question to the gun gurus

[Jeff Higgins]

You should check out some of Shoemaker's stuff; he is pretty darn knowledgable and entertaining to boot. Lots and lots of hair raising, funny, sad, disturbing, and whatever else kind of stories.

He prefers big bore lever guns for up close and personal alder thicket type work. He recounts one tale of a big old sow standing up in front of him as he was negotiating a driftwood pile on a river sand bar. He had just left an alder thicket, looking for another bear he had been tracking. The old girl stood up so close he actually had to step back to have room to raise the rifle barrel. It was an old '86 Winchester rechambered for the .375 Scovill (darn near .375 H&H thump in a lever gun). He says the first piece of brass was still in the air as he was pulling the trigger on his third shot. He got a little excited... Try that with a bolt gun someday.

[charleskieffner]

ya know with winchesters going thru the roof here in az. a 6.5# LB. lever action model 94 is not a bad idea either. trapper barrel is 16 inches. not sure what the beefed up receivers weigh for 45/70-444-or 450marlin.

marlins upped the ante with their stainless models and adding porting. but a winchester really would be a keeper. just got call yesterday from my amigos at gregs auto here. all of the guys there have gotten the big "10" in this state. they are your true dyed in the wool hunting/gun fanatics. they knew i was into winchesters and one of them was looking to buy one. i kinda keep my nose to the ground on winchesters and of all places when we were hunting the south side of our unit 27, clifton az. is a winchester shoppee! bout peed meself when we were roaming around clifton. just picture sheer canyon walls, a railroad track, a road next to it, and some buidings next to road and rail.and a river that floods town when it feels like it. very narrow all but dried up defunct funky mining town. about hair away from being ghost town. morenci is still alive but clifton has seen better days.

anyway we saw a winchester rider flag below an american flag and lo and behold............WINCHESTER HEAVEN! talk about DROOL FACTOR! from early volcanic days to cowboy/indian days to world war II, to when they closed shop!

some beautiful guns. about left there with a new in box 45/70 for a 1000 bucks. i came to my senses and then declined for the time being. there is no way in hell im going there again (and its on the way to mongollon new mex. g/friends cabin) and walking out with nothing!

always wanted a lever .44 mag to go with pistoles. but a big bore, which i know weighs more, would be wayyyyyy coooool!

if you find ANY WINCHESTER and the people dont know what they have........jump on it no matter what condition. if bluing bad, leave it that way. DO NOT RE-BLUE! they sell for more that way. guy in clifton knows his winchesters and about sent me into heaven when he told me my (3) winchester 30/30(trapper-16"/ranger-20"/wrangler-big handle-16") 1894-1994 inscribed on receiver are now worth a whopping $1000 plus a piece!!!!!

bought each of them for $300 bucks in 1994. still have boxes etc. perfect shape NRA 99.99999999999999%. after that i told kid who was using ranger which i fiberglassed stock and foreend to save wood, if he screws it up hunting DONT COME BACK!

i will say im torn btw nostalgia(winchester) and a stainless ported mega round marlin.

the quest continues. going to bear arms today after work. they have the smith 329pd survival kit(factory smith). comes with asundry survival crap like whistle knife mirror blah blah in pelican case. hes had it for quite some time and probably will not sell it unless some goofy city slicker comes in and needs it for his humvee expeditions thru downtown snobbsdale. will try and do some creative horsetrading with him and see what kind of deal he can lay on me.

but if you see a winchester no matter condition or caliber GRAB IT! any of the limited editions golden spike/calif bicentennial/bat masterson/apache/canadian cenntennial etc, if they have the box or not GRAB IT!