I went down to the local gun shop today to wish my friends there a merry Christmas. They were talking about holiday traditions and lamenting the lack of partridge and pheasant hunting in Eastern NC, something that used to be common. (I haven’t seen a pheasant in the 15 years I’ve been here.)
I talked about the similar family and holiday traditions that had centered around hunting pheasants, grouse and rabbits back home in South Dakota.
Then I saw this Savage Stevens 887 hanging on the wall. I asked to see it, somewhat to the amusement of my friends there as my purchasing habits run toward things like the Kimber 82, Winchester Model 52, etc.
I’d been talking about hunting rabbits in shelter belts with my cousins but my friends didn’t know that one of my most enduring memories is hunting a shelter belt with my cousins Ken, Gary and Gregory on a cold but bright sunny day with plenty of sparking snow - and a near identical Savage Springfield 187C.
Right at the end of a shelter belt there was a jack rabbit on a snowdrift a good 200 yards away. I took an off hand position and and took a shot at it. To my surprise it dropped dead in its tracks. My cousin Gregory was amazed and commented on the accuracy of my gun. It was the luckiest shot I ever made, and I made it with my budget gun.
It was the first gun I’d ever had that I could legitimately call “mine”. It was a budget gun and IIRC cost $43. I’d lusted after a Ruger 10/22 for years (back when they were a higher priced and better made .22 LR with steel butt plate, walnut stock and aluminum trigger housing). Alternatively I’d have loved to have one of the Remington bolt action repeaters, or a Seneca Green Nylon 66 like the one I often borrowed from my uncle. But in 1980, I got a Savage Springfield 187C for Christmas instead.
As such, I was never quite what you’d call proud of it, but it was reliable, and far more accurate than it had any right to be. I put thousands of rounds through it and it kept me ammo poor back when 100 round boxes of Coast to Coast Master Mags cost $0.99. (100 round boxes of CCI Mini mags were decadently high dollar at $1.50.)
I hunted and shot hundreds of rabbits, hundreds more prairie dogs and thousands of cans. I shot it to the point it’s reliability started to falter and not long after that it started doubling and tripling. Around 1995 I traded it toward a 1976 10/22 and didn’t look back.
Until today.
Today, I realized I missed it.
Today, I bought an identical 1980 vintage Savage Stevens 887, and more importantly a whole lot of memories, for just $136 out the door.
Merry Christmas to me…and to all of you.
I talked about the similar family and holiday traditions that had centered around hunting pheasants, grouse and rabbits back home in South Dakota.
Then I saw this Savage Stevens 887 hanging on the wall. I asked to see it, somewhat to the amusement of my friends there as my purchasing habits run toward things like the Kimber 82, Winchester Model 52, etc.
I’d been talking about hunting rabbits in shelter belts with my cousins but my friends didn’t know that one of my most enduring memories is hunting a shelter belt with my cousins Ken, Gary and Gregory on a cold but bright sunny day with plenty of sparking snow - and a near identical Savage Springfield 187C.
Right at the end of a shelter belt there was a jack rabbit on a snowdrift a good 200 yards away. I took an off hand position and and took a shot at it. To my surprise it dropped dead in its tracks. My cousin Gregory was amazed and commented on the accuracy of my gun. It was the luckiest shot I ever made, and I made it with my budget gun.
It was the first gun I’d ever had that I could legitimately call “mine”. It was a budget gun and IIRC cost $43. I’d lusted after a Ruger 10/22 for years (back when they were a higher priced and better made .22 LR with steel butt plate, walnut stock and aluminum trigger housing). Alternatively I’d have loved to have one of the Remington bolt action repeaters, or a Seneca Green Nylon 66 like the one I often borrowed from my uncle. But in 1980, I got a Savage Springfield 187C for Christmas instead.
As such, I was never quite what you’d call proud of it, but it was reliable, and far more accurate than it had any right to be. I put thousands of rounds through it and it kept me ammo poor back when 100 round boxes of Coast to Coast Master Mags cost $0.99. (100 round boxes of CCI Mini mags were decadently high dollar at $1.50.)
I hunted and shot hundreds of rabbits, hundreds more prairie dogs and thousands of cans. I shot it to the point it’s reliability started to falter and not long after that it started doubling and tripling. Around 1995 I traded it toward a 1976 10/22 and didn’t look back.
Until today.
Today, I realized I missed it.
Today, I bought an identical 1980 vintage Savage Stevens 887, and more importantly a whole lot of memories, for just $136 out the door.
Merry Christmas to me…and to all of you.
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