Hunting with a vintge Winchester

[izzyjoe]

I have taken my 8mm 1888 commission out on a few occasions, and I get some strange looks when I meet other hunters in the woods, most times they ask what tha hell you got there boy!

[Paul D. Heppner]

9.3, I pick up the old papers at gun shows on a fairly regular basis. I prefer the Winchester with a folded crimp. They always go bang. I've not had such good luck with the Remington ammo using a card and rolled crimp. They quite often don't go bang. Ballistic Products has everything you need to make your own paper fodder including hulls.

[rking22]

Another fan of the smell of paper shells on a frosty morning! Really takes me back to the simple times of youth. I think Federal just stopped making their paper international loads. I never could afford them but sure picked up the hulls when cleaning up the field! I load them for vintage shoots and to mess with the kids shooting the latest greatest gotta haves at sporting clays shoots. Love that smell and have introduced the younger generation to the pleasures of simpler times, least I try too.....

[CWME]

I haven't been deer hunting since my kids were born. I was thinking the other day I should get back into the woods for the deer hunt at least once this year. My Win 92 in 44-40 probably has a tale or two about hunting deer if it could talk. I also have a Marlin in 32-40 that would be fun to take along. I was at my Wife's Grandmothers house the other day and found some vintage Remington 32-40 shells for that rifle. She gave me the Marlin a few years back. One full box and the second was missing 12 so I have ammo covered.

[shoot-n-lead]

Not vintage in age, but vintage in design...i.e.levergun.

[Rufus Krile]

9.3, I pick up the old papers at gun shows on a fairly regular basis. I prefer the Winchester with a folded crimp. They always go bang. I've not had such good luck with the Remington ammo using a card and rolled crimp. They quite often don't go bang. Ballistic Products has everything you need to make your own paper fodder including hulls.

An old friend put me on to some Remington .410 paper hull shells back in 1980. The shells date from the '50's and I got a case each of 2 1/2" and 3"... all roll crimp. Never had a failure out of any of them and when they go off and I get that smell, I'm 6 yrs old again hunting doves with my father. I ration them closely.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

(Where da heck you git paper hulls, fiber wad columns, or card wads these days? That's like finding silkworm gut for fly fishing leaders)

Well not entirely. You can make wads out of fibre and card, but you can't make silkworm gut out of anything but silkworms.

For those interested in putting the Browning lever Winchesters to work, I can recommend "The Winchester Lever Legacy" by Clyde Williamson. It is a massive great doorstep of a book, out of print and quite expensive on www.bookfinder.com, but behind its folksy façade it hides about as exhaustive a reloading and testing program as you will find in any gun book.

[Smoke4320]

If A 1896 6.5 Swiss (actually stamped 1916) qualifies after downing a 9 point ...yes

[nilz]

I have a prewar Wincester m70 with a Lyman peepsight that i take hunting a few times every year.
Its chambered for 220Swift so i only use J-words in it..

[opos]

Having worked in a gun shop in the 50's while going to college I'm one of the old guys that grew up "converting" milsurps into deer rifles (call me bubba if you like). I'm too old to hunt any more but my rifle "stable" is a couple of 1917 Enfields (one in 30-06 and one in 25-06), a 98 Mauser in 8mm sporter, a 7x57 model 98 Mauser and my "toy"...a Winchester model 62A pump 22 with a hammer (had it out wiping it down last night). I shoot them all..I load for them all (but the 22) and wouldn't trade my time with them for anything else...never owned a black weapon..everything is low tech and it all shoots much better than I'm capable.

[nekshot]

bet you got a bottle of Hoppes near by for aroma if nothing else. I forgot but my dad gave me his model 12 Winchester in 16 gauage he bought new in the 30's and he harvested 21 deer with it. My son has it now and is always looking for a place to hunt with it.

[sharps4590]

Yes sir. I haven't hunted with a modern or modern designed rifle in.....at least 20 years and perhaps loinger. Granted my Sharps are both Shiloh's but all either have seen is black powder and cast bullets and I bought them new. The "most vintage" rifle I have and hunt with is an E. Goldmann, German double rifle in 11.15 X 60R from the late 1870's most likely. Certainly no later than the early 1880's. Next would be an E.M. Reilly double rifle in 500 BPE from the 1880's. A Jost & Diehl combination gun in 10.5 X 47R known to be from the 1880's and there's a few other pre-WWI and between the war Mauser sporters, a 1904, Mannlicher/Schoenauer proofed in 1929, a few drillings, all but one pre-WWI, one of which is known to be at least pre-1890. All except one drilling and the M/S are cast bullet shooters although I also have jacketed loads worked for the newer stuff. Several have fired nothing but BP since I've owned them. Yes sir, I like to hunt with vintage firearms.

[Iowa Fox]

Just something kind of special about pulling the big hammer on an old Winchester back just before you take the shot.

[6pt-sika]

Not a rifle, but I do bird hunt with a 1911 Ansley H. Fox side by side. It's a 30" "A" grade choked .012 on the right and .017 on the left. Not only does it do flawless work on feathered critters but it does quite well on clay targets. When I hunt with it I feed it 1950's vintage paper shells. Those spent papers have the best aroma known to man!

Nothing against vintage shells but I load plastic hulls for all my Parker's Foxs and Smiths as well as a few older British guns . My all time fav is my grandfathers old circa 1881 hammerless W&C Scott 10 gauge and my Parker EH circa 1889 10 gauge is in a close second . . That's the Scott by the way killed it with hand loaded Bismuth last season .

[6pt-sika]

I'm also kinda partial to a little circa 1928 Parker VHE 20 gauge . Only owned this one about two years but I've known the gun since I was little .

[rondog]

If I had a vintage Winchester, dang right I'd hunt with it!

[Texas by God]

I have a tradition in pheasant hunting in that I always kill my first cock with a paper shell and then pass the hull around like a wine cork for all to sniff! I have a SXS NR Davis&Sons 12 ga from the 1910's that gets down from over the mantle for that first bird. I've used a 98 Krag to harvest one of my most memorable whitetail bucks and I always use my 1954 Win 94 30-30 in the thick stuff. Good thread, this one. Best, Thomas.

[JMtoolman]

I have hunted with vintage guns for most of my life. The earliest was a muzzle loading rifle from 1824, a Riley double from about 1840, and another double ML from Scotland made in 1869. A number of black powder rifles, a Peabody, Winchester, Remingtons, Martini's, and on into the early 1900's military arms. Had a lot of fun and it adds another element to getting your meat! The toolman.

[aap2]

I have hunted with my 1873 Springfield trapdoor 45-70 with good results for many years. Feeling the need for a more modern repeater I recently switched to a 1878 Swiss Vetterli in 41 Swiss. Both are accurate and powerful and fun to hunt with.

[Thumbcocker]

I always get a little miffed when someone says a gun is just a tool. No way no how guns are special.