We took it outside and I fired a couple rounds into the woods. The sound was ferocious and terrible images of trench warfare chaos came up in the back of my mind. It was one of those moments that imprints itself in your memory. We talked about its possible history and I felt a reverence for the rifle.
I later zeroed the rifle and took my first 3 deer with it (and missed a 4th). In a Cyprus swamp, a hardwood grove by a creek, over a cotton field, in a pine wood; I remember the feel, the sound, the smell, and the view of every shot I took with that rifle.
When I first received it, it unfortunately had a run of the mill bushnell scope drilled and mounted into the receiver and the rear sight was long gone. Several years later when I discovered eBay I found a replacement rear sight which shipped over from the UK. I also got a correct sling for it. With the front sight peened in place a century before, allowing no adjustment, I was elated to find that the rifle was able to maintain a tight group just three inches high and an inch to the right at 100 yards. I also started hand loading just for this rifle.
The receipt of this rifle sparked an interest in other milsurps during the years since then. But nothing else holds such a special meaning to me like this one because it was from my Papa. He used to be a robust outdoors man. He taught me to skin a rabbit and gut a fish, took me on my first solo hunts, took me fishing, took me with him to run his beaver trapline and showed me the great oak covered in beaver tails deep in the Savannah River swamp. It saddens me to see him barely able to stand anymore, wracked by Parkinson's and COPD, but he never complains. We were watching my son play on the floor and I asked him if he'd go back to his days of innocent youth if he could. He said, "never and for nothing in the world because I'm so close to home now and wouldn't put it off any longer". Looking forward to the day he sees Jesus, he waits for his appointed time.
Anyhow, I ramble on, here are some recent pics of the rifle. I don't think I've ever shown this rifle here before. It's not particularly unique, but it is very special to me.
