A Gun a Week: Remington 1100 LW, 28 Gauge

My true pair of Remington 1100 LWs.

I wasn't going to take any short cuts with the whole gun a week thing, but this is gonna be a twofer this time. The two Remington 1100 LWs I have are pretty much identical with only minor differences made to tailor-fit the guns to the "shootahs", so it kind of makes sense to write them up together.

Backing up a little bit, I ought to mention that if shooting skeet with a 12 gauge pump shotgun teaches you anything, it's that you don't need an ounce and an eighth of lead shot to knock tea saucers out of the sky on a skeet field. And by the time I figured that out, I'd become a professional skeet shooter in the NSSA--National Skeet Shooting Association. To play the game right, you need four guns so you can chase clay targets in four different gauges. The players are 12 gauge (the Big Stick), 20 gauge, 28 gauge, and .410 bore. For reasons unknown to me, .410 bore ain't called out by gauge (it'd be a 68 gauge), but that's another post...And having shot all four of these with mixed, and sometimes depressing results--know how to make a million dollars shooting skeet? Start with two million--I quickly realized that there was something about the sweet-shooting 28 gauge in a soft-shooting Remington 1100 that borderlines on magical. "It shoots itself," I like to say.

Now that scrolling would make a good tattoo.

The standard 28 gauge target load is 3/4's of an ounce of shot in a shell that 2 3/4 inches long. It flat just doesn't beat you silly on a skeet field as you shoot it like a 12 gauge gun does. Even 20 gauge guns can be stompers since they are often lighter and thus don't fight recoil like heavier guns do a la one of Newton's laws. Other 28's by other manufacturers follow suit with smaller frame guns, so you might feel a little more recoil, but it will still never be on par with a 20 gauge. The 28 gauge 1100 LW starts right out of the box as the perfect combination of a sub-gauge gun with all the recoil-dampening heft of an all-steel, gas-operated American-made shotgun.

And that's why I have two of them. It's the oldest trick in the book...you buy a shotgun for you, and then, if you have a kid laying around, or a girlfriend, you buy another one for "them". The soft shooting, shoulder kissing, target busting 28 is the perfect gun for first time shooters, kid shooters (kids that shoot, not people that shoot kids), and shooting wives. Not much pisses me off more than smart-ass dads and husbands taking non-shooters, kids and women, to the range and laughing and guffawing as the newbies get the shit kicked out of them by a 12 gauge shotgun. It's stupid, thoughtless, and does more to turn new shooters off our sport than any Democratic Party ideology!

Mine of the right, and the chopped down model on the left.
I bet there's a "youth model" 1100 in Remington's latest
catalog, but I cooked mine up at home.

 My first one I bought used off a guy named Cozart Ellington. If the man's name doesn't exude class and sophistication, then I don't know what does anymore. He was a world-traveling wing shooter set to thin his herd of guns in the safe and offered me his 1100 LW. He'd been to Mother Russia to shoot Ptarmigan and all over the U.S. wing shooting and hunting. Naturally I snapped it right up and have had it ever since. I've sort of lost touch with the man since then and often wonder about him--the last time I saw him at our gun club he asked me if I still had it. Only the IRS could make me sell it I tell him...you know, "From my cold, dead hands!"

It came with two barrels since it was made before the days of screw-in chokes. The one barrel choked in Skeet is the go-to barrel when I'm heading to the club, but I have stuck the Modified-choked barrel on the receiver to hunt dove before. I hafta say though, that I suck at dove hunting so I just stay with the Big Stick when hunting anything these days. I hate looking for birds that are weakly hit and the 12 gauge gives me more of the help (and by help I mean more shot pellets) I need when hunting. The 28 gauge will hunt, but you got to be a better shot than me. It might be perfect for pen-raised quail though. I've seen a 20 gauge poof a slow-to-rise, pen-raised quail to smithereens before, so even it can be too much despite also being a "sub gauge" gun.

As a professional Skeet shooter who retired after two seasons a broke and dejected, timed-up skeet shooter, I sold the other three 1100s I'd had to play with, but kept the 28. It's too perfect a gun to sell. It's also too perfect to hand to my son, who at the time of his first forays into shooting skeet, was a careless, rowdy "all-boy" kid who literally broke everything he ever owned and/or touched. I kid you not.

The boy poses with his rough and ready Remington 1100 LW several years ago.
I guess he's 13 or so? You can start new shooters out on a .410,
but a 28 has more shot  in the shell which means more busted targets! 

No, he'd have to get his own shotgun that I could hold in reserve for him in my safe...I mean it's his gun that I hold in stewardship for him...or something like that. OK, It's my gun, and I just let him use it. Whatever. The point is, when a buddy of mine wanted to get rid of a 28 gauge 1100 and all he wanted in return was a 12 gauge Remington 1100 I pounced! I traded him a Remington 11-87 12 gauge (a close cousin of the 1100) for his little beat up 28, and I mean I had to. It was just meant to be.

The boy's (and girl's) 1100 chopped down on the right
compared to mine on the left. You can see the difference
in length of pull.

When I got that second one from my hunting buddy Jay, it was a mess. It had had some surface rust on the receiver so someone had just spray painted over the rust and scratches. Which is no big deal--some old rusty guns need never be reblued if they can take a coat or two of Krylon! But for Pete's sake, take the wood off first to avoid over spray. Maybe try a little masking tape. As it worked out, thank goodness, most of the paint rubbed off and the gun looks pretty respectable now. The next step was cutting it down for a little feller.

The date is wrong, I doubt he's five years old here. But there he is adding a shell
for a double on station two with the trusty 28 before the barrel was cut down.

I had the barrel shortened and re-beaded, and I cut the butt stock down and padded it to little feller size to make shooting fun and easy for the boy. If the gun's too big for a shooter, or too heavy, he or she is going to do lousy at shooting skeet or any other kind of clays game. The gun has to fit right for the best possible outcome, and it is always nice, I repeat, if the gun doesn't beat the shooter silly. No, going home with a bruised arm isn't always necessary. The resulting gun, as it turns out, is a pretty good little shooter.

The great thing about having a cut down shotgun for my son, is that now I also have a great, cut down shotgun for my daughter, and it's also perfect for any ladies that want to take me up on my standing offer to shoot some skeet for a first time. What works out for a growing boy, also fits the bill for smaller women shooters who don't want to be bludgeoned by the Big Stick or laughed at on the skeet field that first time out. Introducing people to the fun of "blowing shit up" is extremely rewarding for me and I want a love of shooting to last with them rather than any pain or discomfort, and that's a very easy thing to do with a gun like these Remingtons.

It's not just a boy's sport. The girl stretches out the 1100 LW one day in 2012.
For first time skeet shooters, it can be more fun to pick an "easy" station like station
seven and parking there. Nothing gets them hooked like success.

I guess the only downside to being addicted to a 28 gauge is the price of shells. 28 gauge shells are more expensive when compared to the box of a hundred 12 or 20 gauge shells you can buy at Walmart from Winchester (not recommended) or Federal (highly recommended) which at last look, were going for about 26 bucks. Two boxes of 28's, that's fifty shotshells, go for about that much. So if you're gonna go shooting, you better be ready to spend some money on ammo.

The usual suspects when shooting the 28. Note the Super-X at one ounce
of shot. Hunt with those and you're in 20 gauge territory.

The best remedy I've worked out for that is reloading my own shells. It keeps the price down somewhat, and you end up shooting more for the same money. You even save time. I can still load a hundred shells before you can get in your car, get to Gander, buy a hundred and get back home. And so what that means is that if you take me up on my offer to go shooting, you get to use my shoulder-friendly gun, and I get to keep your empty Remington STS hulls so I can fill them back up! That's all I ask.

The 1100 LW sports a sleek receiver that contains the 28 gauge shell perfectly--some manufacturers use a one size fits all approach to weapons design. That thinness translates to wood that is also trim and fits your hand with no hint of being too big. Remington's been making them for quite sometime. I'm not sure you can still buy an LW, but they certainly have an iteration of this model somewhere in their latest catalog--get your wallet out and dig deep. The two I have were made in the mid seventies and sport a very mid-seventies look to them, with the pressed in fleur de lis "checkering"...but it's the white diamond on the pistol grip that make them.

Fleur de lis "checkering" and that white diamond...vintage.

Like I said, I'd be very reluctant to get rid of these two shotguns. Even cut down for smaller shooters, the boy's gun is still a fun gun to shoot, and the shorter barrel even makes it handier for home defense, though I have better choices around for that--including running away. It's always a joy to shoulder and shoot one of these. With hearing protection on, you can "hear" the machinery inside the receiver doing all its work. You can feel the bolt moving to and fro with your cheek and catch the empty hull hurtling away out of the corner of your eye because your eyes are still open and not clinched shut under recoil.

All and all, I don't think anyone could go wrong with a Remington 1100 28 gauge. You'll never be sorry if you're gonna be shooting all day at some clays or even if you're just carrying it all day upland hunting. Just don't forget to give me your empty hulls.

A Gun a Week: Smith & Wesson M586-1, S&W .357 Magnum

My Smith & Wesson, Model 586-1 in S&W .357 Magnum.

You saw the movie Quigley Down Under right? Remember when, after (*SPOILER*) he shot the bad guy down, he said something along the lines of, "I said I ain't never had much use for a pistol. Didn't say I didn't know how to use one." Well that's kinda how I feel about handguns, and thus, I don't own but a handful. They serve a purpose and people do hunt with them, but I'm a rifleman through and through. Like Jack O'Connor wrote in his manifesto The Rifle Book, "I like a handgun. I hold a shotgun in high regard; but rifles--well, I love the darned things." But this revolver is different for me, and so far it only serves one purpose.

This is a Smith & Wesson Model 586-1 in Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum. After 30 years or so of U.S. servicemen and cops carrying and shooting the S&W .38 Special, the .357 Magnum came out in 1935 and blew the little .38 S&W Special away. The more powerful cartridge found it's way to police everywhere and was chambered almost always in revolvers. It wasn't until the 1980s that the old wheelgun, and thus the .35 caliber cartridge, was being left behind for modern, semi-automatic pistols that the police started to carry. Revolvers are heavy hunks of steel and limited to only six shots for the most part. Yes different models can hold more...or less, but the 586 holds six.

Holds six, but I set up an extra little .38 S&W Special for comparison.

I've owned a few other revolvers, and two other .38s and .357s, but this one, this 586, is probably the last one I'll have. Revolvers are just too heavy for my tastes. Carry one around for hours at a time, either for personal protection or hunting, and you'll see what I mean. It isn't long until your pants are sliding down your leg and your hip gets tired. All that suffereing for just six shots? No thanks. For stashing in a lock box under the bed for security is a fine way to use one. If nothing else, revolvers are pretty darn reliable. Pull the trigger and as long as the ammunition is fine, it'll go bang.

But the weight is not even the real reason I won't hunt with it. Several years ago I got a phone call to help put down a deer that had, of course, been struck by a car. My customer knew I always had a gun in the truck and his wife needed the help. At this point in my life, I owned a solid, but humble Ruger GP-100 in .357 S&W Magnum. And since it was for self preservation, it was stoked with some high powered self-defense loads, Remington's Golden Sabre line of ammunition.

As I arrived on scene I saw the young buck struggling to make an escape which he would never be able to do being as crippled as he was by the collision with the minivan. Confident in my pistol, I stepped up close to him and drew onto the low spot on his broadside where we all know the heart and lungs are. I pulled the trigger and suddenly, someone drove two knitting needles deep into each of my eyes until they reached the center of my brain! My ears instantly went numb, but the inside of my head screamed in pain for them.

To make matters worse, the bullet through the deer's heart and lungs only seemed to scare him into more thrashing and more trying to scurry or run on a badly broken pelvis. He wobbled but instantly I recognized I should have just made a head shot and so I aimed and fired again. And again, the pain the blast gave me was intense. And even then, the buck kept trying to crawl! Near panic, I took another shot and finally put him out of his misery even though I'm sure I had added to his suffering by not taking the head shot first. He was dead, but I was left with a ringing that lasted for three days! Three days of Brrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing in both ears.

Why are revolvers so loud? Three reasons: 1. Shorter barrels than rifles puts
the shooter closer to the bang. 2. This sliver of light here called the cylinder gap
lets propellant gas escape from the cylinder as the bullet passes into the barrel. And
3. It's a MAGNUM--more powder in the case means more KaBOOM!

I had never shot a revolver without ear muffs, ever. I had always shot at a range where hearing protection was required. It's not like on TV when cops shoot it out with the bad guys and then chit chat about the goings on of the day--especially if they'd been inside a building. No, they'd be rubbing their heads for about twenty minutes in real life. And that's why I don't hunt with a handgun...well, often. Couple the cacophony with the heft and forget it. It'd be handy I guess for up close and personal hunting, but I can see myself trying to stuff ear plugs in my ears before taking a shot at some monster buck and watching him bolt at all my movement. Wearing earplugs for a whole hunt would be very uncomfortable and you'd miss alot of sounds doing so.

Easy. Revolvers are easy and that's what makes them so popular...and boring.

No, the reason I have this gun, its purpose, is to remind me of who owned it before me. The guy who let it get those little rust spots while it was stuffed under a salesman's car seat. The guy who must've dropped it on its rear sight once. His name was Bill Maron and when he realized he wasn't going to beat his cancer, he started selling things to make it easier for his wife to settle his estate once he was gone. I bought his Gun.

Naturally, the gun'll shoot! It's a Smith & Wesson! This company has got it right, has had it right, and will keep making handguns that are worth keeping (I don't have that Ruger GP100 anymore by the way). And since it's chambered in .357 Magnum, I can also shoot the weaker, shorter granddad .38 Special--in spite of the "name", the .38 bullet diameter is the same as the .357...I know, go figure. The less powerful cartridges make shooting the heavy handgun downright enjoyable and fun, perfect for plinking and clod busting. Shoot a full metal jacket .38 with a low, setting sun behind you, and you can see the bullet streak off as it reflects sunlight off the flat base. That's sweetness--nature's tracer bullet.

The short .38 Special on the left, and .357 Magnum on the right. Both
can be fired from the same pistol!

Anyway, what you've read about revolvers is mostly true. They are simple to operate, simple to load, accurate, and reliable to boredom levels. I will say, you do get what you pay for. You can find a Smith & Wesson on the used market for a decent price if you research (troll) gun auction sights and the like. As I wrote, I bought this one from a friend I wanted to remember. And when I hold this gun, when I shoot it, clean it, or reload ammo for it...I think, "Damn! Bill shoulda just willed it to me! $400? Ouch!"

Here's a helpful tip: If someone pulls a revolver on you, scope out the cylinder
and see if it's even loaded! With full power loads, you can see the ends of the
cartridges. Ha ha, just kidding...RUN, DUMMY!

A Gun a Week: Marlin 336CS, 30-30 Winchester

Marlin 336CS in 30-30 Winchester.

It wasn't too long after I bought that  Winchester Model 120 12 gauge in 1984 before I realized I needed a rifle. Well, need, you know, is one of those words. I guess I'd been hunting dirt clods and dove all summer and fall before I realized the colder it got that I needed a proper deer rifle. And again, since I was a farm hand, there was only one place to go: Best Products on High Point Rd. in Greensboro, NC. And by proper deer gun I mean Lever Gun, and once again there were only two choices for me: Marlin or Winchester.

Sure, there were other lever guns around at the time, but who had the time or the money to go hunting down a Browning BLR or an ugly-ass Savage 99? Not me--farm hand remember? As luck would have it, I'd already been able to fondle my dad's Marlin 39A in .22 LR so I reckon the choice was pretty simple after all. I mean who wouldn't buy for his first rifle a gun that came from the factory stamped with his father's initials? I bet I was 16 years old before I found out that all Marlins were stamped "JM" on the barrel and not just John Mothershead's.

The JM stamp on Daddy's Marlin 39A I first held when I was in the third
grade or so. It's mine now too since Dad is gone. The design is even older,
virtually unchanged since 1891! 

Turns out I made a wise choice. Back in those days, Winchester 1894s had only recently started making their lever guns eject shells out to the side of the receiver making center-mounted scopes an easy possibility. Before then, gunowners were out of luck or mounted scopes off kilter to the left side of the receiver, and that would be a tad awkward. Marlin, on the other hand had been producing solid-top receivers pretty much since 1889 on their Model, um, 1889. Solid top receivers make the Marlin safer and stronger. 

Just wait until I get to the powerhouse cartridges this little 100-plus year old design can handle!

I don't remember how much it cost, but I do remember living in a 30 foot camper-trailer on the farm for free and thus could afford it. Sure, I couldn't afford heat or hot water, but I got me a rifle, and a little later on, got me a little truck too. What else could a guy need to go deer hunting.

Oh yeah, time and money. Neither of which I had for a very long time.

Mainly I worked, and moved, and worked. There was a period where I did get to hunt alot* near Raleigh on the land that was going to become Falls Lake. I had moved to Garner to work for my first brother-in-law in his tree service after he took a fall. The lake was just wide open woods back then and it was open for the hunting! Though looking back, my first brother-in-law's hunting style might have hampered us a bit.

He called it "still hunting", but we weren't ever still at all. I call it walking around with a gun. In fact, the only time we ever saw deer in those days they were running and high-tailing it away from us. To this day, like I did back then, I have a natural aversion to shooting at running deer unless it's absolutely necessary. I've only done it twice in 48 years, but more on that later. Anyway, after a few months in Garner, I moved back to the Greensboro area, then High Point to start a lifetime of banging nails.

So I had the rifle and barely an inkling of where and how to hunt, and then got deeper into the trap of work and then suddenly college and then work yet again. The Marlin and Winchester became dusty props in my closet back "home". That's how alot* of people's guns spend their time, but all that changed for me finally.

By the time I was a seasoned hunter, and by that, I mean I had killed one buck with a muzzleloader, I was getting to understand that "stand hunting" (which is more like sitting down and waiting quietly and hardly any standing at all) is the way to go. And 21 years after I'd bought it, I shot a doe in the classic broadside presentation with that Marlin 336CS on Federal Gamelands in Vance County, North Carolina! Sadly, for me, this was in the days before every cell phone had a camera installed, so there are no pictures from that day, just the memory of the doe walking down the trail, eyeing me under my home-made, camouflaged poncho, disregarding me and then presenting me with that classic pose.

She darted off and I thought I had missed, but I hadn't. I found her ten yards off the trail. The 30-30 cartridge, developed by Winchester in 1895, the first U.S. small-bore smokeless powder cartridge, had done its job and she was mine...21 years after I'd bought it...did I mention that?

The big screw is where the safety button used to be. The wood isn't original either...suffice it to
say that Rooster Cogburn's classic move is harder to do than it looks and might make
for a cracked butt stock!

The rifle was manufactured in 1984 of course and sported the oft-lamented and hated cross-bolt safety that Marlin added to bolster the classic half-cock safety that lever guns have utilized since the early days of the Henry rifles. I never really cared about the safety one way or the other, but when I got the chance, I bought a filler bolt that allowed the removal of the new-fangled safety making the rifle's lines smoother. I've had other Marlins with that safety, but never bothered to rid them of the ugly button. I'm just not as nerdy nor die-hard as other Marlin owners anymore.

Here's a sister Marlin 336CS with the cross-bolt safety. I won't mess with it now. It is what it is.

I've set the rifle with a few different types of optics from time to time--when you can't afford new guns, one way to "cope" is to tweak the ones you already own. Early on I shot it with the factory, semi-buckhorn sights. I've scoped it with the trendy (at the time) and silly "Kwik Site See Thru Mounts" that were supposed to let you use the factory iron sights or the scope above if one or the other failed. The arrangement is silly because if you use the scope, you have no cheek weld to the stock, and if you use the iron sights, you run a real risk of donking your forehead with a scope.

A photo of us in 1995 or so. The rifle sports the out of fashion "See-Thru" sights and I out of fashion spectacles.
There too is the original wood stock before my "rifleman" move.

I eschewed all optics once and used a Weaver "peep sight" on the rear of the receiver though very quickly realized that when deer are most active--predawn and after sunset--the sight is almost worthless. I quickly forgot that set up after a few failed outings. Failed because, if I had seen a deer in the dim light, I wouldn't have been able to shoot it with confidence. Peep sights are a midday affair best for plinking and target shooting in my opinion.

For now, I've settled on the also trendy "scout mount" set up. That's an extended eye relief scope mounted further down the rifle body to make quick shots easier, or so the theory goes. And it works; that's the set up I used to shoot that doe, but it too is kind of silly. Lever guns scream for small, lower power scopes which also lend themselves to quick snap shots, though again, I hardly ever have to do that. Some day I'll tinker with it probably and find myself sticking a regular ol' 2-7 power variable scope on regular ol' Weaver mounts that set the scope as low as I can get it. It works, boringly so though.

XS Lever Scout mount. Another fad I fell into. It works though!

I think about how little I knew about rifles and ballistics and hunting and life when I bought the rifle. The Marlin and that Model 120 Winchester 12 gauge had me set to hunt anything in NC. From these two I began a pursuit of hunting, but also other shooting sports including reloading which is the home-making of ammunition! Had it not been for these two, I might've just been one of those people who say, "Oh yeah, I'd love to go shooting, or hunting," but then never do. Or worse, in my mind, I might've been one of those guys that buy a fine rifle and then let it end up as a rusty doorstop before it ever gets used for the purpose it was intended for. 

The scout scope set up allows for easy photo ops and plenty of eye-relief.
Don't worry! No Fluffy Kibs were harmed this morning!

I had to work long and hard for the money to buy this rifle and that's one reason I'll never ever get rid of it. So many friends do not have their first rifle for one reason or another, but I have mine. Sure, it has new wood since my Rooster Cogburn fiasco where I tried to spin it over a thinly-carpeted concrete floor in my first apartment and cracked the original wood, but it's still in my safe.

A Gun a Week: Winchester Ranger Model 120

I might as well start the Gun a Week thing with the gun that started it all. The summer I turned 18 years old, I had to make that choice that all first time, gun-buying hunters have to make: Remington or Winchester? I already knew I needed a shotgun so I could hunt anything that walked, crawled, climbed, or flew in NC, (a more expensive rifle could come later) but there was that nagging question. 

Back then, in 1984 at Best Products at least, the two pump shotguns that a farmhand from Lakeview Farms could afford was either a Remington 870 or a Winchester 1200. And since I was on my own and making a whopping $25.00 dollars a day, it sort of became an easy choice. After some fondling in the store and alot* of hemming and hawing, I bought the Winchester.

The Remingtons at the time, by the way, came with vent-ribbed barrels and fixed chokes. The ventilated-ribbed barrels were kind of a new thing that everyone had to have, but the screw-in chokes were something else. Choke tubes had come and gone over the years, and then, in the '80s were coming back but were being met with skepticism. I can remember a friend laughing at me for buying a shotgun with screw-in chokes.

A few test shots in the back yard onto newspaper hung in the trees made believers out of us.

Back then, screw-in chokes were "new" again.

Obviously, choke tubes are here to stay! So are ribbed barrels it seems though I forget what they're supposed to be doing. As loosely as this shotgun's rib is attached, I can't see that it does anything except look cool. Oh, it makes a handy place to attach a bead.

They're still making these! 

This shotgun has been with me under the bed or in a safe or cabinet ever since that summer of '84. It's been hunting many times and killed a few doves, ducks, geese, and squirrels. Early on too, when teenage boys were bored after work, it killed a few dragon flies, frogs, bottles and dirt clods thrown in the air. And at the heights of boredom, it has even been used to dig holes in the ground! I think I shot a catfish once too.

This shotgun also taught me a valuable lesson about gun handling shortly after I bought it. I was smart enough not to blow anyone's head off, or my own foot, that's always been a no-brainer, but I sure wasn't smart enough to not lean it against a buddy's car.

Two big gouges to remind me not to lean a gun against a vehicle.

Slam a car door on one side, and your gun will flop right onto the gravel driveway the car's parked on. I remember the clatter it made hitting the rocks and will never forget the two gouges that remain on the receiver to this day. Lesson learned.

I shot my first round of skeet with this gun--a respectable 18--and for a long time after that became addicted to chasing 25 targets with a whole host of different shotguns and gauges. This gun served me well until I realized I had to shoot skeet with an automatic and fancier over and under models. It's only recently that I've began to pull this old thing out of the safe when I'm off to shoot or hunt.

Turkey season is cranking up around these parts right now and I have a huge failure with this gun that I have to erase. Having called a big Tom right to my feet a couple of seasons ago, I had to jump up, gun blazing, to try and get him, but I missed...and missed...and missed. Completely surprised by the success of my calling, but utterly flustered by my misses, I'm now on a mission to get the stink off this shotgun this year.

Old "corn cob" forearm is a reach for a little feller like me.

Anyway, I'm glad I still have the first gun I ever bought. So many of my friends do not have their first gun. Part of me wonders if it's because I had to work my ass off for the money to buy the gun rather than have it just handed to me. Back then, to say money was tight would be an understatement, but being a teenager, I could live on popcorn, rice, and water. I'd say it was worth it.

A Gun a Week

Thinking about doing a little write up about the firearms I still own that are sitting in the safes I have around the house. I don't know if it'd be interesting to a reader who doesn't also have a few arms laying around the house, but I would hope so. I would love to have someone read my posts and maybe share a story or a photo about their own firearms and experiences with them, but it would be even better if my posts encouraged someone else to try a shooting sport after reading what it has all meant for me so far.

That would be the best case scenario.

The safe. Hard to picture as it takes up all my closet space.

The honest truth, though, is that I'd be writing for myself. I've said and written before that holding a rifle or handgun or shotgun is a great physical cue to set your memory off and running. Just the heft and smell of a certain rifle can transport you back to that hunt with that rifle and of course, the same would be true for the other types of firearms you own and have used.

Again, I am just going to write up about the few that I own. The guns I've owned and sold or traded off might get an honorable mention here and there, but I want to stick to the guns on hand. Of course, I have never been that good at sticking to plans. Obviously I would include photos if available.

Companion safe in the closet.

Another benefit, for me of course, is that I'll be forced to produce something on an imaginary deadline--one week, one gun. Every writer I've ever heard give suggestions on how to become a writer has offered the exact same advice: write. A few have even suggested reading, which is more fun than writing, but less productive. So I'm gonna write, and frankly, this will keep me busy for a year. I might have a problem.

Even the extra bedroom gets denied closet space.

The Next Big Thing Part II

That old Remington 721 in .270 Winchester? Remember this old gun? Yeah, I took it out to the range today. Before that, as you may recall, I had cleaned it and stuck a leftover scope on it in preparation for today. But even before I could shoot it, I had to manufacture ammunition for it. I had to reload some empty brass I had laying around.

I won't get into the ins and outs of reloading, there's been whole books and tomes written about the subject. All I will say, is that since every rifle, shotgun, and pistol  has their own favorite load, reloading makes finding that pet firearm's favorite load a snap. Or rather, it should be pretty easy to "cook" up several loads for one rifle and testing different recipes.

You can do that searching with factory ammo true enough, but factory ammo is expensive and comes in boxes of 20 cartridges for most rifles. So if your rifle hates Brand A, and you figure that out in a group of five shots, you're stuck with 15 cartridges you'll never take hunting or shouldn't take hunting as it sprays your target with a group that looks more like a shotgun "pattern" than a tack-driving deer slayer.

What I've started doing lately is loading batches of five cartridges of different configurations and seeing what can happen. Since I've always kept pretty good records of what I've shot and how it performed in almost all of my rifles, this has proven pretty effective and more affordable. Five test cartridges cost less than twenty.

So with twenty-five different concoctions, I went to the Rockingham County Gun Club to see what this old, new-to-me rifle would do.

What a mess. This doesn't include "the range box" of even more stuff.

Spread out, it looks like alot of stuff...well, it is. I got my pad for my elbow--the first time I ever shot at The Rock I bloodied my elbow! I have my front rest and rear bag for steady shooting to check loads for accuracy and to "zero" the rifle when the time comes. I have my notebook for keeping up with which load went into which target out there at 100 yards and sometimes, especially during hunting season, 200 yards. Ear muffs and a junky scope pressed into spotting scope service, and screwdriver kit are a must. I also have a knee-pad I like to stuff under my shirt to absorb some recoil though somebody I know has called it a diaper. Not pictured are shooting glasses which should be required for all shooting sports.

And obviously, I have bags and bags of cartridges fresh off the presses, or press. I really only use one. These are what will tell the tale of what my most accurate load is in this rifle from the several I brought with me. Each bag has the recipe written on a card and stuffed inside with the cartridges. To keep up with your results, it is super important to release your inner nerd, your inner bookkeeper, and keep (nearly--I'm a carpenter, Jim, not a scientist) meticulous records.

Don't try these recipes at home without doing your own homework! 

So once you have your loaded "shells" and all your accoutrements and you've tacked up a few numbered targets up on the backer board, you can start bam-bamming until you get a headache, which happens more than you think--shooting from the bench is no fun most of the time.

Since I hadn't zeroed the rifle with that scope before, I had to "boresight" it so I wouldn't waste all my precious, new ammo "getting on paper". Let's just say, these days I actually pull the bolt out, look down the bore and move the cross hairs to match what I see through the actual rifle barrel! I was on paper with three factory cartridges that I had shot and hated years before in a different rifle--see above: stuck with ammo you hate and wouldn't/shouldn't hunt with. They do come in handy from time to time I reckon.

After getting the gun on target, it's just a matter of putting bullets downrange all the while not flinching, jerking the trigger, and not letting the barrel get too hot. Hot barrels do hot-barrel things to your trajectory that a hunter just isn't going to encounter. A hunter's shot is going to be from a cold barrel, so cooling time between "shot strings" is a must. Don't be in a hurry is all I can suggest. Or, if you're like me, you take more than one rifle to alternate shooting times and thus, heating times.

After I shot, the results were in.

At 100 yards, the results were a bit disappointing I reckon, but target two's load shows promise!

Right now...I'll remind you that the rifle, the M721 Remington chambered in .270 Winchester was manufactured way back in 1951. That makes this rifle roughly 63 years old. Having said that, sometimes, that doesn't matter. I mean, who shoots all that much to "wear out" a barrel? Many people just don't shoot that much. The ethical hunters pull out there rifle in November, shoot it a few times to check zero, and then hunt with it for two months, maybe firing it twice before stuffing it back into the closet. That's how most of America uses rifles--but I suspect the previous owners of this gun was a shooter.

Not many rifles in .270 won't print a good group even with factory ammo, but this one seems finicky, and maybe it's due to the fact that previous owners shot it alot. Or maybe all she needs is a new muzzle crown or a pressure point and/or a bedding job. I have no idea, but look at target number two on the boards; that load shows some promise. The M721 printed an actual group that's worthy of more cartridges of that recipe being loaded and moving the crosshairs so the projectile will strike the target dead center[ish] and an inch and a half high.

Each square is an inch, so that's a 1.5 inch group maybe? Maybe a tad smaller.

But all the targets, no matter how crappy the load, go into a binder so I can remember the good stuff, and not repeat the bad stuff. The recipe for target two was an old favorite. The bullet was seated in the case just off the lands of the rifling and the powder was Hodgen 4350, an old warhorse if there ever was one. By contrast, if you can see from the photo of the targets, target four is a bust, but the only difference between it and target two is the powder choice--everything else was the same.

So that's the first outing with the rifle. It will get better I imagine--it shouldn't be able to get any worse! Now, though, I do have perfect little "fire-formed" cases that fit this rifle's chamber tighter than any factory ammunition ever could and that could mean even more accuracy out of target number two's load. And that's what I'll try the next time at the range, maybe daring to load 10 of them for 100 yard and then 200 yard shooting--we handloaders are a cheap, frugal bunch.

And before next time I guess I'll clean the bore again so it won't be as filthy as it was when I bought the rifle the other day. Once I get it zeroed and ready for hunting though, I won't clean or change a thing until the season's over. Once you get a rifle in its sweet spot, shooting where you want it to shoot, it's best just to keep it clean and lightly oiled on the outside and let it ride.

The Next Big Thing

I couldn't resist. The Cherry's Fine Guns website updates frequently...and like an H.I. McDunnough, I find myself virtually "driving by" eyeing the rifles for sale like H.I. did with convenient stores in the movie Raising Arizona.

And so it was, that a vintage Remington showed up yesterday for a reasonable price. And today, it showed up at my house! It is a Remington 721 in .270 Winchester. A quick message of text to someone in the know, and I found out it was manufactured in 1951. That's plenty of vintage for me.

The 720/721 models were introduced in 1948. They were a step above Remington's model 30's which were really just a quick and easy way to make sporting rifles out of leftover Enfield parts the government stuck them with after WWI. Obviously, there weren't any new rifles made for the public during WWII, and it looks like, after the war, Remington hit the ground running with the 720 and 721. 

Pick up your trusty Model 700, right now, and you're holding the latest refinement on the older 721. Think of your model 700 as the 721 2.1--no kidding. It's neat for me to see the likenesses, and differences, as I fondle my "new" rifle. But that's how innovation is. One idea spawns another.

Anyway, the next order of business is to rip it apart and clean it, inspect it, and really fondle it, inside and out. I'll snatch it out of the stock and check for rust below the stock-line and if I find any, whisk it away with some very fine steel wool. I'll blow the trigger mechanism out with compressed air. Just sitting around for years and years, a rifle can collect alot of dust in very unlikely places. Let the trigger and safety gunk up with dust and old, sticky gun oil and you're asking for trouble, especially on a cold morning.

Then, after I finish and put it all back together, I'll grab the scope I had on the last rifle I sold that was chambered in .270 as well (Oh the irony) and mount it atop the receiver. As old as the rifle is, those new-fangled scopes were coming into widespread use back then, so Remington wisely drilled and tapped the receivers for the mounts. My older Model 30 Express isn't prepared like that, and when I took it hunting, it was with open sights because I couldn't bring myself to "butcher" the old rifle and wanted to leave it as it was back in the day.

I know, I sold the old M700 Mountain Rifle and declared that I only like short action rifles, but this is a vintage model remember. I would have bought it even it had been chambered in something as dull and lack-luster as 30-06. I'll be holding "grand-dad's" rifle--someone's grand-dad I reckon. It's got it's own history inside it somewhere, and while I'm shooting it at the bench and working a load up for it, I'll be thinking about the people who did the same thing before me.

And when I'm up in a stand, or hiding under my poncho, hunting, I'll be thinking about how someone else had done the same things and had seen the same things as I. I'll think about how I'm using the rifle for what it was built to do. In my mind, the rifle has sat in a closet or a safe until Grand-dad died and the grand-kids took it to Cherry's to be sold on consignment for the cash and that it hasn't been in the woods for twenty or thirty years. And when I throw it over my shoulder and carry it afield, all will be the way it should be.

And when, if I'm lucky enough to do so, I shoulder the rifle and place the cross-hairs on a game animal, I'll have done everything right by that old rifle.

Remington Model 721

So, I can rationalize buying a new rifle to myself just like that--usually I have no problem doing so. And when it's an old, yet innovative-for-its-time workhorse, chambered in a go to cartridge like the .270 Winchester, giving into that craving just gets easier. My wife doesn't even try to understand, but then, I don't understand why we have at least three Christmas trees every year.

I'll keep you posted on how it shoots, and of course, I'll let you know when and where it gets to go hunting again--stay tuned.