My grandfather bought me a new Marlin Glenfield .22 single shot. Shortly thereafter, a very nicely finished used H&R Topper in .410. This was around 1966. Both were under $20 each, and I still have them. The .22 has some stock finish loss from the OFF! insect repellant I used squirrel hunting. I used the shotgun last summer to put a water moccasin living under my barn out of business.

I started out with a Mossberg bolt action .22 borrowed from my uncle who was in the Air Force. After a year or so when he returned stateside from a tour overseas he wanted it returned so that he could teach his son to shoot.

I had saved for my own .22 and bought a Remington 581 bolt action and a Weaver V-22 3-6 power scope. That combination depleted the flocks of song birds and black birds around the farm. Oh, the stupid things we did as kids! I also shot a woodchuck with it which required me to empty the 5-shot magazine into it. I sold that and other guns when I was buying my first car. Nearly 40 years later I replaced that gun with a nearly new Remington 581 which I topped with a Redfield 1-5 power scope.

I also recently filled another childhood memory with a Winchester Model 52C like the one I shot on our high school rifle team. Imagine that, a high school rifle team. That was in Coudersport Pennsylvania during the 70's. The school long ago gave up its rifle team but the experience I gained from it served me well a decade later as a member of the Marine Corps Rifle Team, the Big F-ing Team.

I grew up hunting with my dad's Ithaca M37 12 gauge. At 16 years old I bought my own shotgun, a Savage Fox Model B 12 gauge with 24" barrels and 3" magnum chambers! That was wicked on rabbits and a couple of fast rising pheasants. The Fox-B was also sold off to raise money for my first car... I have no desire to add another of those to my collection but I do caretake for three Super Foxes and a handful of Ansley's other creations. Then there are all those Parker Brothers doubles to include a few big bores..

Mark, Not that unusual. Bunnell High School my old high school still has a small bore and air rifle team. Even here in Connecticut. Trouble is the results are never published in any of the local papers.....:banghead:

First gun
 

Mine was a glen field mod 25 22 or I got it for Xmas when I was 11. Still have it, I started my son and grandson on this rifle wouldn't sell it for anything.

My first was an old Hopkins and Allen single 12 ,rickety old thing I bought from lawn cuttin money ...20 bucks I think it put me back ,I was 13 or 14 at the time but legally up here you have to 16 to own a firearm ...I never put too much thought in it .

About a year later my mile a minute mind ,came up with a jackass plan ...I got the hacksaw out and cut a pistol grip tang from 1/4 plate ,cut off the original and welded the new one in place ,re set the guts and made a set of grips ...the barrel was cut to 14 inches and a new short forend made...the ammo was high brass Imperials ,cut and emptied and topped off with a 12 bore round ball cast from my great ,great granddads musket mold ...I have never shot anything more uncomfortable ...bloody thing would almost cartwheel me ,but every 14 year old kid in town thought that I was a genius ...looking back with a shaking head and a big smile ,I think ignorance is bliss,and obviously blind luck was on my side !!!

After Daisy & Benjamin air rifles, my first 22 was a Winchester 77, centerfire a Winchester 1894 25-35, shotgun an LC Smith 12 gauge. I have fond memories of time spent with those guns but all have been traded up for much nicer guns that I would rather own, something I continue to do.

Iver Johnson 410
 

You are right about the stiff springs. It required both my thumbs to cock, especially with cold hands.

Good memories indeed
 

We hunted the Bradley farm, and also the farms on Stepladder Road- near the Mullican meat packing operation, also the Glasgow farm- but as my father was a machinist at Aeroquip in Jackson, and his boss, Mr. Hurst- was good friend of the Deputy Warden at the Jackson Prison Farm- so we got permit passes to hunt there every Fall-

My father did a lot of "government work" for Mr. Hurst, who was a mechanical genius and was always "inventing" new fittings for the aerospace industry. His parents came over from Germany after the war, and he had a fine collection of Merkel and Krieghoff shotguns. I doubt if you could even find very many in the Jackson Co. area that remember Aeroquip, or Sparks- Wirthington, Crankshaft Machine, Lefere Forge or the big Goodyear tire plant- the old saying "The world takes what Jackson makes" is now ancient history.

Marlin Golden Model 39 .22. Traded it off eventually to help finance a Browning Auto-5. Traded that off for a Remington Model 1100. Regretted having to trade those two guns and have only traded a couple of others in the past 55 tears. As someone once asked, "What happens when you trade a gun?" Answer - "You don't have it any more!".

My first real gun was an Eastern Arms .410 single shot, that I got from my grandfather atage 12. I still have it, btw.