Wear Marks.....

[Dave McCracken]

I know, some of you are rolling your eyes and thinking, "There he goes again".

Not quite.

"Wear Marks" are how I describe putting rounds through your shotgun, whether for competition, training or fun. Or all of the above.

"Shoot safely, shoot often" is how Jim Scoutten puts it.

Nothing, not Net advice, video games or reading The Tablets of Stone in The Temple of The Shotgun Gods will make us good shots.

Shooting our shotguns, using good form, technique and fit will.

So when I see pics on the net of new looking, black shotguns loaded down with 4 lbs of accessories,I remain unimpressed.

Show me a pic of you with a grin worthy of a Bull possum standing in a pile of empty hulls with a pumpgun gone shiny on the action bars, then I shall be more inclined to accept your input as of merit.

But not all wear marks are on the gun, some are on us.

I've used shotguns for about 50 years, and it shows.

While arthritis rages rampant through my aged frame, the worst of it is in my right shoulder. More than 50K shells, and I've no idea how many more, have exacerbated the condition.

I've a serious hearing loss in both ears. When I started shooting around 1950, hearing protection was unknown. It's worse on the left side, the side more towards the muzzle when shooting a shotgun.

On the right side of my face at the jaw line, there's a small place that is not as sensitive as the rest of my face. It's where the stock touches, and all those rounds seems to have reduced feeling there.

This is NOT a plea for sympathy. I rather enjoyed reaching this state of decrepitude and look forward to more of the same.

And some wear marks do not show readily.

If I hear geese when I'm outside, I look to see them without turning my body. A lesson from the goose blind so ingrained it's unconscious.

If I'm walking outside and a bird flushes ahead, even a robin, I stop with my left foot forward as if to mount and shoot. My eyes follow the bird as if they are stuck to it. And I know when it's out of range.

And some wear marks show up only in memory, with dogs dead for 30 years and relatives also gone. Memories of a certain Christmas hunt, a dove shoot that was bittersweet, and plenty of hits and misses.

What wear marks do you have?.....

 

[rcmodel]

How about a big dent in the stock of a brand new, very early Winchester 101?
The first day I owned it!
Before both barrels had been fired yet!

I commandeered my sweet young redheaded wife to throw some Bluerock with a hand thrower for me to try it out.

She managed to hit me & the 101 with the second one of the day!

And she had an arm on her back then too!

Still says it was an accident.
Thats her story, and she has stuck too it for 40 years!

rc

 

[Fred Fuller]

Wear marks? They come in all kinds.

I always figured spending three days in class with Louis Awerbuck without ever once being told to "Run the bolt!" one of my better wear marks. Not ever being warned about watching my muzzle or safety was even more important to me.

Not getting buck fever over covey rises- or even bucks for that matter- is another useful wear mark. Some very good years following bird dogs as a teenager helped a lot with that, as well as learning not to rush, but how to "make haste slowly" as my grandfather would put it. It isn't not getting buck fever that counts- it's learning how to get past it. First deer I ever killed- a big-racked 10-pointer, bouncing down the hillside well ahead of the dogs like a big rubber ball- I put my first bullet squarely between his antlers. And I mean IN THE AIR between his antlers. Rattled? The word doesn't begin to cover it. But I got it together and stuck one behind his shoulder, finally. But I had to reach pretty far to get it together 8^).

I was lucky enough to have nigh onto a platoon of old men to take part in my raisin'. My own father, a gaggle of uncles, two grandfathers, and a clutch of my father's friends all imparted their share of wear marks on me. In a lot of cases it was an instance of an older man needing a pair of strong young arms and legs to help with things like gathering bait, loading, unloading and launching boats, carrying gear, helping wrangle invitations for places to hunt and fish, and thing like that. But they taught me my manners, how to be safe with rifle or shotgun, how to hit what I shot at, where and when and how to hunt and fish and how to respect a good dog (that knew more about hunting than I did). I learned never to get caught with my right foot forward, getting taught a bird hunter's shuffle step early along. Most of all they taught me to be grateful for what I had, and not to try and take more than my share.

That meant helping manage coveys, not shooting them down so small they couldn't reproduce. That meant ruthlessly killing stray cats (sorry, cat lovers). It meant taking care of fences, reporting problems that couldn't be fixed on the spot, in short helping farmers take care of their places. That meant only two guns to a bird dog's point for safety's sake, sticking strictly to your own quarter of the circle, never shooting down where the dogs might be, and never breaking 180 no matter where all the birds went. And never letting yourself get surprised and caught with an unready gun by a lay bird, either 8^).

Wear marks mean getting the sides scuffed along the way, the sharp corners worn down, the finish thinned and browned some. Wear marks mean things getting slick and easy and smooth and comfortable. Wear marks mean knowing how to savor the good times you have, and being able to appreciate the folks who share them with you. Wear marks are old dogs, coats and boots worn enough to be comfortable.

Wear marks are one more thing that take time, effort and dedication to accumulate, that can't be bought in a blister pack or ordered over the Internet...

lpl

 

[throdgrain]

One thing about living in Great Britain I suppose, we dont have guns for "home defence" in the same way you guys look at it. That doesnt mean I wouldnt use any of my guns for that purpose though

What it does mean though, is that if you're prepared to go through all the trials and tribulations to get a licence for a shotgun, its because you want to use it, not just to take pictures of and post on the internet

I've put maybe 20,000 shells through my Benelli in some 4 years of owning it. Perhaps 6000 through my Mossberg, and only a few through my 870 (I only just got it!)

Before that I dont know how many I fired through my Winchester 101.

But I'll tell you what.


I enjoyed every single one of them

 

[sm]

Yeah, wear marks I got, wear marks I understand.

 

[AcceptableUserName]

if a gun doesnt have wear marks i dont trust the fact that the owner really knows how to operate it.

 

[oneounceload]

Wear Marks?......you need to use a better quality gun!....

My GTI, with over 80,000 rounds has marks from falling in a parking lot.....otherwise the blue is as new as the day I bought it new...

the 1100 in 28......over 15,000 rounds..besides the blue wearing on the mag tube, there's a little where the T&S used to sit when I shot skeet

now the Fox BSE..............fence row scrapes, pounding a phez on the head with the barrels.....a rock scratch here and there from chasing NV chukar.......but the color case hardening is stiil strong.............

sorry Dave....none have wear marks, they might have some usage scars though...

 

[Cannonball888]

Whoops. Nevermind.

 

[Ben Shepherd]

Thanks Dave.

Though it's not a shotgun, I have a 3rd generation 22 that you can see the hand prints on the wrist and forearm areas put there by three generations of my family......

So I think I understand what you're getting at here.

 

[6x6pinz]

wear marks, both me and my shotguns have them. Knees that don't work as well as they did 30 years ago, now wearing glasses just to see the sights and of course the heavy wear marks on my old 870 police pump gun.

 

[Gordon]

Yeah I used to be "Run the bolt Gordon" about 3 Awerbuck classes back. I prolly still do stand there with a silly look on my face after what I think is "problem solved" . You see years and years of hunting (50 years!!!) and some decades of trap have ingrained "open the gun after the round" as good manners.

 

[CajunBass]

It may not show too well in the picture, but this old Sears/Mossberg pump has some wear marks on it. It's my deer hunting gun, so it doesn't get shot as much as some others, but it's been carried a long way through the swamps and over the hills in Central Virginia. A lot of miles in the gun rack in a pickup, and strapped to the roll bar of a Jeep CJ with a bungee cord.



I did the paint job myself maybe thirty years or so ago. There are chips and rips, and just plain worn spots in it. The action bars, and magazine tube have most of the paint gone completly. I'd guess 90% of the shells that have gone through it were Remington 3" No. 1 buckshot.

Every deer it's been pointed at hit the ground and not but one of them ever got up again. That one, I short shucked the gun, and jammed it, and the fellow on the next stand finished it off for me.

It would probably look rougher but I took several years off from deer hunting chasing largemouth bass all winter. Now that I'm back to hunting, I live in rifle country, so it may never get used for deer hunting again. It's just got a place of honor in my gun cabinet.

 

[inSight-NEO]

While I wish I could say that the wear on my weapons was a result of many years of experience and countless thousands of rounds, I will have to admit that the majority of "wear marks" (in my case scratches and/or stripped away finish due to polishing) on my weapons are due to shameless curiosity on my part and hence, a DIY mentality when it comes to certain installations/repairs involving various weapons.

Even though I NEVER even attempt such things if it may result in an unsafe and/or unuseable weapon, I have done enough with the end result being several, shall we say, blemishes (whether intentional or simply due to impatience/carelessness).

Any other "wear" marks would be those on my wallet, as sometimes my "self teaching" results in refinishing/replacement...to a degree. Of course I have learned quite a bit, so I guess that would be the "silver lining" in all of this.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Thanks, folks.

One of the reasons I could never be a collector is I USE my guns, and it shows, I do not abuse them, but the use adds up over the decades.

The forearm wood now on Frankenstein was on my first 870, The scar on one side reminds me every time I look at it that climbing 30 feet up loose rocks in a quarry to recover a feral pigeon just wasn't worth it.

The slight wear on that shotgun's Parked receiver is from these hands carrying same for some serious mileage and lots of memories.

The corners on those action bars were worn round at the MD Pen, with the thing loaded and unloaded every shift change for over a decade. What I've done since then just added a bit of further polishing.

Frank is one smooth shucker.

And wear marks added by an ancestor seem to belong on a gun. A coworker's husband had a Navy Colt and a double barrelled muzzleloading shotgun that had belonged to an Confederate cavalryman ancestor. Well preserved, they looked like they could still wage war.

BTW, those barrels had been shortened to about 16" for horseback use. Modifying shotguns is not new, though he certainly didn't take pics and post them on the Net.

 

[Scoupe]

I'd be embarassed to not have dings in my target guns and I'd never replace the twists of wire and cloth tape that hold my dad's ancient HR .410 (barely) together. Of course I wouldn't shoot the HR anymore either after seeing the craters in the barrel.

Wear marks. Good one.

 

[PTK]

One of the reasons I could never be a collector is I USE my guns, and it shows

Agreed! I've recently decided to drop all the "show pieces" from my lineup. Just no room for things that can't see hard use...