Top : 2 1906 Winchesters.It was with trembling hands and pumping heart that I held the little .22 lining up on my first ever possum in the mid to late 60s.Its a standard built in 1935 going by the serial number.The 1906 held a place in every house I knew of at the time along with a .303 and the odd 44/40.This one still functions but is very worn and if you hold the trigger while working the action it will run like a semi ,trigger is very touchy.It was pretty much retired around 1970.The second standard was my grandfathers, manufactured in 1915 it was his from new( or so the story goes)and is still in good usable condition. Next is a miroku my Mum bought to replace the worn out winchester. It seen its share of action over the years and despite Harvey Westlands best efforts its to worn and not worth spending any money on, miss fires are just a little to common so another miroku replaced it 7-8 years ago.The mirokus are great little guns, not the most accurate but good enough for all the pigs in the bail and thousands of possums in the spotlight. When the mail started coming by road instead of boat we could sell possums to a Guy in Picton. He'd take them whole for .50 cents.We could only shoot the night before the mail which was 2 days a week, the driver wasn't that happy as it was so giving him 2-3 day old bodies to cart wasn't going to happen.It was pretty common to shoot 60-70 in a night, after the first shot with the little .22 shorts they would just run up the first tree/shrub/fencepost they could find.Most where shot pointblank.
The next is a 1517 anschutz in hmr, I picked up 6-7 years ago very accurate and a lota fun.Then a Marlin M60 Mudgripz convinced me I had to have, glad he did its a great little rifle.Has already accounted for a fair few pests of varying size.
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