Dale Valade

Col. Townsend Whelen is often quoted as having said — among other things — “only accurate rifles are interesting.”

While in some ways that may be true, I’m inclined to believe that my definition of “interesting” isn’t purely as practical as that of Col. Whelen. Old, rare or unique guns are also quite interesting.

Years ago a friend of mine showed me a neat old Stevens single-shot called a “bicycle gun.” These were produced in various designs from 1864 to 1942, his being one of the earlier models. Although it was missing the detachable skeleton buttstock and was chambered for the arcane .22 WRF rimfire cartridge, it was unique and quite fun.

Accurate it was not, largely due to a pitted bore, but it would shoot minute of pop can out to 40-ish paces. This is regrettable as Stevens single-shots were once the belle of the ball amongst match shooters. I’ve never seen another .22 WRF nor Stevens bicycle gun in my travels since.

A neighbor of my parents, upon finding out my passion for firearms, produced a very unique family heirloom for my inspection. It had been in a house fire and was very much worse for the wear. It was a Winchester Model 1895 rifle chambered for the fully adequate but obscure .35 WCF; a big boomer hucking 250 grain bullets to approximately 2,100 fps. Someone in his lineage had purchased the rifle to take north to Alaska but ended up not going.

Rifles thusly chambered were only produced from 1903 to 1936 and were extremely rare. After producing a handful of cartridges, the fellow asked if I cared to shoot it. Does a duck walk barefoot? In the empty pasture, the only readily available targets were piles of dried horse biscuits, but boy, did we spread the manure!

Heavy as it was and with a flat shotgun-style steel buttplate — rather than the typical curved steel buttplate — it really was fun to shoot. While I’ve seen several 1895s since, I’ve yet to see another chambered for .35 WCF!

Guiding hunters, one gets to see all manner of shooting irons, in various calibers and states of repair. One hunter had a one-of-a-kind pre-64 Model 70 Winchester. Slapped into a gorgeous custom walnut stock and topped off with a high-quality Zeiss scope, the uniqueness of the gun was found in the legend stamped on the barrel. It read “.358 Win Mag.” That’s right, read it again!

Apparently an old hunting buddy of our client had passed on and left him this Winchester. It had started out as a standard grade sporter chambered in .338 Win Mag but had been fired so much that the original owner had the barrel rebored, a once-common practice that is nearly unheard-of today.

The gunsmith sent away and had custom dies built for the .338 Win Mag case dimensions opened up to fire .358 caliber bullets. They called the resultant wildcat the .358 Win Mag. Our client put a 200 grain Hornady Interlock into a 5×5 bull elk later that week with this very gun. I still have the bullet. Heck, yes, I got to shoot that one too! Very interesting!

Interesting guns very much follow the adage of being in the eye of the beholder. But to me, it isn’t purely accuracy that catches my eye, although I do love a nice tight group as much as the next John Q. As I mentioned at the outset, vintage, rare chamberings and unique configurations are very interesting to yours truly. And if I get to shoot them, even only once, it makes an impression that lasts a lifetime!

What are some of the guns you find most interesting? Write to us at shootingthebreezebme@gmail.com and check us out on Facebook!