New life for an old pup - The Firearms Forum

captjack6 · 02-18-2011, 08:02 PM

I posted this on another site but I thought I would share it here too.

Many years ago a friend at work introduced me to chuck hunting. We would travel all the back roads of NJ (yea they have back roads) taking me to his favorite farms to help control the chuck population.
He let me use an old low wall 1885 22K hornet that he put together from pieces. The barrel had seen life on other rifles and still had all the screw holes as proof. The stock was a left hand that consisted of an origional stock with a cheek piece added. the scope was one of the old long brass target scopes with a small eye relief. When it was chambered, the ejector was not installed. I carried a brass rod to get the spent shell out.
He gave me the rifle on an exrended loan. After a few years he asked for the rifle back it seemed that the scope was worth quite a bit and he needed some cash.
Well, I moved and he retired, life went on. I always missed him and that old gun. After a few yrs he moved to within miles of me and we started fly fishing together. When he came to pick me up he told me that he had hunted my property 50 yrs ago when it was an active farm.
He came over one day with the old rifle and a tasco scope and said, he was tired of it sitting around his house not getting used.. A month later I found out that he had terminal cancer and died. That rifle sat in my closet for a while, we moved to NC and I got busy building a farm and house. Last year I had a life altering experience open heart surgery. As I sat around recovering I started thinking about life, old Joe and that gun. I decided i needed to get that thing fixed. After a few months of searching the internet I contacted Ballard Arms and sent it off to have the extractor installed.
They fitted the extractor, welded the screw holes in the barrel, fitted a custom scope base polished and blued the action. When I got it back I was going to get some nice wood to finish it off but instead I installed that old stock for now. Its looks great
Ballard did a fantastic job on my rifle and its ready to help me control the growing varmint population on our farm. Every time I hold it i think of my old friend Joe. I hope to pass this treasure onto my son when its time. Sorry for the long post

02-18-2011, 08:02 PM	#1
captjack6 Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 11	New life for an old pup I posted this on another site but I thought I would share it here too. Many years ago a friend at work introduced me to chuck hunting. We would travel all the back roads of NJ (yea they have back roads) taking me to his favorite farms to help control the chuck population. He let me use an old low wall 1885 22K hornet that he put together from pieces. The barrel had seen life on other rifles and still had all the screw holes as proof. The stock was a left hand that consisted of an origional stock with a cheek piece added. the scope was one of the old long brass target scopes with a small eye relief. When it was chambered, the ejector was not installed. I carried a brass rod to get the spent shell out. He gave me the rifle on an exrended loan. After a few years he asked for the rifle back it seemed that the scope was worth quite a bit and he needed some cash. Well, I moved and he retired, life went on. I always missed him and that old gun. After a few yrs he moved to within miles of me and we started fly fishing together. When he came to pick me up he told me that he had hunted my property 50 yrs ago when it was an active farm. He came over one day with the old rifle and a tasco scope and said, he was tired of it sitting around his house not getting used.. A month later I found out that he had terminal cancer and died. That rifle sat in my closet for a while, we moved to NC and I got busy building a farm and house. Last year I had a life altering experience open heart surgery. As I sat around recovering I started thinking about life, old Joe and that gun. I decided i needed to get that thing fixed. After a few months of searching the internet I contacted Ballard Arms and sent it off to have the extractor installed. They fitted the extractor, welded the screw holes in the barrel, fitted a custom scope base polished and blued the action. When I got it back I was going to get some nice wood to finish it off but instead I installed that old stock for now. Its looks great Ballard did a fantastic job on my rifle and its ready to help me control the growing varmint population on our farm. Every time I hold it i think of my old friend Joe. I hope to pass this treasure onto my son when its time. Sorry for the long post -->