What gun started it for you?

[338 Mollett]

Quigleys' friggin gun got me started !!

 

[jbzeus]

Winchester 52E about 1973(?) bought from AL Freelands shop in Rock Island where I still live. It was hand picked by an Illinois state prone champ who was tight with Al. Still have all original and in very good shape.

 

[tmwinds]

A Remington 550-1 .22 LR. Got it for my 11th birthday in 1956. I had to tuck the stock under my armpit to shoot it. It’s the first firearm I had and the last one to leave.

 

[skeeljc]

It was Stevens 84C .22 LR bolt action repeater. I discovered it in the back of my Dad's closet when I was maybe five or six. I would take it out and look at it when nobody was around. Finally I convinced dad to teach me how to shoot. He built a backstop out of a piece of 1/4" plate set at a 45 degree angle on the back edge of out property. Mom, Dad and I would spread a tarp on the ground 50 yards from the backstop and shoot prone. It did not take too long before Dad and I went to the gunshop and had a Lyman receiver sight and a Globe front sight fitted to the Stevens. Later the same gunsmith mounted a Weaver B4 on it. I was hooked from the day I discovered the rifle in my Dad's closet.

 

[Woofie]

Well, I was born and raised in England, where even back then, there was zero public interest in guns. I fell ill with one of the childhood diseases, and my next door neighbour sent round some magazines. I don't know how they had them but there were two Guns & Ammo magazines in the pile, and well, the rest is history. I would ride the bus into Birmingham to visit the only bookstore that stocked G&A. The oldest G&A Annual I have is the 1969 edition (I was 14 then). Reading those old books is eye-opening today.
My first gun was a High Standard Victor in .22LR. Everyone else shot S&W Mod 41s but I had to be different I still like that pistol and wish I still had it.
I was an aweful shot starting out. Two accomplished shooters, Colin Jackson (UK team member) and David Gregory took me under their wings, took me to matches and over time I got better. Eventually, a lot better.
I took to writing, really loved handloading but the one I remember most is the FIRST review of the Glock that ever appeared in a US shooting magazine. That was Guns magazine when Jerry Rakusan was the editor. Times gone by.
Sometimes we date ourselves....

 

[sw282]

A Model 39 Marlin 22rimfire in the 60s. What ''REALLY'' got me started was a trip to Ft Hood Tx 1990 right before Desert Storm. Saw my first Prairie Dog. l knew l had to SHOOT one. Shortly after getting home l found a used 222Remington bolt gun. Put a 10x40 Leupold AO on it. The rest is history. Been shooting, reloading, and chasing them ever since

 

[SGT. Slaughter]

A Remington 40xb in 300 win mag started my obsession with accuracy back in the mid to late 80's. I've never been the same since!!!

 

[Leo Smith]

I lovd watching westerns, And they all had Winchester Repeaters. Until I bought my first Henry Big boy.

 

[GLO123]

I started hunting ducks and geese when I was about 14 years old. I started out with a .410 then moved to a 12 gauge. My first pistol was a Colt 45 ACP. It was the start of many more pistols to come.

 

[Daddymac]

Remington 511 Score Master

It was second-handed when my dad got it I don't know when, and I remember shooting it when he had to hold it up for me. I carried that rifle with me on every hunting or plinking adventure from when my dad let me take it solo until I bought a Ruger 10-22 when I was 18.

The 511 got retired to my dad's gun cabinet and saw very little love until his passing a few years ago, it came home with me, and to make a long story short, it has found new life.

 

[South Pender]

My first rifle was a Winchester M69A .22 rimfire repeater. That got me into shooting and a love affair with rifles.

My first centerfire rifle was a Schultz & Larsen M65DL in 7x61 S&H chambering. That got me thoroughly hooked on fine bolt action rifles and a lifelong interest in rifle accuracy.

 

[YEW PLUCKER]

Not that I don't enjoy a long, heated, political debate or the finer points of a Ford vs Chevy type discussion, but it seems like a lot of people on this site are long-term and committed shooters regardless of the discipline we have chosen or that maybe chose us. Be it rifle, pistol, shotgun competition or just recreation. So just wondering how others got started?

I came from a family that did not own firearms, but for some reason I really, really wanted and needed one. Maybe too much exposure to the ample gunplay on The Rifleman, Bonanza, Have Gun - Will Travel, Combat! and others in the 1950s and 60s.Who knows? But, anyway around my 12th birthday I convinced my widowed grandmother and she reluctantly agreed. This was 1967 and she lived in downtown Birmingham, AL. So believe it or not we walked down to the S&H Green Stamp showroom (although not 100% certain, it might have been a Top Value or some other stamp place) and she redeemed enough books of stamps to get me a .22 rifle.

It was a Marlin Model 99 M1 Carbine. I would buy ammo from the nearby Sears & Roebuck store and then ride a bus with rifle in hand out to Ketona Lake near Tarrant City. It's hard to imagine anything like that happening now without numerous law enforcement agencies, SWAT Teams, and Child Protective Services getting involved.

It was a Remington model 41 Targetmaster, single shot, made in 1911.

 

[Dave Zander]

It was a Remington model 41 Targetmaster, single shot, made in 1911.

I have my Grandfathers Targetmaster , he used to shoot rats in a dump with it.sits in my safe.
My first 22 was a Mossberg ,I believe it was a model 144A. Had a 7 round Magazine and Lyman peep sites.
My Dad bought it when I was in Boy Scouts. We shot in the basement of a Armory at 50 feet. the 10 ring was the .22" dia on our targets. That was 50 years ago. Regrettably I sold it at a gun show. Dumbest thing I've ever done. Wish I had it back. I think my Dad paid $67.00 for it if I remember right.

 

[JeffT]

Stevens crackshot 22 when I was 5. Still have it.

 

[troupe]

Daisy model 94 from my late and great Dad. Still have it, but it does not shoot anymore.

 

[YEW PLUCKER]

I have my Grandfathers Targetmaster , he used to shoot rats in a dump with it.sits in my safe.
My first 22 was a Mossberg ,I believe it was a model 144A. Had a 7 round Magazine and Lyman peep sites.
My Dad bought it when I was in Boy Scouts. We shot in the basement of a Armory at 50 feet. the 10 ring was the .22" dia on our targets. That was 50 years ago. Regrettably I sold it at a gun show. Dumbest thing I've ever done. Wish I had it back. I think my Dad paid $67.00 for it if I remember right.

I was incorrect. the Model 41 Target Master was first produced in 1936.

 

[DocCarbon]

Had to think back on that one ; J C Higgins Model 103.18 aka Marlin model 100 . Single shot .22 RF plunge cocker Rifle . Still have it . Mine is 1940 Vintage . It along with a couple of other .22 RF's such as a 1934 NRA Target Master . Got that from a Friend who handled all the Stock for Hollywood pictures and TV series ,including Rawhide Bonanza GunSmoke . Ole Lance was quite the character .

 

[madmixerman]

H&R Topper 12 gauge & Winchester 94 30-30.

 

[gutpile271]

Remington mdl 12 octogon barrel 22 shorts ,long,or long rifle. He bought at an auction sale in 1930"s . Still have it.

 

[Flouncer]

I wandered into a shop that had Norinco SKS on sale for $59 NIB. The grease got on me and spread, infection. I went into another shop a week later and bought a cosmoline soaked Model 96 Swede with a 29-inch barrel. 1996. Still have the Swede, with new short 24-inch mil surp in the white barrel and Lyman sights.