I know, I got the title of this piece backwards; it should be the opposite, “Out with the old-in with the new.” This thought came about as I was reflecting on my early hunting days back in the 60s.

I came from a family that had no interest in hunting, except for my grandfather. I somehow grew up with a love for the outdoors, and after school and on weekends, I would often find myself wandering through the woods with Grandpa.

We didn’t have much hunting equipment and certainly no fancy deer rifles.

Our deer slaying guns were 16-gauge single-barreled shotguns with lead “punkin’ balls” in place of regular shotgun shells.

Heavens no, they had no scopes, and you didn’t need them anyway since they were not very effective except at short range.

We managed to get some deer in those early years, and come small game season, I even managed to get a rabbit or two. The rabbit would jump, and you would pull the hammer back and get one shot. Oh, how things changed as I grew older and continued my love of hunting.

The old single-barreled 16-gauge was put away and replaced with a 308-bolt action, and it even had a scope.

More rifles and scopes came along, and hunting those whitetails seemed to get a lot more successful.

Trust me, I’m still very dependent on this newer, more efficient equipment, but every once in a while, I wonder what it would be like to revert to the old deer-hunting guns.

Apparently, I’m not the only one who’s ever had that thought, since my wife recently showed me a Facebook post by someone she knows about hunting with his grandfather’s old rifle. I contacted the hunter, Joe Earnest, and got the story firsthand.

Joe and his son, Jacob, were out hunting together on the first day of our rifle deer season, and by 8:30 that morning, both of them had scored on a deer. Since he had already taken his first buck with a bow in the archery season, Jacob had killed a doe that morning, and a short time later, Joe dropped a nine-point buck.

Joe’s buck harvest was very special, however, since the gun he used was over 100 years old and had been in his family almost that long. It was a 30-30 1924 Winchester model 1894. The gun was bought used by Joe’s great-grandfather.

What’s also interesting is that he bought it from Blair’s Sporting Goods in Williamsport in 1932. As the story goes, he said it was quite expensive — he paid $20 for it! Joe’s father used the gun for a while and eventually got a new rifle and gave the 30-30 to Joe about 15 years ago. When I talked to Joe, he told me that this year he decided it would be the only gun he would carry until he got a buck with it — mission accomplished. Not only did Joe succeed in getting that buck with that old gun, but it was also the first time he ever got a buck on the first day of the season.

I can really appreciate what Joe has accomplished with that old 30-30 Winchester.

I’ll admit that, like a lot of other hunters these days, I like all of our new rifles, scopes, and ammunition, but I’d like to get up enough ambition someday to go back in time and maybe even take out that old single-barreled shotgun loaded with a “punkin ball.”

I’ll have to give that some more thought.