By Jim Dickson | Contributing Writer
It is all too common for men to get guns for themselves but not for their wives, sons, and daughters.
This flies in the face of American tradition for historically the whole family was engaged in hunting and defense as the situation required. From the frontier days when marauding Indians and outlaws roamed freely to more modern times when adding something to the dinner table was the priority guns have been a family affair. Afternoons spent in casual shooting brought the family together while small game for the dinner table put that skill to use. Let me tell you a couple of examples.
When my old friend, Harold Houck was a mere 8 years old in these North Georgia mountains he would take the family shotgun and go out alone in the woods around his house not returning until he had enough squirrels for his mother to make squirrels and dumplings. Harold would never permit any of his siblings to accompany him on these hunting trips.
I remember when one of my Aunt Dell’s daughters got married and her husband presented his new bride with a shiny new pistol. As he was setting up some tin cans a few feet away to teach her how to use it she spied a squirrel high in the tree tops that she wanted to add to their dinner table. One shot brought it down. As her husband stared at the squirrel and contemplated the difficulty of that shot he simply said “Forget it. There’s nothing that I can teach you about shooting!”
A wife is a better hunting companion and a whole lot more fun than anyone else you can take afield. Skill at arms and hunting are mankind’s most basic survival skills and no responsible father can afford to neglect teaching them to his children for one day their survival may depend on it. Every generation faces a war and a skilled hunter and shooter is much more likely to survive combat. For that matter, we lose men in every war because their fathers did not pass on the combat skills they learned the hard way as men around them were being killed. Then their sons get killed in their war because the fathers did not pass along the knowledge that only the survivors of the father’s war time engagements had.
In the British gun trade there is a saying that is very true. Big man big gun, little man little gun. I am 6 foot 2 and shoot best with 30-inch barrels on a side-by-side double.
The famous British gunmaker Robert Churchill wanted to sell everybody 25-inch barrels. The reason he liked them so well was summed up by one of his workman who told me, “Robert likes 25-inch barrels because he’s a little short ass!” Robert was short and while I have a double with 25-inch barrels I cannot hit as well with it as the 30-inch barrel gun that fits me.
It’s not just barrel length. My wife, Betty was 5 foot two and while she could break clay birds from a skeet trap with a M1941 Johnson .30-06 semi-auto, the gun looked almost as big as she was. Her favorite was a Ruger .44 Magnum semi-auto carbine which she said had been made just for her. She never failed to bring down a deer with a perfect shoulder shot with that rifle.
Caliber choices
Unlike weak calibers like the .243 Winchester, which no one in his right mind would choose to hunt grisly bears, the .44 Magnum has proved adequate for all North American big game. (Note that grisly, as in a grisly murder, is the original and correct spelling, NOT grizzly.) I never cared for the .44 Magnum as a handgun cartridge but as a rifle cartridge it comes into its own far exceeding the capabilities of the venerable .44-40, which preceded it.
Sadly, the Ruger .44 Magnum semi-auto carbine was discontinued in order to use its production facilities for the Ruger Mini-14 but the rifle can still be had second-hand.
While a short overall length may be needed, a short “Youth stock” is not. The U.S. Military and a lot of commercial gun companies fielded guns with a 13-inch length of pull. In the British gun trade when measuring a shooter for a gun stock fitting a 13-inch length of pull is for a shooter 4 ½ feet tall or less. About the size of a 10-year-old child. Some children are able to responsibly use a gun at 7 or 8 years old depending on the child.
Another good rifle is the .30 M1 carbine. This perfectly balanced 5 ½-pound rifle has twice the energy at 100 yards as a .357 Magnum has at the muzzle and it does it with virtually no recoil.
Moving on up in power, the AK47 with its 7.62 X 39 cartridge is compact and low recoil with a cartridge that can be considered a .30-30 with a lighter and higher velocity spitzer bullet for a flatter trajectory. This round is also chambered in the SKS carbine. The compact size of these make them a good choice for consideration.
Semi-autos normally absorb a lot of the recoil in their cycling but not all of them do. The U.S. M1 Garand and it’s slightly modified version, the M14, do nothing to mitigate recoil and have the same kick as a bolt action rifle of the same weight.
Semi-autos
An important feature of the semi-auto rifle is its ability to deliver a lot of rounds on target fast. There are only three ways to learn to shoot. Shooting, shooting, and more shooting. The ability to fire more rounds at a practice session equates to more skill for the time spent. The ability to put a fast second or third shot into a heart-shot deer making that final 100 yard dash to stop him before another hunter shoots and claims him can be priceless. The whole success or failure of the hunt can hinge on having a semi-auto or not.
Of course the .22LR is the standard practice caliber. In rifles both the Browning and the Ruger 10/22 semi-autos are highly recommended. Remington used to make an improved version of the Browning under license called the Model 241 Speedmaster which was the best of all but it is no longer made and available only as a used gun.
For .22 pistols there are numerous choices. Diamondback firearms makes the venerable High Standard Double Nine .22 as their Diamondback Sidekick. This is a single action configuration with the ability to be used as a double action as well, and it also has a swing out cylinder for faster reloading. This is an excellent revolver at a very competitive price.
Colt makes the stainless steel King Cobra .22 double action revolver at a step up in price. This one has a splendid double action trigger pull.
Finally, we have the .22 match pistols. Both the current High Standard Supermatic Trophy pistol and the Marvel Precision .22 conversion unit for the M1911A1 .45 automatic will group under ½-inch at 50 yards. There will be no accuracy ceiling of the gun to stop the shooter’s advancement with either of these jewels.
The M1911A1 is the ultimate all-round pistol and easily handled by women and children old enough to be shooting. My wife, Betty could shoot every coin out of the air that was thrown up for her with a WWII G.I. .45 auto. Today TISAS makes the best G.I. M1911A1 and it is also one of the cheapest. It has a forged frame and slide and a hammer forged barrel. Copied exactly from a WWII Remington Rand it interchanges all parts with the WWII guns.
.45 Colt Handguns
There is also the Colt Single Action Army in .45 Colt with 4 ¾-inch barrel and it is just as fast and accurate today as it was in the Old West. The late Elmer Keith let his true feelings on this gun out when he found I had one and blurted out “That’s the finest pistol ever made!”
The Ruger Redhawk double-action in .45 Colt with 4-inch barrel is the best of the modern double action revolvers. While the weak may want to use both hands on the heavy Ruger revolver, it is the pistol with the least felt recoil of the .45’s. The double action revolver is the best choice for the casual shooter who just wants a bedside gun for burglars as there is nothing to remember when an emergency awakens them. Just point and pull the trigger.
The .45 ACP and the .45 Colt for revolvers are the epitome of centerfire pistol cartridges. They are proven to be the best manstoppers of all yet they have low enough recoil to enable the rapid-fire necessary to deal with multiple attackers needing only one shot in the vitals per customer. These two cartridges have taken all North American game successfully and are well proven on the biggest bears and big game on the continent. Smaller calibers lack the power and magnums are less reliable manstoppers.
As the Thompson LaGarde Commission proved with extensive tests, you cannot get enough velocity out of a pistol to make up for the difference between bullet diameter and weight. These two cartridges hit the optimum sweet spot for manstopping pistol cartridges. More power means drastically more decibel levels of noise for permanent hearing loss and the increased recoil means sometimes fatally slower repeat shots.
For shotguns please never give a .410 to a youngster. That is a close-range expert’s gun, not something for a novice. Nothing sours a woman or a child on hunting more than missed, or worse, wounded game escaping to die a lingering death. Get them a side-by-side double barrel preferably with a splinter fore end and a straight grip stock. It should be a 12-gauge and the load should be 1 ounce of #6 shot over 3 drams of powder. This was long the most popular American all-purpose load and it patterns better than heavier 12-gauge loads.
Remember that it is even patterns that reliably kill birds and small game. This is the most important fact that most shooters ignore. This load also does not kick excessively in a light single barrel which was the most common American shotgun up to the 1950’s. It certainly won’t kick too hard for them in a double barrel shotgun. Older used doubles like the 12-gauge Stevens 311 are often quite reasonably priced.
Whatever guns you get your family members, make sure they learn how to use them skillfully and you will draw your family closer together while imparting vital skills to them.
CAPTIONS
- Remington 241 and Ruger
Betty firing AK47 Scout Rifle The author’s wife, Betty, firing a AK47 configured as a Scout Rifle. The AK47 is a powerful and compact rifle that is easy to hit with.
Betty firing M1 Carbine
Colt King Cobra .22 Colt’s only .22 revolver is the King Cobra, a top of the line stainless steel pistol with an excellent double action trigger pull.
Colt SAA photo credit Colt The .45 Colt 4 and ¾ inch barrel Single Action Army revolver is still the best single action ever made. It is extremely fast and easy to hit with.
Diamondback Sidekick
English Game Guns
High Standard Supermatic Trophy
M1 Carbine The M1 Carbine is perhaps the easiest rifle to hit with ever made. A lot of deer and black bear have been taken with it over the years.
Marvel .22 Conversion
Ruger .44 Magnum The Ruger .44 Magnum semi-auto is one of the best game getters ever made in the U.S. Sadly, Ruger discontinued it so that they could use it’s production line to make the Mini14, a far less versatile rifle.
Ruger Redhawk .45 Colt photo credit Ruger
TISAS M1911A1 photo credit TISAS The WWII M1911A1 is the finest pistol ever made and Tisas has copied a WWII Remington Rand M1911A1 perfectly and makes the best M1911A1 today while keeping the price unbelievably low. It features a forged frame and slide along with a hammer forged barrel.
