A Ballard.  both a 22 rf and a CF, probably a 32-40 or a 38-55

I will be 78 next week, was I supposed to stop hunting when I was 74?

Well  granted, I do have a deer lease and sit a deer blind all day now.  I'm still hunting. 

Last Medicare appointment the Doctor was asking the Medicare questions, and one was, "where would you like to be at the end of your time? "

I said, "sitting in the deer blind".

He said he was going to put that down.

Wife lets me go out as long as I don't turn my phone off, so she can find me on  Life360.

I am kind of partial to Stevens 44 1/2's myself. A .32-40 is traditional, but a 44 1/2 certainly could be barreled and chambered in  .32 H&R if that's what you want for a cartridge.

I'll echo the .32-40 responses too, and will throw out .32 Miller and .32RKS into the mix. I will say though that the long .32 handgun cartridges are very appealing also. The older I get the less I'm enchanted with getting the bejapers knocked out of me by big calibers. .32 H&R or .327 Federal may well be the next path for me as a second barrel for the 44 1/2, or in an orphan cast Ballard receiver (with the barrel marked as ".32 extree long" or somesuch to dissuade future users from doing something erroneous). 

Deer hunting is still on my plate but I don't strike off on long walkabouts anymore. Last weekend in Kentucky I guarded the trees with my Ruger 1A 6.5x55, and (almost) sighed with relief that I didn't have to deal with 150 pounds of dead beast. It's all fun and games until the echo of the shot dies away.....

At the end of the day all that matters is staying in the shooting game at some level.

When they lay me out I bet my RH index finger will still be a-twitching.

I guess I am very lucky, be 82 in 30 days. I still hunt deer, but pass up everything but a good buck, so I haven’t filled my tag the last 2 years. I still love to get out on a cold morning before dawn and watch all the other wildlife while waiting for that buck. I hunt alone, just don’t get to far from the road. I use a game cart and load the carcass with a come along to drag it up a ramp into the bed of my truck.
Mike

westerner wrote on Nov 13^th, 2025 at 3:00pm:


Ditto
At my advanced age, I don't worry about how good I do, but how good I look doing it. 
Like Westerner suggested, my last couple purchases were based on quality of the wood; checkering, and fit and finish.