Well, I guess I’m doomed. It turns out none of the guns I routinely hunt with are safe enough to shoot.
My go-to gun for most things is a contemporary 20 gauge smoothbore made with a DOM barrel of 1026 steel.
My favorite original is 250 years old, a .55 caliber smooth rifle, handmade of wrought iron, a folded tube with a forge weld 50 inches long, probably done by some apprentice.
My favorite rabbit gun is a SxS percussion shotgun about 150 years old with damascus barrels.
My oldest replica is a sweet little .40 caliber, but it has a Douglas barrel, made with 12L14 steel.
Same thing for my dedicated turkey gun with the Colerain barrel, 12L14.
God only knows what kind of steel Bill Large used in the barrel of my other small caliber flintlock rifle.
Problem is, I’ve been shooting these guns for a lot of years, and I generally load what most people think of as heavy charges. Walking around with a bunch of ticking time bombs in my hands every time I go hunting, surely my time is running out. If even 0.01% of all the dire predictions I’ve heard over the years are accurate, it all has to catch up to me soon, and I’m a goner.
Well, it was fun while it lasted, but I’m no fool. Where’d I put that Marlin lever gun? :haha:
Spence
My go-to gun for most things is a contemporary 20 gauge smoothbore made with a DOM barrel of 1026 steel.
My favorite original is 250 years old, a .55 caliber smooth rifle, handmade of wrought iron, a folded tube with a forge weld 50 inches long, probably done by some apprentice.
My favorite rabbit gun is a SxS percussion shotgun about 150 years old with damascus barrels.
My oldest replica is a sweet little .40 caliber, but it has a Douglas barrel, made with 12L14 steel.
Same thing for my dedicated turkey gun with the Colerain barrel, 12L14.
God only knows what kind of steel Bill Large used in the barrel of my other small caliber flintlock rifle.
Problem is, I’ve been shooting these guns for a lot of years, and I generally load what most people think of as heavy charges. Walking around with a bunch of ticking time bombs in my hands every time I go hunting, surely my time is running out. If even 0.01% of all the dire predictions I’ve heard over the years are accurate, it all has to catch up to me soon, and I’m a goner.
Well, it was fun while it lasted, but I’m no fool. Where’d I put that Marlin lever gun? :haha:
Spence