Shooting gophers with vintage rifles

[shrapnel]

I love old guns and I keep finding them. The real trouble is that I fall in love with them and can't part with them as I should. I have an 1873 made in 1886 in .22 long caliber. Shooting the gun isn't as hard as finding the ammo. When you do, it is $9.00/box.

I took it out today and found a few gophers that weren't afraid of the overcast and windy day. I actually got to shoot a gopher with this gun. It is satisfying to be able to use something like this as old as it is...



Last week was a Whitney Kennedy 44-40...

[Shotgun Franklin]

Gopher, ground squirrels and moles, I hate the lot of'm. I can't tell you the number of times I've had a horse stumble in a hole. Kill some more.

[StrawHat]

Not a repeater but my lever gun is a Ballard chambered for the 22 WCF cartridge.  A lot of fun but a pain to use with black powder.  I am still looking for the magic combination!

[rebsr52339]

This kinda brings back memories of a while back. When I shot in the buffalo Runner Matches in Virginia City Mt. a bunch of years back we would occasionally hit one of these gophers/prairie dogs with the .45 or .50 Sharps. God what a mess. The whole hillside was covered with them.

[wildman1]

This kinda brings back memories of a while back. When I shot in the buffalo Runner Matches in Virginia City Mt. a bunch of years back we would occasionally hit one of these gophers/prairie dogs with the .45 or .50 Sharps. God what a mess. The whole hillside was covered with them.

Ah assume ya meant that two ways (the whole hillside was covered with them).  WM

[Jamie]

When the sun is shining on both sides of the fence, I will take out my dad's old Winchester 92 in 25-20 on a woodchuck hunting foray.  It was built in 1927, and though the bluing is worn from the carry point is in excellent condition.  More than one or two woodchucks have fallen to it, and it really gets the job done whether the projectile is a pokey factory 86 grain soft nose, a Hornady 60 grain flat point or one of them new fangled 75 grain Speers that it really loves.  I've never shot black powder in it, so I may be missing something, but don't want the woes of cleaning the innards, just in case.  I will have to try sometime though, I love the smoke!  The most interesting chuck I've gotten was a four fanged wonder, all of whose incisors had grown during hibernation, and had curled up (or down) in a circle until one top and one bottom had actually entered the skin just below the right eye, and the lower left jaw.  Not a terribly uncommon fate, I've seen several others over the years.
Jamie

[litl rooster]

I use to work for an outfitter there in the Ennis area, I could sit on his front porch and shoot gophers all day. One of the few critters I would kill just to kill. I have used a .22 both rifle and pistol and I have used a .30 /30 levergun.

[Marshal Deadwood]

 Shrapnel I DO admire your taste in old firearms.