Hitting the nail on the head

BULLSEYE ROBERT!!! You NEVER cease to amaze me. Pull a couple trees out of the pond.. and then bored for more excitement. You have more energy than most kids that I know!

Save those .22 LR shell-casings.. They're not re-loadable.. but I can use them for my redneck-muffler design!

You know Bob.. I don't own any firearms. I was never really "into" hunting.. although as a young boy, my late uncle "Len Kritz"; a retired Marine Staff Sargent wounded in his 19th year in Okinawa.. took me hunting with him a few times. The most memorable occasions were when he drove the two of us out to the Berkshires (Chester, MA circa 1972) for deer-season. We went twice... once for bow-season.. and once for shotgun. I remember it being cold.. not just cold.. it was friggin' FREEZING COLD! I remember the long-drives out there too. We lived in in S.E. MA and took I-90 West in his old Ford Country Squire station wagon. We left home at about 3:00 a.m. to get out to Chester before sunrise. Shotgun-season, I was lent an old "Stevens" side-by-side 12ga. from my mom's uncle "Moe".. which had a dent in one barrel. I had bought some German-made 12ga. rifled-slugs.. and my uncle Len wouldn't let me fire the gun. It didn't matter.. because we didn't see any deer that trip. On returning the shotgun to my mom's uncle "Moe".. I told him; that because of the dented-barrel.... uncle Len wouldn't let me shoot it. Uncle Moe was [bleep].. and took me and the shotgun out to a field.. and fired-off two slugs "double-barrel". He then looked at me and said; "there's nothing wrong with this gun boy".. That's about the extent of me and firearms..

I'm not against guns. I just don't own any. I appreciate their heritage, as well as their collectivity. As of recent; I've thought about purchasing one.. while I still can.. legally.. for protection. The "right to bear arms" is up-against a lot of (IMHO) "stupid" legislation these days.

Shoot man you're sposto say LOOK what i did !! Nice shooting Bob , at least you did some fun stuff after getting the trees out the pond.

Excellent Robert! .22's are just about it as far as fun shooting is concerned!

I still have my first rifle, an Ithica Single-Shot 'Saddle Gun'. Chosen for me by my older brother when I was 14 because of it's similarity to the two Daisy "Winchester" B-B guns I'd worn out, it became my constant companion whenever I ventured into the wood surrounding my home town. It could shoot anything from Short through Long Rifle .22's, with the majority being the Short rounds because they were a few pennies/box cheaper than the larger rounds.

Early on, I'd flirted with hunting, but had no adults to instruct me on seasons and acceptable game, so it was mostly targets that caught the brunt of it's attention.

A few thousand rounds went through the rifle before it started failing to eject it's empty cases (for a while, I carried a copper cleaning rod to knock them out), and then started having misfires from the wear on the firing pin not sufficiently punching the .22's rim.

A few years ago, I was able to buy some parts from Numrich, and got it shooting again, so it gets dragged out for a round or two once in a while. Great memories!

Yeah, Lot's of room here in my backyard with no restrictions in gun friendly WV, and that stump makes a great back stop.



My pine trees are surrendering to the Pine Bark Beetle. A nasty little insect arriving in the States years ago. I guess half my pine forest is gone. Each tree must be cut up and burned. Some I pull out with my ATV, but this one took Marks truck to extricate. I chain saw them up, Mark loads and deposits them on the burn pile.



A Stevens 12 ga double barrel was my first shotgun roddie, given to me along with three other guns and my Remington 550. I loved them all but the Remington really stood out. It's been with me since my pre-teens.

There is a hole in the buttstock used as a turning point for a gun stock lathe. The lathe is a marvel of engineering and fun to watch when a stock is being turned. Until the last years of production all Remington model 550 series rifles were made of walnut.

As a kid I got the wild idea of printing my name "This rifle belongs to" on a piece of paper wrapping it around a .22 cartridge and putting it in that hole. Then I forgot about it. Many years later during a Navy move the rifle was dropped on the butt plate cracking it. I removed the plate rediscovering the paper with my name on it and the .22 round. Rather than replacing the plate I decided to keep the rifle original and glued it back together.



Lot's of interesting stories surround these firearms over the past 70 years...........

Ithica a great old gun making company.  

Funny that you should mention it.  I have been lusting after this model 37 in 28 ga ever since I first saw it.



I have that same gun vice, and a lot of the tools in your picture right down to the "scissors/jack knife" hex/Allen wrench.  Great tool, you don't need to fumble through a bunch to find the correct one.

As a kid I got the wild idea of printing my name "This rifle belongs to" on a piece of paper wrapping it around a .22 cartridge and putting it in that hole. Then I forgot about it. Many years later during a Navy move the rifle was dropped on the butt plate cracking it. I removed the plate rediscovering the paper with my name on it and the .22 round. Rather than replacing the plate I decided to keep the rifle original and glued it back together. wrote:

That's the kind of thing that brings tears to my eyes the remembering of the good old days !! I let my childhood rifle .22 and a 410 semi auto go for some stupid stuff and have regretted it since !

I had a Ithaca over under with the same similar finish as yours Bob. I let it go in the 80's for $1500. Doing a bit of research, I see it's quadrupled in value today. My dad gave me one that doesn't seem to ring anyone's bells but I like it nonetheless which is a Tradewinds semi auto 12. Made in Italy it has a blonde stock which doesn't look all that appealing but nicely done. Not a common color that's for certain. I also had a Winchester model 24 side by side. My son loved that shotgun and he was very accurate at using it. I love to go shooting at the range but unfortunately I just don't do enough of it. Maybe it's time to get involved with that again.

Not mine, Ken but I wish it were.  Another bucket list item.

https://ithacagunusa.com/  $2395.00 in AAA grade.

Yes, right now is a great time for gun sports.  I used to target shoot almost every day in Florida when I belonged to a gun club. Now I just casually shoot in the back yard.  As a kid I enjoyed walking though the woods carrying my Remington, still do.   I mostly plinked. If I saw a can by the road it was DOA.  I believe I have taken more squirrels (unintentionally) with my car than a firearm.

Blond or light stocks can be very appealing.  Remington made a series of "Lightweights" model 572, called Mohawk Brown, Crow Wing Black, and Teal Wing Blue.  All had stocks made of something that Remington called "Sun wood".  I have owned some with very nice "Birds eye maple" stocks too.  

Yeah Eric, "The good old days"  Been there.  

Bob

So I love this thread as the last few weeks I have been shifting from playing with models to my guns and reloading

I am supper bad at periodically going throught the gun collection and cleaning, oiling, and checking each out

Gets worse each year....I can only imagine the effort Bob has with is much larger collection

Over the years I have owned and was able to shot well a few "Tack Drivers" and son and I used to actually set up 25 to 50 yard targets with random finger set Carpet tacks to drive in.....much fun and a lot of misses....grin

Today was Justin's birthday and I gave him the Rem 700 308 5R, a a lot of extras...bi-pod...scopes yadda yadda plus a few boxes of different Match Grad ammo

While legal I have a hard time shooting on my property....safety

BUT I have dispatched the odd possum , or raccoon....on the ground being very careful of back drop landing zone....lots and lots of NO shoot times

Never a Squirrel...because always in the tree and landing zone is all neighbors land

Would dearly love to build a shooting range berm....but I have too close neighbors 360 degrees and 500+/- feet
Again legal but not wise

Wife and I are avid home defense, target, and competition shooters... but less and less every year due to, dues, health, and travel time

Fantasy is to save...buy 50 acres, build a model airplane facility, skeet range, and shooting range ... with climate controlled relax area....yep Fred is dreaming

20 years ago at $215~$520 per acre ....damn it... this was not a bad plan..... for some insane reason all the coliche dirt, near me, is now $7500~ $15,600 per acre.....grrrr

While were on the subject of guns,  on Dec 7 there was a wreath ceremony on the battleship USS New Jersey. I was across the river watching. At 9:00 AM 3 AT-6 Texans flew low up the river flying close to the Jersey to start off the ceremony.  Several of us were on the 20th story balcony hardhats at our chests. A little past 2:00 PM a newly restored anti-aircraft gun was fired off of her portside. I have worked in the Philadelphia Naval base on several occasions and drove and walked by the above mentioned gun. This would be the Quad 40 anti-aircraft gun. This weapon is nearing 25,000 lbs. The Jersey was fitted with 20 of them to support those in jeopardy and herself against kamikaze pilots. Approximately 4 rounds were shot off. I could feel the concussion of that 20 stories in the air. It was a amazing and very historical sight. That gun has been sitting dormant for 65 years. These guns were all removed from her deck during the Vietnam era. It's to my understanding that the cost of this restoration was well in excess of 200K. There were some mention of her firing her 16" guns. I hope I can see that some day. Ken

That must have been some sight Ken, wish I had seen it.  The Texan, a favorite for modding into the Japanese Zero in WW2 flicks.  

The New Jerseys sister, USS West Virginia (BB48) was sunk at Pearl Harbor December seventh.  It was raised and repaired in time for some of the major Pacific campaigns.  It was the only Battle Ship that was at Pearl to attend the surrender of the Japanese at Tokyo Bay.  An honor and well justified.

Bob

This reminded me I need to go shoot some super expensive 22LR.....grrr/grin

Fortunately right now there is plenty 22LR to be had locally and while a bit high in price it is no where near the insane price I paid when I panicked in 2008 /2009

Back then I had to look very hard, way out of town at a hardware store to find 2ea 1000 round boxes for the low low price of $195 each....19.5 cents a shot

This week Wally world has a 325 round box in stock for $24.99, around 7 cents a shot

For what it is worth a few years back I mailed one of the 1000 round boxes to my brother in Utah and the UPS shipping was fairly easy and painless....Where he lived there had been zero 22LR ammo any where for him to buy

He and I have been leaving many 10,000s of spent 22 shells on the ground ---plinking--- since 1968