Hunting With Pop
 

I took my annual "Hunting with Pop" trip yesterday out at the farm. My father, long passed away, introduced me to hunting and instilled a love for the hunt that has not dwindled since those early days in coastal Virginia when, at age 6, I was Pop's squirrel "dog." I did service as dog -- the guy who worked around the tree so that the squirrel would move to Pop's side for a shot -- for a season until he gave me a Sears push-button .410. Pop used a J.C. Higgins .22 with a high powered rifle scope and would only take head shots (using .22 short hollow points).

Once a year I go just to be sure I remember. This year I blooded my new VH .410. I think Pop would have approved my using a Parker...but would likely have used his .22. I like to think we were a good team.

I'm sure I'm not alone in what I owe my father for taking me hunting. Here's to all our parents who took the time to take us hunting.

I grew up “still” hunting squirrels and/or with a redbone hound. I remember my relatives using mainly single barrel hardware store shotguns in 12 gauge. They used to claim that a .410 would not kill a squirrel in the top of a Tennessee hickory tree.:rotf:

Ya gotta hunt in the short stuff! (I will say, based on my hunt, my little VH has some pop to it, even at decent ranges.)

I started out hunting squirrels with my father and uncle , using a Mossberg 20 gauge bolt action shotgun . My father bought it for me with the money I saved up from mowing lawns all summer. We went down to the True Value hardware store in Hellertown Pa and picked it out. I still have it today and started my sons hunting with it. My oldest son took his first pheasant with it on his second hunt .
Those were the days, going down to a hardware store and there was a good selection of shotguns and rifles to choose from , right around the corner from the paint. I miss those days.

My dad was an avid squirrel & rabbit hunter. Later on, he got me into ducks & geese.

Not too many deer around when I was a kid, so we didn't spend much time chasing them back then. My dad died way to young, he'd love my place in Macon MO, as it's full of squirrels, which was his favorite. Season closes Thursday, I don't get up there til Saturday so maybe next year.

Great post Garry and wonderful gun!

This world is a much crappier place because we can't do what we once used to do: get home from school at 4 o'clock, throw on your jeans and plaid wool coat, walk up the middle of the street to the woods with your dog and shotgun and hunt squirrels until dark, then get asked by neighbors if you had luck on the dark walk back. Now you just get pulled over or reported for carrying a gun.

The world today sucks.

My first day in a blind. Not shooting yet. Chester River, Chesapeake Bay, 1953/54?

I love these reminiscences, thanks for adding them here. Does it strike anyone that we likely sound like our parents?

Thats the truth. I traded a 28-gauge single for a 16 gauge single when I was growing up because the 28 wasn't powerful enough. I wish I had the 28 back. (I do still have the 16)

Okay—so what is your childhood squirrel gun…and do you or a family member still have it?

First shotgun was a Stevens Arms single shot 20 gauge. I still have it. It will hardly break open and its beat up, but I still have it. Actually my 88 year old father has it at his house. He used it last to kill skunks that dug in his yard at night. This 20 gauge began my long-time favor of that gauge.

Mine was a Winchester 37A in 20 gauge until my senior year of high school at which time I bought with my own money a Rem. 541S Sporter that I still have. Used to get 75-100 squirrels a year when I lived at home. The bolt handle went silver on this one 30 years ago. I loved hunting squirrels (squirls for Charlie :)) and Mom could make em tender. That was my first experience spending real money on a gun and boy was that ever real money to me then. If memory serves it was $168.50, I do believe times have changed.

Savage model 24 20ga/22LR. Christmas gift when I was in about the 4th or 5th grade.

I no longer have it, my dad was notorius for selling guns. It was left with him when I went to college, I had not used it in years, so he traded it on some other gun he wanted......

I've debated several times buying one, but the prices on them are high for the quality of gun they are IMHO, and to be honest, I'd never use it anyway.:rolleyes:

Dad & I circa 1966 I think....

That should be a JC Higgins 12ga Autoloader in his hand... Polychoke on end..

My first dog, Dutch in the foreground. German Shepard mix.

My first Squirrel gun was a Model 37 , Red Letter Winchester which belonged to my Grand Father who passed away a few months before I turned 12 and old enough to officially hunt ! But I did end up with Paps 37 and shot my first squirrel , grouse and rabbit with it and it is resting in the old Wooden and glass fronted gun cabinet ! That old gun kicked the daylights out of me then and still does ! :rotf:
I also have Paps old Deer Rifle ,a Model 99 300, Savage Take down Model !

Please post a picture of the 99. My favorite non bolt action ever made. Especially take downs pure cool class!

I will take one tomorrow and post it , the wood is really nice but Pap or someone drilled holes for a scope that aren't correct but it is a real shooter with the thin blade open sights ! Pap died at 86 years old in 1967 ,my Pap always claimed he had the first rifle in our little town , must have been a special day when he bought it ,Pumpkin Balls were the thing before that !

Mine was a Winchester pump model 1890 in 22 LR. We still have it. Dad was firm on the head shots only. I don't recall ever squirrel hunting with anyone shooting a shotgun when I was a kid. Sling shots occasionally, but not shotguns.

JC Higgins bolt action single shot .410. Got it for Christmas when I was 10. I found it extremely effective with no. 6's. Never shot a bird with it, just rabbits and squirrels. Remember cleaning my first squirrel with a double edged razor blade.

No squirrel hunting in our family in Hazleton, PA in the early 1900s. Granddad shot grouse and live pigeons until pheasants came to town in the real early 1900s. Dad was a dedicated pheasant hunter until I started shooting Southern Pennsylvania quail in the sixties. Dad wouldn't waste a shell on a quail, even though they were numerous and lightly hunted. Southern Pennsylvania hunters were "pheasants only".

Bill, your account reminds me of some of Rutledge’s stories when he was at Mercerberg (pardon, if I misspell).

I look at old quail population maps and can only wonder.

BTW, these are great posts. Keep ‘em coming.

Dad was raised in hunting and pigeon raising in Hazleton from the early 1900s. When dad and I started hunting in Adams County, Pennsylvania when I was about 14 years old in 1958, pheasants were very numerous, and there were many hunters. However, we had good bird dogs and it seemed like no one else did. Most hunters worked standing corn, but we ignored that method and hunted the brush. One aging Irish Setter was skilled at heading off cock pheasants in corn rows, but that wasn't our preferred method. Two pheasants a day wasn't enough for me, so I early on started shooting quail when no one else was bothered. There was also a week or more in the beginning of November when the season was open for pheasants, quail, and doves at the same time. I took advantage of that and worked a dove roost behind the Hanover shoe factory in the evenings. My little pointer was white as snow and seemed to realize his "whiteness", remaining still in the blind while the birds were active and only standing up when it was time to retrieve. All this ended when I got my letter from Uncle Sam and was gone for two years. When I returned in late 1969, the birds were less numerous and family and work took some days away from my old hunting schedule.

Squirrels were not on the list for my father growing up in Northern Ontario as they were red squirrels and horrible eating by all accounts and they are also a fur bearer by Ontario regulations so only trappers may take them so Dad grew up hunting grouse. He bought his first shotgun when he was 14(1956), a Mossberg 183-DC in 4.10. He bought it used from an older fellow whose doctor told him he'd have to give up hunting and shooting due to health reasons...:rolleyes: Dad said the old fellow was really heartbroken to have to sell his "partridge gun". It was recently handed down to me as my father has shoulder issues and can no longer lift a gun and hold it in place to shoot ...:( As you can see my father takes great care of his stuff...you should see his old cars! :bowdown: And he had a few boxes of ammo to pass along. Those CIL slugs likely date from the late 50's to early 60's, they sat in the drawer at my Grandparents cottage as long as I can remember and they built the cottage in '61...

My first ruffed grouse. October 1973 at my Grandparents cottage in Northern Ontario. Taken with my Grandmothers single shot Iver Johnson Champion 410. As a young girl my Grandmother and her sister(they were the the 2 oldest of 13 kids) each carried a 410 single shot to school each day to shoot grouse during season. I have the gun now and should take it out to shoot a few grouse with it for old times sake.

Very interesting accounts of folks’ early hunts and first guns. Thanks again to all who have contributed and, please, send more. I’m going through end of season withdrawal.

I think mine was a Winchester Mod 60, the rifle my dad taught me to shoot. And he was a stickler on safety.

My first gun (of my own), given to me as a Christmas present from one of my father's good hunting buddies was a Winchester single shot 20 ga with a 30" barrel choked full. It was a terror on squirrels.

Hunting with Grandpa
 

I didn’t grow up a hunter, my father tried deer hunting when he was a teenager but decided it was not for him.
My dad’s father, (Grandpa) was an avid outdoorsman, hunting and fishing were his favorite pastime, for sure after retirement. He taught me and my brothers all about trout fishing and fishing in local ponds when we were young.

Probably what comes to mind first when I think of fishing with Grandpa was fishing Pine Creek here in Pa. While at his small cabin in Cedar Run with family every year in June, we would wake up early and leave as quietly as possible with Grandpa to head down to the creek. When we returned with the mornings catch, learning how to prepare them properly for the pan, great memories.

So I never received a squirrel rifle or shotgun for Christmas, but maybe a fishing line that I’m probably forgetting. When I was a maybe in my late teens or somewhere’s around there, I decided I would like to try dove hunting.

I went to 2 local gun shops , no idea what I wanted . The 2nd shop, Kerper’s Gun Shop, they had a 20 gauge Ithaca Model 37. It is a King Ferry Ithaca 2 3/4”-3” and it has an English Stock. That was my first gun and it sparked an interest in Ithaca Gun and it’s history.

Sweet memories. Thanks so much. This all hits me at the right moment in my life. Please keep them coming, and know how much I enjoy reading these posts.

My two posts were about "hunting with Dad" and I left out the first gun part. My first hunting gun was a 20 gauge Model 24 Winchester. I used it just for the 1958 season before I realized that the cylinder right barrel was not good pheasant medicine. Yes, prewar short barrel Model 24s were bored cylinder and modified. My next "first gun" was a 28 gauge VH Parker with modified and full chokes. Best $130.00 I ever spent. I bought it from another kid my age (14) I met on our gun club's skeet range. I still have it, 64 years later. When dad bought a Matador 12 gauge, I took over his Model 12, his first gun in the early 20s. I guess I was about 15 when I took over the care of a retired Army Colonel's collection of liberated guns from his time in Germany. During that time, I used a different gun every week for a season or two. What a treat that was, but only one Parker in the mix. Most were German combination guns and doubles. The Colonel's collection got sold off out of my earshot. It didn't matter because I had no money anyhow. I was still a bit miffed.

No squirrel hunting where I grew up in western Kansas (ya gotta have trees for that :)) and my dad said he ate so much rabbit during the depression that he never wanted to eat another one. So this Winchester 61 shown below got used mostly for plinking rats at the little dump that was a mile or so down the back road from our house, or prairie dogs, and there were numerous prairie dog towns around. Never ate them though. My dad was kind of a different sort of fella; there were always a couple of boxes of .22 shells in his top dresser drawer; I'd take one, and when I used it up and needed more I always found them replenished. Yet he never just gave me a box. It was the same with shotgun shells when I started taking his old Savage autoloader out.

Anyway, this rifle was pretty much my constant companion along with Nip, our little Manchester terrier back in the days when a boy could just roam around with a gun and nobody cared. And yeah, it's still in the rack...

https://i.imgur.com/aCOXt32l.jpg