Reeder Custom Guns - Images of yesteryear.

After Mom's passing you have to go through things. It is just the nature of the whole process. I found an old album of photos from the day and age of my grandparents. I can tell from one photo it is from the 1930s.

These are images of my grandfather and his friends hunting deer in Massachusetts. I believe they did much of their hunting in the Hadley and Deerfield area of Massachusetts. My grandfather's brother John became a priest and had his parish in Hadley and also Deerfield Massachusetts. It was and still is a big farming area in the Connecticut River valley. Here are images of a bygone era.

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When I was 16 I killed a deer with a 16 gauge SXS Ithica with a Brenichia slug, range was about 50 years. Next year I got a used rifle, A 30-40 Krag. For high school graduation my dad gave me a 30-06. At Miss. State I hunted with a bow. Missed the 3rd biggest deer I ever shot at.

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double barrel shotgun. I suspect the quality of the image and shadowing has the effect of making it look like a Savage 99.

Since 1910 the state of Massachusetts has always been a shotgun deer state. So Gramps would've been using either slugs or buckshot. I suspect slugs. On one of the pictures you can see he had an improvised "peep" sight on the rib of his shotgun.

Back in those days no one hunted with a specialty shotgun for deer. You sort of pointed the shotgun like a musket with deer slugs. So he kind of improvised a set for better accuracy.

Is there NO deer season in Massachusetts where one can use a rifle? Thanks!

Well. Today the state does allow muzzleloaders for the shotgun season.

In Massachusetts you cannot hunt whitetail deer during the two week shotgun with anything other than a shotgun with slugs or buckshot or you can use a muzzleloader.

That has been the law since 1910.

Ironically I can hunt coyotes with a 300 Win mag if I want. That is AOK but not deer.

early in the last century. While European "slugs" were invented aroudn the turn of the century the "Foster" slug as we commonly know it didn't come until the 1930's. It's very likely that all those deer were taken with mostly "Buckshot". That improvised sight would show contrary to that theory but it was just a guess anyway.

Shooting slugs through a side by side double is an art too! The barrels tend to cross from 40-50 yds. and then it gets worse. Working with a double muzzle loader I got good use to 50 yds. or so. At 100 yds. it shot 4' to the left for the right barrel and the same to the right for the left tube! Would have totally missed a deer at that range for sure. It is certain fresh deer meat would be a welcome diversion from salt pork or beef/chicken.

Thanks for posting those.

They used slugs or the pumpkin ball. The pumpkin ball was a load with one lead round ball. I suspect the issue of money was at the forefront.

We as a nation were in the Great Depression and ammunition could be expensive. I want to say the high end Breneke ammunition wasn't available or maybe unobtainable price wise.

I know the area they hunted. There are some huge fields with woods in-between large farms. Since my grandfathers brother was the priest in the area they never had an issue getting permission to hunt.

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The camo phase of hunting. I remember hunting with some after they got back home from the war and they wore jungle fatigues they brought home. Then, all the non veteran started buying used ones from the Army Navy surplus stores to wear hunting. Orange vests and hats were not required at the time. I never felt the compunction to put my jungle fatigues back on for recreational purposes. Also, nothing looks more ludicrous to me than a man dressed in mossy oak wearing a flourescent orange vest and hat.

the late 60s and it became available in the surplus stores that was what started it all. Now it is big business with a different camo every year.

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and 2 of the guys are wearing a white shirt & tie with their hunting clothes. Plus no camo at all. In fact there wasn't any back then. Even our military had no camo. And the young hunters of today can't walk in the woods unless they have the newest style of camo on. Back when those pics were taken you had to be a real hunter to get your deer, and what your wore didn't matter.

In some old NRA magazines, there are several pics of hunters wearing suit and tie in the field hunting. Things sure have changed.

Some really big bodied does in those pics too.

Antlers were secondary. In those days Massachusetts had one deer season. It was the first in December and it was two weeks long. You were allowed one deer and I believe it was either sex.

Massachusetts was always a shotgun state. You could not use a centerfire rifle on deer so it was shotgun and slugs or buckshot.

You are right about being a real hunter. In those days the deer population was much less and it was more spread out. Massachusetts wasn't as densely populated as it is now. You could literally get lost for days in some parts of the state.

Suit and tie. Different standards. Heaven forbid you are in public underdressed.

I love these! Thank you for sharing these.

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