I have posted on the guns classified site looking for a 22 pistol for my son to use with my step-kids; but that brought back memories of my 1st gun, a single shot Stevens 410. It was a dog by any standards, but it looked great to me at that time. Even though the trigger guard was gone + the ejector broken, there was not a safe rabbit if I were there. HA! I will admit that after one shot with no ejector, it was a time deal using my pocketknife to get the 410 shell out of the chamber, but, hell, Bell had to do the same thing when he was guarding the railroad crews in Africa. Fantasy thoughts from a well-read child can sometimes be a wonderful thing.

Then first gun of my own at 12yoa was a Remington model 76.

The lever action version of the nylon 66. A really slick little 22.

Paid 12 dollars for it unfortunately the stocked cracked. It would not hold zero after that.

My dad let me buy a Remington Model 550 from a pawn shop in Las Cruces, New Mexico in the early 60s. That .22 semi-auto would fire anything you loaded in the tube; shorts, longs, long rifles, rat shot. Mix them and it didn't care. A wonderful gun.

I scoped it and babied it. It killed more jackrabbits than I could count. My younger brother thought it was the neatest thing and he didn't have a gun.

When I moved to Texas after college I gave it to him as a gift. You would have thought I had given him a gold Rolex.

I came back to visit my mother about six months later and asked to borrow the rifle to go jackrabbit hunting while I was home. He told me he had sold it. I could have killed him. I haven't given him anything else in the last fifty years.

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I came back to visit my mother about six months later and asked to borrow the rifle to go jackrabbit hunting while I was home. He told me he had sold it. I could have killed him. I haven't given him anything else in the last fifty years

Cost him way more then he ever received from selling that rifle.

Ain't that the truth!! We used to do a shooting match out here on my range + the qualification was to bring a gun that your father gave you. It's sad how many can't do that.

My first gun I got in the forth grade at 10. It too was a Stevens single-shot .410. In the 6th grade Dad gave me a Win 9422 (hegave me the .410 as well). I still have both…as well as my Dad.

My brothers and I shared 410's made by my father from old 303 SMLE rifles and also had a little Belgium Liege 28g SXS with Damascus barrels which we used on rabbits and ducks. When in early high school I got a 32 Remington Model 14 pump for deer shooting and my younger brother had a Winchester Cooey single shot 22RF with which he did manage to shoot five or so deer.

We lived on a 6000 acre government farm with a lot of bush and swamp country and used to shoot 50 or so red deer a year in the spring and autumn to sell for money when wild venison was exported from NZ to Europe in those days. Deer were not usually bought during the hotter summer months of Dec/Jan due to meat spoilage.

My little 32 Rem was a great killer on deer along fence lines and in clearings and creek beds. My father had a 7x61 S&H so used to take care of the longer range stuff.

My brother inherited my 32 Rem when I went overseas to work so continued the tradition with it until selling for an Oberndorf K Mauser in 250-3000.

Wish I still had the little 32 it for nostalgia sake.

My first gun was a Remington Nylon 66 Mohawk Brown .22. Damn thing jammed all the time, and I sold it off to buy a Model 581 bolt .22. It was laser accurate, and I still have it. Next was a Remington 1100 12 Ga. which I killed many doves with using reloads from my MEC 600 Jr. Also still have that one.
Then my dad gave me a 1917 Remington Enfield with a cherry bore that still shoots tiny groups.

My father built a 6mm Remington on a Mauser action and gave it to me for Christmas when I was 8 years old. I shot a coyote with it that year, and my first deer the next. Quite a few after that.
That's a rifle I will never part with.

Back in the fifties, my dad was building rifles on springfield actions, as were a lot of hobby builders, He did a few for my other brothers and sisters. shortly thereafter, I traded it for a Model 42 Winchester. I think it was a real slap in the face for dad, Anyway, I found it later being used by a friend in deer camp who had bought it at the local hardware store To shorten this a bit, I saw him a few years later at a local funeral and asked him if he still had it. I gave hi a price and he jumped on it. That gun is still sitting in the gun rack in my shop.

Pop bought me a Win 121 when I was about 8-9 y/o.

I think the first one I bought was a Swed Mauser, had to be 18 and have a license.

My brother and I pestered my father to buy us a .22 or Christmas when I was 9 yrs. old ((1953).
We picked out the cheapest one in the Sears catalogue and dog eared the page and wrote----THIS IS THE ONE WE WANT!) Price $12.50.
Well we did get it as a present along with a copy of the SAFETY RULES, a cleaning kit and a box of ammo.
I got deadly with that gun A STEVENS M15 single shot.
Couldn't afford much ammo in those days---so had to make my shots count! Could out shoot most other people after a few years!

Hip

P.S. Still have and sometimes shoot the little single shot!

I guess I was around 10-12 years old ?
I used to ride my bike into town about 5 miles away and go to a Montgomery wards store .I would scrutinize and study all the guns in the display rack .. there was one I wanted ...
It was a single shot bolt action 22 , that said Hawthorn on the barrel ...the gun had a sticker price of about $14.00 ..

I saved and saved my allowance money and some lawn mowing money..

Finally my birthday was coming up and my dad took me to the store to get my gun ..when we got there , the price on the gun had changed and it was now around 16.00 ..at first I didn't think my dad was going to lend me the extra few bucks , but he finally did ..

We bought a box of 22's and went to my grandmothers farm to shoot my new gun ..

I noticed the new gun looked slightly different than the one I had originally picked out , but non the less , I got my new gun !!

The first time I shot it , something hit me in the face , and the shell wouldn't eject .. so my dad dug the empty case out with his jack knife and we loaded it up and tried again ..

Sure enough , something hit me in the face agin , and the case was stuck ...

That's when my dad figured out that they sold me the wrong gun , it was a 22 magnum, and not a 22..

We drove back to the store and my dad was mad ..the guy offered to let us keep the magnum .
But my dad insisted they give me the right 22 that I had originally picked out ..

I still have that old hawthorn 22 , and it has shot countless rabbits, squirrels , woodchucks and etc .. I hiked a lot of miles with that little old 22 ..but I'm 72 now and don't get around like I used to .. :-)

That says a lot about the change in times, doesn't it? Back in those days, if they made a mistake, they would do everything to make it right. Nowadays, one is lucky if you can find counter help who knows anything, but even so, they don't really give a damn about treating the customer right. I know that's not universal, but is still way too prevalent these days.

My first "My gun" was an Ithaca model 49. Looked like a lever action, but more like a Martini in function. I still have it.

Had one of those too when I was young. Cool rifle but the paint peeled on the receiver.

I think I read that they were made by Erma from Germany?

Hip

20 gauge Winchester model 12---lots of dove, quail, ducks, geese pheasants and a whole lot more years later--still have it. Next was a Winchester model 42--still have it--only gun I know serial number of as it's same number forward or backwards.