jthomson
That mention of a Model 97 Winchester brings back an
Saturday, August 06, 2022, 14:08

old memory of my first meeting with one. Now this took place back in 64 or 65 I was just a young guy fresh out of high school and had purchased my first real trap gun, a beautiful 870 TC model, vent rib, super nice wood. It cost me most of my hay baling money earned thru the hot Kansas summer. I was full of piss and vinegar as most teens my age were. The summer before before we won the national lottery and all got expense paid trips to beautiful SE Asia. Well I was attending a Turkey shoot put on by our local Knights of Columbus and feeling pretty salty with my fancy new trap gun. I entered a shoot along side of a dusty older gentleman dressed in bib overalls smelling of slightly sour milk fresh from his milking barn, and he was sporting a well used pump action shotgun that had the ability to take the hide off your thumb every time you shucked it. No rib and a kitchen match head stuck in the barrel for a front bead
. Just another country rube for us city slickers. Well when the smoke cleared that afternoon and that feller left with a truck load of turkeys I was left with nothing but empty shells and no lunch money. Times have moved on since then but I have never forgotten that Model 97 Winchester