# Your first gun



## hunter63 (Jan 4, 2005)

Reading thru the threads, some of them end up as a discussion on what gun to use, caliber, action etc.

It seems that most of us can just about buy pretty much anything we want or need now.
I can remember my first gun being a .22 SS, bolt, being bought with paper route money.

But it seemed that my father had either inherited, traded for, or in one case won a 12 gauge SS w/ my uncle in a saloon "punch card" during the depression. That gun (which I still have) is very worn and has killed just about anything you can name.

So, his deer rifle was a .303 Savage lever action (from my grandfather) and a Win model 12, 16 gauge,( traded a 12 gauge "Damascus twist" barrel and cash for) and the old Crescent Arms SS 12. Those were pretty much all he thought he needed.
Any thoughts or stories?


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## ksfarmer (Apr 28, 2007)

I've still got my first one too. Was a early christmas present when I was about 13. A Mossberg bolt-action 20 guage shotgun. Did a tremendous lot of quail and phesant hunting with it. Many years later before I got a 12 guage, but, I really preferred that ol 20 ga for bird hunting.


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## Hillbillybob (Jul 30, 2007)

ksfarmer said:


> I've still got my first one too. Was a early christmas present when I was about 13. A Mossberg bolt-action 20 guage shotgun. Did a tremendous lot of quail and phesant hunting with it. Many years later before I got a 12 guage, but, I really preferred that ol 20 ga for bird hunting.


Mine also was an early Christmas present, way in early November only it was a Mossberg 410 with a tube load like the tube load 22's. I used it from the time I was 12 until it was stolen from me by a man in his 60's I was 17 when that happened and the man ended up walking as I was under age and a whole bunch of crap that our prosecutor put out even though the man was caught red handed steeling. I never got the shotgun back. I was told at the time it was worth a lot of money because it would hold 6 instead of the normal 3 shotgun shells. I had it plugged to 3.
Hillbillybob


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## Raptor (Aug 29, 2005)

My first gun was a old JC Higgins 12 gauge bolt sold by Sears. It was clip fed but the ejector didn't work so I had to use it like a single shot and pick each empty out of the chamber. Killed alot of game birds with that old gun. Dad gave it to me.


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## PyroDon (Jul 30, 2006)

My first Gun was a daisy powerline 880 I got it for christmas at age 7 and shot it every day upto my mid teens. I had a weekly alotment of 1500 bbs  
My first shot gun I bought at 14 an H&R topper 20 ga soon followed by a marlin lever action 44 then a winchester 1894 22,44,and 375. 
I was given my grand dads william/scotts 10ga side byside at 18


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## Stephen in SOKY (Jun 6, 2006)

H & R Topper Deluxe (Bright nickel receiver, black stock) in .410. Yep still in the safe.


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## moonwolf (Sep 20, 2004)

I used to have dreams of getting a Red Ryder BB gun since about age 7, but never did get one till about age 10. The first hunting firearm was a bolt action .410 from an uncle that was a gunsmith. Can't recall the name brand, but I got a lot of rabbits on the run with it. Within a year of that, I traded him for a 20 guage single shot I had only a short time before he figured I needed a 'real' shotgun so that led to getting a pump 12 ga. J.C. Higgins that I had for many years hence. Got lots of game with it...geese, ducks, quail, pheasant, rabbits, and even a fish or two (carp) lol.


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

ksfarmer said:


> I've still got my first one too. Was a early christmas present when I was about 13. A Mossberg bolt-action 20 guage shotgun. Did a tremendous lot of quail and phesant hunting with it. Many years later before I got a 12 guage, but, I really preferred that ol 20 ga for bird hunting.


Must be twins.Same here.

big rockpile


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## donsgal (May 2, 2005)

When I was very young (guessing five or six), mom, dad and I would go "plinking" and I would use a single shot .22 which was dubbed "my gun". My mom still has it at her house and she still calls it "my gun".

donsgal


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## wilderness1989 (Feb 23, 2006)

Winchester Model 97, 12ga. Sure killed alot of pheasants, rabbits, and quail with it.


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## EDDIE BUCK (Jul 17, 2005)

Cap pistol LOL
Daisey lever action. You know one of them that if you pulled the lever forward and pulled the trigger you had the opportunity of knowing what four, I mean three cause one is pulling the trigger broke fingers feels like. :Bawling: :Bawling:


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## CoonXpress (Sep 20, 2004)

Winchester Ranger youth model 20ga pump shotgun. Was a great shotgun, until it was stolen.


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## gilberte (Sep 25, 2004)

My first gun was a single shot 16 gauge shotgun. My great grandfather accidentally killed his brother with it. My grandfather took the firing pin out of it and kept it in the closet. I fashioned a firing pin out of a roofing nail and snuck it out to go hunting. It is rusted and totally unsafe now, but I still have it. Makes a great contrast next to the new Thompson Center Encore in 308 I bought yesterday


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## fordson major (Jul 12, 2003)

a .177crossman at 10 then a .22 cooey/winchester at 12 (still have it,my kids use it target shooting or me when a **** or other rodent needs care)


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## tyusclan (Jan 1, 2005)

A Daisy lever action BB gun at about 6. My first real hunting gun was a Revelation .410 single shot at about 8. I think my dad still has it.


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## CGUARDSMAN (Dec 28, 2006)

besides the daisy bb gun my first gun was a Ithica .410 single shot then 2 years later a winchester 1300 20 ga. still have them all


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## hunter63 (Jan 4, 2005)

I guess I will have to add, that I did go thru several Daisy BB guns, both rifles and the one's that look like a .45 auto, had a tip-out mag on the front, that held 20 BB's.

Used to shoot them in the basement, had a range set up, with a big cardboard box for a back stop. That way you could recover the BB's and shoot then again and again.
Even had a "moving target" (large juice can on a string).
Think there is still some holes in the windows, (accidents).

I guess, I wanted to make a point that we seem to be able to just go out and buy just about any type of gun these days. 
Where in the past, our fathers had to save, connive, trade and generally really work at getting some type of of firearm. And when they did it was "special", especially for us when the Christmas/Birthday gun came along.

I suspect a lot of old military guns had a second life and many fond memories. .303 British, .30-06 etc., for this reason.

This group seems to be a sentimental bunch that appreciates what a a gun is, friend, tool, reminder of good times with family and friends.
It's too bad that the word "Firearm" has gotten to be such a "dirty word".


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

My first hunting gun was a rem 1100LT 20ga and i was 11 it was actualy my fathers he bought it from a guy that had a small dealership in his living room my dad was the ups man and delivered guns to him. my dad still has that little 20ga i used it till i was 14 and bought a 1100 in 12 ga wich i still hunt with next my brother used the 1100lt 20 ga and now my grandpa uses it cause after 45 years of laying brick and block his rotator cuffs are shot and he can no longer pump his m37 ithica without first lowering it to his waist.

of course i had to buy a m37 to have one just like grandpas to


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## Micahn (Nov 19, 2005)

I still have the first 3 guns I ever got. All of them was passed down to me by my father and I plan on passing them down as well. I only have girls bot they do enjoy shooting.
Anyway the first one was a Remington 66 nylon. The next was a savage 12g pump. And the last one was a 300 savage level action. All are great guns and are just as nice today as the day I got them. Sure I have had them worked on and re blued and stuff but that is just part of taking care of them I would say. All of them have been used a lot over the years hunting and just shooting them for fun.


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## Haggis (Mar 11, 2004)

My first was a gift from my Father; I was 12. Father died just 3 years later, but I kept the rifle for over 30 years, up until my druggie (and now estranged) brother stole it and sold it for $10 to feed his habit.

It was a Remington model 41 Targetmaster .22, it has my Father's name carved under the butt plate.


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## EDDIE BUCK (Jul 17, 2005)

Haggis said:


> My first was a gift from my Father; I was 12. Father died just 3 years later, but I kept the rifle for over 30 years, up until my druggie (and now estranged) brother stole it and sold it for $10 to feed his habit.
> 
> It was a Remington model 41 Targetmaster .22, it has my Father's name carved under the butt plate.


 Thats a shame. Did you ever get any info as to who bought it or where it may be. I would check every where I could.
Eddie :help:


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## shadowwalker (Mar 5, 2004)

When I turned sixteen I bought a 58 caliber Zouave black powder rifle. I bounced the pumkins around for years. On my eighteenth birthday, I bought a ruger 10-22. On my twentyfirst birthday, I bought a ruger mark II pistol.


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## Farmerwilly2 (Oct 14, 2006)

1st one I got was a 12ga H&R ss. The 1st one I bought was a 7mm mauser bolt action. Quite a few since then, my treasures being dads m1's.


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## radiofish (Mar 30, 2007)

My first firearm was a 12th birthday present from my grandfather in 1972. It was a Winchester model 1200 pump action 12 gauge shotgun. It still resides in my gun safe to this day. I am suprised that I did not wear it out as a teenager hunting in the cornfields and bordering forests of Southern Michigan.

I have a few of those Military Surplus Rifles and pistols in my collection. When my 2 nephew's get old enough to have their own firearms, I have a pair or Remington clip fed - bolt action model 781's in .22 caliber for them to get started with.


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## Guest (Sep 7, 2007)

I guess I started out a little younger then most of you folks. Mine was a Roy Rogers cap pistol set. It had a belt with two holsters, two shinny cap pistols, a cowboy hat, and a little stick horse called trigger. Got this when I was about 4 years old. Wished I still had that. 

My first real shootin rifle was a Daisy lever action. Wasn't a Red Ryder tho. I got this for christmas when I was 6 years old. Then my Uncle, who no one had seen for years, and years came and spent a week with us the next christmas and for some reason, he gave me another Daisy BB rifle. I was 7 then. Which was a good thing, cause if one was empty, I could grab the other one. I was h$ll on birds, snakes, grasshoppers, wood bee's, and lizards for about the next 5 years.

Then when I was about 11 or 12 they let me graduate to a single shot bolt action .22 rifle. Only held one shell in the chamber with no magazine of any sort. 

At 13 started using a 22/20 guage over$under to rabbit hunt with. Got that one from santa also. Also, same age got to start using Dad's 30-06 bolt action to deer hunt with. Back then the barrels were about 2 inches longer and the stocks were about 2 inches longer then what the newer -06 rifles are now. Talk about being dead tired at the end of the day from lugging that thing around. 

Since then I have bought and traded many rifle's and pistols. But I do still have the shotgun and a old 22 rifle that belonged to my dad.


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## Haggis (Mar 11, 2004)

EDDIE BUCK said:


> Thats a shame. Did you ever get any info as to who bought it or where it may be. I would check every where I could.
> Eddie :help:


Everything turned up a dead end, and even the police said an old singleshot .22 wasn't worth their time and effort. I'd easily give a hundred times its value to have it back again, but the trail is long cold and there is no telling how many times the old rifle has changed hands by now.

This one irresponsible act on the part of a drug addled mind cost me one of the last things my Father ever gave me, and a brother.


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## Bear (Jan 25, 2005)

My first gun was a Daisy lever BB gun at age 8, as I got older my Dad left me use his Savage bolt action 22 for varmit control on the farm. At 12 he gave me and old beat up 12 guage double barrel with hammers. The hammers wouldn't stay cocked so when you wanted to shoot you had to hold them back with your thumb and then release. The thing weighed a ton and was nearly as long as I was tall, but I managed to put a pretty good dent in the groundhog population. At age 15 I finally managed to buy my first gun with money I earned picking and selling fruit from our small orchard and sometimes helping my Dad clean scrap metal; that was a Mossberg 20 guage bolt action. I still have the old hammer gun and my Dad's 22 plus my own arsenal.


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## independant1 (Mar 10, 2006)

My 1st gun was a Daisy BB gun, I was 8. It was a short period of time before I got into trouble with it. Shot my neighbors grapefruit while still hanging on the tree in his back yard. Those grapefruit were really taunting me and asking for it!


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## pancho (Oct 23, 2006)

I always wanted a BB gun but my father didn't believe a kid should have one. Instead my first gun was a single shot 22, at the age of 5. A few years later I got a single shot 410 for christmas. 
My father still has both of them, guess they weren't really mine after all.


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## Wiggy (Aug 25, 2007)

I got a Daisy BB gun when I was about 4 years old. By the time I was 11 I could shoot leaves off a tree with it. When I turned 13, I got a marlin 30-30 with a black synthetic stock. I killed my first 10 deer with that. I loved the way it shot but just never could get used to that plastic stock. When I was about 18, my dad gave gave me a Mossberg 500 12ga. And I hunted with that until I could afford a winchester model 70 "black shadow" in 30-06. It had a synthetic stock too but it was all I would afford. That gun's stock was way too long for me at the time so I sold it two years later. 

Years and years later, when Winchester started closing down, I bought the only Winchester in town I could find. Identical to the black shadow I had before. It's probably the most accurate gun I own.


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## d37fan (Dec 22, 2004)

My first was a family hand me down that I still have. It is an Iver-Johnson 16ga single, with a 30" full choke bbl. Hunting quail and squirrel were fun, prairie chickens not so fun, even with a heavy coat (probably that is why recoil doesn't bother me any more). When my grandfather had it, because of the tight pattern it throws, people would line up to borrow it any time there was a turkey shoot around.
Dale


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## deaconjim (Oct 31, 2005)

My first gun was a stainless steel Ruger Redhawk .44 magnum. I've still got it and I plan to leave it to one of the kids when I'm gone.


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## brownegg (Jan 5, 2006)

My first gun was a daisy bb gun with a scope. I would sneak around in the pines near our home and shoot common grackles off the tree tips that wre 8 to ten feet high. The trees are large now 45 years later.

My first real gun was a 20 ga 870 wingmaster that I got as a present when I was confirmed at 14 years old. I later traded it for a 12ga 870 magnum, which I still have. I sure wish I would of kept the 20ga with the pretty wood and bought the other one outright. Stupid is as stupid does....


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## Michael Leferink (Jul 12, 2003)

Single shot, bolt action, Winchester rifle in .22 RF. Still have it and will pass it on to the next generation.

MikeL


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## Va. goatman (May 12, 2006)

H+R 410 when I was 11 My cousin and I would hunt every chance we got He had Winchester Model 37


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## posifour11 (Feb 27, 2003)

my dad was no hunter, by any means, so...

i boguht my first gun at 19. it was a squires bingham model 20. later on, my dumb self traded it for rent with one of my buddies. wish i had spent that time in a tent and kept it, but, such is life.... i suppose....


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## highplains (Oct 5, 2006)

I still have it, thought about trading it off, but just didn't have the heart to do it. It is pretty well worn out, but I did find a new mag for it that would make it work pretty well as long as I didn't use hollow points in it.


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## js2743 (Dec 4, 2006)

first was a daisy BB at age five for christmas then about 7 upgraded to a 760 crossman airrifle then about 9 dad got me a 410 H&R shotgun, but at 12 i bought myself a 700 remington 30-06 BDL 21 years later istill have it and lots more added since then.


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## Old John (May 27, 2004)

ksfarmer said:


> I've still got my first one too. Was a early christmas present when I was about 13. A Mossberg bolt-action 20 guage shotgun. Did a tremendous lot of quail and phesant hunting with it. Many years later before I got a 12 guage, but, I really preferred that ol 20 ga for bird hunting.


The very first gun I got to carry was a little Winchester .22 lr, single shot,
from the time I wa about 10. Then about when I was about 12 yrs.old, I 
got to carry Dad'd old 16 ga. single, with the dings in the barrel. It worked fine for me.
In '63 for Xmas present I got one of those 20 ga. Mossberg bolt action shot
guns. My Dbrother was 2 yrs. younger & he got a Mossberg .410 ga.
Of course I could always hit better'n he could, with a bigger gun. That may be why he never turned into a hunter. I passed that 20 ga. of mine down to the older son. He traded it off, years ago. 
I bought a Savage 12 ga. pump, as soon as I could afford it, with money I made, milking, for the neighbors.
I bought each of my boys an H&R Single, 12ga., when they each got about 14 yrs. old. One of my boys is an avid hunter & gun trader.
The other son won't give up his guns. But he doesn't hunt much.
It's good to get a boy started shooting right.


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## DavidUnderwood (Jul 5, 2007)

At 14 I got a 20 ga H&R.
At 15 I got a 30.30 Marlin.
Since then, a few more!


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## gunsmithgirl (Sep 28, 2003)

about 10 yrs. - .22 rifle can't remember the model semi-auto Remington
12yrs old - AK-47
15 yrs. old- 1911 .45 ACP

And nobody wonders how I became a gunsmith.


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