Getting Jaded with the “Usual”?

That’s normal for a society with an over-abundance of “stuff”!

Of course, this article will focus on rifle cartridges and the rifles that shoot bullets from them.

In following some Internet chatter on hunting rifles and bullets, I’m somewhat put off by how much of “the same” goes round and round! I mean, there seems no end to chatter these days over the various renditions of the Creedmoors in general hunting discussions. But that’s not surprising since there are tendencies in human nature toward overindulgence. Then getting jaded! We want something NEW, FRESH and EXCITING to keep us interested and upbeat. When life gets boring or depressing, humans tend to spend money if they have it, and credit if they don’t! Those are not praiseworthy facts of the “liberated” West.

As all that, in this space, pertains to rifles and their various cartridges in particular, I’m as guilty as anyone else! I may choose larger bore rifles, but it’s the “feeling” of missing something “special” or “a new venture on the horizon” that impels me, but reflection on reality helps put on the brakes!

< A rifle like this would more than satisfy and meet all my expectations. Wait a minute… I already have one like that! This one was for sale at my favorite gun emporium a few months ago. It was snatched up by someone soon after it appeared on the website. Yes, it’s a Ruger No.1H in .458 Win Mag. The tag said $1799.

Learning to appreciate the “status quo” is no evil invented by the devil to deprive us of happiness!

At another time and different circumstances, I could have been very happy to own and use a British .303 Jungle Carbine as my one-and-only firearm. It was offered for $35 from a friend in nearly new condition.

In visiting with our oldest son and family in Senegal, Africa, about two decades ago, as a licensed big game hunter he took me on a one-day hunt in the “outback” where they had lived and worked as missionaries for many years. While they were then living and working in Dakar, I had the unique privilege of visiting and sleeping in their former “huts” made of mud brick, thached roofs and dirt floors!

The hunt… Brent’s firearms were a very used and well worn single-shot .22 LR (that was used for protein gathering) and a Stevens pump 12ga that was equally “well worn”! It was loaded with Brenneke slugs when he could get to Dakar and afford them. Understand: that well used (before it came into his possession) .22 LR, single-shot cost as much in Senegal as a new centerfire .308 Win would have cost in Canada at the time. Then there were multiple governmental hoops to jump through to get possession of it even after it was purchased! Same deal with the 12ga Stevens. To become a LICENSED BG hunter was akin to becoming a licensed guide. He took me on my hunt to his “old”, remote “outback” for a day of “whatever” might come our way! Why didn’t he bring new firearms from Canada? Just about impossible – the import would have been delayed for months – bureaucratic red tape, paying off those in charge and “regular” import fees of about 100%, etc. After all that, they might “get lost” in the fracas… if you know what I mean!

< The Stevens in hand with Madi leading the way. I was trying to decipher what was plain and clear to him as he pointed to it with his stick.

Hey! Brent was content that he had a well-worn single-shot .22LR with which he shot multiple warthogs and various other “small game” for protein and recreation. I was there when he shot a young baboon with that rifle, within a troupe of fifty or so, at the request of the village chief for meat for a family of a dozen, including a couple of wives!

On our day hunt we were also accompanied by a resident of the village who was a friend and guide. Madi efficently demonstrated what it meant to see and read spoor. I managed to shoot a warthog that day with the 12ga and a Brenneke slug. It was young, lean and excellent eating. But, I was warned by my son to be prepared for a lion or woods buffalo in the immediate area that could be mean spirited. I’d never previously handled or fired that shotgun.

… back to “Getting Jaded with the Usual?”

What more could I say or add? Back home, in Canada, I did have possession of another rifle owned by our son – that he didn’t want to “loose” in import to Africa: a very nice M94 XTR in .356 Winchester that he had used, and would use again when they returned home permanently. With that rifle he successfully harvested last fall’s whitetail buck.

As we age, our circumstances change… and I think we become more appreciative of the opportunities we’ve had and not just those we might yet have. We are a relatively few who have been blessed so richly out of about eight billion others, a majority of whom don’t even have the freedom to hunt, or the means to do so!

Madi, our guide, was given a single-shot 12ga by our son when he came into the luxury of taking possession of that 12ga Stevens pump. I asked Brent how I could reward Madi for the day’s hunt. “Give a gift that will make it possible to purchases a few Brennekes for his single-shot 12ga. He wants to kill a buffalo with it” (for food). When Brent could get them from Dakar they were very costly. That single-shot had taken all manner of BG in the hands of our son. And it was “well worn” before he got it from a shop in Dakar. He said he liked it better than a .375 H&H that he’d borrowed from a fellow missionary on one occasion.

When younger, Madi and his brothers used home-made spears to kill buffalo after driving them into a pit.

Being born near the end of The Great Depression and a few years prior to WW2, it took several years for our family, and others, to financially recover during the 1950’s. By the fall of 1954 I was in college and had never owned a big game rifle. After graduation I married and still didn’t own a centerfire rifle – though I still had a single-shot .22 LR.

The account of how I came into ownership of my first BG rifle has been told a few times in some blogs that are archived, so I’ll not retell it here. But suffice to say that I actually bought a new12ga bolt-action, magazine shotgun for big game and small, as well for birds, prior to my first owned centerfire BG rifle. I was then in my twenties. In the meantime I’d used some borrowed rifles for deer hunting. My first two owned rifles were military castoffs: an Argentine military in 7 X 57 that was new in grease – one of the most beautiful rifles I would ever own. But because I needed to mount a scope, I just couldn’t bring myself to mutilate the rifle to accomodate a scope, so it got traded for a used military ’98 that was chambered in .30-06. That got a scope and was the first to experience my handloads. After that…. I’ve lost count! The first real sporting rifle (not ex-military) was a used – but in very good condition – Winchester M70, push feed, in .30-06. From there I got into magnums and Big Bores. All were handloaded. So, to quote King Solomon: “There’s nothing new under the sun”. That is, for me, I’ve no need or desire for another rifle – new or old! “Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don’t have. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless; it is like chasing the wind.” – King Solomon

<A 7 x 57 Argentine Mauser

Am I jaded? Perhaps, but I’ve yet to experience the many possibilities that any one of those still in my cabinet could offer. Can’t say: “I’ve been there, done that” regarding even my two .22 LR’s. So little time… so much to learn… I’ve not even shot a grouse with a .22 LR… and my son has shot tens of warthogs with his single-shot .22 LR! Have you ever shot a warthog with one of your .22 LRs?

But in life I’ve learned this: One can satisfy, but ten can’t! That is… One God and Saviour (See King Solomon’s essay in Ecclesiastes – the Bible).

Are we still jaded? (jaded – “dulled or satiated, as from overindulgence” – New World Dictionary of The American Language)

Till the next…

Shalom

BOB MITCHELL