Perhaps way in the back of your gun cabinet or closet you have an almost forgotten old deer rifle. Who did it belong to so many years ago? Maybe it was your grandfather’s or perhaps a long lost uncle’s deer weapon of choice in its heyday.
Many of us have such old guns that have been pushed aside in favor of more modern firearms that shoot flatter and hit harder. Back 65 or 70 years ago, all you saw hunters toting in the Maine woods were cartridges like the 38-55 Winchester, the 32-40, 38-40, and the 44-40, with almost all of them being Winchester and Marlin lever actions. The 30-30 and 32 Winchester special back in those days were by far the most popular sporting cartridges produced. Savage Arms had its 303 Savage and in 1920, it came out with the hot new 300 Savage, which came to be very popular and to this day is widely used and adored by those fortunate enough to own one.
Remington also had its share of offerings for the deer woods. They included the .25, the .30, the 32 and 35 Remington cartridges. The .35 being the most popular, as it still is today. Remington really got it right when they designed the .35, as it is a fantastic deer cartridge.
The truth is, these “Old Relic” cartridges worked just fine for our forefathers and they will still work fine today. A good thing to do would be to take uncle Bob’s old deer blaster to a competent gunsmith, get it checked out, get it sighted in, and when you want to change your luck next fall after you’ve gone four or five days without seeing so much as a flag, break out that old weapon and take it hunting. You will be kind of like taking grampa with you even though he may be long gone. Try it sometime, it’s cool!
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