A 22 For Christmas
 

When I read this story I was reminded how lucky I am for having grown up in a rural area with great parents who supported our having guns in the house. And being able to grab a gun, walk out the back door and hunt all day without crossing a road or seeing another hunter was icing on the cake. My first .22 was a Marlin 99 that Dad gave me for Christmas in 1964. What a thrill that was. Dad sold his Winchester Model 12 so he could afford that gun and I'll never part with it.

Merry Christmas and may you be blessed with good health and joy in the new year.

https://sportingclassicsdaily.com/22...eid=c2e7252e20

Great story Garth! And the Christmas .22 story is cool; I remember reading it a while back. I never got a .22 for Christmas, mostly because the "family" .22 - a Winchester 61 - always stood in the back corner of Dad's closet and there was always a box or two of shells in Dad's top dresser drawer; I could take the gun out whenever I wanted - never even had to ask. If I took some shells the next time I looked they'd been replaced; neither of us ever said a work about it to my recollection; that was just my dad's way. I still have the Winny, and like you, I'll never sell it. The 94 came along much later...

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

Remember When
 

Remember way back when. A box of .22s was a Buck!
Happy Holidays all,
HV

Henry, you must be a young buck. I remember when a box of .22s was half a buck.

Cool story Garth. I had the same experience growing up. In 1973 I got a Glenfield Model 60 with scope for Christmas. That was my first firearm. That rifle and I trekked around my pappy's farm for years! The following Christmas I got my first shotgun, an Ithaca M37 featherlight in 12g with a mod choked bbl. I still have that shotgun. I think my son has the rifle?

I remember when they were free. My pappy would give me a box when I needed it. :cool:

22 Shorts 55 cents a box, Longs 65/box, and 75 cents for Long Rifles. Mr P the storekeeper who emigrated from "the old country" would count every coin on the counter and reject any Canadian pennies. :nono: A nice bit of nostalgia today but not back then when I was a penny or two short.

I was 12 on Christmas Day 1969, Santa gave me a Savage Springfield 187 (Semi) with 4x scope. A few years later my Dad bought a case of Imperial brand 22LR, 5000 rounds for $52. I still have the gun but that ammo is long gone.

Aged Antique
 

Yeah Bill, I'm Only 75 Years Young. I grow Great Antlers!
HV

For Xmas in 1957 my Dad bought me a new Remington Model 510...He took it to his friend and had a peep sight installed. In 1958 I joined our local gun club..YMCA sponsored..We had an indoor .22 range in a downtown building that we used for free..but little to no heat in the cold days. We could buy Remington 6122 bricks for $5.I still have the gun..Years ago I found a nice figured walnut stock for it. I take it out to my woods now and then..In 1959..I got a Stevens 311 20 gauge M/IC..Used to carry it on my bike on my morning paper route..and stop at a woods to squirrel hunt..Years ago I had Dennis Earl Smith restock it with XX wood and convert to straight grip. I hope one of the kids cares for them like I have. Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to all...jv..

Mine is not quite the happy ending. My first rifle was a Winchester Model 67 single shot .22LR. A great uncle who was a gunsmith in North Seattle checkered the stock and fitted a grip cap and black forearm tip to resemble a Model 70 Super Grade. Also, fitted it with a Mossberg scope. Quite a few close Rockchucks and Gophers were dispatched over the next couple of years. The memory that blows my mind is my buddy Wayne and I riding a Seattle city bus downtown with our rifles, in cases, to an indoor range in the basement of if I remember correctly the County/City Building.

My Model 67 was one of four guns stolen out of my father's house in 1978.

"Back in the day"
 

After posting about my first guns, I thought I would show this picture. It was taken in June..1960. I'm in the middle..age 13..Kenny on the left..age 12...and Toby on the right..age 14..The picture was on the front page of our local paper. Our gun club got the idea to clean out some of the pigeon population in town. Usually there were about 25 of us shooting in town.Our main street was US 40..The National Road...We did this a couple times a month..The President of the bank would come down and open the lobby if it was cold..There was a farm Bureau CoOp near..so we had plenty of targets. This lasted about a year..until the ladies from the local Humane Society raised a storm. This was before the Interstate..and people traveling probably wondered what was going on..I still have the vest that I'm wearing..in the case with the shotgun..Those were the days.........................

Jerry, what town was that?

Brazil, Indiana..On US 40 between Terre Haute and Indianapolis. My Dad was Chief Deputy..Went on to two terms as Sheriff ..then Commissioner..

Looks like everyone drove a pickup!

That was the back lot of the Chevy dealer. I traded my red '57..with blown motor for 1960 Impala...in 1962 to them....Didn't like it...Sold it to a friend..Dad came home with a yellow '57 Bel Air convertible..I LIKED that !..

What gun are you holding in the picture? I can’t tell if it’s a side-by-side or an over and under. I have a 410 over and under with exposed hammers I think made by Stevens from this time period. Could be Savage. I’ll have to check.

That gun is the Stevens 311 20 gauge that my Dad got me for Xmas in 1959..I later had Dennis Smith restock it in XX wood and convert to straight grip..

Thanks that’s a great picture. The gun I’m talking about is a model 240 Stevens.

A 22 for Christmas
 

In 1958, my Dad gave me a Marlin model 100 that a close friend gave him as appreciation for teaching him to hunt 29 years prior. That little single shot accounted for an untold number of squirrels a few dozen cottontails and the occasional raccoon. Forward forty years and the nephew of the gentleman that gave the old man that gun had an eight year old boy so I paid it forward. When my grandson was born in 2018, I asked Tom who was a NYC cop if he still had the gun. He informed me that a relative with a drug habit stole five sporting guns from his home and that little 100 was among them. He offered to replace it but I turned the offer down. Just wouldn't be the same. So in a couple of years, I'll get my grandson a new one and he can restart the tradition.

My small town, Morgan MN pop. 950 also had a pigeon shoot in the late 50s and 60s. You had to be a member of the Sportsman club and 21, By the time I was those requirements they quit doing i.t

My first .22 story has a sad ending, like Dave's. The Christmas that I was 14 my Dad gave me a brand new Remington Nylon 11. He had a 66 himself but thought I'd be better off with the bolt action, clip fed 11. I can remember every small detail about it. By many folks' standards it is an ugly gun . . . . brown Zytel "marbled" stock, exaggerated pistol grip, white diamond inlays, big honkin' front sight, nickled trigger and flat Mannlicher type bolt handle, white line spacers . . . . but on that Christmas morning exactly 60 years ago it was a dream-come-true gun.

It was stolen out of my pickup truck, in my yard, about 9 years later. If I ever see it again I will know it is mine for one reason . . . . the knurled, flat knob that adjusted the windage on the rear sight got broken off, leaving the tiny threaded screw shaft in place.

58 years ago today, Christmas 1967, I found this under the tree- an Ithaca Model 49 and I still have it!