What was the first gun you ever fired?

[Gliden07]

Hope I'm not being redundant here. Also, couldn't find a more appropriate area to place this thread. Moderators, please move it if I've messed this up.

First gun I shot was a 1950ish Winchester Model 67a bolt action 22. I was 2 years old. Dad put the finger ring on the bolt because I couldn't grip the bolt tight enough to pull it back to cock.

Attachment 58943

Folks laid it across a folding canvas camp stool which put it at just about shoulder height for me.

Still in exactly the same shape it was in 55 years ago.

smokeywolf

This is what true Gun ownership is not only having the guns but having the guns, stories and memories that come with the ownership!!

My first gun was a Red Ryder BB Gun first "real" gun was a little Browning Semi-Auto .22 that my Dad let me shoot at about 6! He still has the gun. I liked it so much I bought one too about 25 years ago and I still have that!!

[EMC45]

Ruger Single Six .22LR.

[Jim]

I have a brother that's six years my senior. When Brian was a young teenager, Dad brought home a Mossberg 46-B 22 bolt action. That was the first thing I pulled a trigger on. Looking back, I laugh at myself. I was so small, I had to cradle the stock under my shoulder to get up to the scope. My brother still has that rifle.

[ski2me]

I was around eight or nine when my dad bought this 22. I thought it was about the coolest thing I had ever seen. It was the first one of his guns that he let me shoot. I still have it.

[abqcaster]

My granddaddy's Springfield Model 15 youth rifle, 22LR. It was his squirrel gun. When I was 4-5yo he taught me to plink with it. After he died, I got to use it to go varminting on the farm. I must have taken 100 skunks with it when they got into the henhouses. It's in my safe now. Doesn't seem to be worth much, but i wouldn't ever sell it anyhow.

[smokeywolf]

Thanks for the stories and the pics guys. Can't resist a stroll down memory lane once in a while. Especially to those special memories when dad or sometimes even moms are introducing us to one of those rare traditions that almost never fails to strengthen the bond between parents and children.

My father was an exceptionally talented craftsman and engineer. For a significant portion of my childhood he would also hit me for no reason other than to release pent up frustration. I've been strong enough emotionally, to keep the bad memories from tainting or polluting the good ones. Much of the good times we had together involved working on guns, reloading, shooting and hunting. Those memories allow me to still have good and positive thoughts of my father. Every time I pull the handle on the single stage Hollywood press, or pick up a Winchester or one of the others, my mind wanders back to all those wonderful hours spent in his workshop; reloading, watching him checker or engrave a stock, or even just sweeping up the primers or wood shavings.

My time reloading and shooting with my sons is priceless. We look at each other eye to eye, we calculate distances and windage & elevation, we compete, we laugh, we communicate. We go home with sore shoulders and we talk about increasing or decreasing a particular charge, neck tension, crimps, and we start anticipating and looking forward to the next time we go shooting. They will remember those good times. They will not however, have any of the bad memories.

Whatever it takes, we need to keep this sport, this tradition alive.

Keep the stories coming.

smokeywolf

[imashooter2]

In 1960 I was 3 years old...

[Mk42gunner]

Like many others in this thread, the first real gun I ever fired was my Dad's Model 67-A Winchester, target was a Phillips 66 quart oil can. I remember lining up the sights on the big v across the front, and the hole magically appearing dead center in the top o fthe can (I didn't quite understand keeping the front sight level with the rear).

I have the rifle now, but all in all, I'd rather have my Dad back.

Robert

[wallenba]

Come to think of it, I don't know. I know it was a single shot open bolt .22 that belonged to a schoolmate. This was in about 1960, I was eight, and yes we were supervised.

[wallenba]

I was around eight or nine when my dad bought this 22. I thought it was about the coolest thing I had ever seen. It was the first one of his guns that he let me shoot. I still have it.

Remington nylon 66, nice. Very desirable these days.

[gwpercle]

Daisy, Red Ryder " you'll put your eye out ! " lever action... I , my brother nor any of my 8 cousins or several friends ever shot an eye out...and we didn't even have " eye protection ".
A few days ago a fellow I work with brought his son's Red Ryder Christmas present to let me see if I could un-jamb it.
When loading for the first time it got hung up. A sharp rap on the butt got it going again. We took it out back and started popping a tin can around...it's been 40 years since I had shot one and it was so much fun I think I'm going to ask Santa for one next Christmas.
Gary

[ski2me]

Remington nylon 66, nice. Very desirable these days.

My father is still with us (he still goes out and shoots with me occasionally) but he gave me that gun a couple of years ago. He split his guns between my brother and I so we wouldn't be fighting over them when he's gone. A very wise man.

[GH1]

I was around 9 or so when Dad let me fire his Marlin Model 90 O/U in 16 ga. Kicked like hell, still does. When he died in '91 it was passed on to me and when I die it'll probably go to one of my brother's boys, since I have a daughter that has no interest in guns.
GH1

[TheGrimReaper]

Good question.....I don't know.

[robroy]

Old Monkey Ward .22 bolt gun. It fired short, long, or long rifle. I've still got it but it doesnt fit me too well any more (46 years later). I wanted to hunt and was told when I could hit half an egg shell every time I could go. The range was 30 of Grandpa's steps. I went through a few soup cans before I started calling which letter in Campbell's I was going to hit. I'm not sure I could read the can at that distance now. I bet I could hit that egg shell though.

[shooterg]

Springfield 15Y .22 that Pops used on his trapline in the 30's before he joined Uncle Sam's Misguided Children for a tour of Asia. Told me it cost $2.98 from Sears Roebuck. He's still around , the gun isn't, my idiot brother had it a car he wrecked and it disappeared before we got to the tow truck shop. I did find one like it though, just because. I'm thinking age 6, since I was squirrel hunting on the farm alone by age 8. First gun of my own (age 12)was a Sears.22(Marlin 80) with Ted Williams 4x scope - now the squirrels were REALLY in trouble . Still have that on, but it's got my 2 year old grandson's name on it !

[Ilwil]

My folks were rabbit hunting on San Juan Island; I was five and itching to shoot a gun. Toward the end of the hunt, I got to shoot my Mom's Winchester 69 sporter, then a Stevens 410 sxs, ventilating a milk carton. That put the bug under my skin, and it has never left after 56 years.

[khmer6]

i dont remember if it was a 45 GAP or a Raven 25ACP. either way, most of the time i was shooting at the ground instead of paper lol. it wasn't until many years later that i learned how to use sights. i never had anyone to teach me the fundamentals. now im cranking out boolits like madness

[captaint]

Back around 1959 I was 10 years young. My best friend's Dad took us out one day and we shot his Browning 22 Auto. What a gun. I never forgot that.. My Dad wasn't into shooting or guns or fishing.
Somehow, I decided I was gonna do it anyway. It all worked out, anyhow. Dad was a great guy, though. Mike

[Mark Daiute]

I have no idea how old I was. Maybe 5 years old so we are talking 1958. The rifle is a short little Winchester single shot 22. you close the bolt and pull back the cocking knob. I've since found this very simple rifle at gunshows and have found that, in essence, they were made in "lad and Dad" versions and are collectable.

It went to Massachusetts to my step-brother's house for about 20 years while his kids grew up. It has since come home to me and my sons shoot it, especially my 11-year old.