Parent blog: Cats, Guns, and National Security (catsgunsandnationalsecurity.blogspot.com)
Original post: https://catsgunsandnationalsecurity.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-daily-fudd-e249-homage-to-parent.html
LINK: GUNS Magazine Cat Guns - GUNS Magazine
Don’t let the title throw you. Up front I want to state Yvonne and I are both cat and dog lovers. This is not about shooting lost or discarded house cats wandering onto our place. Those we “fix” so they can’t reproduce and give them a place to live on our Montana acreage.
In firearms collecting terminology, cat guns are vintage, big bore Winchester and Colt lever and pump action, repeating rifles sporting British proof marks. I’ve had the good fortune to have a genuine cat gun here on loan for a bit in a large-frame Colt Lightning chambering the .50-95 WCF.
The article goes on to describe these arms as favored by some less financed, but more experienced, adventurers exploring British colonies around the world, where the BIG cats--tigers, lions, and leopards--roamed.
The first time I heard the term cat guns was while visiting a museum in Johannesburg, South Africa. On display there were several Winchester Model 1876 rifles. I asked our guide about them and he said, “Oh, those were cat guns. Farmers kept them in case lions came about.”
Of course, self-loaders can fulfill the role as well, as pictured in this vintage ammunition advertisement with a customer armed with what appears to be a Remington Model 8 semi-automatic rifle:
Such goes to the adage that the best gun for any situation is a gun you actually have when you need it.
TDF INDEX: Cats, Guns, and National Security: THE DAILY FUDD index. https://catsgunsandnationalsecurity.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-daily-fudd-index.html