Your first firearm?

D

Dennis Sorensen

Guest
What was your "first" gun.

I learned how to safely handle guns at a very early age.

My first gun was a .22 single shot BSA with peep sights and a light barrel. I was 4 years old. Dad cut the butt stock off in 1 inch pieces so he could add a piece as I grew. I was allowed to use it by myself when I was 6 in a limited area on the farm. I was not allowed to go with other kids and shoot until I was 16 and even then Dad did not like it that much, he was worried about their handling skills.

I was slow finding a gopher in those sights but once locked in it was a dead gopher. I won a lot of turkeys with that .22 at the local shoots when I was about 12 and up...
 
Marlin 22 lever action, 12 YO,,, now 53 YO,,,, still got the Marlin,,,, and the memory's,,,,,,, was allowed to hunt alone at 13-14 YO started my kids(both girls on BB gun @ 8-9 YO, both killed deer before 14, still hunting @19 and 21 when they get a chance( both have thier own deer rifles too,,,, 7mm-08 & 30-06 with a brake)

the wind is my friend,,,,,,,,,,,

DD
 
My first firearm

My first firearm was a Marlin Glenfield .22LR semi-auto. I shot thousands of rounds with that rifle and learned the basics of marksmanship. Prior to that my very first rifle was a Daisy lever action BB gun, followed by a Daisy pump BB gun, followed by a Co2 semi-auto pistol, followed by a Co2 rifle. From the time I was ten or eleven years old, I shot one of the above at every opportunity. We lived on a 90 acre farm that was still country and rural. I'm glad I had that area to hunt, shoot, and play.
Chino69
 
My first firearm was my fathers 22. It was a Remington model 4 rolling block with a hammer. He had had it since about 1916 and I had to keep it on my grandfather's farm. It was rusty and the finish was gone from stock and forearm. It had probably never been cleaned and sometimes it failed to fire. That rifle was a junker to some but it was the stuff of dreams to me.

Concho Bill
 
Winchester 69

It was 1956 and I always stopped by this gun shop every time I walked to town. Shooting with my father was the high light of my life and I wanted to be able to go on my own and give those jackrabbits hell. One day there was this Winchester model 69 setting in the rack and I asked the owner of the shop if I could handle it. That rifle just came to life in my hands. It was perfect in every way and when I threw it up to my shoulder the sights were exactly where I was looking. I fell in love with it.
I told my father about this rifle but he was a hard working man putting in long hours in the construction business. If he could only find the time to go look at it. Some time went by and finally the rifle was gone and my Dad never made it to see it. I was so disappointed in my father and went around pouting for days. Kicking dirt and feeling sorry for myself.
That Christmas was a good one and by then I had forgotten about the rife. After all the presents had been opened and we were picking up my father asked if I would go look under my bed. I did and low and behold there was the Winchester!
I still have that rifle and always find some time now and again to shoot it. I have always felt bad about how I treated my father and now that he is 83 he will still ask me about that rifle from time to time.
 
870 Wingmaster...

...in a 28ga. & a 6mm Remington 700.

After I got my taste for shooting, all of Dad's guns were adopted by me in some fashion. We are always passing back & forth our toys.

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Del Martin said:
It was 1956 and I always stopped by this gun shop every time I walked to town. Shooting with my father was the high light of my life and I wanted to be able to go on my own and give those jackrabbits hell. One day there was this Winchester model 69 setting in the rack and I asked the owner of the shop if I could handle it. That rifle just came to life in my hands. It was perfect in every way and when I threw it up to my shoulder the sights were exactly where I was looking. I fell in love with it.
I told my father about this rifle but he was a hard working man putting in long hours in the construction business. If he could only find the time to go look at it. Some time went by and finally the rifle was gone and my Dad never made it to see it. I was so disappointed in my father and went around pouting for days. Kicking dirt and feeling sorry for myself.
That Christmas was a good one and by then I had forgotten about the rife. After all the presents had been opened and we were picking up my father asked if I would go look under my bed. I did and low and behold there was the Winchester!
I still have that rifle and always find some time now and again to shoot it. I have always felt bad about how I treated my father and now that he is 83 he will still ask me about that rifle from time to time.
Click to expand...

Del, thanks for the cool story, you told it well. You have a terrific dad, I hope you show him a copy of this discussion so you can both remember.
 
All I know is....

....anything Winchester from 1956 is a GOOD gun!!

All those pre 64 winnies are just cool. My favorite long guns!!

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Stepfather got me a Remington 512 with Weaver B4 scope. Started trading a few years later - traded it off and never looked back. Could never afford to accumulate a lot of guns at one time, but I've had some great ones along the way. Same goes for cars!
I do treasure my family and my memories, especially the memory of my stepfather.
 
My first

We didn't have the money to buy guns when we were kids, so we made our own Zip Guns. I then acquire an old Galley rifle from a neighbor, but could make it shoot consistantly. It shot shorts, and wasn't very reliable. It was so worn, you couldn't read the name. My first introduction to Winchester, was in the Scouts and they had both 75's and early 52's. This was in the very late 40's and early 50's.
 
My father bought me the oldest Stevens .22 bolt gun ever made. It had a 15 shot tube slung under the barrel & was so worn that one of his friends had to build up the bolt handle base with weld & file it to take up the slop in the headspace & the goitre out of the fired cases. One extractor was broken & we spent years filing replacements out of iron strap until we made one that finally did the job. The trigger was worse than the cheapest spring air gun & I was foolish enough to fit it with one of those unreliable 3/4 inch Japanese scopes that wound the crosshairs off centre.

I loved it with true loyalty right up until the day I started to earn money & could trade it on a real pea rifle.
 
Rem 41 Targetmaster SB

My fathers 1st rifle,Passed to my older brother in 52, me in 64,My son in 2004 a great little garden/trainer rifle:)
 
My Dad bought me and my brother a pair of Ruger 10/22s. They were stainless steel with nice laminate stocks. We loved them!

In my early 20s, I got into a bit of trouble--not the legal kind, just the social kind. I messed up my life pretty good, and in the process I hocked the rifle my Dad had bought me. It took years before I saw the light and started living on the level. I decided I was going to track that rifle down, and I did, through three buyers. I paid the last gentleman twice what my Dad paid and got it back.

I'm going to take that Ruger out on Saturday when squirrel season opens.
 
It was a 12 gauge single shot I bought used at a gun store. Not knowing alot, the salesman sold me boxes of heavy load #6's for jack rabbits. The shotgun had no recoil pad and I was green at shooting. Half the recoil was caught by my arm and by the end of the day my shoulder and arm were black/blue/red, purple, etc., etc. Every time I shot it felt as if I had the barrel against my shoulder, but I was having so much fun I didn't care!

Ah youth!

Next was a Ruger 22 automatic pistol and then my tastes went to varmint rifles and Browning shotguns and got much more expensive!
 
Gun's were not part of our household, we were lucky to have a TV and car, and in 1968 we got a used window unit air conditioner we slept on the kitchen floor it was installed in the window of course. Life was rough, I convinced my dad to buy me a Daisy lever action at the age of 12. He took it to work and stored it in his factory, this way if I wanted to shoot it I had to go to work with him on my off day's from school and holiday's. :( ... I'd allready been working there since I was 3yrs. old , :confused: that gun never shot worth a hoot. :mad: at 16 I got a Marlin 22 and saved my lunch money all week so I could buy bullet's on Sat. morning .50 a box at the Bait n Tackle shop , funny how walking into some place that stunk so bad was so rewarding at the same time, hmm.. remind's me of some ol' girlfriends......:rolleyes: It's like once you crack the seal on the door that's been closed up all nite it's peeuuuu, Good Morning.. welcome to Joe's Bait & Tackle what can we do for you boy's this morning ? :eek:
 
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My first rifle was, ( past tense ) :mad: A single shot bolt action Lithgow 22 r.f . It was a hand me down from my father. After years of chiseling away at my parents and gaining experiance from shooting with trusted family friends,
they relented. I was 12 years of age and now deemed responsible enough,
although, Grandpa did'nt beleive I ever would be. He watched me goood.
This little rifle had the long rifle chamber on one end , and a silencer on the other :) With this combo and Winchester leader I could just pop away at a rabbit warren and get the whole family. In those days the open sights were no hidrance. My sisters got pocket money, I got 2 packets of bullets per week instead. That little Lithgow could eat bullets, and had them all gone in four days or so. It only developed this habit after it was handed to me. I think I shot the last of the pack of bullets that Dad bought with the rifle years earlier.
By the time I was in my mid thirty's the silencer was no longer legal, and one day the copper's visited on another matter, saw the rifle and took it away.:(
 
First rifle..new in 1951..a Remington 121 Fieldmaster pump..a gift from my Grandmother..first high power..new 1956 winchester 94 30-30. just sold the Remington..still have & hunt w/ the Winchester.
 
My first rifle and my introduction to woodchuck hunting was my grandfather's Winchester Mod. 43 in 22 Hornet with a Weaver 4x scope. My grandfather passed on and left the rifle to my Dad who gave it to me. My first rifle that I could call my very own was a Remington Nylon 66 .

Rodney
 
My first rifle was when I was 12 years old, a Ruger M77 Mark II in .308 Winchester. It was topped with an old (80s?) Tasco 3-9x40. It shot about 1.5" for me back then with Winchester 165 gr Super X, plenty enough to kill a whitetail. Since, I've bedded and floated the old horse, tuned the trigger to 2.0 lbs, and now, with hand loads, its an honest .5 moa gun.
 
Thumper

My first gun was a single shot break action shotgun from Remington. It was handed down from my mother's father to our family. I started shooting it when I was around 6. I guess I was dumb enough to ignore the bruising it gave me and everyone laughed every time I pulled the trigger.

It's nickname was "Thumper" because most of the adult males in my mother's family wouldn't shoot it because it kicked like a mule because it was so light. I remember one dove hunt when I was around 8, I finally put it down after a box of shells and everyone was asking me why. I had bruised my shoulder pretty well and wouldn't tell them why, I just told them I had all the birds I needed and that was about the last time I shot the thing. It still is in my possession and now and then when someone brags about how much gun they can handle, I bring it out and let them give ol' "Thumper" a go, they usually don't shoot him more than 4 or 5 times.

Thanks for the memories Dennis!
 
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