I found myself in a little hardware store yesterday and it really got me thinking, if the state had to choose one gun to symbolize its culture and history, what would that be? Would it be something classic like a .30‑30 or a tough bolt-action rifle?
State firearm
- Thread starter elvieberg
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- Jul 4, 2025
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I found your thought interesting and provoking. Being a student of history. From the earliest settlements to our freedom from Massachusetts in 1850, every firearm was loaded from the front. The muzzleloader, be it the trade guns, the remnants of the revolution, or the fine work done by Mainers that made the smoothbores and rifled muskets up into almost the 1900's. I agree there 30-30 has put more meat in freezers and on drying racks since the advent of smokeless powder than any other cartridge. The heavy bolt guns of our grandfather's day started life as 1903 and 1917 military arms, and weather left in the venerable 30-06 or rechambered into something else. They went back to the Maine foundations of doing more with less. In conclusion, I know finally, I would not be able to decide. I would have to have a stacked set that would include a Farmington rifled musket, a 94 in 30-30, and a sporterized 1917 .
