Anyone else recall the days that if you could get your ol' factory made
side-lock to shoot a four inch group you were "good-to-go"?? The customs
were more accurate (mainly the .32 and .36 squirrel guns) but they could
cost thousands as far back as the '60's! They were, and still are, beautiful
rifles to behold.
After moving from Nebraska where I hunted with a .25-06 to Iowa where
it was shotgun slug only for deer hunting, I took a 10 year hiatus from deer
hunting. Then they opened up a muzzle loading season. My .58 Zouave had
long been sold, so a .54 Lyman Trade Rifle then replaced it. With minnies,
it grouped 3" and less. Got a few deer with it and it later got replaced with
the T/C 209x50 which brought groups down to a reliable 2" and quite a
few MOA 3-shot groups. But about all the deer I took with it were early
morning, late evening with high humidity no wind conditions in which they
were completely obscured by the cloud of smoke. Did they just drop, did
they turn and run the other way? Never knew for sure until walking out to
check......I HATED that!
Then Savage opened up a whole new world. Even though private individuals
were doing smokeless builds, the introduction of the 10ML and 10MLII gave
ML hunters like me something to behold. Accuracy was little to no better
than my Encore, but no more smoke cloud and the need to clean it that
night to prevent corrosion! YEA!
Then Rick Bibby (you could say he was a godfather to the other board) began
championing .45 barrels as the way to go for centerfire accuracy. Just look at
where it has gone from there! Both my "throw together" ML's shoot less than
MOA and I did most of the work myself. I marvel at you guys who do better
work, but being a meat hunter I'm plenty satisfied with 1/2-1 MOA, usually
5-shot groups. This is now worlds apart from the Zouve and Trade rifles!
Now, would I LIKE one of the new, improved .45 customs? SURE I WOULD!
But being fully retired, got to watch the pennies and nickels. There is no sense
in attempting to hold back improvements "just because" like the "traditionalists"
did with the in-line crowd and later, the "in-line" crowd with us smokeless
enthusiasts.
Go for the moon, guys. Then when ya get there, on to Mars!!