• This Forum is for adults 18 years of age or over. By continuing to use this Forum you are confirming that you are 18 or older. No content shall be viewed by any person under 18 in California.

As a kid, what gun did you dream of owning?

drover said:
I wanted a '"Genuine Daisy Red Ryder" but I must have miscommunicated because I ended up with a Daisy Pump instead.

Then for my 10th birthday I got a Mossberg 142A - the carbine with the folding forend, after that there was not a safe squirrel or rabbit anywhere, it founded my endearment for 22 rifles.

drover
Click to expand...
I just got off the phone w a good friend of mine. He is 68 years old. When he was a kid, his cousin had a Sheridan 22 pellet rifle. It would shoot a pellet thorough both sides of a steel trash can circa 1965. He never did get the pellet rifle. I think it fired a pointed lead pellet that was specific to that pellet rifle?
 
kevad68 said:
Marlin .22 WMR 882 Bolt Action w/Checkering – Owned Two and Sold Kmart's Inventory of Them!

View attachment 1501219

As a kid when my folks would take me to the Kmart in Westland, MI each time I would spend a considerable amount of time in the firearms / accessories section. My Dad never owned firearms so I never knew where the itch came from. I guess in my mind's eye the vision of me tromping through frost covered Michigan forests in the early morning with my “big game looking” Marlin .22 WMR (and it HAD to be the WMR cause it had that squared off magazine that looked SO COOL compared to the slanted version of the .22LR) hunting the elusive squirrel just seemed like something a MAN does. When the Sears Christmas Wish catalog came out every October/November my sister and I would spend time pouring through it for our Wish Lists. The rifle was always asked for but I never expected to get one.

Three follow-ups to this story that make my fixation on this particular rifle a weird part of my life:
Finally made it to the age where I could buy one of my own (late teens), and as I was walking the aisles of the Dearborn roller-dome Gun & Knife show (may have been Bill Goodman's show being hosted there at the time prior to moving to the 8 MILE Armory Detroit location, but my memory at 55 is kind of fuzzy), a guy walking around has a used one in mint condition except for a nick the crown and wants $120 for it. Of course I buy it and while it shot OK, never really grouped well (maybe the crown damage, but who knows), so I sold it without using it much, especially when I saw how expensive .22 WMR was at the time, what...probably $1.50 / box(!! LOL and look at what it is now) hit me compared to good ole .22LR.

Now fast-forward to my mid-40's and working for Sears / Kmart Corporate in Hoffman Estates, IL in Logistics. Part of my job is getting rid of excess / used inventory at the highest value possible and I get the project of liquidating all the Kmart firearms inventory remaining in the retail stores' backrooms locked up in security cages. Sears had stopped selling years before and so had Kmart, but the Kmart folks never knew what to do with it so it all sat there. They finally decided to stop all the record keeping and backroom labor they were putting toward the upkeep of the 4473 logs and security measures so I was told to work with the whole retail store chain (probably about 1,000 Kmart stores still remained at that time) to come up with a plan that satisfied the ATF, our internal auditors, and the stores. First thing I had to get was an inventory from each store, as records had been corrupted so badly no one knew what they had. Guess what rifle came to the top of the list as the most in inventory? (Guess they didn't sell well or the Buyer had just bought too many and they never moved). Of course I wanted one again, but the way I had the liquidation sale setup through a large corporate third party that bought them it wasn't possible. Plus I remember while it had a weird nostalgia for me I really didn't have a true need for one, I was into AR's, long range pre-PRS shooting, and .22 pistols then. To make a long story short, after a few months of prep, documentation, ATF help/overview (it WAS in the tens of thousands of serial numbers after all), logistics, and documenting all the LOST rifle (and there were lots of missing or partial boxes found during backroom inventory)...my boss's boss, a real troll of a woman who was always out for herself, gets wind of how high-profile this project is, yanks it from me as we're already 3/4's of the way through executing it, and hands the remainder to her lackey who then proceeds to get a Chairman's Star Award for “his initiative” several months later at a Town Hall (yeah, years later still bitter about that as it was a recurring theme with her 3 more times after that with different projects).

So now a few more years down the road and my wife's dad passes. HUGE outdoorsman (hike into the Rockies and cart game he shot out on his back or in packmules, or taking bush-planes deep into Canada for hunting & fishing trips on a regular basis kind of guy). Unfortunately I didn't get to know him during those times in his life, only after I met my wife after he had a stroke years before that left one side of his body crippled. But in his slow hesitant speech would would sometimes tell me hunting stories, and of course I had slides of his escapades. So anyway after his funeral my wife's mom has me start going through his stuff since I'm the only “gun guy” in the extended family, and among several other firearms what do I find but a MINT, and I mean barely used Marlin .22WMR bolt action with the checkered stock with period appropriate Tasco 4x on it with the extremely high rings you could still use the iron sights (remember those?). It was still in its box WITH receipt bought where...Kmart. I did keep that for years but again, shot it once or twice as I never had a need for the caliber and sold it to a good friend who still has it to this day.
Click to expand...
Great story. The part about you working your ass off and doing a great job, only to have the project yanked from you is priceless. I think that story is repeated a thousand times a day in the business world. Wow, those days are gone forever. A corporation would fuck it up these days. give all the guns to someone for Demo. Great ending on the Marlin from your wife's dad!! and Kmart receipt. There is some karma in there somewhere.
 
Knotwild said:
I was lucky. My Dad entertained my brother and I while we were growing up. As a teenager he was buying me guns by taking me to the good old gun stores which had huge inventories of used guns. I had pretty much whatever I dreamed of - Model 29 Smith 6", Model 57 Smith 4", Model 53 Smith 22 Jet, pre-war Colt 1911 Super 38, Browning B78 22-50, custom 22-250 on a Mauser (the maker was well known, can't remember him now), M1 Garand, Winchester 62-A, Marlin Model 39A Mountie. He taught us how to power the car through turns, took us to shoot rats at the dump, allowed us to set brush piles on fire with Molotov cocktails. All our friends wanted to go with us wherever my Dad was taking us for sure.
Click to expand...
Your dad was The Man.
 
Got my first 22LR, a Ted Williams single-shot bolt action, at age 9. I was the only 9 YO I knew that actually had his own rifle.
If I could have had anything else it would have been the Thompson SMG like Vic Morrow carried on Combat.
 
kevad68 said:
Marlin .22 WMR 882 Bolt Action w/Checkering – Owned Two and Sold Kmart's Inventory of Them!

View attachment 1501219

As a kid when my folks would take me to the Kmart in Westland, MI each time I would spend a considerable amount of time in the firearms / accessories section. My Dad never owned firearms so I never knew where the itch came from. I guess in my mind's eye the vision of me tromping through frost covered Michigan forests in the early morning with my “big game looking” Marlin .22 WMR (and it HAD to be the WMR cause it had that squared off magazine that looked SO COOL compared to the slanted version of the .22LR) hunting the elusive squirrel just seemed like something a MAN does. When the Sears Christmas Wish catalog came out every October/November my sister and I would spend time pouring through it for our Wish Lists. The rifle was always asked for but I never expected to get one.

Three follow-ups to this story that make my fixation on this particular rifle a weird part of my life:
Finally made it to the age where I could buy one of my own (late teens), and as I was walking the aisles of the Dearborn roller-dome Gun & Knife show (may have been Bill Goodman's show being hosted there at the time prior to moving to the 8 MILE Armory Detroit location, but my memory at 55 is kind of fuzzy), a guy walking around has a used one in mint condition except for a nick the crown and wants $120 for it. Of course I buy it and while it shot OK, never really grouped well (maybe the crown damage, but who knows), so I sold it without using it much, especially when I saw how expensive .22 WMR was at the time, what...probably $1.50 / box(!! LOL and look at what it is now) hit me compared to good ole .22LR.

Now fast-forward to my mid-40's and working for Sears / Kmart Corporate in Hoffman Estates, IL in Logistics. Part of my job is getting rid of excess / used inventory at the highest value possible and I get the project of liquidating all the Kmart firearms inventory remaining in the retail stores' backrooms locked up in security cages. Sears had stopped selling years before and so had Kmart, but the Kmart folks never knew what to do with it so it all sat there. They finally decided to stop all the record keeping and backroom labor they were putting toward the upkeep of the 4473 logs and security measures so I was told to work with the whole retail store chain (probably about 1,000 Kmart stores still remained at that time) to come up with a plan that satisfied the ATF, our internal auditors, and the stores. First thing I had to get was an inventory from each store, as records had been corrupted so badly no one knew what they had. Guess what rifle came to the top of the list as the most in inventory? (Guess they didn't sell well or the Buyer had just bought too many and they never moved). Of course I wanted one again, but the way I had the liquidation sale setup through a large corporate third party that bought them it wasn't possible. Plus I remember while it had a weird nostalgia for me I really didn't have a true need for one, I was into AR's, long range pre-PRS shooting, and .22 pistols then. To make a long story short, after a few months of prep, documentation, ATF help/overview (it WAS in the tens of thousands of serial numbers after all), logistics, and documenting all the LOST rifle (and there were lots of missing or partial boxes found during backroom inventory)...my boss's boss, a real troll of a woman who was always out for herself, gets wind of how high-profile this project is, yanks it from me as we're already 3/4's of the way through executing it, and hands the remainder to her lackey who then proceeds to get a Chairman's Star Award for “his initiative” several months later at a Town Hall (yeah, years later still bitter about that as it was a recurring theme with her 3 more times after that with different projects).

So now a few more years down the road and my wife's dad passes. HUGE outdoorsman (hike into the Rockies and cart game he shot out on his back or in packmules, or taking bush-planes deep into Canada for hunting & fishing trips on a regular basis kind of guy). Unfortunately I didn't get to know him during those times in his life, only after I met my wife after he had a stroke years before that left one side of his body crippled. But in his slow hesitant speech would would sometimes tell me hunting stories, and of course I had slides of his escapades. So anyway after his funeral my wife's mom has me start going through his stuff since I'm the only “gun guy” in the extended family, and among several other firearms what do I find but a MINT, and I mean barely used Marlin .22WMR bolt action with the checkered stock with period appropriate Tasco 4x on it with the extremely high rings you could still use the iron sights (remember those?). It was still in its box WITH receipt bought where...Kmart. I did keep that for years but again, shot it once or twice as I never had a need for the caliber and sold it to a good friend who still has it to this day.
Click to expand...
When I was 12 in 1982 I got a Glenfield mod 20 22 LR with the squirrels on the grip. It looked a lot like your rifle you have pictured. I also have a Marlin 25mn in 22mag. Later on I got a Remington Nylon 66 but it wasn't as accurate as the other two rifles. I sure wish I still had it.
 
nilebartram said:
I wanted a Luger.
Click to expand...
As a kid I had a 6" Mauser made in the 70's, a 4" 1920 DWM, 4" 1918 DWM possibly unfired, and a 1916 DWM Navy with U boat markings. The last 2 were bought from a dentist who worked his way through dental school buying and selling lugers - he kept the best for himself and bought them back 30 years later.

We weren't rich - I saved every penny l could get my hands on.
 
As a young kid I idolized my Uncle and my Grandpa, at that time in my life my Dad was non existent. On the ranch there wasn’t a lot of extra money and guns were tools more than anything. Grandpa was raised in the Depression which meant he didn’t give you bullets to go waste on plinking, my Uncle was more of an enthusiast , he also was tight and frugle but he did spend some money on firearms and recreational shooting.

We always had a deer hunt, every year. Tags were easier to come by then and we had some excellent deer camps at the famed Kaibab and down south for Couses deer in Arizona. He would always open up the gun cabinet and let us fondle some of his rifles before the hunt and the one rifle we all googled over was his Sako Vixen 222. It was from those days and experiences that I decided I’d own one someday which I did in my twenties after a dozen years of lusting. Since then I’ve owned a few Sako 222s and still have three in the safe,

The other gun I always wanted was a 10/22. We shot 22s constantly, me and my cousin. My first 22 was crappy Marlin model 60 that was a jamb-O-matic, I suffered through a year of that rifle and finally ended the pain and got my first 10/22. I literally shot 10s of thousands of rounds through that rifle using Winchester super X that the local Yellow front sold. The combination was excellent and worked.

My shotgun was Winchester single shot 20 gauge with no recoil pad. The gun worked but was brutal on my 12 year old skinny shoulder. I finally saved up and traded up for a 870 20 gauge lightweight, that’s one gun wish I could have back. It was dreamy compared to the Winchester SS.
 
As a kid growing up in the late 50's all the good shows on tv were westerns, GunSmoke, Wanted Dead or Alive, Have Gun will Travel etc. In all these shows the main rifle was the Win M94. I dreamed of these. At this time my cousin worked as a lighthouse keeper here on the east coast of Canada. On one of his off tours he arrived home with 2 Win M94 30/30 rifles. He knew how much I liked them and he gave me one to hold. I will never forget this. When I got it in my hands my knees got weak. I just couldn't believe I had Matt Dillon's rifle in my hands. As soon as I was old enough to own a rifle I purchased one and have always had 2 in my possession since. My story.
 
Murray Brook said:
As a kid growing up in the late 50's all the good shows on tv were westerns, GunSmoke, Wanted Dead or Alive, Have Gun will Travel etc. In all these shows the main rifle was the Win M94. I dreamed of these. At this time my cousin worked as a lighthouse keeper here on the east coast of Canada. On one of his off tours he arrived home with 2 Win M94 30/30 rifles. He knew how much I liked them and he gave me one to hold. I will never forget this. When I got it in my hands my knees got weak. I just couldn't believe I had Matt Dillon's rifle in my hands. As soon as I was old enough to own a rifle I purchased one and have always had 2 in my possession since. My story.
Click to expand...
Those shows are still on cable here in Texas. Great story!
 
There were five. Colt SAA as I loved the cowboy movies as a kid. Watched "Combat", so a 1918 BAR, and saw an XP100 when they first came out. Number 4 was a 44 Auto Mag. Dropped by the store in Pasadena and looked at them. Begged and pleaded with Mom to buy me one and hold onto it till I was of age. No go, too expensive ($278) at the time. Loved Star Trek (still do) when it came out, so #5 would have to be a Phase pistol
Over my lifetime, three out of five isn't a bad thing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Upgrades & Donations

This Forum's expenses are primarily paid by member contributions. You can upgrade your Forum membership in seconds. Gold and Silver members get unlimited FREE classifieds for one year. Gold members can upload custom avatars.


Click Upgrade Membership Button ABOVE to get Gold or Silver Status.

You can also donate any amount, large or small, with the button below. Include your Forum Name in the PayPal Notes field.


To DONATE by CHECK, or make a recurring donation, CLICK HERE to learn how.

Classified Ads

Forum statistics

Threads
165,856
Messages
2,204,917
Members
79,174
Latest member
kit10n

Share This Page

Back
Top