What is the oldest gun you have ever shot?

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All shooters. Lot of fun

Wow their in really nice shape

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Originally Posted by Fox

The 30-30 was not designed officially until 1895, the 32-40 and 38-55 were the basis for the 30-30 but smokeless itself came out of the French, the first stable and repeatable smokeless powder, which was hard to come by. That is why the 32 Special was given the twist rate it was, allowed for reloading with black powder, even though it was only available from the factory with smokeless powder.

The British were just at war all the time, they moved to semi-smokeless (cordite), which is actually artillery propellant and were still forming brass around cordite well into WWII, at least the Canadian stuff was Nitro Cellulose powder.

The first modern gun was the needle rifle in 1836 in Prussia and used in war starting in 1841, it would be amazing to be able to handle one of these.

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The needle rifle, from what information I came across appeared to be interesting. However my thoughts of what constitutes a modern firearm, and yours differ. I tend to define modern in terms of the ammunition. Your view seems to focus on the evolution of the firearm action, which is fine. I shoot a 43 Mauser bolt action repeater, which you would view as modern. It was design to shoot a greased soft lead cast projectile over 77 grains of black powder. Not enjoying the effort that goes into cleaning a gun that shoots black powder, I work with more modern smokeless powder under a cast lead bullet, as this gun was being phased into being obsolete Dominion was charging it with sharpshooter smokeless powder under a lead case bullet. For me that does not make it a modern firearm. To me a modern firearm shoots jacket projectile over a smokeless powder charge, and their metallurgy has the capacity of withstanding the high pressures developed by modern ammunition. The Mauser I shoot was originally rate for a maximum pressures in the order 24,000 psi. to provide an adequate level of safety for smokeless powder the recommendation is to keep the pressure below 20,000 psi. The pressure of its more modern American equivalent the 45-70 can range as high as 50,000 psi, the older versions of the same caliber have a cut off around 35,000 psi having originated as black powder firearms. I simply offer this as to illustrate, why I focus upon the line between older blackpowder firearms and modern smokeless powder firearms. There are numerous exception, of guns starting off as blackpowder guns, which have been reproved to take the pressures of modern smokeless ammunition the .303 being amongst them.

You don't stop hunting because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.
- Gun Nut

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Originally Posted by Gun Nut

The needle rifle, from what information I came across appeared to be interesting. However my thoughts of what constitutes a modern firearm, and yours differ. I tend to define modern in terms of the ammunition. Your view seems to focus on the evolution of the firearm action, which is fine. I shoot a 43 Mauser bolt action repeater, which you would view as modern. It was design to shoot a greased soft lead cast projectile over 77 grains of black powder. Not enjoying the effort that goes into cleaning a gun that shoots black powder, I work with more modern smokeless powder under a cast lead bullet, as this gun was being phased into being obsolete Dominion was charging it with sharpshooter smokeless powder under a lead case bullet. For me that does not make it a modern firearm. To me a modern firearm shoots jacket projectile over a smokeless powder charge, and their metallurgy has the capacity of withstanding the high pressures developed by modern ammunition. The Mauser I shoot was originally rate for a maximum pressures in the order 24,000 psi. to provide an adequate level of safety for smokeless powder the recommendation is to keep the pressure below 20,000 psi. The pressure of its more modern American equivalent the 45-70 can range as high as 50,000 psi, the older versions of the same caliber have a cut off around 35,000 psi having originated as black powder firearms. I simply offer this as to illustrate, why I focus upon the line between older blackpowder firearms and modern smokeless powder firearms. There are numerous exception, of guns starting off as blackpowder guns, which have been reproved to take the pressures of modern smokeless ammunition the .303 being amongst them.

You don't stop hunting because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.
- Gun Nut

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The needle rifle was the first with a contained cartridge, not in brass but the first cartridge. The primer was inside the case, the needle would pierce the paper case and hit the primer. This is the grand daddy of the centerfire and very cool. Think about it, at that time everyone had to load from the muzzle, or use a couple of odd breech loading loose powder designs. This was the first contained cartridge, that is neat as heck.

One really cool thing is the reason why the No 1 Lee Enfields have such huge chambers, it goes back to the dented cases in the Zulu wars, the brits guns were all jammed up because they used dented brass foil cartridges in their guns. A solution was to open up the chambers to allow more room for these damaged cases, that held on through the No 1 if not some of the No 4 Lee Enfiled rifles.

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Originally Posted by js4fn

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All shooters. Lot of fun

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Look good and like fun!!


There are good shootable old rifles out there, took me about 60 seconds to find this one that is pre-1900 and probably incredibly accurate.
http://www.tradeexcanada.com/content...rifle-65x55-45

As for the oldest I have shot probably one of the Martini BSA target rifles my dad had in .22 and in center fire a Swedish Mauser or Mosin from around 1900 if I remember right. In shotguns it would be a toss up of the muzzle loader 12guage (no real ID marks we could figure out but it was older) I used for pheasant for several years or my grandfathers 1912. At one of the gunshows several decades ago there was an air rifle I was allowed to handle (carefully!!! and under close watch) that was early or mid 1800's but I don't remember the exact age, that was a cool rifle.

1937 browning superposed pigeon grade

Model 94 32 Winchester special. Manufactured in 1902, just had GunCo replace the lifter. Cycles beautifully now.

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Originally Posted by Cameracutter

Model 94 32 Winchester special. Manufactured in 1902, just had GunCo replace the lifter. Cycles beautifully now.

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Jason is a spectacular gunsmith