A 22 For Christmas

[Researcher]

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.

[Jerry VanHorn]

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.........................

[Bill Murphy]

Jerry, what town was that?

[Jerry VanHorn]

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

[WHO]

Looks like everyone drove a pickup!

[Jerry VanHorn]

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 !..

[Rick Roemer]

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.

[Jerry VanHorn]

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..

[Rick Roemer]

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

[Jim DiSpagno]

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.