Christmas Stories

B

Bella

New member
I am sure most of you have seen the movieA Christmas Story. The one about the kid named Ralphie and his quest to get a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas.

I have my own "Christmas" story.

When I was ten, my parents gave me a Benjamin 22 cal pump pellet rifle for a Christmas gift.At time we were living on a small ranch. I was placed in charge of vermon control with that gun. I actually became quite a decent shot with it. The only problem I had as a skinny ten year old was pumping it, espically as the pump count increased. And no, I did shoot my out.

Gun related gifts also came my way in later Christmases. But that first one is the most memorable.

Who else here has a Christmas story? A Christmas that involves gun or shooting gifts?
 
Last edited:
I received several guns for Christmas,,,

I received several guns for Christmas,,,
Unfortunately I never received one I could shoot. :(

One year I got a late 1700's flintlock,,,
Another year I received an antique Drilling,,,
Another year I received an antique cap & ball muzzle loader pistol.

I don't want to seem as if I were ungrateful,,,
Mom and Dad were antique/used/junk dealers,,,
They were giving me some wonderful collector guns,,,
But what I really wanted was a .22 rifle I could take shooting.

In later years dad confessed,,,
They didn't want me to have a working gun.

It was all about the fact they had fibbed about my age to get me in school early,,,
Until I turned 12 and was told the truth about how young I really was,,,
I was raised thinking I was 2 years older than my real age.

Aarond

.
 
Somewhere around 1950 ( I was 10yrs old) Christmas came on a cold morning as it often did in Ohio along Lake Erie's southern shore..We lived in a two story house on the west side of Cleveland off W. 130th St.
Myself and two younger sisters were busy opening all the loot the jolly ole man in the red suite had brought. At the end of the opening of the gifts, I tried my darnest to be excited about all that I had gotten but the one thing that I had wanted most was missing. The Daisy Red Ryder B-B gun with the leather thong hanging from the ring on the side of the rifle..
Mom's first comment was expected and received, being " well did you all get everything you asked Santa for ?" A yes as sincere as possible came from me still not beliveing that I had not gotten the one thing that would have made this Christmas the most special of them all..Born in 1940 I grew up listening to many radio programs in the evening for entertainment ie, Gangbusters, The Green Hornet, Sky King, The Lone Ranger, Sgt Preston etc.. This radio was an upright console type not the more common longer, lower version of later years so it was about my height. My Mother called to my attention that the red bulb in the red cellophane wreath was out and would I check it to make sure the bulb was tight in the candle holder located in the middle of the wreath. I dutifully stood up and walked to the window located behind the radio and as I reached around the side for the bulb I saw it...A rectangular, rather long box wrapped in some sort of christmas wrap I don't recall as my mind was asking me what the package was doing behind the radio ? Then the notion hit me that it was someones present that hadn't been placed with all the others under the tree.
As I began to pick it up mom asked,"what's that you have ? I removed it completely from behind the radio and held it higher so she could see it..
"Santa must have forgot to put it with the other gifts, see who it's for"
As I turned the box in an attempt to find the tag telling who it was for, a warm feeling came over me as I realized very few things came in a package that size. "It's for me I shouted", " well open it, lets see what it is"
Yes, it was my Daisy Red Ryder B-B gun .. and no I didn't shoot my eye out.
I was the luckiest boy in the world at that moment.. A loving family and a Red Ryder B-B gun..

Glenn62

I'm soon going to be 75 but the memories of that morning are as bright in my mind as anything I have experienced since.

Merry Christmas to all.. God bless America..
 
Glad to see he edited the original post, it did say "Vernon", not 'vermon' or 'vermin'.

Just had to tweak him a bit.

Had a surveying crew chief once whose field notes read 'nailed a steak to a fur tree...'

Never did let him live that down !
 
Great story, Glenn. What must you have thought the first time you saw the movie?!

I once got a Christmas gift that played out in a similar fashion--
where your whole year seems to hinge on that one gift, for me it was not a gun.

But I can add to the thread, on-topic:
First Christmas after my Dad passed away, I had turned 16 between then and Christmas. Mom went full-bore getting me in to shooting and later told me that she very nearly bought a used High Standard pistol from another club member - but in the end decided that the S&W Model 17-6, K-22 that I jokingly had asked for was the right gift idea for me.

Never before and not ever since has any present ever shocked, floored me and dropped my jaw so gape as did THAT revolver when I opened it. It didn't even seem real, I didn't see it coming at all.

I felt like a kid that asked for a Ferrari (why not?!) and was then given... a Ferrari.
 
I have never gotten any "gun" stuff for Christmas. This year I went overboard on my wife. While we were out Christmas shopping Saturday she text a friend of mine that is running a new bait/tackle/gun store. She got a price on a Ruger LCR .357. It is being ordered today and will be here on Friday. She went ahead and told me it was my early Christmas present. :D
 
My Christmas Story:

When I was a little kid, I got a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. I received it Christmas Eve and started shooting everything that resembled a target.

Now we were poor, didn't have indoor plumbing so my aunt had a chamber pot which she hung on a fence post during the day to air out.

For a kid with a brand new Red Ryder, a white porcelain chamber pot is just too tempting.

When you hit it, the porcelain chips, no big deal right???? Wrong.

My aunt got wet feet during the night and I had my Red Ryder taken away Christmas morning.
 
Kraigwy, I am dying of laughter here with the vision of your aunt during the night and that scenario! :D

Ive never officially received a gun for Christmas, as we are always buying throughout the year. However…. this year.. I have my very own Christmas Story…

This past March my husband wanted a FDE Tavor really bad but couldn't get his hands on one anywhere (all the suppliers were out of stock of the FDE's). I happened up on one at my LGS (we were living in different states at the time) and I got it for him. I told him shortly thereafter that I wanted my own black Tavor and always reiterated it whenever I shot his.

Tuesday, a week ago.. He called and told me to run up to our LGS and fill out my paperwork, that my black Tavor he had bought me for Christmas had arrived! I was up there within 10 minutes!!! :)
 
goose chase

About 1970 /71, I was well into my firearms love at the tender age of 11, and just had to have a "varmint rifle" to hunt groundhogs. Dad was against it, as a .22 lr would serve the same purpose, but I knew just what one I "needed", the brand new Remington 5mm Rimfire Mag.

Christmas morning, there was NOT a gun box under the tree.

We opened other gifts, the morning went on and I found an envelope under the tree with my name. Opened same....."go look on the back porch"..another note there...."check the upstairs bathroom".......another note "look in the hall closet".....etc, etc. Finally, in the basement, behind the clothes dryer was the box and the rifle!

I shot many a whistlepig with that rifle, until about 10 yrs later, when the ammo dried up. I bought all I could find, but was low on cash and ammo was scarce, and the rifle was retired.

When Centurion made their release of new 5mm ammo in the past couple of years, I was ecstatic, and that rifle is back in the field, even if ground hogs are scarce (coyotes are not!). Ho, Ho, Ho!!!
 
I have vague memories of this. My older brother had a Daisy red-ryder BB gun that I was using as a kid but the lever was broken among other problems that only a kid could inflict. So for Xmas, I asked for a new BB gun of my own. Sure enough there was a new Daisy under the tree. It was unusual in that it was a "pump" action. You pulled the pump forend straight back to to cock it. I never learned why Dad bought that type instead of the old standard, but it turned out that it was more powerful & accurate than the lever type. I shot it & abused it for years & I don't know where it went too. Boy, do I wish I still had it. As I got older, Dad graduated me to a .22 cal Benjamin pump - talk about a quantum leap! I eventually wore it out too. After having the piston washers replaced a couple of times the barrel eventually came loose from the pump housing. Yeah, wish I still had that one too!

Merry Xmas Shooters!

...bug :)
 
I think I was twelve when I got my Christmas BB gun. It wasn't a Red Ryder, it was a daisy Model 25 -- the slide-cocking rifle with the magazine that screwed out of the muzzle like a shotgun choke and held (IIRC) 50 BBs. And I dang near DID shoot my eye out.

Back then I lived in New England, and Christmas was (as usual back then) snowy and cold. Nonetheless, a new BB gun is no fun if you don't shoot it. So my father, my brother and I bundled up and headed outdoors. There was a telephone pole just inside the stone wall about 75 feet away from the garage, so my father thought that was a good place to tack up a target. (No there was nothing beyond the telephone pole -- the nearest house in that general direction was at least a half mile away.)

So ... target up, loaded up the magazine, cocked it, took careful aim, and fired.

And promptly got stung on my cheek by the ricocheting BB. Nobody had told me (and I don't think my father knew -- he wasn't much of a "gun guy") that steel BBS bounce back when they hit a hard or even semi-hard surface.

I never knew what became of that BB gun. I know I never threw it away or sold it, but it sort of disappeared at some point around the time I was away at college and then the Army. I wish I still had it.

k2-_a15a429b-48fd-45e1-9237-5548233dac6a.v1.jpg
 
I got my first real gun for Christmas about 1966 or so. By this time, I knew the score, so I knew Christmas presents got hidden around the house weeks before Christmas, so I spent a lot of time "prowling."

Sneaking into my partents room I reached under the bed and found a long, slinder box. Just a cardboard box, with no markings. But it was heavy. I pulled it out and found wonder of wonders that the tape seals were broken.

I opened the box, and there inside, lay an Ithaca M-66, Supersingle. It was a single shot, 20 ga, "youth model" with a 26" barrel, and a modified choke. (I had found the tag on the end of the box by now.) It looked like a cowboy lever rifle with it's underlever that broke the action.

I grew up with four sisters and no brothers, so I was reasonable sure it was for me.

The big problem was it was around December 1st when I found it. I had almost a full month to wait. You think Christmas took a long time to get there when you were a kid? Try it knowing there was going to be a shiney, new shotgun under the tree.

Just about every day, I'd sneak in there, pull the box out, and just stare at the gun. I wasn't about to take it out of the box. I knew I'd never get it back in right.

Finally Christmas morning got there, and sure enough the 20 was there, across the arm of the chair. There was a brown canvas hunting coat from Sears (where the gun had come from too), and two boxes of Sears 20 ga shells...No 6 shot. I got a long safety lecture from my mother. "Don't shoot yourself, or anybody else with it." (Later, she would give me the best advice I ever got. "Don't ever shoot anything you can't brag about." I've remembered that advice anytime I was tempted to do something wrong, and not just with guns)

I grabbed the gun, went out onto the back porch and slipped a shell in, and snapped it shut. Spotting a pine cone on the ground, I don't know, 10-15 yards away, I put the bead on it and fired. BOOM...the cone jumped, the gun kicked. WOW! (We lived WAY out in the country a LONG time ago.)

I broke the gun and pulled the empty shell out, held it up to my nose, and for the first time breathed in that delightful smell of fresh burned powder. Something I'll still do today I might add.
 
Christmas 1962, I had thought I was ready for the big guns I had .22's for a couple of years. I went down stairs Christmas morning and their was a big box with my name on it. I had to wait my turn to open a present and their was an 12 ga. side by side with hammers shotgun. I was in high cotton. Later I cleaned it and after lunch, my grandpa went out in the back yard to shoot it. It had 2 triggers and when ready to pull the trigger I put a finger on each trigger( was that ever a mistake). I pulled the front trigger and the recoil caused me to pull the second trigger and down I went. My grandpa laughed helped me up and said he had learned the same lesson the same way. My shoulder hurt for 3 days but I was still one happy camper.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top