Our very first firearm and how we got it

[abishai]

The day I turned 18, I bought myself a NEF 12 gauge . I then went directly to the DMV to register to vote
and then to the bank to open up my own checking account. When I arrived late to school, I wrote my own note for being late. The dean wasnt amused and gave me 2 weeks detention . Worth it

 

[SSL]

SSL, the first rifle I ever shot was when I was about 6. We had relatives in Perry Valley, in Perry Co. PA.,they had farms. We would stand on the back porch and shoot cans down in the hog lot. Since I was only 6 a was allowed to rest the rifle on the porch rail.It was the clip version of the 510 Targetmaster. About 20 years ago on a trip I walked into a small sporting good store I spotted and there in the gun rack I spotted a 510. It was a 510P, came with a factory peep sight. Rifle looked brand new. Owners wife said they traded it in from a very old couple who carried it in wrapped in a blanket. It was one of the early ones, I called Remington as it did not have a serial number. They said the early 510s were produced in the mid 40s before the feds passed a law requiring serial numbers. My aging eyes can still usually put 5 shots into a small ugly hole at 25 yds. Cover a squirrels head with the front blade centered in the peep brings instant head shot. Now, if it did not have that 10 lb trigger it would be perfect.Mine is a single shot, safety goes on when you load it. That has saved a few squirrels lives.SSL,lol, 11.00. I paid 175.00 for mine and would not sell it for a thousand.

Even at the cost, I'm glad you get to relive your memories.

 

[timeout]

1959. I was 11 years old. Bought a Western Field, 3 shot bolt action .410 from my Uncle by marriage. Poor man had MS and couldn't go hunting anymore. I grew up on a dairy farm. No telling how many rabbits and squirrels I shot with that gun. A few pheasants as well. That was the only gun I owned for many years. Looked at Remington gun catalogs and drooled over rifles. Wanted a 25-06 but couldn't afford one. In my early twenties I refinished the stock and had the barrel reblued and put it away to be given to my first born grandson. Never had a grandson and only one granddaughter. She had no interest in hunting. Two years ago I gave it to a young local boy.

 

[Chiquita]

Around 10 or so my dad bought a 5.5mm German made Diana air rifle. Very nice with wood stock. Break the barrel, insert the 5.5mm pellet and ready to shoot. But it was taken away real quick because I showed it to my friends that I was not supposed to.

Had a lot of fun with that rifle.

 

[NateHaler]

I saved my money (earned from delivering newspapers via bicycle in the wee morning hours) to buy an H&R (Harrington and Richardson) single shot 12 gauge. I bought it at Kmart, and I think it was $28 plus tax in 1973. I'm pretty certain the recoil pad was harder than the wood stock. I used to take it duck hunting with my dad, using my canvas newspaper delivery bag (front and back pouches) to hold the decoys I bought from the Herters catalog. I think I only ever got one duck, and cooking it without my mom's help was a complete debacle. (Threw it over the fence into the neighbor's overgrown yard, after my brothers and I deemed it inedible... shame on us.)

I sold it maybe 25 years later, after it sat, unused, for probably 24 years because I bought a Mossberg 500 pump for scattergun needs. I don't miss it, and I hope the guy that bought it enjoyed it more than I did. But it was my first.

 

[358WCF]

Winchester Model 77. My girlfriend bought it for me.

 

[dannyjbiggs]

Around age 10 or 11, a childhood friend of equal age and I happened to be playing around in the loft of a neighboring farmer's barn back in Benton County, AR. I pulled up an old .22 cal rifle, pump action, octagon barrel, tubular feed magazine, minus wooden stock and wooden forearm (as I know weapons now...back then didn't know s---.) out of the sawdust flooring?! We took it to the farmer/friend and asked it we could have it. Said "Okay". The rusted action's visible hammer was missing a hammer spring! I oiled the rusted pump action best I could with some of my Mother's "sewing machine oil". And, I got the action to where...using a screw driver and hammer...I could "pound", yes, pound, the pump action open and closed. Okay? (This was without any adult supervision, of course.) I cut a piece of rubber band from a tire inter-tube and ran it so that I could cock and operate the hammer.

In a clandestine manner, I operated this "first rifle" for some time without my parents' knowledge, with secretly purchased .22 short ammo!!!! Thought that I was just about caught one time though? In the re-loading process, I happened to be pounding the action closed with my little hammer on the back porch, no one around, muzzle down on the floor, when I accidentally struck the hammer! Damn. Which, shot a bullet through the linoleum and wooden floor. No one ever noticed that small hole; although its presence and my conscious always bothered me tremendously.

A couple of years later, aged 13, Santa brought me a spankin' new Remington Sportsmaster .22 cal bolt-action repeating rifle. I could be out in the open now, legal..threw the make-shift .22 away. There was no .22 ammo shortage back then in 1953, I was able to purchase it cheapely and freely. I have said this many times to my children that I would not want to take a good chain saw to any of the trees around the house in the hollow that I grew up in northwest Arkansas!!

I still have the Remington in the gun safe...it's surely a "smooth-bore".

Dan

 

[cheek9075]

12 year old dad gave me my grandfather's Stevens 410. I was told to go hunting by myself. I was given 4 shells and brought back 3 gray squirrels. We ate them for supper that night for my birthday.
I have still got it in the gun cabinet my father made for me for Christmas.

The shot gun will got to my (hopefully future to come in years) grandson. Kinda bring it all around.

 

[Outrider27]

Christmas 1950 (I was 6), my grandfather, who had taught me to shoot the summer before, gave me an absolutely pristine Winchester 67 with the optional rear peep sight. A few years later, he told me he stopped at a gun shop in Williamsport, PA on the way to my parents home in Arlington, VA, and bought it used for a whole $10. A couple of years ago I sold it to a young friend for $20 (we both thought a 100% profit on what my grandfather paid was cool) to teach his kids to shoot, so it has another good home.

 

[AccelR8]

16 gauge Stevens 311 SXS (turned my shoulder back and blue) and a Stevens semi-auto 22. They were my Dad's and he turned them over to me when I was quite young by today's standards. 12? 13? I had already been instructed and I just took those guns out and brought them back in at will.

I remember riding my bike to the hardware store and asking to buy 16 gauge shells. The two old men behind the counter laughed me out of the place. My dad went in there later and in true USMC fashion ripped them both new ones.

 

[Juppe12]

I did get my first "gun" when I was 8 years, old Haenel airgun. First firearm was Tikka MP92 pump action shotgun which I did buy when I was 15 years old, year was 1987. I still have that shotgun even though it is too short for me.

 

[luckeeshot]

My first a Winchester model 290 22lr nastiest shooting gun I've ever shot ,my brother while in Philippines got it at the PX ,my dad and other brothers hated to take me shooting open sights i could out shoot 'em I was 12 my next 22 was a Ruger 1022 sportier , gave the Winchester to my brothers daughter

 

[Sniper338]

I was 6 years old. In October 1992 i was given a winchester 30 WCF model 1894. Made in 1912? Id have to look it up again. It was my great grand mother's. My great grandmother killed her first deer with it, my grandmother killed her first with it, my dad killed his first deer with it and I shot my first deer with it that year on November 2nd after a few weekends of aiming and range practice at 100 yards. Then shot several deer the next several years until it was "retired" and I was given my own 30-30 because I complained the longer barrel was hard to move around in the deer blind and get out the windows. It got passed down generation to generation. I plan to have my kids kill their first deer with it too. Ita be sentimental for me, ill probably cry. My kids won't understand it until they are much older though. Those old guns are built SOLID.

EDIT: I'll add to my story here. You think dang he got a Hella collector gun... well yeah, it was the long octagon barrel. My great grandmother hunted on horseback. They had a 3000 acre ranch in the Texas hill country of whats now Spring Branch/Bulverde area... she carried the rifle in a leather rifle scabbard on the sattle. While hunting, horse got spooked, pushed up against a tree and bent the octagon barrel. She had the barrel replaced afterwards, but it got replaced with a round winchester barrel. So, its not the original winchester octagon. I wish it was.

Edit again... i got curious... serial number 626557. Shows manufacture date 1912 for model 1894. Barrel on it is a 24 inch model 64 30 WCF.. so i have a 1912 1894 model receiver and stock with a model 64 barrel on it as far as I can figure. Any winchester gurus read this PM I'll get pics and maybe we can figure it out for sure...

 

[1shot]

My very first gun was a daisy BB gun with a scope already on it. I might have been in elementary school. As far a a REAL rifle, it was a Marlin-Glenfield SS .22 with a ring on the cocking piece that you pulled to cock it.
I was probably 10-12 at the time.

Lloyd

 

[338 dude]

What was your very first firearm and how did you get it? Mine was an old double 16 gauge,I fed my uncles mules all winter and he gave me it in the spring

My very first gun was a shotgun given to be by my grandfather for a duck hunt with my father in Florida I was 13 years old it was a really heavy 36 inch goose gun he was a gunsmith and cut the barrel down to 30 inches so I can hold it up long enough to shoot you would never know by looking at it. It is a double barrel 12 gauge made by JC Stevens and tool company in 1913 I still have it today

 

[rocketron]

In 1982 my dad gave me a winchester model 270 pump 22 and my grandfather gave me my great grandfather's, very used, almost abused fox sterlingworth 20 gauge. Still have both and still use both just in the same conditions they were given to me. I was once identified by which family I belonged to by that shotgun. My first wifes great uncle saw me get it out of my car to shoot trap on his range at his house. He immediately asked where did you get that shotgun!!!!? I told him it was my great grandfathers. He put 2 and 2 together with another question or 2. We were best friends till the day he died many many years after I divorced that first wh&&e.

a winchester model 270 was the first rifle my dad got me also. at age 11 he got my second one from k mart for $99 a marlin leaver action in 35 rem. I still have both.

 

[Kracken McGraw]

The first one that I could call my own, was a Stevens 311 20 gauge double trigger. Nearly wore it out before buying a 12g 870 wing master my junior year in high school. Still have both.

 

[rjtfroggy]

I envy you guys with fathers or grandfathers who were shooters or hunters, mine were not.
When I bought my first rifle I was eighteen, $105 for a Marlin 336 with a Marlin branded 4x scope, leather sling and a box of Remington ammo. I had to leave at girl friends ( now wife) house because my old man wouldn't allow it in his. I still have it, since 1970.
Then I bought a Marlin single shot 22lr, accurate as could be $29 at Caldor's, kept that one in the trunk of my 64 Fury. I gave it to a friend so he could teach his gun shy grandson how to shoot, Kid is now 19 still gun shy and my rifle is still not home.

 

[muleman69]

My very first gun was a shotgun given to be by my grandfather for a duck hunt with my father in Florida I was 13 years old it was a really heavy 36 inch goose gun he was a gunsmith and cut the barrel down to 30 inches so I can hold it up long enough to shoot you would never know by looking at it. It is a double barrel 12 gauge made by JC Stevens and tool company in 1913 I still have it today

Grandfathers were the greatest, Mine let me use an old 1897 win. lever action stage coach gun with 30" barrel's ,got my first duck with it. He passed away when I was on my way home from Nam ,Grandmother gave me the gun later on and it is still in good shape and hanging on my wall .

 

[jonbearman]

My recollection was in 1971 my dad and I went to a place called Present company and I wanted the winchester semi auto 22 lr but my dad convinced me to buy the Marlin because it was 8 dollars cheaper so I bought it for 29.98 plus tax. I had all the money from my birthday and lawn cutting money so we took it. I really wanted the winchester but the Marlin would do .I still have it and kept it mint till my son and his buddy borrowed it one afternoon scarring the stock up a little so now I learned my lesson to never lend a forearm which is now illegal due to the 2013 NY State safe act. You cant even lend it to your son or let him shoot it if you are with him. Talk about dumb and entrapment.