[Big Friend Ten (BFT)]

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..