Vintage .30 Herett

This advertisement has inspired me for decades. Steve Herrett, an old running buddy of Bob Milek gone too soon. I think he passed of a heart attack? They were doing unheard of things with handguns and really threw gas on the handgun hunting realm. I thought of mimicking the gun in the add and one day trying Pronghorn myself. The one pictured is a very early 70's piece with a 1.3X Lobo scope. The later 3X was better but not by any modern standards. I personally found the Bushnell Phantom 2.3x much better and the early TC 1" round body and railed 3X as good as any modern scope today. So where to you jump in on a classic rig re-do? I think Steve in the photos is sporting the 1" body prototypes. Note the sexy full length forend. He was Herrett's grips you know.

The little .30 Herett, if you have never worked with it, is a pure delight. It's capable of so much more than a normal .30-30 in the same platform. Crazy, how efficient you can make something by changing the combustion chamber shape. Even Gary's wonderful .30 GNR which is the maxed out version of a elongated .30 Herrett having a 100% increase in capacity is doing good to garner 15% increase in performance for the trouble. But sometimes you need that, and it's capable of heavier bullets by comparison which greatly enhances the performance. Say 165 gr. bullets in the .30 GNR at the same speed as the Herrett's 125 gr.

I need to get another .30 Herett barrel just to have, maybe put some vintage glass on it. Recoil is about like a .357 Revolver and it genuinely is a 200 yd. deer or coyote gun. Shooting a 1" 3-shot 100 yd. group is as easy as you make it. Sounds light for hogs but guys are busting them all over with the .300 AAC that mimics the Herrett in a carbine. Nothing new under the sun.

Thanks for posting that picture. It brings back some good memories of dreams and hopes.