GUNS Magazine December 1955 - Jeffersonian's Home Page

iron or glass sights, and a record behind him of lots ofcarefully squeezed-off target rounds too.There's an exception, snapshooting, like those tinglingtries for running rabbits or safe, straight-overhead shotsat crows. Here the slide action rifle, well balanced thoughhard to fit with a sling, does nicely. Too nicely, experienceshows, with its too-easy rapid fire. And the semi-automaticshould be barred as a first gun. Even with a single-shotit's hard to teach the cool command of a weapon, and thisrifle often is the best for a start. It's no handicap in juniortarget training. Juniors don't use magazine fire.For bigger small-game and longer shooting, the .22Hornet cartridge is popular, and the .218 Bee is nearly ifnot quite as accurate. The .222 Remington, if too noisyfor hunting fields near home, makes a good Hornet whenhandloaded down. The two little fellows are effective onwoodchucks under 150 yards, under good conditions. The.222 is a rather good killer of coyotes-where any havesurvived the poisoning campaigns. The .219 zipper in thelight Marlin 336 makes a good combination for the biggerboy.The 6-pound Winchester 43 Hornet or Bee is almostas accurate as the 70 Hornet that's 50 per cent heavier. TheSavage 340 and British BSA in Hornet and .222, the Remington722 and Marlin 322 in .222, all run about 7 poundsM52 Winchester is used by school athletic departments with iron sights and no sling, and they balance well forand is favorite with kids graduating to first "big" rifle. carrying. The foreign Thalson-JGA and FI-Sako come inall three calibers, the latter with a heavy barrel as optional.Those useful smallbores, .250 Savage and .257 Roberts,- give the accuracy that teaches marksmanship. If you wanta light rifle, you can get it in a Savage 99 F lever actionor a Remington 722 bolt. Factories load sharp 87 grainbullets for varmint hunting.Handloading makes other light rifles or carbines goodall-rounders in .30-30, .300 Savage, .308 Winchester or.35 Remington. Besides fitting almost any caliber for atleast moderate range varmint shooting, a loading outfiteases the steps up to full power rations.Then there are standard weight rifles from about 8 to 9pounds, a pound heavier with scope. In this bracket ahusky kid has wide latitude in choosing style, action andcaliber.Often a big game rifle serves well as a varmint rifle too.The advantage of knowing an arm through year-round useis obvious, and most youngsters like full-calendar hunting.My brother first hunted deer at about the age of 12 anddid well, too, with his .44-40 carbine. Ranges were shortand he kept his head. Now most boys are much olderwhen they take their first deer hunt, and gun weight andrecoil matter less to many of them than they do to lotsof us. (Continued on page 42)Both Charles Prentiss-father and son-use Model 31Remington skeet guns defending titles at Dallas shoot.