As I have shared with you here many times before, I don’t really think of myself as older, at least not yet. Sometimes I have to remind someone of this, like maybe a young man at the checkout counter with a slight attitude and really cute hair. I know I have boots and shotgun shells older than this person, so I try to take it easy on them, I really do. They haven’t lived anyway near as long as I have, I am plenty old enough to be their grandfather, and I don’t like being the one to tell them about an old axiom on respecting their elders. O well, if somebody has to do it, I will.
About now you are halfway through your Cheerios or coffee and are wondering, as usual, where I am going with this. Thinking about age and the passing of time, I of course relate it to the outdoor world, hunting, fishing, and firearms. Like we have said here before, maybe no other group is as nostalgic and romantic about the guns and gear we outdoorsmen take to the woods. A favorite knife or firearm passed down from our Dad, uncle, Granddad, or cherished mentor is something we treasure but maybe find it hard to put into words why it is so special to us.
Taking that special shotgun or rifle to the woods brings us back to being as close to that person as we can manage now that they are gone. All they taught us, the wonderful places they took us, and those amazing days we had with them afield can come flooding back to us. All from carrying an old gun to the woods.
Much of the firearms and outdoor industry revolves around what is new on the scene, that is the way of things. Sometimes though I want to think about days gone by and an older shotgun or rifle that we can reminisce about. Here are a couple.
I am sure we have talked about the Remington model 34 .22 rifle here before. Remington made this rifle from 1932 to 1935 and over 161,000 were made. When first introduced this rifle sold for the princely sum of $13.50. Sometime, probably in the early 1950’s my Dad acquired a model 34 and it was his squirrel rifle for 50 years. This rifle was neither fancy or expensive, but it has always been known as a shooter and he certainly proved that in the time he carried it.
I would love to know how many squirrels that rifle has taken in its time, I’m here to tell you, it’s a lot. I can see him slipping through the woods on his way back to the truck, with the old model 34 with the ancient Weaver ¾” scope on top. I’m sure that scope was mounted in the garage he worked in at the time, probably by a method not aesthetically pleasing for some, but it has worked all these years. He once told me that he and a buddy sighted that .22 rifle in, inside the garage, after work one evening. It was a simpler time; you could do things like that back then.
In thinking about .22 rifles I must bring up the Marlin model 39A. I used one of these fine rifles for a long stretch back in the day when my Dad was still toting the model 34 Remington. It always amazed me that the Marlin, a lever action rifle, was and is considered a very accurate rifle. To top if off the 39A is made in a “take down” configuration where it easily comes apart in two pieces for easy carry and storage, rifles made in such a way are not usually considered particularly accurate, but the Marlin 39A is. This .22 rifle, up until the Remington/Marlin bankruptcy and sale debacle was considered the oldest and longest continuously made shoulder firearm in history. (Over a hundred years) Like a lot of guns the 39A evolved from several lever action .22 rifles that came before it, starting with the Marlin model 1891, the first lever action rifle to be chambered in the .22 rimfire, and went down in history as a rifle once used by Annie Oakley.
No doubt there are thousands of 39A’s out there in closets, gun cabinets, and behind the kitchen door. The gun company Ruger bought the Marlin part of the Remington empire and is back to making guns, particularly the model 1895 rifle in .45/70 caliber. It is unclear at this time if Marlin will bring back the production of the 39A .22 rifle, but I sure hope so. It would be nice to know that others can go to the gun store, purchase a new 39A, and start their own legacy with it.
Well like always we are out of time and space. I know some of you gun gurus out there are gripping the paper and wondering how in the world this guy could bring up this old gun subject and not mention your favorite shootin’ iron. How could he not talk about the Winchester model 12 shotgun, the Remington 700 rifle, the Winchester model 70, an Ithaca 37 shotgun, or even the Colt 1911 pistol? (I just have to do a spoiler alert here, sometime soon you will hear something from me about the new Remington 870 shotgun.)
Well, as always thanks for going on this little ramble with me. Maybe take one of your old guns out of the cabinet this week and reminisce with it a little bit. I will try to not dwell on getting older and to go easy on the younger set when they think they know everything, even when their spiky hair is really cute.
