Barn/ outbuilding gun

[nagantguy]

What do you ladies and gents keep in the barn for critter/pest/predator removal

I'll open; a chi-com short nagant rifle stocked with some cast ranch dog 168 grainers sized at 312 and powder coated with Smokes John Deere green and some 4895

[texasnative46]

nagantguy,

An old (circa 1920) single-barrel 12 gauge that I bought at a garage sale (for 20 bucks) about 3 decades ago. - It has accounted for many a critter over the years.

yours, tex

[farmerjim]

An old Winchester semi auto 22 that I bought for $50 30 years ago. It kills coons and possums that get caught in the traps. I also pack one of my pistols anytime I step out of bed.

[Texas Tinker]

My Ruger GP 100 is always close at hand loaded with 158 gr SWHP's pushed by a stout load of 2400 for things that go bump in the night. My "garden gun" , hanging above the window in the barn is an old Iver Johnson single shot 28 gauge.

[Gewehr-Guy]

I use old single barrel shotguns to keep in the shop and tractor cabs. If stored in the shop, stuff a red shop rag in the muzzle with plenty hanging out the end , easily visible and removable. This keeps out the mud wasps and flies. Some one please invent a suction cup barrel bracket with a velcro strap to use in tractor cabs, to properly secure the gun while bouncing over badger holes.

[Moleman-]

Eastern arms single barrel 12ga from the 20s-30's. It was free because it is missing the ejector and had a broken firing pin which was easy enough to make. Not having an ejector hasn't bothered me enough to make one yet in the 30 years I've had it. The reddish orange rubber recoil pad is crumbling and should be replaced but it still shoots just fine.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

nagantguy,

An old (circa 1920) single-barrel 12 gauge that I bought at a garage sale (for 20 bucks) about 3 decades ago. - It has accounted for many a critter over the years.

yours, tex

Ah yes, Jeff Cooper's preference for the occasional shooter and non-gun-hobbyist. A piece of tape over the muzzle will keep the mud-wasps out, and if it is a hammer gun no spring need be tensioned until the archaeologists find it.

I remember one of my Scottish WW1 veteran friends telling me, when I was only just old enough for the information to be respectable, that to protect a shotgun muzzle from mud on a trench raid, what you needed was "Yin o' thae contraceptuals, that ye'll get frae the nearest subaltern."

[richhodg66]

Cheap single barrel 20 gauge and cheap semi auto .22. The shotgun is loaded with buck shot, but has #6 bird shot shells right next to it. The total worth of both together probably isn't $150. Need to stuff a rag or something in the muzzle to prevent those mud daubers, we have them real bad around here.

[texasnative46]

Ballistics in Scotland,

YEP. My "junker" is a "hardware store" hammer-gun marked: River Arms Company of MS. (River Arms was a "trade-name" of a MS hardware vendor. - I have NO idea who actually made it. - It has no serial number or other markings.) = A piece of Scotch tape protects the bore from dirt-dobbers.
(It hangs muzzle down on a nail in the corn-crib next to a fruit jar full of #7.5 shotshells, where it's quickly available for threats of the 2 or 4 footed sort.)

yours, tex

[bedbugbilly]

Not on the farm anymore but I used to keep a single barrel .410 "Topper" with a box of shot shells. Handled anything that needed to be handled - rats, 'coons, 'possums & woodchucks.

[quilbilly]

nagantguy,

An old (circa 1920) single-barrel 12 gauge that I bought at a garage sale (for 20 bucks) about 3 decades ago. - It has accounted for many a critter over the years.

yours, tex

Same here! Also not bad on foggy mornings when the geese fly a treetop level over the barn during waterfowl season.

[texasnative46]

guilbilly,

My 20 bucks & then some was easily recovered when my cousin drove off a night-prowling thug about 5-6 years ago with my "junk shotgun". = Randy suspected that he was intent on stealing saddles/tack.

yours, tex

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Cheap single barrel 20 gauge and cheap semi auto .22. The shotgun is loaded with buck shot, but has #6 bird shot shells right next to it. The total worth of both together probably isn't $150. Need to stuff a rag or something in the muzzle to prevent those mud daubers, we have them real bad around here.

A rag isn't as liable to cause a ring bulge as some people claim. That takes something that will make the shot decelerate. But it can harbour moisture. At the very least make it a greasy rag and fix it down with a thumbtack so it gets pulled out when you go for your hardware. A plastic wine-bottle cork on a string would be better.er

Go to eBay and search for "suction cup" under home and garden tools, and you will find any number of suction devices for lifting panes of glass. They unloosen when you fold down one of two loop handles. Cut it to make a hook instead of a loop, and slip on a piece of rubber tubing to hold them together, and you have a gun hook for rear window glass.

[bob208]

use masking tape over the muzzle. it keeps things out of the barrel plus the air punches a hole through it. no chance of blowing a barrel. I read about them taping the barrels on fighters in ww2 to keep them from icing up.

[country gent]

Most of the barns around here had a .22 of some sort in them handy with a box of solids and maybe a box of bird shot, most were single shots ( stevens crack shots and favorites were popular as were the little marlins and Springfield bolt actions) these rifle also did duty as butcher guns to put animals down when butchering. These rested between studs or hung on a couple nails, if you were big enough to reach it or the ammo you were big enough to use it.

[375supermag]

Hi...
I don't have a barn or any outbuildings, but my go to for varmints and such on the estate is a Marlin lever action .22Mag rifle and an Ithaca M37 pump action 12gauge shotgun.
Both have accounted for numerous groundhogs, snakes and such.
Always have a loaded 1911 in .45ACP or a DA .357 Magnum revolver near at hand for two-legged vermin.

[Mtnfolk75]

Mine is a .410 Bolt from Montgomery Wards that I inherited from my Maternal Grandfather in 1971, it's kept loaded with a #6, a #4 & a Slug and hangs on a rack in the Mudroom. There is a 9 Round Nylon Rifle Sleeve on the stock that holds an assortment of the same, the .410 shells fit about like any Large Rifle would.

[higgins]

something over the muzzle to keep the dirt daubers out is a necessity. I didn't realize how pervasive those things were until we moved for the first time to a location where we have a barn. My leaf blower wasn't acting right a couple of years ago and I found a dauber nest that blocked the throttle linkage. After I cleaned that up it was still struggling, and finally a nest big enough to block about 50 percent of the outlet pipe rolled out of the outlet.

Back to the story at hand, I have seen what looked like small condoms that would fit over a shotgun or rifle muzzle to keep rain out. That should work. The column of air compressed in front of the bullet or shot charger should either blow it off or rupture it before the bullet got to the muzzle.

[texasnative46]

Higgins,

VERY TRUE. - "Paper wasps" will also happily fill most any pie/tube/etc. with their nest.
(I don't even want to think about what would happen to the shotgun AND to the shooter if you fired a live round with the tube completely blocked with a dirt-dauber or paper wasp nest.)

yours, tex

[Blanket]

use blue painters tape over the muzzle,

[samari46]

Bought an eastern Arms 12 guage single shot many years ago. Cut the barrel to 21" and had to make a new firing pin. Bought one of the limbsaver slip on butt pads and out side of test firing with the new firing pin hasn't been shot since then. Occasionally take it out when cutting the grass with my tractor for use against snakes. Frank

[Blanket]

22 bolt action 510 Remington's, used to keep a 8mm mauser hanging in the grainery but never used it

[starmac]

A balloon stretched over the muzzle works well.

[three50seven]

The only thing I leave in the barn is a BB gun, but I keep an old Stevens 16ga single shot inside the back door loaded with #6 lead. Have shot several yard critters with it.

Sent from my LGLS775 using Tapatalk

[snowwolfe]

I keep a .semi auto .22 in the workshop. In the house there is a .223 loaded with reduced loads in case a coyote is dumb enough to expose its self in the back yard.

[Bullwolf]

Barn gun was an old crack barrel single shot 12 gauge. Think it was a Stevens or a Savage, with an oft glued back together split in the wrist area.

Stuff an oily paper towel in the muzzle end, and yank it out before use.




- Bullwolf

[SSGOldfart]

I just keep my back-up 38special on my left ankle,been there fore about 40 years now like a hat I Never leave without both on. [smilie=1:

[Artful]

Single shot 12 ga - used electrical tape doubled together over the top and a wrap around the barrel to secure the ends

[snowwolfe]

Another vote for taping the muzzle. If you live in the country a mud dabber WILL find a way to plug up the barrel. I went to shoot one of my 22 that leans against the wall in the workshop and noticed some light tan residue on the muzzle. Flashlight revealed the barrel was plugged with mud. Took an hour to get it clean. Then went into the house garage where I keep a 10-22 hanging on the wall. Yup, she was clogged as well. Now they are both covered with painters tape.

[Old Scribe]

I bought a . 22 auto rifle about 40 years ago, marked Coast to Coast (hardware stores ) and right after killed a skunk in the chicken yard.
Marlin made these rifles and it was with me just about all the time. In the truck while I was changing irrigation water, disking and near by when feeding or milking.

[rintinglen]

My Granddad kept an old single barrel 410 in the barn, primarily for skunks and foxes that were after eggs or chickens. It was one of the first firearms I ever shot.
I live in California and leaving a firearm unsecured is just asking for some 16 year old meth head to steal it and then get you thrown in court when he hurts somebody with it.

[Lloyd Smale]

I live in rural Michigan and we have crack heads here and for that matter there everywhere. I wouldn't leave a loaded gun anywhere on my property. My luck the crack head or juvenile thief would use it on me or kill someone else with it and id have to answer for that stupidity. Just to easy to stick a gun in your pocket or grab a shotgun out of the entry closet when you head out of the door. You may think it wont happen to you but things like this happen in every part of every state.
My Granddad kept an old single barrel 410 in the barn, primarily for skunks and foxes that were after eggs or chickens. It was one of the first firearms I ever shot.
I live in California and leaving a firearm unsecured is just asking for some 16 year old meth head to steal it and then get you thrown in court when he hurts somebody with it.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

I like the old tube-fed Sears bolt-action shotguns. Cheap, can keep chamber empty, still have 5(?) shots in the magazine. I have 3 buildings with them installed. Ido keep the muzzlescovered, yellowjackets, miller moths,etc. Always have a handgun in pocket or on belt.

[Ateam]

I keep an old rws diana 45 .177 pellet gun made in west Germany behind the door of my shop. It is scoped and deadly on just about anything that wanders into the yard. If i need more gun I always have a stainless kimber .45acp on my hip. Though in reality my German Shepard usually chases off the two leggers, and gives the four leggers the "one shake break" before I can get into play.

[FISH4BUGS]

When we bought our house, a 1790's farm house with attached shed and barn, the man we bought it from (who was born in this house and we are the first non family members to own it) gave me his Iver Johnson 12 ga Champion and his Marlin Model 80 22 bolt. He used them as a kid and kept them in the barn and the house. He is now pushing 90.
The shotgun was usable but well worn. Painted stock, etc. The Marlin was in good shape.
He said he kept them for all kinds of critters that populated a dairy farm.

[bob208]

I do keep a old Stevens 12 ga. single barrel in the barn. muzzle taped with a bag of shells with it.

[lksmith]

Don't really have an outbuilding at the moment but I have my camper parked next to the house I am rebuilding.
I keep a Marlin 17HMR bolt upstairs for critters and in the camper I have a Marlin 30-30 (loaded with Lee 170fn) for deer and any other stuff that needs shot.
Fortunately, with both locations being closed up, No need to cover the muzzle.