Your first firearm

[Mike Franzen]

Winchester Model 121 bolt action single shot 22 was from Santa on Christmas morning 1967. It was a tack driver then and is a tack driver now. Probably my most valuable gun.

[Eldon Goddard]

Remington 870 Supermag. I got it for Christmas when I was 15. The gun is ugly as hell and the wood looks like it was made from a 2x4 from lowes but I still love it. There is always something about your first gun.

[Patrick Butler]

Rich:

Thanks for this thread, as it is, by my measure, one of the best.

It is interesting to see how many members who now (I would guess) have nice Parker collections started off with very basic shooters.

Patrick

[jsd245]

First gun was a savage single shot 410 when I was 10 or so. Only used that gun for a couple years. Then for Christmas my dad got me a Ithaca model 37 20 gauge. I still have the Ithaca my dad I believe still has the 410.

[wayne goerres]

Rich the guy I traded the winchester still has it but he passed it down to his sun. I tryed to buy it back in May of this year but no go.

[Hammer Gun]

Rich, My first gun was a JC Higgins bolt action 16ga, My father bought it for me when I was 14, that was a long 58 years ago, It did the job on rabbits and river floating on drizzly days for squirrels. brings back a lot of memories, unfortunately I do not have the gun any more, Gary

[Brush Buster]

Mine was a Model B ,Fox 12 Ga .in 1966 ,I was 11 Years old ,went with my Buddy on our bicycles to a local sport shop " Kissel Sporting Goods , that was run by Bob and his wife Bea ! Mrs Kissel told us of a man that came in and wanted to sell her a Fox 12 Ga. and gave us directions to his home about six miles from the shop ,she said he wanted too much for the gun and she didn't buy it ,she didn't mention what he had wanted for the gun ! We headed out to find him with my $75.00 I saved up from mowing two neighbors yards and weeding their gardens that summer . We arrived and eventually the man came to the door ,we ask about the gun and he said he had to get 50 bucks for it ,I jumped at the deal and home we headed ! Imagine today if someone sold an 11 year old a gun !!!!!!!!! The stock broke from dry rot a few hunting seasons later and was eventually sold at a yard sale , it's seldom ,I think about it but when I do I wish I still had it !

[C.O.B.]

A lot of us have regretfully traded away or sold our first gun. It almost happened to me as well. I've had the gun sickness for a very long time and I happened on a Browning Sweet 16 with a 28 inch vent rib, round knob, long tang and made in Belgium. This would have been in the late 60's or early 70's and even then I knew a Belgium Browning was worth having. Well I traded that Remington 22 and some cash for it. Days later I was lamenting my deal in that I had traded my 22. Grandma stepped up and gave me the money to buy back the 22. Several years ago the Sweet 16 (which was the last of my A5 collection) was part of a multi gun trade with Steve Barnett for a Parker. I can't remember what I traded it for exactly as the sickness is ever progressive and the trades get obscured by the sands of time, BUT I still have that Remington 22!,

[terc]

I bought my first real gun from my cousin. I was about 11 years old. It was a Nylon 66, a tube fed 22 long rifle that was loaded through a butt plate tube. I think I paid about $35.00 for it. I shot a box of shells almost every day for what seemed like years. It never missed a beat. I really wish I didn't sell it.
Dave

[Grantham Forester]

Originally Posted by Rich Anderson

I remember my first real gun like it was yesterday. There was a sporting goods store a short bike ride away called Beech & Heuman's in Jackson, MI. It was a place where in the mid 60's a kid could look at guns and big game mounts on the wall. I wanted one of those new plastic stocked Remington Nylon 66 .22's. A friend of my fathers who was a shooter and a hunter went with me on several occasions and he suggested a real gun with a wood stock, preferably a pump as I knew when it had a live round as I had put it in the chamber. I bought a Remington Field master 22 pump. I still have that gun. When it was time for my little brother Joe to get his first gun he got one also and now I have that as well. Today the Nylon 66 might be worth more than the pump gun but I wouldn't trade it for one.

I grew up in Parma, MI. I remember Beach & Heuman's, out on the Western end of Jackson "The City of Action"--Old Ralph "Woody" Woodhurst worked there, after the downtown Smith & Winchester Hardware Store & Mill Supplies down their gun and sporting goods dept. I bought a Winchester M77 .22 LR repeater from B&H, shot a lot of junkyard rats with it on Saturday afternoons too!!