Thread: Well, we've finally managed to run everyone off. How sad.

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Wow, a subject I can comment on for a change - and comment is about all I'm gonna do; no need to advertise too loudly. I've been shooting and collecting since I was ten years old, competitively in one discipline or another for over thirty years, now retired. Got a bunch of lever actions, many of them antiques, a bunch of shotguns, same scenario, some bolt rifles, some semi auto rifles, many pistolvers, and some that load themselves after the first shot; but one thing I never got around to getting for my safe is a "black rifle". Always within reach are a 1911 of one pattern or another, and my favorite old 1897 Winchester short barreled shotgun.

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Originally Posted by Rrumbler

Wow, a subject I can comment on for a change - and comment is about all I'm gonna do; no need to advertise too loudly. I've been shooting and collecting since I was ten years old, competitively in one discipline or another for over thirty years, now retired. Got a bunch of lever actions, many of them antiques, a bunch of shotguns, same scenario, some bolt rifles, some semi auto rifles, many pistolvers, and some that load themselves after the first shot; but one thing I never got around to getting for my safe is a "black rifle". Always within reach are a 1911 of one pattern or another, and my favorite old 1897 Winchester short barreled shotgun.

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Sure would like to see pics of the Shotgun! I've got my grandfathers Model 1898 Winchester 12 gauge...I remember hunting with it as a kid and a guy literally running across the field asking me if I wanted to sell it!..lol

Rumbler, just curious if one of your levers is a 1910 Stevens model 425. I have one that was my grandfathers and I think his father in laws before that.

Jack.

Originally Posted by CR55

Sure would like to see pics of the Shotgun! I've got my grandfathers Model 1898 Winchester 12 gauge...I remember hunting with it as a kid and a guy literally running across the field asking me if I wanted to sell it!..lol

Sorry, I don't think I have any pictures of the '97, don't know why, as I have most of my stuff cataloged for insurance purposes. But, I can say it is no showpiece: most of the finish is completely worn off, the wood is beat up and basically "raw", the buttstock has a repair to the wrist that could have made that part useles, it is oiled, but that is just a function of the upkeep. I bought it pretty much that way, and paid a pittance for it; I was looking for a project, or a least, a spare parts source, and this thing fit the bill nicely. But after giving it a good once over, I decide to shoot it and see how well it worked; wow! It rattles when you shake it, and running the slide is more of a clank sound that the usual click-clack of a new gun, but in battery, it locks up solid, and shoots like a finely oiled watch. I can recall taking it to matches and having people look at it and just shake their heads, or suggest that maybe I ought to get a newer gun, but once I got it in action, they would, again, just shake their heads in amazement, and a few offered me crazy, exorbitant amounts of money if I'd sell it to them; but, no, we have a "thing" between us.



Jack, no Stevens 425. Got one Stevens lever action 22 Cal. single shot "Boys Rifle" that all of my kids and grands have learned to shoot with. From what I can find by poking at the internet, a 425 is quite similar to a Marlin 336. All of my antique lever guns are Winchesters of various model numbers, mostly '94 and '92.

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