first gun
 

Model 660 Remington .308 caliber, I have probably taken over 100 white tails with that gun. Then a model 66 Remington, still have it and original manual it came with.

Pete, I still have the Outers bullet trap that I got for Christmas when I was about ten years old. I had been using a rural mailbox packed with newspaper. After a few bullets bulged the back end of the mailbox in my bedroom, my parents thought I should have a proper bullet trap. I also still have the mailbox. My first .22, a Model 5 Savage, is long gone.

Winchester Model 37 Youth. Still have it. Hopefully I'll be able to teach the grandkids to shoot some day. Need some grand kids first!

My first gun was also a Winchester 37 Youth...I think it was actually a 37A, mid-late 1970's vintage. I still have it and it's the gun I grab when something around the house needs a dose of lead therapy.

My first was a Winchester model 190 with a weaver scope that came from Santa in 1976. Wore it slap out. First shotgun was a H&R topper Junior 20 gauge that kicked like hell. My buddy whose family owned a Bank used his granddaddy's Parker. I promised myself at the ripe old age of 12 that I would own one someday....

My first gun was a Francotte 20ga box lock, 28", M/F, given to me by my father when I turned 12. It was a much nicer version than a Knockabout, with considerable engraving and better wood, and I shot a lot of duck, dove, and quail in South Carolina with it. You had to let the quail get out a way before firing if you wanted anything left to eat.

After I moved to Vermont it wasn't much use for partridge and woodcock so I bought a Ruger 20, 26", I/M when they first came out; much more useful here and actually a great quail gun too. When my daughter was old enough I gave her the Ruger and it brought a tear to watch her bring down her first quail.

The Francotte was destroyed in a house fire during hurricane Bob (1991) in Newport but I did manage to salvage the stock medallion my father had had engraved with my initials.

My first was a Remington Model 33 single-shot .22 my mother found at my grandfather's after he passed away. I was about 11 or 12, and she sold it to me for a dollar. It has the plunger you cock it with that'd blister your fingers until you developed callouses. The first shotgun was a Lefever Nitro Special in 16 gauge, it was under the Christmas tree when I was twelve from my Dad. I'd love to see all of the shells I've run through those two guns in a heap, it would be quite a few. I still have both of them, and I had the Remington sleeved sometime back. It's now really a tack driver. This is a great thread, I am really enjoying it, keep 'em comin! :)

My first gun
 

My first gun is a Winchester Model 06 22. We owned a hardware store 13 miles south of Yosemite. Our store sold sporting goods along with normal hardware items so I had a nearly unlimited supply of .22 ammo. Another plus was that my brothers and I had a shooting range set-up just outside the rear door of the store. This explains why the rifling of the barrel is basically non-existent today although the gun is still very accurate. The Winchester was made in 1935. We owned the store from the late 1950s through the middle of the 1960s. It was a great place and time to be a kid. California was a very different place than it is today.

Dad got me a Westernfield 20 gauge bolt action, that I absolutely hated, because my Grandfather convinced me that a proper bird gun should have 2 barrels. Two years later I bought my own gun (SxS spanish 20 ga.) and Dad traded the bolt action for a Stevens for my younger brother. Fifteen years later, I was fortunate enough to inherit Grand Paps 16 gauge Steringworth and find out what good doubles was all about. I like bolt action rifles but have never touched a bolt action shotgun since the Westernfield.

My first one was a used JC Higgins 16 gauge bolt action that my Dad gave me on my 10th birthday. He got me a hunting license that year(1957) and put down on the application that I was 12. The following year I was 13. Then I went back to 12 the next year when I was actually 12. The owner of the hardware store where we bought our licenses didn't seem to care. That's where we bought most of our firearms and ammo for years.

I'm also one that my 1st gun was a Savage .22/.410 o/u that I still have. The next one was a Win. M97 of my grandfather's that he gave me and I still have it. My grandfather traded a bushel of Black Walnuts and a bicycle for the 97 around 1910. I'd like to know how many rabbits that old 97 killed; I've seen some pics.
Whenever I went back home my uncle would let me use an L.C. Smith, 20 ga. of his to hunt grouse and squirrels with.

My first was also a Winchester 67 I bought used when I was 7 years old I saved up $15 for the gun . My father refinished the stock and my grandfather cold blued the metal . I had it up until about 8 months ago when I donated it to a friends 6 year old !

My first shotgun was an H&R Topper 12 gauge 32" full choke gun I was given for my eighth Christmas . Parents bought it from a company called "Best" for the ungodly sum of $32 brand new .

My first real shotgun was my WW Greener BL 12 gauge with tang safety I paid $425 for that one when I was 14 years old and still have it to this day .

Mine was a Mossberg "Chuckster" in .22 mag. Bought it in 1958 with money I made working at neighboring farms for a $1 per hour. I mounted a 6X Weaver scope on it and pretty near wiped out the woodchuck population in a 4 square mile area surrounding our home farm. Sold it when I left for college in 1960. Don't really miss it cause I have a .22 mag Winchester model 61 with a "baby Redfield" and a model 9422 in the same caliber. Both superb weapons. Talk about a different time--in those days I could earn $5 in an afternoon. I would pick up my now wife Sylvia in my dad's 56 Ford F100, stop for gas ($1 got close to 6 gallons) and go to the movies in Oneonta, NY. I would buy us snacks at the movies and then afterwards, a pizza. After taking Sylvia home, i would still have money left over from the $5.