Family’s Winchester Rifle Has Been Dropping Deer For A Century

Above, two Winchester 1894 rifles at the Billy the Kid Museum. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Here's a nice little human-interest story of a Winchester 1894 rifle that has been in one Wyoming family for a century.

It was posted by the Cowboy State Daily of Wyoming. 

It begins with:

When Bob Budd works the lever action on his model 1894 Winchester rifle, it runs as smoothly as it did a century ago. 

The worn metal and wood on the rifle tell the tale of countless hunting trips in Wyoming in all sorts of weather. Budd has no idea how many .25-35 Winchester cartridges have been fired in it, but it still shoots straight and true, he told Cowboy State Daily.

It's been in his family for about as long as Wyoming has been a state, for five generations. His grandfather and father killed their first deer with it, as did Budd and his two sons. 

So long as his family keeps taking good care of it, there’s no reason to think it won’t still be dropping deer a century from now. 

And for his family, it’s so much more than just a rifle, said Budd, who lives in Cheyenne, but has deep family roots in the Big Piney area. 

“I think it's a talisman. A rifle is a talisman for those of us who grew up in that culture,” he said. 

To read more, go here.