Where are all the goose hunters?

The first gun I got just for hunting birds was a Ithaca Mag 10. Befor this I used my Mossberg 12ga for turkey and duck a couple of times. I guess I need to start hunting the smaller birds more often.

My first bird gun (I was 19) was a fox 12 Ga (made by Savage) side by side. It was a deluxe model.

What a piece of dog crap........Worst gun I ever bought in my life........except for a very high priced EMF .45 Colt revolver.

FIE single shot 12 Gauge. I purchased it with the money I earned picking blackberries my thirteenth summer. It taught me the fine art of flinching, of which I have achieved Grand Master status. DON'T OVERGUN YOUR KIDS

H&R Topper Junior in 20 gauge, modified choke.

I have to this day killed more birds with it than any other shotgun I own! I still use it, too.

My first kill with it was a cottontail, though, not a bird!

Ben Reinhardt

My first "bird gun" was for my sixth birthday. A 410 single shot Stevens Youth Model with cherry wood stocks. Still have it today some fifty years later. Killed the first four doves I shot at with it. Boy was I a proud young man. My Father had placed me in the shade of a big old oak at the corner of a 100 acre corn field and the Dove flew right toward me. Killed a limit my first hunt, 12 birds, with less than 50 shells. Most dove hunts now I can't come close to that. That gun is still tight and has fired several thousand rounds at dove, rabbit, squirrel, quail, duck, crows, clay pigeons and tin cans.

[ 10-03-2003, 06:19: Message edited by: Old & Slow ]

Parker 12ga sxs, 30inch full and full. I can still see my first big green head settle back to earth after the shot. After that I was hooked for life.

Hawkeye47

1897 Winchester 12 gauge.

My cousin owned it first. Was driving, hell bent for election on his Honda 90 across a field with the '97 tied across his back....didn't see the irrigation ditch full of mud. POW!!!!

He gave it to me when he was recovering. It came in 2 pieces. The wreck had disassembled it and choked it with mud.

After a trip to the Smithy....she was pounding that shot out again like a champion.

Daisy Air Rifle! At age 7 or so,it was very hard on the Starlings and Sparrows around my maternal Grandfathers cottage. derf

My dad got me a Mossberg bolt 410 when I wastwelve . Not such a bad idea, actually.It taught me to get on the bird quickly while it was still in range of the 410 and to make the first shot count. Took my fair share of pheasants and hundreds of pigeons with it at the farm.

Just for the heck of it I took it with to the trap range two weeks ago. Had not shot it in about thirty years and the memories instantly starting flooding in.

My first bird gun was a model 42 winchester that was given to me by an elder neighbor. I trashed that gun through briars for about 4 years till I got a 20ga winchester ranger. I still have the 42 and every time I look at it I realize what a stupid bastard I am!!

turfman.

My first was a Winchester 1300 pump. I've since gone the way of tradition a bit more and now shoot a Joseph Lang SxS 12 ga. Damascus gun.

regards - redleg

Cool thread! My first time here.......I do some posting and a lot of learning in Cast Bullets.

My first shotgun--and I still have it--is a J.C. Higgins bolt action/single shot 410 bore. Dad won it in a contest at our local gun club when I was 7 years old, and he took me out shooting with it soon after it arrived. At age 10 I did the Hunter Safety Course and got my Hunting License.

First bird--Opening Day, dove season 1965--a few months after getting the License. A whitewing flew directly at me, and folded at the shot. Not the first I fired at that day, and not the last to fall, either. I got four in all. Location--S/W corner of Highway 111 and Avenue 54 between Coachella and Thermal, CA.

Still at it 38 years later, and the shotgun choices have expanded a bit--Rem 870's in four gauges (the 16 is next), Ithacas in all 3 gauges, M-12 Heavy Duck (Dad's gun, now mine after he passed away), and a Win M-1200 that came at Christmas 1967. These last two and the 410 seem lighter to carry than their weight would indicate......memories buoy them up, perhaps.

Remington 870 Wingmaster plain barrel 12 ga with a full choke. I was about 14 yrs old back in '69 or therabouts. Still have it today, and I doubt I'll ever part with it except to pass it on to my son or his son.

Don't shoot it much anymore, but had it out duck hunting a few weeks ago.

Dave

Browning Citori Trap, 12 ga, 30 inch barrels.

Not the ideal thing to carry around on a beautiful 100 degree Palm Springs / Palm Desert September morning.

My first bird gun was a .410 single shot Stevens. I used it for longer than I should have and took grouse and ducks with it. It did not take me too long to trade it in. At the time I was living in North Western Montana and had a paper route that brought me in about $20 every month and I was flush. I found a Winchester model 37 in 16 gauge and traded the Stevens in. I found out those ducks on the Clarks Fork River were not so tough after all.

My first bird gun was an Ithaca single shot 20 ga. I think it's a model 66. I got it for christmas when I was 9. My dad was strictly a bird hunter so many of my best memories are of the times spent with him and that little 20. I killed grouse, woodcock, pheasants, ducks, geese, rabbits, and squirrels along the way. I am a firm believer in the value of a single shot for begining hunters. Learning to make your first shot count is a key to good wing shooting. This is my son's first year in the field and he too is starting out with the old Ithaca. Our first excursion of the season was hunting ducks on a small pond. A flight of woodies came barreling past and he cleanly folded a drake with his first shot. It was a great moment for both of us.

Jeff

Rem. 870 express 26 in. bbl

[ 10-26-2003, 05:03: Message edited by: Anvil63 ]

H&R topper 20 ga single shot, the first time I went phesant hunting I had a phesant fly out of the edge of the corn field I was hunting and pulled up and aimed pulled the trigger and nothing, I had forgotten to pull the hammer back.

Iver Johnson Champion in 20 ga full with 28" bbl. Took my first grouse and woodcock with it and still have it after many years. Would hunt with it on occassion until last year. The shotgun and a beagle were presented to me on my 13th birthday, just a few short years ago.

Single shot 12 ga crack-barrel with stock cut down for a White-Wing hunt back in 62-63. Not the best gun to give a 12 year old with 2 boxes of shells. I even remember the shells... surplus 12 ga from WWII that my dad bought several cases of after that war. You could hunt from the road back then and it was amazing. Shot raining down on you from all directions and dead grapefruit everywhere. I still feel so sorry for the poor farmers along the roadside.

Excuse the hopeful thinking... 10 yr old.

[ 11-08-2003, 05:08: Message edited by: tiggertate ]

First bird gun was a borrowed one. I borrowed the .410 single shot every time we went to his farm hunting. I bagged a few pheasants with that one. The first one I owned was my 870 Wingmaster. I didn't do very well with the full choke but when I put the slug barrel on it I managed to hit a few more.