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Old June 21, 2009, 10:13 AM   #1
Dave McC
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The Right Tool.....

First, Happy Father's Day to all....

It was back in the 70s, early October, and in the hardwoods. I followed the scent of roasting meat to my friend Jimmy. He was seated on a down log, with a small fire nearby. Over the low flames were two cleaned squirrels on sticks.

Jimmy pointed to another three he was cleaning and asked to borrow my sidecutter pliers. They made quick work of removing feet and tails.

I opened the action on my old H&R single 16 and propped it away from the fire near Jimmy's little 410. It was a relic of older times, a bolt action, single shot, hardware store gun.

I said that he had his limit early. I had some squirrels but needed a brace or so for my limit.

Jimmy grinned, "Five shots, five squirrels".

I set up two sticks of my own and we jawed about shotguns before eating and heading off to more hickory trees overburdened wiith bushytails.
.

I'm no fan of the 410 in general. But my friend knew what that old heirloom would do, kept his shots inside 30 yards, and had the woods skills to make those happen.

Another tale from the past.....

Irv was a decent sort who didn't get to hunt enough, if anyone ever does. We had invited him on a goose hunt on the Shore to make him feel good about letting us hunt his ancestral 80 acres in Carroll County, one over from us.

He had bought a Mag 10, a fine shotgun but vastly different from his Ithaca 37 20 gauge he used well enough in the uplands.

And like most of us,he didn't shoot those expensive 10 gauge shells on moving targets before heading for points south of Easton.

It was an expensive mistake. The weight and inertia of the big gun was more than Irv couold adjust to on short notice. After watching him suffer, we swapped guns and he popped a Canada or two with Frankenstein before the flights stopped.

And for the record, I did little better with the 10 gauge than he did.


OK, so what is the moral of these stories,you ask?

Use the right tool for the job and know how to do so.

Jimmy had a good Model 12 16 gauge to use, but that 410 was enough for the given job and was mighty light in the hands.

For that matter I had an 870, but the same reasons applied to my old 16 gauge H&R. Easy to tote, effective, and with the Fuller choke, capable of delivering a tight pattern of 6s to the top of any tree there.

And both of us enjoyed using guns that had been in the family and made meat before our births.

As for Irv, he sold the 10 shortly thereafter at a loss, but bought a 12 gauge Ithaca 37 which took 3" mags and served him well for geese and ducks. Probably still does.

The right tool is useless without expertise.

And we cannot buy that.

Questions, Comments, Ammo donations?.....
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Old June 21, 2009, 10:38 AM   #2
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Thanks fer the Happy Fathers Day and back to ya!

I was introduced to shotguns with one of these...

Similar but nicer shaped stock.
I was a tiny bugger (smaller than girls my age) and the .410 wile long as snot and nose heavy to my fly weight self. But the reduced recoil was a god send. I had no qualms at all using it on tree rats to deer with the right ammo and range. Flying pheasant and bounding bunnies many times fell to that gun. Too bad the price of ammo for them sky rocketed in the 1980's...
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Old June 21, 2009, 12:31 PM   #3
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Hit the nail on the head there Dave.

Love the mossy 410's in bolt action. I just picked up a very nice 183K to go with my 183D, 183T and several variants that were made for store lines. Friends all think it is nuts that they made a single shot 410 bolt action shotgun. The thing is sweet really makes you slow down to make the shot count. Seems recently I have been getting into the single shot "odd" actions. Stumbled into an Ithaca lever action single shot 22 that has probably seen more action since I got it then it had in the years prior.
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Old June 21, 2009, 08:52 PM   #4
Dave McC
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Thanks, Guys.

The only bolt action shotgun I have much time with was The Ugliest Shotgun In Howard County, and that was for slugs.

But, it's not so much the action as the use. When one shot is needed, it's up to us to place that shot correctly.

A shotgun, in order to be effective, has to place an appropriate load where it counts, doing so in comfort to the shooter.

The 410 shines at squirrels and rabbits, and in the right hands, game birds up to preserve pheasants.

The 410 and 10 gauge are extremes, we do better MOST of the time with something in between.

Regardless of the mission,prey or target, the shotgun MUST be well known to the shooter for best results.
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Old June 21, 2009, 10:48 PM   #5
.45 COLT
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Quote:
the shotgun MUST be well known to the shooter for best results.
That's a fact. A few years ago I aquired an old H & R Topper, 16 Gauge. Went and bought a box of shells for it and went out in my woods to bust a few Grouse. Five shots, five clean misses. Walking back to the house I cussed the gun, cussed the shells and for good measure, put a blanket cussin' on 16 Gauges in general. Went straight to my range and patterened the gun. What a surprise! Nothing wrong with the gun, or the shells, or with 16 Gauges in general. I tossed a rock at some of my chickens and swung on them when they ran. Didn't shoot, just studied on my swing. It was so jerky with that unfamiliar gun - much lighter than I normally hunt with - that I could see right off why I was missing. The way I was swinging, I'd be lucky to hit the ground. A little practice to smooth things out, I take the gun out to bust a few Grouse every year now.

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Old June 23, 2009, 08:26 PM   #6
Dave McC
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Whatever works,.45.

While not fashionable, a single shot well known to the user and sufficient to the purpose makes lots of meat.

A Jack Pine Savage I used to hunt with was a fine shot with his old single and could get off a couple shots with hits almost as fast as I could with an 870.

He held shells in his leading hand, and as he hit the release to let the barrel weight open the action and eject the empty, that front hand would shove a new load in, then move to close the action. He;d have the thing cocked by the time it hit the shoulder and went bang again.

Funny, some of the best game shots I've seen shoot like that. So do I, though no claim to greatness.

Again the keys, use enough gun and know it.
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Old June 24, 2009, 01:43 PM   #7
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Slightly outside the shotgun realm, but still to the same point. I deer hunted for years with a buddy of mine and a bunch of guys that all worked together. The ordnance ranged from a Remington 742 to a beautiful custom full Manlicher style .243, several Remington 700's, a Sako Finbear, etc.

My buddy Ernie hunted year after year with an H&R Topper .22 Hornet. No scope. He always managed to bring home just as many deer of a season as anyone else did. When teased his response was always, "When you know where to put it one .22 Hornet round is all you really need."

Sage advice as always, Dave.
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Old June 25, 2009, 08:46 PM   #8
Dave McC
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Thanks.

I recall a Model 94 in 32 Special from WVa, with little bluing and a long series of tiny notches between toe and lever. Each stood for a deer taken with it over the decades and generations.

Open sights, so so accuracy, low powered cartridge.

It's not the arrow, it's the Injun.....
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Old June 25, 2009, 09:37 PM   #9
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My dad may be the best wing shot I've ever seen and the only shotgun he ownes is a Mossy .410. He's used it on everything from clays to turkey. He's murder on waterfowl, tho we always give him first shot as they set to land and he does prefer teal (says they don't taste as gamey). He uses 2 1/2" shells only since he's convinced the 3 inches don't pattern well. I ain't one to argue. He never takes a shot that he's not sure he can make and I think that's what makes him look so good. But even with that, and when all my friends were getting their first shotguns in the old 410 bore, he bought me a 20ga (Bolt action Mossy of course). Said a .410 was no place to start. I've had a few .410s, never been very good with them, but they sure are fun. We always have several shotguns around, the wife has a pair of really pretty pumps, one browning one ithica that haven't been shot in years. I have my 311's that I wouldn't go into the field without.
There's a family shotgun, not sure who even has it now, that just gets passed around. It's a JC Higgens 12 ga pump, 30 inch barrel with that big cage up front to screw chokes into. The wood is bare and the blueing is just a faded memory. But that old monster has accounted for many first deer, including mine.
Rifles are rifles, pistols are pistols, shotguns are stories.
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Old June 26, 2009, 06:58 PM   #10
Dave McC
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Yep, John. Like that.

Were Pop still with us here, he'd marvel at the advances in wads, loads, non toxic shot, etc.

But then he'd grin and say something like.....

"You still have to put in in the right spot"...
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Old June 27, 2009, 09:38 PM   #11
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Had an old friend (of my grandad's actually) who used to get a kick out of me everytime I'd go around showing off another new gun. He'd just shake his head. Only gun he owned was an old 870, used it for HD, ducks, rabbit, quail, turkey, deer. Never went hungry that I remember.
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Old June 28, 2009, 10:10 AM   #12
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My cousin and I were hunting squirrels along a creek one winter day, him with a brand-new .410 single he received for Christmas and me with the Sears & Roebuck Stevens 20 ga. double loaned by our Pawpaw. I had borrowed and shot that gun more times than I can count and it always put the shot where I was looking.

We jumped a pair of bushy-tails and I dropped one as it scurried up a pignut hickory. He wasted five or six shots chasing the other one from branch to branch, insisting that he would get it on the next shot while reloading. Before it got away, I ended the discussion with a payload of Federal #6s from the other tube. I always loved the smell of those hulls.

Pawpaw was laid to rest and my cousin and I both have children of our own. The SxS 20 hangs over the back door and I will always cherish those memories.
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Old July 1, 2009, 07:07 PM   #13
Dave McC
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It boils down to.....

It's not what you have, it's what YOU can do with it.....
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Old July 1, 2009, 07:29 PM   #14
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True, but new toys are fun.
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Old July 1, 2009, 07:55 PM   #15
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I've told this story here on this forum before, but I will again. It's one of my favorite hunting stories even if I ended up being the butt of the joke.

My granddad bought me a H&R .410 single shot back in 1984 for Christmas. I was 10. I toted that little single shot all over the hills of TN and the sandhills of NC after cotton tails and bushy tails. Killed I don't know how many of both with it. By the time I was 15 or 16 I was hunting by myself close to the house. I'd get home from school early enough in early squirrel season that I could just get down to the woods below the house in time to kill a few and get back before dark.

One particular afternoon I did just that. Got home from school, grabbed my hunting vest and hat and my .410 and headed down the dirt road we lived on. Granted, I had graduated to the 12 ga. by this time for much of my hunting, but that little .410 was a handy squirrel killer. So when I headed out of the house and down the porch steps I realized my vest felt a little light. Turns out I only had 3 shells left for my .410 out of the last box we'd bought.

Oh well, "3 shells, 3 squirrels" at least that's how it usually went.....

I got down to the little patch of woods I hunted (only about 10-15 acres or so) owned by a neighbor of ours. I sat down on a little hillside under a sycamore tree and waited. Sure enough 10-15 mins later a squirrel ran up a pine tree right in front of me. I took a bead and hit him. He started sliding down the tree, caught himself and started back up the tree........."What tha?"............BANG.........Down the tree again, caught, back up the tree......."Holy #&%*"...........BANG........landed draped across a limb and stayed there.

Now I was out of ammo. I had a shot to pieces (I thought) squirrel laying dead (I thought) on a limb about 10-12 feet off the ground. I took my Western Cutlery hunting knife out and pitched it underhanded up at the squirrel. A couple of tries and I knocked him off the limb and he hit the ground with a thud.

I retrieved my knife, picked up my empty gun and grabbed the squirrel by the tail. He came to life and spun and latched on to my thumb with his teeth. You've seen a squirrel's teeth. They pretty much met in the middle of my thumb. I did a crazy little dance with a squirrel flopping off the end of my hand. I finally composed myself and got the squirrel loose from my thumb.

I grabbed him by the body and whacked his head against the tree until he was still. I trudged home. Embarrassed. Bleeding.

I dropped the squirrel on the porch and went in to bandage myself up. My grand dad hadn't got home from work yet, but did I have a story for him when he did. When I came back out of the house about 15 minutes later to get my squirrel and go skin him, he was gone. To this day I don't know if he crawled away (there was a bit of a blood trail) or whether a dog got him.

My granddad, never one to laugh at someone's expense, had a nice grin going on when I told him this story later that night. He said something along the lines of "Tomorrow, take the 12 ga."



In keeping with the topic of the thread, that .410 was handy and accounted for much game in my earliest years of hunting. But when I started using the 12 gauge (Remington 31), I started getting used to that big 'ol 12 gauge pattern. I had let myself slip a little bit........ Later in his life, when my granddad could no longer stand a day's tromp through the rabbit fields with the 1100 or 31 over his shoulder, he carried that .410 instead. He was about 72 the day I watched him roll a rabbit with it at near 70 yards in TN. No bull.....

I'd hate to have to feed myself with it today, but that .410 is still in the safe if I have to. So is the Remington 31......(and several 870's, Mossbergs, and an 11-87)
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Old July 2, 2009, 07:18 PM   #16
Dave McC
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Of course, John.

I had fun playing with that Saiga, and the B gun is learning to smash targets just like my old 870s.

But, it's still the Injun, not the arrow.

Of course, most Injuns have more than one arrow...

RRN, to this day I bear a scar on my trigger finger knuckles from a squirrel that I thought was dead and it disagreed with that. I did eat the thing though, and grinned like a possum with every bite...
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Old July 2, 2009, 09:19 PM   #17
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Glad to know I'm not the only one that's been fooled by a squirrel playin' possum.

Everytime I think of that experience I have that Ray Stevens song "The Day the Squirrel Went Berzerk..." running through my head.
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Old July 3, 2009, 05:39 AM   #18
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I have a pretty set of scars on my left thumb from a squirrel, but I wasn't hunting when I got them. I was up a tree grabbing baby squirrels from a nest and dropping them to a friend below. Everything was going fine until I grabbed a momma squirrel, or should I say until she grabbed me. You ever tried to hold onto a tree with one hand while trying to shake a squirrel off with the other? It ain't easy, but it'll make you smarter.

Last "new" toy I've had fun with is this 870 that's probably close to as old as I am. Still haven't gotten around to finding out it's B'day.
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Old July 3, 2009, 10:58 AM   #19
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Here is a link to a squirrel bite story... a true one too... I was prompted to write due to the bite remarks in this thread,,,,
http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/...60#post3574360
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