Your first firearm

[PopPop]

I'm glad this thread was brought back around. It was great reading about everyone's first guns.

My first was a Winchester model 370 20ga. The 370 was like the model 37 of some Winchester fame and importance but was made in Canada. That little gun killed a tremendous amount of game and was given to my grand daughter on her 16th birthday. A grand daughter that, by the way, just made me a great grand father about 8 hours ago.

PopPop

[Michael D Hankinson]

I too started with a used Winchester Model 67 Single Shot, bought from a neighbor kid, I think I paid $7.00 back in 1953. My first Shotgun was a Savage hammerless 20Ga single shot, bought brand new from Custom Gun Shop in Grand Rapids MI. Grew up on a little dairy farm NW of GR, we would milk a cow and watch a ringneck fly in by the creek, then walk down and flush him out. One neighbor kid had some little Twenty Bore side by side that all the rest of us lusted after. My first SxS was a Spanish 20Ga that somehow has multiplied. I only have one Parker at the moment, have had four over the years.

[J.B. Books]

Chistmas 1969 I found a box under the Christmas tree with a Savage-Springfield 187 semi-automatic 22. To go with it my dad had a bullet trap made from boiler plate where he worked. He set up in the basement and we spent the afternoon with me learning to shoot. I still have the gun, I wish I still had the bullet trap.

[John Yancey]

First gun for me was also a Savage 22/410 and the local squirrel population was none too pleased. I got that gun on my 8th birthday and my father took me out showed me how to shoot it and drilled me on the safety rules of a firearm. I killed many a squirrel and rabbit with that gun and even folded up a few dove. My Dad told me to only kill what I was going to eat and I would start a little campfire in the woods and cook up my kills. The first squirrel I ever ate was skinned and dressed in a way only an 8 year old can manage but to me it was the most delicious meal in the world despite all the hair, dirt and ash from the fire. My second gun was a Miroku 20ga over/under and that is the gun I used at age 10 for all my bird hunting trips. Both those guns were stolen when I was 13 after someone broke into our home. All of the other family guns, including the Parker gun I now have were in our safe but because I always cleaned and polished the other two they were in my bedroom and thus available for the thieves. It still saddens me today to think about that but they were my first and most loved guns. This is a great thread and all of your stories are great to read.
Thanks for sharing your memories,
John

[Bo Butler]

Winchester Model 37 Youth. Still have it. Hopefully I'll be able to teach the grandkids to shoot some day. Need some grand kids first!

[Fishtail]

My first gun was also a Winchester 37 Youth...I think it was actually a 37A, mid-late 1970's vintage. I still have it and it's the gun I grab when something around the house needs a dose of lead therapy.

[wally vernon]

My first was a Winchester model 190 with a weaver scope that came from Santa in 1976. Wore it slap out. First shotgun was a H&R topper Junior 20 gauge that kicked like hell. My buddy whose family owned a Bank used his granddaddy's Parker. I promised myself at the ripe old age of 12 that I would own one someday....

[Allan McLane]

My first gun was a Francotte 20ga box lock, 28", M/F, given to me by my father when I turned 12. It was a much nicer version than a Knockabout, with considerable engraving and better wood, and I shot a lot of duck, dove, and quail in South Carolina with it. You had to let the quail get out a way before firing if you wanted anything left to eat.

After I moved to Vermont it wasn't much use for partridge and woodcock so I bought a Ruger 20, 26", I/M when they first came out; much more useful here and actually a great quail gun too. When my daughter was old enough I gave her the Ruger and it brought a tear to watch her bring down her first quail.

The Francotte was destroyed in a house fire during hurricane Bob (1991) in Newport but I did manage to salvage the stock medallion my father had had engraved with my initials.

[John Cinkoske]

My first was a Remington Model 33 single-shot .22 my mother found at my grandfather's after he passed away. I was about 11 or 12, and she sold it to me for a dollar. It has the plunger you cock it with that'd blister your fingers until you developed callouses. The first shotgun was a Lefever Nitro Special in 16 gauge, it was under the Christmas tree when I was twelve from my Dad. I'd love to see all of the shells I've run through those two guns in a heap, it would be quite a few. I still have both of them, and I had the Remington sleeved sometime back. It's now really a tack driver. This is a great thread, I am really enjoying it, keep 'em comin!

[WHO]

My first gun is a Winchester Model 06 22. We owned a hardware store 13 miles south of Yosemite. Our store sold sporting goods along with normal hardware items so I had a nearly unlimited supply of .22 ammo. Another plus was that my brothers and I had a shooting range set-up just outside the rear door of the store. This explains why the rifling of the barrel is basically non-existent today although the gun is still very accurate. The Winchester was made in 1935. We owned the store from the late 1950s through the middle of the 1960s. It was a great place and time to be a kid. California was a very different place than it is today.