My father told me from a very early age BB guns were just too dangerous when I mentioned I wanted to get one. By age 11 I found a Stevens double barrel .410 behind the Christmas tree. He said "thats alot safer gun than a bb gun as you will will respect it alot more". I later learned what he meant as my friends would shoot about anything they saw with theirs, riccoceting rounds all over and generally showing unsafe practices. When I carried the .410 I always was concious of where the muzzle was, the state of the safety etc etc.

For my first year of hunting with it he would only let me put in a single shell, saying until I proved I was safe with it thats all I could use, LOL! I got to be a pretty darn good shot and by my second year when I got to use TWO bullets, I could make double shots on doves and pheasants.

While I have since gotten alot other, better guns I still think back with fondness of the ole .410. Perhaps the best decision I ever made was to keep it around... I stripped off the ugly thick chipped and scratched paint, steamed / sanded out the scuffs and stained it a very pretty color. 10+ coats of polyurethane and it looked like a new gun reborn. I still have it letting my wife use it and looking forward to the day I can give it to my boy... 1 bullet restriction in place

How about you guys? What was your first? Do you still have it?


-DallanC

My first rifle was a sporterized 98 KAR Mauser my Dad bought me for the grand sum of $65.00 in 1960! I used it for everything from deer to keeping the cat population in control around home. It was lost in a gunshop fire in the early '70s while there waiting to have a new trigger installed. Sigh........

Bill

Remington 700 BDL in 22-250. 12X Weaver scope. That gun was deadly on g'hogs. I didn't own a gun until I was 21. My family didn't hunt and there were no guns in the house. Dad didn't have anything against it....he just never had time for it. (I still kick myself for selling that gun.)

Blaine

That rifle set me back $15.88 back in November 1958. It was my first deer rifle and I still have it. All the best...
Gil

Howdy single shot 22 wish i still had it

.22 caliber pellet gun. I loved it. Unfortunatly When I moved out of the parents house, my brothers found it and I still dont which one took it for sure.
My first hunting rifle was a .270 Browning A-Bolt II (tack driver) . I still have it and wont ever let it go. I keep adding a gun to the collection on average 1 per year. So I figure 10 years from now I will have just about everything the wife will let me have :evil:.
Then I will have to get a second safe and start a new collection hope the wife doesnt kill me for it but oh well I could be addicted to worse things
This is a great post good one DallenC, Brings back a lot of memories of little tweety birds that were sacraficed to the little pellet gun.

Knifeboy

May 1949 my dad gave me a Remington pump action 22 LR rifle. I had a gunsmith in Cheyenne Wyo. mount a 4 X Weaver scope on it. Learned how to hit running jack rabbits with it . It was my first prairie dog rifle. Traded it off -darn.

My first gun was a Winchester Model 37 410. I also got it for Christmas when I was 10. I had it two years and I was tickled to death to get rid of it. Being a young kid, bigger was better. So I sold it and bought a 20 Ga.
I never regretted getting rid of it till I had my own kids. It was then I truly regretted selling it. I did sell it to my cousin, and his kids got to enjoy shooting it, so I guess it is still sorta in the family.

My first gun so far as usage is concerned was the one I had in the US Air Force, an M1 .30 caliber carbine. If I remember it fired .30 cal. 110gr. rounds so it wasn't all that potent. We weren't front line troops so I guess it didn't matter all that much. I would have felt more secure with the M1 rifle in .30-06 but we didn't have any choice in the matter. Actually it wasn't my first firearm. That would have been a modified 1903 A3 rifle in 22LR that we were issued in military school. It was fun to shoot although none to accurate if I recall. The first rifle I ever purchased, one that was really mine, was a Savage 99 lever action rifle in .308Win. I kept it for a few years, should never have sold it. It was a great brush gun. I now have 21 rifles and would hate to have to pick a favorite. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

It was an Ithica model 37. 12 gauge 2 3/4 inch shells. I used it for everything. Birds Deer, squirrels, shot trap with it. I needed one gun. That shotgun cost me $135.00 and at that it had to much length of pull. The shop owner cut the stock down and installed a recoil pad.

I have alot of good memories with that gun. I let my son hunt with it for two years. He couldn't hit a thing with it. I used it as trade in stock, and we found him a gun he could shoot.

I just hope some other kid somewhere is learning to hunt with it.

longwalker

First was a single shot 12 gauge , then in 1970 or so I bought a M98 from a friend for the princely sum of $10 , still have it , it will be finished in the next few months reborn as a 30-338 . It is the only gun I have managed to hold on to for more than a few years .. A Keeper I think ..
Jack

Stevens Over/Under 22/.410. I still have it and used it last wednesday to shoot a copperhead in the yard that one of the cats was playing with.

Second gun was a Winchester Model 70 Feather Weight in .30-06 (pre-64 like me).

My first gun (aside from my Red Ryder BB gun) was a Sureshot single shot .22 I was given for my 12th birthday. I still have this gun but haven't shot it in years. It was manufactured by Cooey up here in the Great White North.

My first deer rifle was an SMLE No 1 Mk III that I got for Christmas in 1960 when I was 14. This gun, which my father bought for the exhorbitant sum of $6, was in the original military. I spent the next 10 months sporterizing and learning to shoot it. I took it hunting the first year I was "legal" at 15, and managed to drop two deer with it.

Other than the BB guns, I had use of a H&R 410, but my first gun is my Savage 20ga SXS. I've had it 30yrs as of last Christmas. I wouldn't even guess the number of rabbits, squirrels, quail, and doves that have fallen to the old full and modified barrels.

Hi Dallan,

This topic sure brings back a lot of old memories. My first rifle was a 270 I got from my grandpa. It was an old Remington 721 but it was in very good shape. It was a tack driver then and it still shoots pretty good. Two years later I found a good deal on an Interarms Mark X in 300 Win Mag barreled action with a semi finished stock. This was the first rifle I ever put together with the help of my grandpa. This was back in 1964. The 300 Win Mag was a new cartridge back then and so was I to shooting. I did a little shooting on the High School shooting team but these were my first real rifles.

Thanks for the memories. Catch you later

The Big Dog