Joe Gunns
Member
Walter Rodgers, professional trapper, ran a hundred-mile coyote trapline for the New Mexico Game Commission about thirty miles northwest of Elida, NM. Infantry Press published his book Huntin' Gun as an NRA Library Bookin 1949. I thought the following from the dust jacket blurbs might be of interest to some:
"He says that you don't know what you can do with a gun unless you have gun feel. If you have it, you can kill game under conditions that a ballistician would call impossible and you can get performance from your gun that a manufacturer's sales department wouldn't dare to claim." [His book is collection of anecdotes that "prove" his point.]
In lieu of an author's bio he sent a pic and bio of one of his favorite guns for use on the back of the dust jacket:
"...here's what he has to say about this particular .22 Model 69 Winchester, which he claims to have used on 1,260 hunting days. In this time he says he's made 4,600 clean kills with it: 823 coyotes, 117 badgers, 102 porcupines, 161 skunks, 784 hawks, 23 owls, 20 golden eagles, [yeah, I know, but before you let your presentist prejudices run amok: it was a different time], 79 wild house cats, 6 wild dogs, 1 fox, 1 bobcat, 30 ground squirrels, 68 prairie dogs, 125 rattlers, 1,260 jack rabbits, 1000 cottontails. "
[The .22 was main gun of a lot of trappers of that era because of low risk of pelt damage and cheaper ammo costs. My dad used a single shot .22 when he ran a trapline in upstate New York in the late 1920's-mid-1930's, as did a childhood friend of mine in the late 1950's-early 1960's.]
"When he got it, it was shooting eight inches high at fifty yards. He lost two clips before he installed the leather protector over the clip release and the clip catch and the clip catch is now held with a rubber band. He broke the stock over the head of a big coyote that had a deathhold on his old trap-dog [dunno if he counted that as one of his 823 clean kills of coyotes], and bound it together with green rawhide taken from the carcass of a Brahma cow, ten miles east of Milnesand, New Mexico."
If you want to read the book, there a some copies available on abebooks.com.
"He says that you don't know what you can do with a gun unless you have gun feel. If you have it, you can kill game under conditions that a ballistician would call impossible and you can get performance from your gun that a manufacturer's sales department wouldn't dare to claim." [His book is collection of anecdotes that "prove" his point.]
In lieu of an author's bio he sent a pic and bio of one of his favorite guns for use on the back of the dust jacket:
"...here's what he has to say about this particular .22 Model 69 Winchester, which he claims to have used on 1,260 hunting days. In this time he says he's made 4,600 clean kills with it: 823 coyotes, 117 badgers, 102 porcupines, 161 skunks, 784 hawks, 23 owls, 20 golden eagles, [yeah, I know, but before you let your presentist prejudices run amok: it was a different time], 79 wild house cats, 6 wild dogs, 1 fox, 1 bobcat, 30 ground squirrels, 68 prairie dogs, 125 rattlers, 1,260 jack rabbits, 1000 cottontails. "
[The .22 was main gun of a lot of trappers of that era because of low risk of pelt damage and cheaper ammo costs. My dad used a single shot .22 when he ran a trapline in upstate New York in the late 1920's-mid-1930's, as did a childhood friend of mine in the late 1950's-early 1960's.]
"When he got it, it was shooting eight inches high at fifty yards. He lost two clips before he installed the leather protector over the clip release and the clip catch and the clip catch is now held with a rubber band. He broke the stock over the head of a big coyote that had a deathhold on his old trap-dog [dunno if he counted that as one of his 823 clean kills of coyotes], and bound it together with green rawhide taken from the carcass of a Brahma cow, ten miles east of Milnesand, New Mexico."
If you want to read the book, there a some copies available on abebooks.com.
