Somewhere around 1915 my grandfather, Lee Hutchins, lived on Douglas Hill in Sebago, just down the road a mile or so lived his friend, Carlton Martin.
Martin was a boat builder and guide by trade, my grandfather Lee, a logger and farmer.
These two characters had a great passion for deer hunting and kind of a love-hate relationship with a little rifle. That particular rifle was a model 07, self-loading .351 Winchester with a vernier tang receiver sight on it.
As I remember, the original owner of the little Winchester was Martin, but the gun was traded back and forth four or five times between my grandfather and Martin.
Why? Well, you have to remember that these two birds were characters, always in competition with each other over how many fish or deer they could gather. Bank in those days it was all about the meat as they probably didn’t know or care about limits and game laws.
These two men hunted together on many occasions, and my grandfather was always impressed with his friend’s success and marksmanship with his mighty .351 Winchester.
Knowing that his buddy Martin could be a little hot headed at times, my grandfather devised a little plan. When Martin wasn’t looking, he adjusted the tang receiver sight all the way in one direction rendering the rifles bullet impact dramatically off.
The next time they deer hunted, Martin cleanly missed three deer all within 40 yards. He was outraged and wild as a hornet, damning the gun as being the reason he missed those deer. My grandfather quickly said, “I’ll trade you my rifle for yours,” and it was done. That night snickering to himself, grandpa re-adjusted the sights to where they were before he had altered them.
Two days later, the two men did the same hunt resulting with grandpa piling up a great amount of venison.
Opportunity knocked to get Martin’s goat. “You’ve got to know how to shoot this .351” my grandfather exclaimed to Martin, and on and on he went needling his buddy.
This same scenario happened many more times until Martin just had to have his Winchester back, so, not being a mean person, just fun loving, Lee would trade back again.
After his passing, Martin’s little rifle was left to his grandson Audrey Martin who took many, many deer with it. Audrey passed a few years ago and it was left to his son Rick. Rick is a friend of mine, so being a good friend, I’ll offer to sight that old beast in for him. After that, you never know, he might want to make a trade.
Until next time, have fun and be safe.
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