BLAST FROM THE PAST

backwoodshome.com ^ | 8 January, 2010 | Massad Ayoob

[marktwain]

BLAST FROM THE PAST

My Christmas gift to myself was a carbine I’d always wanted: a lever action Winchester complete with saddle ring. It was the iconic gun of the Western movies. If it was good enough for John Wayne, it was good enough for me.

As a child of the East, not the West, I wasn’t much of a horseman. The closest I ever came to having one of my own was when I owned a Ford Bronco. It took a good part of my life to figure out exactly how that damn saddle ring interfaced with the saddle: you never saw THAT in the cowboy movies.

Another New Englander, one C. L. Innis of Westminster, Massachusetts explained it in the July, 1964 issue of Guns magazine, a publication I would later proudly serve as handgun editor. Mr. Innis wrote, “I’m not trying to start a controversy but in my younger days I homesteaded for nine years in Campbell County, Wyoming. My Model ’94 Winchester .25-35 carbine was equipped with a saddle ring as were most of the lever action carbines of strictly civilian calibers that my neighbors had. The popular method of slinging a rifle to the saddle was to run one of the saddle strings (by the horn, either side) through the ring and secure with a single bow knot for quick release.”

[marktwain]

I have an old Springfield 84C .22. My father aquired it during the depression and used it to poach deer to feed the family. It was often borrowed by neighbors to do the same thing, usually returned with a front quarter. My father said that it had accounted for upwards of 200 deer. He said a deer shot through the lungs with a .22 didn't run any further than one shot through the lungs with a 30-06, about 100 yards, then they lay down. I do miss him, but the old .22 will be passed on to my kids.

[TLEIBY308]

A deer shot in the ear with a 22 doesnt run anywhere.

[marktwain]

Depends on the angle... I have seen a number of deer with holes in their ears... ;-)

[southernerwithanattitude]

The Lord only knows how many deer have been killed with a 22. I remember watching my grandfather shoot one that was running flat out and you would have thought it was hit with a sledgehammer.

I myself have killed them with a 22 mag when I was younger.

[Chode]

i always thought it was for a tether in case you dropped it while on the move...

[wildbill]

Back in 1963 the company I worked for had an incentive program that let you pick your prize from a catalogue.

Once I saw the Windchester Model 94 in .30-.30 caliber as an option, my lust for it drove my sales production to new heights.

I’ve had many other rifles, all with higher prices, better calibers, scoped sights and longer range, but none ever gave me more satisfaction or better service when hunting in the close-quarters of S.Texas brush country.

[Swordmaker]

I had an Winchester 1886 45-70 Saddle Ring Carbine. Only 100 or so of these were ever made.