littlecanoe Posted July 8, 2008 Report Share Posted July 8, 2008 A fella in my community, I've only known him for 3 years, gave me a tour of his basement today. He's heavily into SASS events, model trains and just shooting in general. As we worked our way back to the reloading/gun room I was like a hungry owl in a field of mice. I do believe that I have whiplash. This guy has a ton of nice toys and stuff. Just a bunch of guy stuff! We looked at all the pretty guns and then came to some reproduction flintlocks that he had assembled. I oogled them for a bit and marveled at the light trigger that was on them. Very nice fit and finish. He then pulled out an old Springfield 45/70 that had been passed on to him by his wife's grandmother. The story goes that the family was together and granny asked everyone but him to leave the room. She then asked him if he knew where the "fish" gun was to which he gave affirmation. "Go down and get it", granny said. He willingly obliged and brought the "fish" gun to granny who proceeded to hold it close and caress it. She then stretched out her arms and said, "it's yours". He was slack-jawed and said, "But what about (father-in-law)? What will he say?" Granny had already talk to the F-I-L and said that they were both impressed with how the fella took care of his guns and that he was to have it because he would take care of it. No further twisting of the arm was required because it was firmly in his grasp and he had a new/old gun. The first look over of the "fish" gun revealed that the barrel was full of stuff from being stored for such a long time. The fella began to clean the gun while contemplating what he would do with it; rebarrel or keep in the less than pristine condition in which he had received it. After giving the gun a deep and thorough cleaning the "gun fiend" inspected the barrel a second time and again became slack-jawed. What had appeared, upon first inspection, to be a shot out black-powder-corroded relic turned out to be the damsel in the tower! The barrel was mint! As a dedicated meticulous reloader and "gun fiend" he began to cast some nice lead bullets and found the right combination of pressure, accuracy and bullet weight and found that he had/has a tack-driver that will put the shots in a nice little group at 100 yards. Today I looked down the barrel and was shocked at what I saw there. The "gun fiend" shined a bore light through the breech as I stared at a beautiful, shiny new bore. Minty fresh understates the condition of this barrel. There is no galling, no pitting, no surface rust and almost no machine marks. This barrel, which was assembled to the action in the early 1880's looks better than most of the high tech barrels that we buy or find on new guns. Absolutely unbelievable considering modern vs historic technology. Now to what "fish gun" meant. It seems that the family, dad and kids would fish with this 45/70. How? The kids would get into the stream and walk up stream herding suckers in front of them. The suckers would naturally find hiding places underneath the rocks. At this point the father would send the kids in the other direction and shoot the rock under which the suckers had taken refuge. The fish would the float up to the top from beneath the rock and the kids would rush in and collect them. People really used to get to have some fun HuH? We ended the visit because I was late to a couple more appointments but left the "gun fiend" with the promise that we will go through the other half of the house on my next visit. I can't wait. No twisting of my arm will be required because there is not only a lot of neat things to see, but Mr. Fiend is a great story teller and each piece that we look at seems to have a story all to itself. I just love family history. Well, it was a very interesting story as it was told to me so I thought that it would be neat to pass it along. I did learn today that there is an amazing education waiting you if you'll just take the time to walk through a guys basement and listening to old stories. lc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karlunity Posted July 8, 2008 Report Share Posted July 8, 2008 Thank you. I like old gun stories. karl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plumbum Posted July 8, 2008 Report Share Posted July 8, 2008 suckers are kinda small, no? smaller than smelt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlecanoe Posted July 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 In this area they are smaller than carp but look a lot like them. Probably 8 to 10 inches for a large fish. I'm not sure how people used to prepare them but this family would eat them. Anyone else out there have any interesting old gun stories? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FC Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 What a present! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.