And old friend of my fathers, from back woods of Maine taught me to reload. Jungle Jim was his name. He had more guns than he needed and like most gun nuts, there are never to many. He was a hunter so did a lot of rifle loading and was a big fan of the 300 H&H. Everytime I went there, which was weekly on Friday nights and usually the Saturday night also. We would watch wrestling and cast bullets, prime shells etc. Usually, if the men brought back a deer, it was our job to dress it. I still have a lot of his old reloading books, like the Lyman Cast bullet ones for stuff no longer made and the newer ones also. I remember the first 220 Swift he got. Little screamer....He was big into woodchucks and got me into them also. I settled on a .222 for those but hunted them also with Enfields, Mark #4. Nice shooting gun. Then you could by them locally at Orbits, for $15.00, as many as you wanted. I liked the Mark #4. Lot of the guys like the cabine one but it didn't do much for me. I had joined the NRA by then and we could get the MI Carbine, little 30 cal and those were fun to mess with. They were $15.00. Also at the Red Bone Arsenal the 03A3 30.06 Sprinfields were $25.00... I still have one of them here that I sporterized. Even had a couple of the thumb snatchers the MI Garrands. Wish I still had that.... But like you I'm sure, every time I hit a gun shop, it seemed to be swapping time. I'd buy up the ones with beat stocks, and re do them, or reblue them, cold blue, nothing fancy but made them better and resold them or traded up. Usually make $5 to 15.00 on one, that was about it....
I have a 243 around here in a Sako. Nice shooting gun also. My wife liked it for the light recoil. Thats as small as you can go here legally for deer here in CT. I'll have to take more pictures here. I liked them all. I have a nice 444 Marlin here, lever action....Awesome brush gun. More gun than one needs in this area, but I bought it right, and its a rare one.... Like I mentioned, I liked fancy wood on them if I could get it. didn't shoot any better but sure nice to look at.
I have a nice Browning 78 you would probably like. Its in a 7mm Mag. Truth is I never shot it, its still in the box. Had a friend who had another buddy who worked for Browning who was sending him stuff. He got strapped for cash and offered all he had of them to me. I have 5 of them 4 unfired in 25-06, 22-250,
7mm Mag, 45-70, 240 Weatherby Mag. All single shots.... I like single shot shooting. Cuts down on the reloading bench.
Like you I bought powders in bulk.... Still have a bunch in 3031, Bulls eye, lot of different IMR powder, like 4895, 4064,., liked Unique also, still use it in the hand guns, but I'm seeing a lot of new powders out now that I'd like to try. A lot of mine have age on them to the point i'd be better off to destroy them and start over....
Thinking back a lot of the guys were playing with the Jap 6.5 then and the Roberts also....There were a lot of wildcat guys in the club.... I only target shoot now so go for the accuracy loads and less recoil. Yet some of the better loads are the upper end ones at least in pistol powders these days....
Have you priced powder lately....Way up there and a lot of stuff like primers etc your paying a hazmat fee to ship on top of it.. I try to buy locally when I can and keep them in business. Sure less gun shops around now then there were then.
Getting harder to fine lead now also. I was a big user of wheel weights, still can get them but they are less now since they went to this stick on stuff. Even had a good supply of Linotype for printing press. Little on the hard side but mixed up right it was fine with gas checks...
Geo
and he was pulling the bullets from the military ammo then resizing to .243, collapsing a few cases in the process and breaking primer punch pins too.
