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Forums10
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Apr 29th, 2024
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 9,768 Likes: 757
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 9,768 Likes: 757 |
Shoot, Ted, if I spoke Italian better someone might, if they tried really hard, think it could possibly be some form of vaguely human esque communication. I could write a book about the stories of my "Italian" in Italy.
That Richland looks like it would make a pretty nice squirrel gun.
_______________________________
Today is where your book begins...(the rest is still unwritten) Natasha Bedingfield I fed myself for several years at the end of the Carter presidency with hapless squirrels, a Remington 552 Speedmaster, and garage sale .22 shorts. I don't need a shotgun for squirrels. Those were lean times, and I packed the freezer in the basement that I rented with enough squirrels to last a good long time. Haven't eaten one since I found full time work in 1982. If I need them again, bless their furry little hearts, they are still there. I haven't forgotten it. Haven't voted left of center for my whole life, since Carter led from behind, so to speak. The picture doesn't really do the Richland justice. But, Miller has already pointed out, here, and elsewhere (as have I) that the 707 was a hell of a lot of gun for the money. Better pictures, here: http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbt...true#Post449134Still would love to hear any history of the companies involved with the guns. ___________________________________ No, really-A USMC sniper instructor taught me how to shoot a .22, when I was a kid.
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Joined: Jun 2002
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Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 9,350 |
Ah, the 552 Speedmaster, accurate and reliable, always worth a plug, Ted. I've owned one for 50 years.
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 3,100 Likes: 339
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 3,100 Likes: 339 |
552 Speedmaster is about the only .22 semi-auto that still handles shorts. The silent killer with CCI short hv hollow points.
JR
Be strong, be of good courage.
God bless America, long live the Republic.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 9,768 Likes: 757
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 9,768 Likes: 757 |
The trick isn't handling shorts, it is handling shorts interchangeably with longs, and long rifles. That is a good trick, and the 552 and earlier 550 did that well.
I have a Glenfield .22 auto, that will shoot shorts, but, won't cycle the action and reload itself. I think my Ruger 10/22 did the same thing, but, that gun had such a lousy trigger, I got rid of it in short order.
I think I answered a question for you about your 552, prior to you buying it, over on the old SS board, John. My bolt action 581 Remington is no more accurate than the 552. Glad you have enjoyed the accuracy.
Winter, 1980, left me a hungry boy, out of full time work, and with a 3 year old 552, and two boxes of shorts. Dinner on Sunday at Mom's, but, the rest of the week I ate squirrels. Some bunnies, but, mostly squirrels.
I had ammunition left in the spring, and a full Montgomery Ward chest freezer, left by a former renter, in the basement.
Life got better, but, not soon enough.
Can't sell that gun.
Best,
Ted
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 582
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 582 |
The trick isn't handling shorts, it is handling shorts interchangeably with longs, and long rifles. That is a good trick, and the 552 and earlier 550 did that well.
I have a Glenfield .22 auto, that will shoot shorts, but, won't cycle the action and reload itself. I think my Ruger 10/22 did the same thing, but, that gun had such a lousy trigger, I got rid of it in short order.
I think I answered a question for you about your 552, prior to you buying it, over on the old SS board, John. My bolt action 581 Remington is no more accurate than the 552. Glad you have enjoyed the accuracy.
Winter, 1980, left me a hungry boy, out of full time work, and with a 3 year old 552, and two boxes of shorts. Dinner on Sunday at Mom's, but, the rest of the week I ate squirrels. Some bunnies, but, mostly squirrels.
I had ammunition left in the spring, and a full Montgomery Ward chest freezer, left by a former renter, in the basement.
Life got better, but, not soon enough.
Can't sell that gun.
Best,
Ted Great story Ted. Reminded me of the one my dad told me. He let us boys shoot his single shot bolt action .22 one weekend in the Santa Cruz mountains above Santa Clara Valley. Would have been the '60s (don't know what happened to it after he died). Driving up into the hills he related how one weekend during the Depression they didn't have anything to eat, and grandpa gave him the .22 with the last 10 rounds they had, and told him to make 'em count. He shot ten squirrels but only came home with nine, as the last one hung up in the tree impossible to retrieve. He said grandma made a big stew out of them, and at least for a while, hunger was but a memory. Mike
Tolerance: the abolition of absolutes
Consistency is the currency of credibility
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 12,743
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 12,743 |
The secret to the Rem feeding the shorts was its, floating chamber. The barrel was bored out at the back to receive this chamber which was about the length of the short case. As it started to recoil the gas pressure hit the end of the chamber as well as the case & thus gave it more surface to push against so the impetus to eject the short. When a LR was fired the case extended beyond the chamber sealing the gap so it only received the thrust from the case head. Ingenious.& no doubt patented though I have never tried to look it up.
Miller/TN
I Didn't Say Everything I Said, Yogi Berra
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 9,768 Likes: 757
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 9,768 Likes: 757 |
Mike,
Really early on in the game, I learned from my Dad NOT to use long rifle rounds for squirrel hunting. The standard and high velocity rounds of long rifle would leave a bushy tail stuck on a branch, where the lowly short would knock his ass down.
I did use LR to dispatch skunks caught in my fox sets, as there seemed to be less drama (and, stench) involved. We also used LR to snipe at raccoons on a friends farm, working a night shift to keep his Dad's sweet corn from being marauded by those wretched beasts. We would park a car with the headlighs on down the road that ran next to his Dad's corn, and have at 'em as they crossed in the middle of the night. It was fun until about midnight, then, it was just another 3rd shift job.
We got paid by the kill.
I have a lot of time involved with .22 rifles, but, not recently. My kid will shoot for about a half hour, then reaches for some electronic device of some sort.
I would have shot (and, did a few times) from sunup to sunset.
Best,
Ted
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 13,179 Likes: 1161
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 13,179 Likes: 1161 |
I was a terror on the squirrel population here too, Ted, as a kid. Was given a .410 J C Higgins double at 8 yrs. old. They thought a .22 was too dangerous to turn me loose with, they said. My family didn't eat squirrel, so I sold them out of my Dad's country store for $.25 each, uncleaned. Shells for the .410 cost me 12 cents apiece, so if I had to shoot twice I broke even on the squirrel. When I finally got my first .22, a Remington Nylon 11, I did the math and decided that within a few seasons I was going to be rich!, one .22 bullet cost waaay less than a 3" .410 load of 6s, and would knock a squirrel out of the very top of those tall virgin yellow pines. I got $.50 for a rabbit and $2.00 for a 'coon. Market hunting at an early age.  SRH
May God bless America and those who defend her.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,704 Likes: 103
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,704 Likes: 103 |
Stan did you ever notice that you couldn't sell a rabbit, squirrel or coon at all without the head attached? Too many guys around here would slip in a cat or a rat shot over the hood of a pick-up for any of us to trusted selling headless game...Geo
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 13,179 Likes: 1161
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 13,179 Likes: 1161 |
Yep. When I started trapping I would catch a lot of 'possums. 'Possums sold good as long as they were alive when the buyer came. I'd come home from running the 'line many mornings with 3 or 4 'possums waddling around in the back of my pickup. They couldn't climb out. They'd all be gone by lunch, usually.
SRH
May God bless America and those who defend her.
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