My dad didn't grow up with guns, but married into a very hunting-happy family. The first year of their marriage, my uncles and grandpa talked him into going deer hunting with them. He had both doe and buck tags, but no gun. He went to one of the gun stores and rented a Spanish M44 Mauser with a box of ammo for $10 for the season. When they were hunting, they had a herd of deer show up and one of my uncles pointed to one of the does on the outside of the group about 80 yards away and said "Shoot that one."
Now, when I say that my dad didn't grow up around guns at all, he didn't. But he grew up watching lots of the old western shows on TV. His first thought was "where to I shoot it?" Going back to the tv shows, the answer came quickly, "right between the eyes" since that's where the bad guys always got shot.
He took aim and pulled the trigger. The deer's head pretty much disappeared. That's the last deer that my dad shot. He took us deer hunting all the time, but never seemed to get close enough for a shot. Years later, we found out that he always took us because we were so noisy that any deer that let itself get caught within range of the "8mm howitzer", as we called it, was either deaf or too brain-damaged to safely remain in the gene-pool.
ETA: After that first deer season, he went to return the rifle and they told him he could keep it for another $10. Just making sure that no one thinks he stole a rented gun.
Well, about 20 years ago, he gave me the Mauser. I was the only one of my brothers that was really interested in guns and my dad hadn't shot it for several years. That is what got me interested in military surplus guns, and it's been all downhill from there. Since the gun was already modified, I took it the rest of the way and had it D&Td, and the bolt handle bent to clear the scope. When I got it back from the gunsmith, I set it aside and didn't get around to shooting it for a couple of years. When I finally did, it was shooting about 7 feet to the left at 100 yards. I would have taken it back to the gunsmith, but he had since retired and moved out of the area. I set it aside again, until I was given a windage adjustable redfield base for it that replaced the weaver bases. Now I could actually sight it in. It didn't shoot great, 3-4" groups at 100 yards. I still shot it occasionally, but not a lot.
I was cleaning it one day when I noticed that the crown had a couple of significant dings in it. I had been mulling having it rebarreled when I noticed the crown. I recrowned it with a lee case trimmer, a brass screw, and some rubbing compound. The groups dropped to just over 1". It's a great gun to shoot and has a good story behind it.
Now, that was the only gun my Dad ever owned......
...until about 2 months ago. He is retired but works on the farm for one of my brothers. He decided he needed something with which to shoot pot guts (small ground squirrels) that were wreaking havoc on the ditches and dikes. So he bought a Savage in 17 HMR and a 20 gauge pump (Mossberg, I think). He's made some pretty good shots with the 17 because of the scope, but his eyes are bad enough even with glasses that the shotgun usually takes out sticks or dirt-clods that look a little too much like ground squirrels.
Anyway. Happy fathers day to everyone. I'll add a picture of the Mauser when I find one.
Matt
