I've observed here in the jungles of northern Appalachia, and hypothesizing about if none of these light ergonomic lever guns had never before existed but all of a sudden appeared now.
Just food for thought. Let's nobody get their panties twisted in a knot! Amen. I'm a still hunter and a tracker, I simply don't have the patience to sit on the side of a tree all season, or worse, in a heated blind as guys do it here, nor hunt literally the same spot all season long. I'm not even sure i'd call this "hunting". You're certainly a predator, no argument there, an ambush predator, a rattlesnake versus a wolf. Which can be very effective - more effective then tracking for a lot of people. I just wanna cover some country and see what's over the next ridge, see where a big track takes me, and if i play the game skillfully enough and have the right luck i'd like a good story to go with the kill/trophy. I've taken in recent years to hunting the effectively limitless public woods of the Rocky Mountain east slopes foothills. There is lots of hunting pressure but it ends within 100 yards of a road/quad-trail, i have yet to see a single other hunter's tracks in the many miles of tracking i do. They're almost all limiting themselves to where they can get a vehicle. I doubt the 99's would enjoy the same popularity now that they did even if the guys did roam the woods, however. Out here there is no gun that's not a bolt gun in .300 winmag or 6.5 creedmore. In New England of course there's still more of a tradition of old school hunting. Many of them favor Remington pumps and i have two of those i carry in the woods, both 50's vintage and one in .300 Savage. The only edge they have on the 99 as a woods gun is they cycle more slick, so much so you don't even notice - like glass, that slide. However, i just picked up a 99 Model F in .308 for reasons of better ammo availability - $875 and a calibre i also feel comfortable with if an elk happens by. My first F, and im thinking this thing is going to be a superb tracking gun. I lucked into my preferred year of F - a '61 in very good condition with the gold trigger and dark, well above average figured walnut - i like the way the gold trigger trades accent with the brass counter window if you keep the counter polished. Really nice touch to my eye, i refinished the gun this past week and it looks fabulous, almost pristine. I can't believe how effortlessly it shoulders with it's slightly reduced proportions. Putting a Skinner ghost ring on it and looking forward to taking to the big woods with it next year. It will share duty with my Remingtons. In general i don't think hunters have the same eye for aesthetics in guns they used to. Witness all the guys out there content to carry a hunk of tacky looking plastic into the woods. So aside from the bolt-action fetish, there's a general decline in taste working against the 99. If there were not, the ones available at resale i think would be going for a lot more money. I honestly can't believe i got this old beauty for $875. Nor my Model R 15 years ago - which also has even more exceptional walnut - for $375, a real tack-driver using the lyman tang peep it came with, though heavy to lug as the miles add up. My take: the 99 was/is an excellent hunting rifle, certainly in the top ten of all time. But, where it really shines is in the hands of the hunter who doesn't sit on his butt in a tree stand or a blind all day, the guy who covers some territory while seeking Br'er Whitetail. Some are better than others in that regard, especially if unencumbered with optics (my all-time fave is the aperture sighted M1899H, I wouldn't have done it with a scoped R). The butt hunters are served well with a lot of other choices too, which for that purpose may well outshine the 99. The 99 had a lot of thought go into it to make it a companionable tool for the still hunter, who was the most common guy in the woods back then.
I wonder if it would enjoy the same popularity if it were freshly introduced today, in an age when few guys roam the woods for miles and to whom the ideal deer rifle is a scoped high velocity bolt gun? (And those same guys who when they do strike off on foot insist on lugging those same rifles.) The same could be said for the M94 and 336. Mind you, I'm speaking to what I've observed here in the jungles of northern Appalachia, and hypothesizing about if none of these light ergonomic lever guns had never before existed but all of a sudden appeared now.
Just food for thought. Let's nobody get their panties twisted in a knot! Amen. I'm a still hunter and a tracker, I simply don't have the patience to sit on the side of a tree all season, or worse, in a heated blind as guys do it here, nor hunt literally the same spot all season long. I'm not even sure i'd call this "hunting". You're certainly a predator, no argument there, an ambush predator, a rattlesnake versus a wolf. Which can be very effective - more effective then tracking for a lot of people. I just wanna cover some country and see what's over the next ridge, see where a big track takes me, and if i play the game skillfully enough and have the right luck i'd like a good story to go with the kill/trophy. I've taken in recent years to hunting the effectively limitless public woods of the Rocky Mountain east slopes foothills. There is lots of hunting pressure but it ends within 100 yards of a road/quad-trail, i have yet to see a single other hunter's tracks in the many miles of tracking i do. They're almost all limiting themselves to where they can get a vehicle. I doubt the 99's would enjoy the same popularity now that they did even if the guys did roam the woods, however. Out here there is no gun that's not a bolt gun in .300 winmag or 6.5 creedmore. In New England of course there's still more of a tradition of old school hunting. Many of them favor Remington pumps and i have two of those i carry in the woods, both 50's vintage and one in .300 Savage. The only edge they have on the 99 as a woods gun is they cycle more slick, so much so you don't even notice - like glass, that slide. However, i just picked up a 99 Model F in .308 for reasons of better ammo availability - $875 and a calibre i also feel comfortable with if an elk happens by. My first F, and im thinking this thing is going to be a superb tracking gun. I lucked into my preferred year of F - a '61 in very good condition with the gold trigger and dark, well above average figured walnut - i like the way the gold trigger trades accent with the brass counter window if you keep the counter polished. Really nice touch to my eye, i refinished the gun this past week and it looks fabulous, almost pristine. I can't believe how effortlessly it shoulders with it's slightly reduced proportions. Putting a Skinner ghost ring on it and looking forward to taking to the big woods with it next year. It will share duty with my Remingtons. In general i don't think hunters have the same eye for aesthetics in guns they used to. Witness all the guys out there content to carry a hunk of tacky looking plastic into the woods. So aside from the bolt-action fetish, there's a general decline in taste working against the 99. If there were not, the ones available at resale i think would be going for a lot more money. I honestly can't believe i got this old beauty for $875. Nor my Model R 15 years ago - which also has even more exceptional walnut - for $375, a real tack-driver using the lyman tang peep it came with, though heavy to lug as the miles add up. I like walking, but I only have 30 acres, so my stand at one end of my 7 acre field suites me, and my 1950 R in 250. But, that old 100 yards in rule is dead nuts on. I read in the American Rifleman, back in the 70's, that most public land hunters usually don't go more than 100 yards from their car. I was hunting Town Hill up in Gary's neighborhood.. I walked in for a good stretch and hit posted land, backtracked a bit, and sat down on a log to figure what I was going to do, so close to the posted land. Within minutes one of the nicest 8 points I've taken walked up and I shot him in the neck. That was back in my 336 days, the 35 Rem took care of him. Took me till noon to drag it back out.
I'm not greedy, I just want one of each.
Remember Ira Hayes
JoeMartin
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Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 257
Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 257 |
For some reason the 336s are the most popular lever gun around here. I own a few and like them, but often ponder what makes one make and manufacturer more popular than others in different areas Good points about the lack of opportunities to really line-out and travel in most places people live. And snow-depth. It doesn't take 3 feet to hinder a trackers hunts when there are miles to cover. 2-4 inches is perfect in my books, enough register all the tracks but not enough to sap you. A foot is all it takes to treble or quadruple your energy output, especially if you have any age on you. The only hunter i've seen actually walking miles from his truck on public land so far was a middle-aged indigenous fella i stopped to chat with, and he was indeed carrying a vintage Marlin 336 as per some of the comments, well used but not abused. This was on an access road and i don't know how far back he went but i'm guessing it was a ways and at least he was on foot and his truck was just a dot in the distance. I guess im easily amused but seeing that old Marlin on-duty was a high-note of that season. Such iconic, great looking leverguns.
Last edited by gulo; 02/05/23.
From a race of hunters, artists, warriors, and tamers of horses, we degraded ourselves to what we are now: clerks, functionaries, laborers, entertainers, processors of information.
� Edward Abbey
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