My favorite Bolt action shotgun story...

I was a senior in High School and had a buddy named Lenny that wanted to go deer hunting. I have always been one who wants to include people, so i said Sure! To set the stage: I grew up in Virginia hunting deer over dogs which is a very social activity. Lenny was a big guy 6'3" 270 lbs. with glasses. So Saturday morning rolls around and I pick up Lenny. He has orange hat, pants, gloves. I swear I think you could have seen him from the International Space Station. He has this big old honkin Mossberg bolt action 12 gauge with a poly choke to serve as the cherry on top!

We get to the hunt club and he steps out. I can still see the looks and smiles, but I think no one would say anything because of how damn big he was. So we set up the first drive there is a clear cut that had been burned a couple years prior. Small pines and 2-3 foot dead grass were throughout. There was logging road that ran through the cut. In the center was a small rise. Lenny was on one side and I was on the other. We were maybe 150 yards apart, but could not see each other due to the rise. We were not in the woods 15 minutes when I hear the hounds fire up. Sounds like a hot one! After 5 minutes or so I hear BOOM! 30 seconds later BOOM! 30 Seconds later BOOM! Five minutes or so pass and I hear nothing. At this point, curiosity killed the cat. I went to investigate. I go over the rise and see Day Glo Lenny holding that ugly Mossberg. I look in front of him and there is half a rack coming up out of the grass! It was the biggest deer I have ever seen in person! A massive swamp buck with a huge drop tine. Lenny had no clue. This hunting stuff is easy! I bet he has never ever seen another deer that big.

Mine was a Western Field (Wards) made by Mossberg, 16 ga with a polychoke like dingus on the end of the barrel. I would easily classify that gun as the most disappointing Christmas gift that I ever received.

Still had it when I started college in '56. I ran out of gas one night about two blocks from home, or three blocks from a service station that would open at 6AM, (no all nighters in those days) so I locked the car and walked home. Someone broke out a window on the car and took my bolt action shotgun. I was irked at the broken glass, but I can't say that I missed the shotgun. I was not destitute for a shotgun. Not long before this incident I had won a new Ithica Featherlight pump 12 ga, for a 50 cent raffle ticket. It was locked in the trunk.

Jack

Make it a tar hunt slug gun. I did shoot some grouse & woodcock with a borrowed Mossberg 20ga bolt for a short time.

I forgot about this Stevens .410:



It loads like a .22!

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