twobit said

renegade said

Did you get the serial number for the Routledge (NIB) that Dave Riffle has on his web site??? I think he has sold it for around $15K

renegade said

Did you get the serial number for the Routledge (NIB) that Dave Riffle has on his web site??? I think he has sold it for around $15K

Hello,

I did not get that rifle.  I am traveling in New Zealand for another month so my internet time is a but restricted.  If you could pass it along I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

Michael

Sorry Michael

I meant Steve Barnett, (not Dave Riffle)

The serial number is #46632, Routledge bore, matted receiver, rectangular loading port, “W”, in original box, D & T, Steel Butt,

SN 311429 noW s,l,lr not tapped, Round barrel, not grooved , plastic butt plate. May have been reblued a while ago.

twobit said

Thanks Vince.  Your rifle is in the survey.  I am just a few rifles short of 3700 entries now.  You note it is “not grooved.”  I am referring to the receiver top being grooved for a clamp on scope mount.  Yours should be.

Michael  

Mike,
THat’s a lot of recorded rifles. This one is not mine, just one I handled recently. I didn’t remember it as being grooved for a tipoff but I do find I suffer from CRS. I think.

Michael,

Sorry to say, I don’t have a pic of the rifle with a pile of rabbits.  In my growing up years, about the only time you’d see a camera was at family gatherings.

On the other hand, there are several rabbit drive videos on the net.  The following video is from 1934 and the 50’s were comparable, with one exception.  In the dust bowl days of the 30’s the rabbits were everywhere—in the 50’s similar densities were seen only in creek/river bottoms and unfarmed draws that grew up in weeds/grasses.  The problem in the 30’s was that, even though people had firearms, few had the disposable income to buy ammo.  The drives were an alternative to reduce populations.

It was pretty rare that 4 or 5 of us weren’t together shooting rabbits on weekends.  Typically, we’d shoot 150+ in an afternoon and the day wasn’t over until everyone had burned their brick of ammo.  On Monday, on my way to school, I’d drop off the rabbits at a gas station in town that had a corn crib set up to contain the rabbits.  When the crib was full, the station would call mink farmers in North/South Dakota—they would come in semi’s, haul them back, grind ’em up(bones, fur and all) to feed to their mink as a protein supplement.

I apologize for the post not being strictly about Winchester, so to validate, I’ll report another 61 I once owned, SN 322121, same configuration as 215383 but with composition butt plate.

HPD