What Was Your First Gun

[3006guns]

A Remington 514 for my twelfth birthday......which was a little odd because I'd been shooting revolvers with my Dad on the local police range for almost two years already (he was a cop).

I also remember how disappointed I was. A single shot? You've gotta be kidding Dad! Time proved how wise he was....I got pretty good with that little rifle, making every shot count. That gun was cleaned, oiled and babied for quite a few years and still looked brand spankin' new. It was gifted to my daughter years ago and I haven't seen her or the gun since (a whole other story).

Just recently my FFL brother in law presented me with a 514 as a thank you for helping him work on his house. I was somewhat amazed at how much they shrunk over the years.......until I realized I was a little bit bigger now. Ya know what? They still shoot great!

[onesonek]

Winchester 67, and Stevens Singleshot .410,,,,son has the .22, and brother has the .410.
Outside the Marlin and 870 Wingmaster, likely why the rest I have are singleshots guns to this day.

[Tom-ADC]

Winchester Model 37 12 ga full choke, lots of rabbits & pheasants fell to that shotgun.

[TMSCU]

Mine was a Stevens 4-10 Received it at Christmas when I was 9. My dad took me out to a field near our house in North Dallas and told me to stick the barrel up next to an empty 1 gallon paint can laying in the field and pull the trigger. I did and afterward he told me thats what my sister or mother will look like (with a large hole in them) if i was ever careless and shot them with it. That still is as clear in my mind as the day it happened 50 years ago( I can even remember the smell of the powder) and I am always careful with where I point guns. A good lesson learned. I gave the gun to my nephew several years ago and he hunts with it.

[alfloyd]

I worked all summer as a bag boy, when I was 14, at the local grocery store to buy my first gun. It was a Western Auto Revalation model 110 22 bolt-action repeater, made by Marlin. Cost me $27.00, half of what I saved that summer. Still have it. I lived in the middle of a 80 acre farm, so I had lots of room to roam and plink.

Lafaun

[mustanggt]

The first gun I learned to shoot at 13 was a Winchester model 12. My uncle loaned it to me to learn on and hunt with. When I gave it back to him I was kind of dejected till my grandpa came to visit and my dad, me and him went out with that shotgun and threw some clay birds around. Well I shot my best ever score of 24 out of 25. He was suitably impressed I guess because when we came to visit he had a 16ga for me which I was grateful for but I told him I've been used to shooting a 12ga. He said ok and took off and before you know it he was back with a Winchester model 97 for me. My grandpa lived in a small town and knew everyone so it was easy for him to wheel and deal to get it for me. I still have it and will never part with it. It means too much to me.

[Buckshot]

...............My first rifle was a Winchester M68 single shot. Had a front sight hood and apurture rear. Basically a M67. Belonged to my grandfather. For the life of me I don't know what happened to it. It was kept at my grandparents house. Some years later when I was 14 after a hospital stay due to a ruptured appendix, my grandfather took me to Western Auto and I got to pick out a 22 rifle. I got a Marlin 25 bolt action. Grandpa bought me a brick of 22 ammo. I was at their house for a week recuperating. Out in the side yard was an old Walnut tree stump maybe 3' in diameter. I stuck targets on it and shot in the afternoons. Oddly enough, I don't remember what happened to that rifle either!

...............Buckshot

[big dale]

It was about this time of year in the year when I was 12 years old and went shopping with my mother and little sister in a neighboring town. While they were shopping in a sewing shop I went across the street to check out a pawn shop and I saw it in the gun rack. I fell hard for that old L.C. Smith 12 gauge shotgun. When I got home I wrote a note to Santa Clause to tell him which pawn shop he could find it in. On Christmas morning it was leaning against the trunk of our Christmas tree and my grandmother gave me a box of high brass express loads that year. I think I still have part of that box of shells around here somewhere. I had that gun for about two decades before I traded it off for a 20 bore with a shorter barrell and more open chokes...that full and modified was not as well suited for most of the dove shooting that I was doing then. I still find myself reaching for that rear trigger from time to time.

I loved that old gun.

Great thread!

Have fun with this stuff.

Big Dale

[Mavrick]

My dad went all over the West, going from "mine" to "mine" collecting samples to see if the company he worked for would want to buy the mine. They were just claims when he was there. Later, if it was any good, he would bring in equipment to do "assesment work." Mines are not in the center of town, so he would need transportation to town, or "camp" if we brought trailers out to work from. In the summer, Mom and the kids would live on the claim.
I being the eldest, would be "hired" by the company to make sure the was a pickup when it was needed. I did that from the time I was 12ish, 'til 16...just before I entered the Army, after graduating high school.
I used my first paycheck to buy a used .22 M513 Remington with Weaver B4 scope from the rack at Juenke-Saturn Sports in Sparks, Nevada where they had moved from Reno shortly after they had moved from California.
They are the originators of the ICL-loading line of wildcats.
Anyway...that .22 stands in the corner of the room as we speak. It came in quite handy on those claims...starting in 1959. That following Xmas, I bought an M94 Winchester in .30/30, and my mom bought me the Pacific "starter kit" reloading set.
All that stuff is gone now, as I upgraded. No...the .30/30 dies by RCBS as still in my mancave, and have loaded a large group of guns over the years. A "couple" of deer have been dropped with those guns, too, loaded with those dies.
Have fun,
Gene

[ku4hx]

Remington model 514 ... still have it. Got it circa 1959.

[Lizard333]

I purchased my first gun when I was 18. It was a 1953 Winchester model 94 chambered in 30-30. Still have it. Still my favorite.

[Shuz]

Mossberg 144LS(Lyman Sights) bought new in 1956 for around $35.00. I used it on the Rifle Team at our high school. The rich kids had Remington 40X's or Winchester 52's.

[SP101GUY]

H&R single shot break 20ga. Bought it with my lawn mowing money at Kmart. Dad signed the papers.

AJ

[rintinglen]

My first gun was a miserably innaccurate beat up old Springfield 22 single shot that had been rode hard and put away wet. It was a bolt action with a manual cocking knob that was very hard to pull back for a scrawny, skinny 9 year old. I had to use two hands to cock it. One summer day, I got the bright Idea to put the barrel between my knees while I struggled with the Knob. The knob, just shy of the sear, slipped from between my fingers and the gun discharged, the bullet struck a rock and fragments peppered my bare calves and ankles. I hopped around like my feet were on fire, crying and shouting "Jeepers creepers" over and over, that being the limit of my cursing vocabulary.
I do not have That gun, and if I did, I'd take it down to a gun-buy back and swap it for a bag of groceries or a pair of Nikes.
Later, I bought a Ruger 10-22--that, I still have.

[Iron Mike Golf]

A Marlin 336SC in 32 Win Spl that was my grandfather's. Took my first deer with it at 16, the day after Grandma gave it to me.

[David Turner]

My first rifle was in 1955 as a gift for my 11 th. birthday. It was a Marlin 39A lever action 22 l.r. (1940 serial number). It had belonged to my uncle and the story goes that while he was hunting, it fell over and discharged and wounded a friend. I am not sure I believe that but that is the story.
My first handgun was purchased in 1965. I paid $95 out the door for a Colt Diamond Back in .38 Special with a 4" barrel. Still have the receipt and the handgun. Still have the Marlin 39A also.

David Turner
Plymouth, MI.

[tuckerdog]

Marlin mod36 with an old lyman reciever mounted peep when I was about 8 or 9. My grandad gave it to me. Haven't shot anything but groundhogs, yotes, and paper with it but still have it and now only shoot it now and again.

[mpmarty]

It was in 1953 or 4 and my folks finally gave in and agreed to a rifle for Christmas. It was a Remington model 521T with Lyman aperture sight and a globe type insert front sight. Great little mag fed 22 I used in the High school rifle team and did OK. Traded it in to Martin B Retting in Culver City Ca. for a model 1889 Schmidt Rubin and a few rounds of ammo. Wish I still had it.

[An_Orphanage]

J.C. Higgins Model 20 12gauge pump with cutts compensator and poly choke. Given to me by my dad when I was 7yrs old. Still have it and use it for pheasants, the action is as smooth as glass after at least a pallet of shells I've run through it.

[10 ga]

First was a Daisy .17 cal roundball shooter. Still have it but the spring is dead. Ist shotgun used hunting was my great uncles 12 ga. A-5 with a solid rib and polychoke. Dad finally passed it on to me about a decade ago. First gun of my own, I was 12, was a 1962 era 12 ga. Fox Model B. Used all the $ I got from trapping muskrats and mowing lawns that year and my mom gave me the last $15 I needed to get it for dove season. Bought it at a big box store of the day and I think it was $118 NIB. Mom passed in 1982 but I still have that shotgun. 10 ga