I'm sure everything will align and you'll be able to fill your tag. Keep going out and you'll get your buck. I've been so busy since we moved here that I didn't even buy a hunting license. Hopefully next year I'll be able to take the gun out of the safe and find a deer or two.
The Trophy Room~Post your hunting photos here.
- Thread starter Jim
- Start date
W. C. Scott & Sons 10 ga. from 1882 -- Waterfowling on the sloughs of the farm on which I grew up and inherited.
Where do you find shells for that? Are they black powder?
I load them. This is a very "wieldable" 10 gauge, not like the 12 pound 3 1/2 inch-chambered 10 gauge cannons of today. Yes, it is fairly heavy - probably 8 to 8.5 pounds - but carries and handles well. Yes, the gun was made before the emergence of smokeless powders, so it carries black powder proofs. However, I use smokeless powder loads in it based on the work of Sherman Bell, whose articles on shooting old damascus-barrelled guns can be found in the back issues of "The Double Gun Journal". This gun has 2 7/8 inch chambers, which was the standard 10 gauge shell length before "magnum-itis" struck the USA after The Great War (WWI). I use modern Federal, Cheddite or Winchester hulls, trimmed to 2 7/8 inch length. I load bismuth shot for waterfowling, and lead shot for clays and an occasional try at pheasants.
This is a very stout and well-made gun, remarkably modern in all it's features, especially considering the safety, of all things. At the time this gun was built, hammerless (internal hammers, strikers or tumblers) guns were a new thing. Some folks were resistant to hammerless guns as they could not tell if they were cocked or not since they could not see the hammers. Many different types and locations of safety buttons and levers were conceived and used by different gun-makers. There were no standards. This gun has the safety button in what turned out to be the position accepted as conventional today, and it operates the same way -- forward for safety off and ready to fire, backward for safe. That was actually a tough decision at the time. Some makers thought sliding a button backward should be "safety off", or ready to fire, as hammer gun users pull the hammers back to arm the locks. Note that this gun has little glass lenses on the locks so the user can actually see the internal hammers to confirm they are cocked or not. These are W. C. Scott's famous patented "Crystal Cocking Indicators" designed to inspire confidence in the new technology. Almost all of his early hammerless guns had them. If you could blow up the engraving on the photo, you would see an advertisement for crystal cocking indicators engraved right on the side of the gun!! -- only on one side, too. I've never seen another with that engraving. It makes me wonder whether this was a sales exhibition gun. Who knows.
It would always be fun to know the complete history or provenance of a gun, or any tool or instrument for that matter. This gun has many generations of use left in it, as long as society allows the sport or usage appropriate to it. I hope they do. I'll be watching from "soul space" by then, hoping all is still OK on Earth, and trying to help my descendants.
Cheers!
Tony
Before and after pictures. Air rifle, 62 yards, right between the eyes.
Looks like you must be a follower of Craig Boddington or some others who have described where to put the shots on big game. This was a frontal brain shot, of course. Works on elephant, too. Try W.D.M. Bell's oblique brain shot from the rear on running animals. He did this hundreds of times on elephants. Anyway, Congrats! Well done.
No video? Did ya use white hot?
No video, Rob. Gotta work on that for you!
I did use white hot. Makes the little bandits stick out like a sore thumb! Gonna try black hot tonight. I’ll try and remember to press record! 
simon1
Self Ignored by Vista
Oh boy!!! Barbeque 'coon with biscuits and gravy!
I haven't had that in a 'coons age.
@OkieStubble I blew it tonight. I was going to grab the lawn chair that I keep in my favorite squirrel hunting spot so I could hide in a dark spot with a good angle on the known exit point. It was behind my outbuilding/greenhouse and as I grabed it I heard that familair scratching sound. Spun around to be face to face-ish with a racoon that was showing himself out of the rafters where the fascia has rotted away. I threw the rifle up but he was already retreating. I did play with black hot and I'm on the fence. Black hot works fine but I think white hot makes the critter pop out better and I don't need reticle lume. If I was running it as a stand alone weapon sight and not a clip on I think it would be a wash. Just my humble opinion and YMMV.
P.S. No takers exiting the main house so maybe they got the hint - or - the 4 I've killed have put a dent in the colony.
P.S. No takers exiting the main house so maybe they got the hint - or - the 4 I've killed have put a dent in the colony.
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@OkieStubble I blew it tonight. I was going to grab the lawn chair that I keep in my favorite squirrel hunting spot so I could hide in a dark spot with a good angle on the known exit point. It was behind my outbuilding/greenhouse and as I grabed it I heard that familair scratching sound. Spun around to be face to face-ish with a racoon that was showing himself out of the rafters where the fascia has rotted away. I threw the rifle up but he was already retreating. I did play with black hot and I'm on the fence. Black hot works fine but I think white hot makes the critter pop out better and I don't need reticle lume. If I was running it as a stand alone weapon sight and not a clip on I think it would be a wash. Just my humble opinion and YMMV.
P.S. No takers exiting the main house so maybe they got the hint - or - the 4 I've killed have put a dent in the colony.
I wonder if black hot works well in daylight? Say like in a wooded area?
Agreed on reticle lume.
Coons are smart. They’ll relocate if they lose number’s.
Black hot does work well during the day, Rob. Tried it yesterday morning.
The critters have been back at it so I slapped the iRay on the Tippmann and slipped up on the hill. Caught these two youngsters out in the open...
Full disclosure... The iRay has FANTASTIC resolution but a head count of the house cats was required just in case!
Came off the hill to grab a flashlight as I am NOT grabbing them in the dark! There may have been anchor shots just in case they were playing possum!
Full disclosure... The iRay has FANTASTIC resolution but a head count of the house cats was required just in case!
Came off the hill to grab a flashlight as I am NOT grabbing them in the dark! There may have been anchor shots just in case they were playing possum!
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I have gone to our farm several times in the past week to shoot groundhogs. The first day, I was undergunned with a .17 HMR and the groundhogs at 200+ yards. The next couple of trips I took a .22-250. It was a game changer in my favor. The load is a 55 gr Hornady Super Explosive bullet over 35 gr of Varget. It chronographs just over 3400 fps out of the 700 Varmint Special in the pic. The bullet never fails to knock the stuffing out of a groundhog.
@ColtRevolver and @nikonNUT , thank you for turning those critters into "good" examples of their species!
If I never twist another ankle in a gopher hole or lose another chicken to a raccoon it'll be too soon.
If I never twist another ankle in a gopher hole or lose another chicken to a raccoon it'll be too soon.
Beautiful creature. That rack is something!
Grabbed the afterdark critt'r gitt'r and went out to night to see what I could see. It rained hard so at least the temps are bareable and I thought I might get lucky. Went up on the hill and nada! Plopped down in a lawn chair and was just kind scanning and being amazed that I can see field mice and bugs and stuff. After 15 minutes or so I eased around the corner to see an egg theif (all my neighbors have chickens) or worse poking around the same spot as the trash pandas. I wanted a solid head shot but he never presented so a Texas heart shot it was (not proud of that but it did the deed). Lined up for a quartering away-ish shot and let a 40gr HP fly! One egg sucker down! My neighbors would thank me if they knew I was out there As an aside... All these critters are STEALTHY! It's like they can teleport or something!
and for @OkieStubble... I remembered to press record this time. Watch close-ish and you can see the bullet fly!
As an aside... All these critters are STEALTHY! It's like they can teleport or something! and for @OkieStubble... I remembered to press record this time. Watch close-ish and you can see the bullet fly!
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