Calling Old Timers To The Firing Line

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First gun, Savage/Stevens single shot bolt action 22 bought right after I got out of boot camp. Half a million rounds later it still shoots like this and it has been used to teach a lot of new shooters the correct way to shoot, it will be going to my nephew who is learning on it now. I'm getting to old and won't be teaching much longer unless there is a miracle and the clock starts going backwards.

I have a lot of other guns but 22 is still my most shot caliber and the first gun just never stops being a favorite gun.
 
Well, I haven’t hit 70 yet, but it’s not far off. I’m 65 and my father gave me the Stevens Model 56C in the photo below when I was 5. That would have been about 1951. Actually, he probably told me it would be mine some day, but I forget. I was around 13 or 14 before I was allowed to keep the gun and ammo in my room.

I took the photo earlier this year.

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I'm 73 and started shooting at about age 12. However, my first gun was a Luger my uncle brought back from WWII and gave to me. I was only about eight years old. While playing, yes playing, with it I slammed by thumb in the toggle, got mad and gave it back to him.
The first gun I ever used was a Fox SxS .410 shotgun I hunted squirrels and rabbits with. I hated, even direct hits would not kill the animals. To this day I consider the .410 a gun that has no justification for existing. I don't recall what happened to that shotgun and don't care. It was wuthuless.
Sometime in the 1950s I bought a Sears Roebuck Ted Williams 12 ga. SxS shotgun and used that for pheasants and many other things until a few years ago then traded it off for an 870.
I also bought a .22 Favorite at a junk shop for myself and used that a long time but I still have it. Or rather, recently gave to my daughter along with several other guns she wanted.
 
I turned 59 in August, so I'm closing in on my 60's fast and furious. I have my grandfather's Winchester Model 61 pump in my safe. It's chambered in .22 Short, has an octagonal barrel and was made in 1933, the 2nd year of production. I've had knowledgeable people tell me that the gun could be worth somewhere between $2K and $3K. I've never fired it, but I remember my grandfather taking it with us on pheasant and quail hunts back in the early 1960's.

The gun that I shot most as a boy was my Dad's Marlin 39A lever action .22. I carried that rifle along the river bank on many occasions, killing rogue cans and other vermin.

That gun also sits in my safe, and it brings back a lot of very pleasant memories when I hold it...
 
I guess that I belong here with you guys. I still have the "Little Pet" (engraved on the receiver) ca. 1920, 410 single that was my grandfather's and I am 68 years old. I shot my first pheasant on the wing with it at age 9 and also my first rabbit. The stock is beat to Heck, the forearm is missing, it is rust, not blue, and has seen a lot of hard service. It still fires, but I rarely use it. It will go to my youngest son, who values these things as I do.
 
I am 9 days away from 59 and don't feel at all like I belong here, that is until I try to stand up!
Seriously though I thank God for, for EVERYTHING!
I have 7 brothers and I have the only firearm My Dad had in the house.
Its a SxS Ranger .410
Only markings on it are Pat. APR. 20-1915 (on right side) and in scroll "Ranger" on the Left. The barrel is marked Proof Tested 410 GA
Serial on all parts X345xx
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I'm in my 50's. My first was a Daisy. Then my dad gave me a .410 single for squirrel. That was in the '60's. Just got a TRI-Star 12ga semi for birds. It's nice for the price. :D
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old timers

First gun was Mossberg SA - traded for a Mossberg 144. Don't have it any more, but one of my sons has the Rem 513T that was its successor. Have acquired a number since then, shot on the Navy 4th ND pistol team for 4 years.
My emotional favorite is M1 carbine I got from CMP when I was in primary flight training in Pensacola.
My favorite peeve is not related to anyone's age, but is the annoyance of hearing reiterations of total BS stories such as the number of GIs who died because the M1 Garand clip made a "ping" when ejected so the enemy knew the gun was empty - this was even perpetuated by the History channel morons. This month the American Rifleman mag discussed this, talked about the improbability, and said in their search they found no actual reported instances of this happening. But, watch the forums - it will come up again because someone talked to someone who had a friend whose grandfather said he saw it happen.
 
My first gun I went hunting with was a single shot, bolt action .410 shotgun my dad used for rabbit hunting up in Alaska. It took quite a few ptarmigan as well while we were up in Nome for a couple of years. It did what it needed to do. That was back in the 1960's when I was still a kid.

The first gun I bought when I was 16 was a single shot 12 ga shotgun that in retrospect was so light making it a complete beast to shoot. I guess we didn't think about the second shot that often, you had to make it happen the first time.
 
I'm 62 and started out at 4 with my grate granddads Iver Johnson 4-10 singal shot. Dad would help me hold it up and I would hit the can. Then at 6 he took out the Rem. modle 33 single shot. The can didn't fall down very often. Dad would take me to the dump on Sunday afternoons, hand me a box of 22 shorts and tell me to shoot them up. I hunted with the two guns all my boyhud. I still have them and still hunt with them. Life is good.
 
I'm only 65, so I'm not an old timer. My father did not own any guns, so I had to wait until I could buy one of my own, which was a Mauser C-96. I was in the army then and I sold it to another soldier before getting out.
 
Almost sixty years ago, summer I was eight, my aunt taught me the basics of safety and shooting with a Winchester 62a.

I learned how to shoot it well over the next couple of years and my aunt promised me I would someday own it.

Unfortunately, a burglar got it first.

I managed, at last, to replace it a while back and I have a load of fun shooting it.

Thanks, Auntie M.

Best,

Will
 
62 here. First firearm I ever fired was a 22 rifle at Scout Camp, Summer of 1963, make and model long forgotten. First rifle-M1917, Winchester, purchased while I was in the Army. First handgun, Browning HP,same time. Still have them both.
 
Too danged many old farts around these parts.
Oops, me too, 69.
First one was the Red Ryder, naturally.
Next was an early 1900s Winchester .22 take down pump with octagon barrel.
It was Dad's but I used it more than him.
Can't remember the model, as it's long gone.
It dispatched a lot of rats at the local dump, though.
Next was a small .32 revolver, with an open spur type trigger.
Grandpop gave it to me as a toy, 'cause it was broken.
It didn't take long to fix.
No idea where it went.
Next one was a Ruger .22 pistol that was a keeper through high school and college.
And more, of course, down through the years, most sold or traded off if not in regular use.
Way too lazy to keep up very many.
 
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Don't remember what model the Ruger was, way back then.
I do recall it was new and cost $75, in 1959, though.
Maybe.
Or was it used and cost $35?
Poor old brain is going, going, ...................
 
old shooters

i am 80 yrs young and started on a used 16 ga. single shot shotgun. it was tight money in 39 so i pulled cotton till i saved enough for the gun. it was in a lumber yard on shelf by itself and a cigar box full of asorted shellc. cost me 12 bucks. you know i help feed my family with that old gun. its long gone , wanted a faster shooting shotgun so traded it in on a bolt 20 ga. over the years i have accumilater a lot of diff. rifle, shotguns and pistol. i still have my dads winchester modle 24 double barell, killed a lot of quail and ducks with it. how do you sume up 60 years of pleasure? Lord willing i will see some more and my grandchildren enjoying the same. thanks for letting me bend your ear. cjs
 
c.j.sikes said:
i am 80 yrs young and started on a used 16 ga.
Click to expand...

thanks for letting me bend your ear.
Click to expand...

Any time.



About my second gun was a Remington 16ga. double barrel. Finally had to destroy it, the barrels were so bad from corrosive ammo that they had bugles, but I took a lot of small game with that shotgun.... before it's demise.
 
Just for any younger readers (probably none) that read this thread. And for anyone on the planet that does not know. The Ruger Standard .22 mentioned above was Bill Ruger's first commercial handgun. It really was ground breaking. Ruger held the price at $37.50 for several years. I am sure he had Colt Woodsman in mind. The colt cost $100.00 plus.

Just imagine, people like me had very little money. Now a guy comes out with a gun for $37.50 that he claims is as good & reliable as the Colt Woodsman. Well, I still have my Ruger Standard I purchased new for $37.50. More rounds thought that gun than any gun I have ever owned.

Ok, Bill Ruger was wrong. The Standard design was not just as reliable as other designs, it beat all the other designs, and for one third the price. So much for "you get what you pay for".:)
 
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