Your first firearm

[Captain Bob]

My first firearms came as a pair. A .22 Winchester 62A and a .410 Winchester 42 both in canvas and leather take down cases which had been prop guns in our family photography business and were given to me when we moved to the Philadelphia suburbs around 1952; I was 10 and the luckiest kid in the world. Still have the .22 now tricked out with a Lyman 103 tang sight adjustable for windage and elevation, with a Merit Disc, and a Lyman 17 globe front sight. It gets to the range to burn up a couple boxes of recently hoarded .22LR every so often. Just before I turned 16 I discovered W. Stokes Kirk Military Surplus way up the trolley line on 5th street in Philadelphia and sold off the 42 to fund the acquisition of an array of Civil War carbines and rifles. I remember one particular event with the 62A. Our next door neighbor at the time worked for Dupont in some capacity and one day he handed me a double fist full of .22 shorts in what looked like flat thin Chicklets chewing gum cellophane wrapped boxes each holding about 20 shells. They were called “Crumble Balls” or some such name, I suppose for use in carnival sideshows. Of course I shot them up as soon as I had a chance. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen or heard of packaging like that since and wonder if I they would be a collectable these days.

Bob