As everyone knows, I love Old Gunny Stuff — and a good-looking pre-WWII hunting rifle in a proven chambering pretty much checks all my boxes. Here’s a Savage 99 in .250-3000 (.250 Savage) at Collectors:

As I’ve also said before, I am not a fan of the 99 when it’s chambered in a larger caliber like .303 Savage, .308 Win and so on, because of the stiff recoil. But a nice quarter-incher like the .250 Savage? And in a handy little carbine? (And did I also say before how much I love the Savage’s slick lever action and box magazine which can hold pointy spitzer boolets, unlike the WinMar lever guns with their tube mags?)
The age of rifles doesn’t bother me at all, provided that they’ve been reasonably well-looked after: I’ve owned many pre-WWII rifles, and honestly, I’ve loved pretty much every single one of them: Swiss K-11, Swedish 1896 Mausers, SMLE and Enfield No.4s, Mosin-Nagants, gawd knows how many Mauser 98s, and so on. The one rifle of this genre that got away, by the way, also gives me the deepest regret at its loss: a pre-WWI Winchester 94 in .32 Win Special (as I recall, made in 1910), which I bought from a dear friend who a year later demanded I sell it back to him because he was missing it too much. Now I miss that rifle, still. Here’s one, also from Collectors.

Were it not for their respective price tags — which reflect how many people love these rifles as much as I do — I’d buy them both in a heartbeat.
So yeah: old rifles and old cartridges don’t frighten me, and they shouldn’t frighten anyone. These fine old ladies are flat-out wonderful and gorgeous, their cartridges are just as effective as any modern cartridge, and everyone should own at least one.
Touch history, folks, while you still can. You can thank me later.















