Carbine Williams

[Subdeacon Joe]

 

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

Back about 1975 or so, my ol' liver Brittany, Woody, and I were spending a weekend pheasant hunting up near Colusa at the Richmond Hunting Club.  And it was COLD!  Saturday night I intended to sleep in the passenger seat of my '73 Super Beetle with a Coleman catalytic heater in the footwell (and windows open), and Woody in the back seat.  Not comfortable, but we'd done it before - we were young and rugged, don'tcha know!

 

Came in from the field to our "camp site" on the leased farm, and started to set up my stove to cook dinner when a voice hailed me from a nearby camper.   An elderly gentleman waved me over, and introduced himself; I think his name may have been Pete.  Also a member of the club, he too was solo with his dog, and they invited me and Woody to join them for supper - which we did.  So, as we're sitting about enjoying a hot meal and coffee (and maybe a bit of brandy) and swapping hunting and dog tales, when I noticed his shotgun lying across a chair.  It was interesting, and bit odd looking.

 

"Pete, what in the world kind of a shotgun ya got there?  May I look at it?"

 

He grinned, and said "Why, shore!  Go on ahead and I'll tell ya about it!"

 

I picked it up and was immediately intrigued - VERY light, with an aluminum receiver, but very little weight forward:  it seemed that the barrel was fiberglass!  Actually, as I later learned, something like 500 miles of glass fiber and resin wrapped about a thin-walled steel liner.  

 

"Son, that there is one off the early Winchester Model 59's," ol' Pete said.  Recoil operated, with a 'floating chamber.'  And then he went on to tell me how it had been given to him by an old friend of his, a fella named Marsh Williams, who had worked with Wichester and helped design the gun.  

 

A memory that stuck with me.  

 

                                                                                 Winchester Model 59

 

                muzzle end of barrel                                      William's "floating chamber" outlined in blue

                     

 

 

 

 

    Back in the day - A Boy And His Dog   

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 16 by Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967