Introduced in 1906 by Remington the Model 8 was John Browning’s last sporting rifle design, based on his long recoil patent design, also implemented on his Auto 5 shotgun were as the recoil from the round cocks and reloads the firearm by the barrel moving reward along with the introduction of the 35 Remington cartridge made this a instant hit with sportsman. Browning having a long working relationship with Winchester designing the 1885 single shot a long with the 1886,1887,1892,1894,1895 lever actions and the 1890,1893,1897 line of pumps when he showed this new design to T.G. Bennett he was less than enthused and sat on the decision to produce Browning’s auto shotgun design for 2 years so Browning getting fed up with waiting and convinced this design was a winner asked Bennett for royalties on the design which Bennett refused and with that Browning broke off from Winchester..( big mistake on Winchesters part)

Browning went to Remington with his design but while waiting on a meeting with Remington’s president Marcellus Hartley in the parlor Browning was informed that the president had suffered a fatal heart attack. So realizing he wouldn’t be able to make any deals with Remington at the moment Browning took his design over the pond to FN. Having already set up a contract with them through Hart O” Berg FN’s factory director back in 1897 for his 32 cal Auto pistol ,FN was more than glad to take over the new shotgun and rifle designs, contracts where signed March 24 of 1902.

Browning stayed in Belgium for 3 months supervising the production of his A5 , an instant hit with American sportsman 10,000 where sold in the first year of production (1903) but in 1904 import tariffs on goods of foreign manufacture made the prices of FN made firearms too expensive so Browning renegotiated with FN to give him the rights to set up manufacturing in the US which they did and Browning was able to finally start manufacturing relations with Remington. Remington was very eager for Brownings designs and put them into production by 1905 with the Remington model 11 and by 1906 Remington introduced the model 8!

Five smashing knock down blows delivered at lighting speed! said Remington advertisements in 1906 with the new 35 cal Remington round with its 200 grain bullet moving at 2,000 fps. Initially introduced in 35 Remington only the 25,30 and 32 Remington soon followed in 1907 though never as popular as the 35.

25 Remington-100 grain sp at 2,330fps with 1’216 fp of energy

30 Remington-170 grain sp at 2,120fps with 1,696 fp of energy

32 Remington-170 grain sp at 2,220fps with 1,860 fp of energy

35 Remington-200 grain sp at 2,080fps with 1,920 fp of energy

Of all the Remington rounds the 35 has stood the test of time a fantastic brush and woods round it is as popular today as when it came out in 1906 that 358 cal 200 grain bullet moving at 2,000fps is a killer! a many of deer,black bear, moose, elk and grizzly bear have fallen to the little thumper! though the years rounds come and go there are fads but for the foreseeable future the 35 Remington is still a contender for one of the best woods and brush rounds. The popularity of the round over the years has made other firearm manufacturers introduced the round in some of their models Marlin in their 336 is a fine rifle and Winchester made a run in their pre 64 model 70, Remington would also have the round chambered in the model 14 and 141 pump rifles and 760 and also there model 600 bolt action and the model 81 Remington (which is a revamped model 8).

I’ve got my Remington model 8 running 200 grain cast lead gas checks at 1,900fps ,which it really seems to like with IMR 3031 in a hornady case with Winchester primers. Looking forward to getting the old model 8 out out this winter and testing out the little thumper on some unsuspecting quarry! Get those old warriors out in the field this hunting season!

Summer has a way of getting us (hunters) a little down, with its heat and humidity it has us longing for cooler days and the changing of the leaves, it has us yearning for Septembers first morning of dove season for with that starts the ever consuming pursuit of game in all its splendor, for soon after comes the opening days of deer,duck and quail. So in those summer evenings I find myself pondering on days gone by and the memories stored in the forests and fields and remember grand days with old faithful dogs and friends.

December 2017 my good friend Jordan Muir had invited my father,brother and myself on a combination deer, duck and quail hunt (mainly) duck on the Black River in eastern North Carolina. The Black River is a tributary that starts in Sampson county with the merging of the Great Coharie Creek and the Six Runs Creek and snakes its way into the Cape Fear River and is know for its old growth forests and grand bald cypress forest some 2’600 years old, a marvelous place teaming with diverse wildlife deer,bobcat,river otter,black Bear and of course duck make this there place of residents. My father having a passion for deer hunting having started at the age of 8 and killing his first deer and 13 with a bow that’s some 50 odd years of pursuing that elusive species of Artiodactyla….yeah I had to look that word up! So we didn’t go duck hunting when I was growing up, my father went a handful of times in his youth but didn’t have a passion for it like he did deer hunting. So I for one was looking forward to a new experience!

Arriving at Jordan’s cousins place on the Black River we promptly unloaded our gear and guns and awaited his cousins arrival a Mr. Allan Page owner and operator of Leaning Tree Game Calls a very skilled call maker and duck hunter to boot! We hit it off marvelously! Having a love of wildlife,good food and vintage firearms we stayed up most the night in conversation. Finely realizing how late it was and how early we need to get up we hit the sack. The next morning we fixed a grand Southern breakfast and set off on Allan’s property to do a little quail hunt! Quail used to be abundant in NC but with the progress of time and the loss of more and more farmland and do to the chemicals used in the practice wild quail in NC are sadly dwindling so in order to do a hunt quail were provided by Jordan’s employer at the time Shady Knolls Game Preserve, still we has a wonderful time tromping through the pine forest in pursuit of the little gentleman! After said hunt was completed we commenced to clean and prepare the little gentlemen for the nights supper and what a supper it was! Fried quail,venison and Allan’s signature way of fixing whole duck in the oven! Good conversation on the days hunt over a glass of port ended the day in cozy bliss.

The next morning while in the process of washing the sleep out of my eyes and preparing a little breakfast the door burst open and a blast from a duck call broke the mornings silence! Good morning fellas! Allan greeted us in his usual jovial manner.So loading up we drove through the darkness down back roads until we reached our designated spot, trudging through the undergrowth we finally reached the river and Allan having dragged a little kayak with him jumped in it and commenced breaking the ice that had formed on the water over the cold and chilly night, then throwing out the decoys we set up on the dam Jordan my brother Seth and myself, we were at the far right hand of the group, we waited with baited breath in the cold and frosty morning for those tell tail whistling wings. Before legal shooting hours (7am) in NC we could hear the skidding wooosh of the ducks starting to land. A shot from Allan’s daughter Skye’s 20 gauge broke the mornings silence! At that the ducks that had landed erupted in a haze of confusion! Ducks were everywhere darting about, I heard my brother Seth let loose with his Browning A5 3 inch mag as a mallard flew by overhead I cut loose as well with my 1901 Winchester 10 gauge but do to excitement and inexperience …mainly excitement both shots were out of range. We had a few more mallards fly by overhead that morning all out of range but the experience sparked a new found love of waterfowl hunting! Seeing those magnificent little dive bombers cup up and come into decoy is an experience one shouldn’t let pass by in a lifetime.

After returning to camp around 10 we decided to go on a jump shoot down the river in kayaks, let me tell you if you haven’t done that you are missing out! It is one of the most fun things I have done! Allan drove us up river to a bridge put in and dropped us off and said it should take us around 5 hours to drift down to where he would be waiting to pick us up, with that we unloaded the kayaks one single man for Jordan and a double man for Seth and I. We eased the boats into the lazily flowing Black River as Allan pulled away giving a a honk and thumbs up, We decided Seth would steer and let me do the shooting the first half and then we would switch and then he would shoot the later part of the trip, the river was eerily gorgeous with its ancient old growth cypress trees standing proudly over us ever watchful over the centuries.

We hadn’t drifted 100 yards when a group of 10-12 wood ducks exploded from our left off the bank! Guns were thrown to shoulder and cordite was ignited but with the sudden explosion of feathery confusion and excitement shots did not hit there targets, we were left in awe of how swift and fast the little feathery fowl could get out of dodge! As we came to our first bend in the river Jordan said keep an eye out to the extreme left or right depending on which way the river runs, the bend was to the left so I was in the process of checking my shotgun when all the sudden a hen wood duck exploded from my right under some overhanging brush on the bank. The 1901 Winchester snapped to my shoulder and I let loose a load of RST #4 in her direction and she came tumbling down my first duck! Drifting up and plucking her out if the swirling Black River I marveled at how the sun shown a gold’ish green sheen on her grey body absolutely gorgeous!

We continued down the lazily twisting river having to maneuver over fallen trees and brush jumping mainly wood duck, the thing about wood ducks is that if you jump them up they will fly down river only 3-4 hundred yards and land again so opportunity to get another shot is high. So half way through the trip I switch out with Seth and through out the rest of the trip we kept jumping this drake wood duck we would get almost within range and he would bust out not giving us a shot, we were coming to the last stretch of river in our trip when to our left he busted out from the left bank! Seth swung his Browning up to meet the little rocket and with a jolting roar the drake came crashing down Seth’s first duck! We found him floating feet up down the river stuck in some brush. And what a drake wood duck! Marvelously mature and one of the biggest ones Jordan said he has ever seen! Our trip at and end we drifted into where Allan said he would be waiting, pictures where taken and congratulations were made and a new found passion was sparked in these old deer hunters for these gorgeous feathery fowl!

Introduced in 1925 the model 54 was Winchesters first commercial bolt action sporting rifle offered to the masses, though bolt action rifles were offered by Winchester as early as 1882 with there 45-70 chambered Hotchkiss rifles. A majority of those rifles some 84,000 were in military style muskets and carbines ,sporting configurations on the other hand were not as popular with shooters at the time preferring Winchesters line of lever actions instead.

There were also sporting versions of there Lee Navy but only 1,700 were made in sporting variation partly due to its light 6mm caliber.

T.C. Johnson work for Winchester from 1885 until his death in 1934 and came up with some of Winchsters most iconic designs, the model 12 and 21 most respectively along with the line of 1903-1910 style of semi auto rifles. He also designed the Model 51 Imperial in 1918 only 24 were manufactured and then were shot down by short sited Winchester executives. It was offered in solid and take down form and calibers 30-06 Springfield and 35 Newton and a new 27 caliber… 270 WCF.

Drilled and tapped for telescopic sights and highly finished and based on there p-14 and M1917 action I don’t see why this was shot down, it looks to me to be a very robust and well thought out design.

Johnson would design the Winchester model 54 on a Mauser 98 action with 2 stage military trigger, one of its criticized features along with the single piece stamped trigger guard and Mauser type 3 position wing safety making it hard to mount a scope without modifying the bolt despite these drawbacks sales were good until the great depression

Calibers for the model 54 were 30-06 Springfield ,30-30 win ,7×57 Mauser ,7.65x53mm Argentine ,9x57mm Mauser ,250Savage ,22Hornet, 220Swift ,257Roberts…aaand the new 270 Winchester liked by a certain fellow with the last name of O’ Connor! You also could get your model 54 chambered in 25-35 win, 32 win special and 35 Whelen on special order. A model 54 carbine chambered in 35 Whelen would be a fantastic little brush gun!

Winchesters various offerings in the model 54!

My model 54 Winchester carbine was manufactured in 1935 and is chambered in the time tested 30-06 Springfield it came with a standard buckhorn sight which I promptly replaced with a period correct Lyman 48w sight which I prefer .Though no deer have fallen to the little carbine yet I am confident the little guy will get the job done when called upon, the carbine length rifle is ideal for slipping and maneuvering around the NC thickets come deer season!

The load I’ve chosen for the little guy is a 220 grain Hornady Interlock running 2,300 out of the 20 inch barrel with 54 grain of IMR 4831. I took to the shooting range today in this 100 degree heat…(yeah I know)…can’t wait until fall! anyway I went to test out my loads in off hand positions.

The first group I shot was in the sitting position, went to prone and got better groups and found out the gun was a little high (this is at 50 yards) and had to adjust the Lyman sight as you can see a little too much the second time but the third group was right where I wanted the little guy! Not bad for off hand!