A Young Man's First Firearm

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RonRC

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I've read here and on other forums about boys getting their first gun at 9, 10 or 11 YO. Guns weren't forbidden in our household, but they weren't discussed or even thought about. My father explained that he had his fill dealing with firearms while in a heavy weapons platoon that landed at Anzio, Italy and fighting their way to Naples and Rome. He carried either his M1 Garand, a BAR, or the tripod or ammo for an 81 mm mortar. We did discover many years later that he had a .38 snubnose revolver, but we never saw it.

When I was about 17 yo, a buddy asked me if I wanted to go dove hunting on some Pennsylvania farms. I wanted to, but did not have a shotgun - or any gun for that matter. He let me use his 20 ga Harrington & Richardson single shot shotgun. I didn't get any doves, but I did enjoy being out in the fields and shooting. This was the first firearm I ever shot! I knew that I had to have some sort of firearm and ended up with a well used, M38 Turkish Mauser carbine in 8mm Mauser (if my memory serves). A family friend and former Marine (Lenny) took me to a range on a regular basis to shoot the Mauser and some of his rifles. I loved shooting. But, I wasn't allowed to bring the Mauser home, so it was stored at Lenny's house.

Now, we have to time travel to 10 years later. So many events had transpired over that 10 years. I went to university for 2 years and dropped out. Was drafted in 1967. Went back to college in 1969. Graduated college in 1971 and left Pennsylvania for Virginia. I was now married and lived on someone's farm/estate just outside Charlottesville, VA. There were some copperhead snakes that had taken up residence in a rock wall near both the house we were living in (the caretakers cottage) and the estate owner's house. Their kids would run up and down along that wall and my wife and I frequently would see the copperheads on the wall or driveway, blocking our way. I decided that a shotgun was needed.

On a visit back in Pennsylvania, we were invited to a party. Who is at the party? My old friend who had taken me out dove hunting. He mentioned that he had a shotgun he wanted to sell. At his house, he brings out the shotgun. IT WAS THE HARRINGTON & RICHARDSON 20 ga RIFLE THAT WAS THE FIRST FIREARM I EVER SHOT OVER 10 YEARS EARLIER! I bought it on the spot. I still have that shotgun that was the first firearm I ever used!
A photo of the H&R Topper 158 from the net. I'll take a photo of mine when I have a chance.
H&R Topper 20 ga.jpg
Ron
 
Very neat story, awesome that the first firearm you ever shot found its way into your possession.
We lived in the country when I was young and my dad was a firearm enthusiast as much as he was a hunter, so I shot several different guns while growing up.
My dad passed several years ago and I kept the majority of his guns, especially the ones I fondly remembered using while growing up.
The first I shot was an old single shot .22 that grandpa had given my dad when he was a young boy, a Sears gun that I can't remember the manufacturer of off the top of my head right now. I shot many a ground squirrel with that old .22, there was a guy in town that tied flies and would give me a nickel a tail.
The next was an old Liberty side by side .410, no idea how many grouse that thing has taken. Dad shot a couple turkeys with it when I was young and I've taken a couple with it too. All of my daughters started with this shotgun too, and my son will as well.
The .410 wasn't easy to knock pheasants out of the air with, for young me anyway, so at 15 I received a Winchester Ranger 12ga. pump for Christmas. My cousins and I did a lot of pheasant hunting after school, lots of farm ground around us and it was easy to get access back then. I still have that shotgun and you'd be surprised how new it still looks...on the outside. I have put thousands of rounds through it and it shows some throat erosion. Still shoots a pattern that will take a turkey at 50 yards with the full choke installed.
A Remmington 7mm Mauser was my first deer rifle, with Mauser action, and remained so until I bought my own rifle when I was 19.
I have my dad's first deer rifle that he bought when he was 16, a Remmington Model 721 30-06. I also have a .22 pistol he always packed around, most of his whole life, it is a Colt Buntline that is a bit collectable. Has a really long barrel on it, people get a chuckle when you show them a .22 pistol with a 12" barrel on it.
The .54 Renegade I have and shoot more than any other rifle also belonged to my dad first.
I wouldn't part with any of them for anything. My kids will own them when I'm gone.
 
That's great that they will pass down to your kids, Renegadehunter!
Before I went in for heart surgery a few years ago, I asked my son which of my guns he would like to keep. He responded "All of them!" I was thrilled.
Ron
 
I still have my first gun. A single shot Stevens Model 15 got it for my 5th birthday in March of 1950 .It still shoots as good as it did the day I got it . Its gonna stay in the family after Im gone I hope.
 
Wow! These are some great stories. The first gun I ever fired was a .22 - likely an H&R or some similar revolver, I was much too young to remember or to even know what I was shooting. I followed my older brother as he let me take to the woods with him and carried my toy Davy Crockett rifle. Well, he was actually my uncle, my grandmother's youngest, and we were both raised as brothers by her; odd, huh? A few years later I got to use an ancient Winchester bolt action single-shot .22. It had the old "pull-to-cock" knob on the rear of the bolt, and NO trigger-guard. I also got a shotgun, Mossberg 20 ga bolt action that wasn't even listed as late as the mid 1960s. It was quite worn out and when the safety absolutely stopped functioning and could no longer be adjusted, I eventually let it go...somewhere. I had no idea how old it was or how many hands it had passed through, but it shot well and I could hit very well with it. I haven't the foggiest how it got away from me; but maybe I traded it. I think that could be it because I ended up with a friend's single shot 12 ga and still have it.

Over the next decade or two quite a few shotguns came into my ownership. As a teen I got a Colt .22LR SA revolver and a Remington M514 .22 single shot and still have it. It has been fired thousands of rounds and has taken hundreds of squirrels and other small game. The first "high-grade" rifle I acquired was a brand new Marlin 39A. Still in my early teens but I have kept it and use it to this day; what a superfine rifle. Hard on the heels of the 39A came my first centerfire, a Winchester M94 30/30. Actually, more than 250 firearms of all kinds and all calibers have lived with me. A few of them I foolishly let go and some of them would be worth serious money now. I sometimes wish someone would give me the whipping of a lifetime for my cavalier treatment of them. The few I kept to this day are out of production or radically redesigned. And even though I discovered muzzleloaders in the mid 1960s, my interest in cartridge guns never wavered. BUT! About 20 years ago I began ignoring the modern ones and hunting/shooting only with front-loaders. Soon it became flintlocks for hunting and for 95% of shooting in general. I do take them out for exercise at the range on rare occasions.

Ron, I lived in Charlottesville Va. for 10 years prior to moving to Maine. Wish we could have crossed paths.
 
Hanshi, we were in the Charlottesville area 1971 - 1978, then moved to Northern Virginia. Moving from a rural farm-estate to a suburb of Washington, D.C. was a traumatic experience. It was a tough adjustment going to sleep with the call of a Bob-white or Whippoorwill and then having to sleep to the sounds of road traffic...I never did adjust.
It would have been great to meet you!
 
Hanshi, we were in the Charlottesville area 1971 - 1978, then moved to Northern Virginia. Moving from a rural farm-estate to a suburb of Washington, D.C. was a traumatic experience.
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We know the feeling Ron, Denver to Masonville CO (all farming area) outside of Estes Park - lived there on 300 acres for 20 years, divorced then move to Lakewood across the street from Columbine High School (lived there when the kids shot the place up). Then moved to Morrison back of Bandimere's Race Track (could handle the cars better than the cops always showing up at Columbine). Sold that one after 13 years and moved to Utah (MISTAKE), moved three time now in 13 years.
 
What a cool and interesting topic RonC. :thumbs up:
To the best of my recollection, my father bought me my first firearm at the age of 12 ( legal hunting age) when I lived in Pennsylvania. And, believe it or not...it TOO was a single-shot H & R 20 gauge! I used it for all the available small game (Squirrel, Ruffed Grouse, Ring-neck Pheasant, Turkey and even a slug for Deer). All that was needed was to change the load.
 
Wish I still had my second gun I got a Stevens 311 12 gauge for my next birthday and hunted with it for several years . I had it and a 7.7 Jap stashed in a closet at my mothers house while I was in Vietnam and they both disappeared .My little 22 was being borrowed by a good friend so I still have it. I could never prove it but I would bet money my Ex brother in law swiped the 12 and the Jap only a few people knew where they were and I trusted all the rest. I have another Stevens 311 12 gauge but its just not the same.
 
What a cool and interesting topic RonC. :thumbs up:
To the best of my recollection, my father bought me my first firearm at the age of 12 ( legal hunting age) when I lived in Pennsylvania. And, believe it or not...it TOO was a single-shot H & R 20 gauge! I used it for all the available small game (Squirrel, Ruffed Grouse, Ring-neck Pheasant, Turkey and even a slug for Deer). All that was needed was to change the load.
Now, THAT is a coincidence!:)
 
Hanshi mentioned the old bolt actions with the knob on the back to cock them, the old single shot Sears .22 I have has this and has the small half moon safety that can be flipped up. It has an old scope on it, really long with a small objective and about a 2x magnification. Sadly the scope is all foggy now, I will have to put something different on it for my son. It has no open sights on it. I think I was around 6 or 7 when dad first taught me to shoot it and it was considered mine by the time I was 10 or so. Our family property "on the mountain" had a cabin and a healthy population of ground squirrels, I lived for going up there to stay for the weekend and spent the majority of my time shooting squirrels. I would say my parents allowed me to go "hunt" them by myself around age 9.

I remember one time I had got in trouble for something, I think using my hatchet without asking (still have the scar), and dad grounded me from taking the .22 up to the mountain that weekend. He might as well of taken 3 Christmas's away for how horrible that punishment was to me.
Friday came and when it was time to go I handed my dad my old American Eagle compound bow and arrows to put into the pickup. He raised an eyebrow at me and paused, but then went ahead and allowed me to bring it.
He tried to act upset about my returning to the cabin Saturday morning with 3 fresh squirrel tails, but even at my young age I could see that he was proud that I had been able to get them with that darn bow.
I remember seeing that same look a couple of years later, I was 11 and dad had recently started me shooting the .410. It was fall, grouse was open, and we went up to the mountain to cut some firewood. Dad told me that after we cut a load of firewood he would take me grouse hunting with the .410. I was super excited and couldn't wait. While dad and I were cutting firewood my mom and sister took a walk down the draw. When they returned they said they had seen a bunch of grouse under a giant thorn brush tree of some sort, eating the berries it produced. Dad wouldn't budge on going down there right away with the .410, so I grabbed my trusty Crossman 10 pump bb/pellet gun. He said it wouldn't do the job unless I hit them in the head... I went through a 5000 pack of bb's a week during the summer when out of school, I was a bit learned in how it shot. My sister lead me back down to the thorn brush and sure enough there were probably a dozen grouse in there. In trying to get a shot I flushed every single one of them...except one. I could just see its head through the "v" of two branches. 10 pumps and a pellet (you meant business when you used a pellet over a bb) threaded through the branches perfectly and my first grouse was mine. The look on dad's face when I returned with that grouse is burned into my mind to this day.
He took me back down there that afternoon and I got another one with the .410. Good memories.
 
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I had a single shot Mossberg break open 410 at age 8 years old. That gun with rifle slugs would darn near break your shoulder. Talk about a flinch gun - that thing would make me jerk just putting it to my shoulder.

They advertise it: Cheaper Than Dirt has a great selection of single-shot .410 shotguns perfect for any experience level, including brands like Mossberg, Rossi, Savage, and more. Talk about a misleader for dad to get his 10 year old son.
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The closest I had to a real firearm was a mini-M1 Garand toy replica with a white sling issued to me as part of the Civil Air Patrol. I couldn't have been older than 10 or 11 when we marched as part of the CAP with our make-believe rifles and chrome plated helmet liners.
We were given cards with silhouettes of Russian planes and sat in a small, concrete observation post looking at the sky. nobody was going to fool with me when I had my little M1 Garand by my side.
 
The closest I had to a real firearm was a mini-M1 Garand toy replica with a white sling issued to me as part of the Civil Air Patrol. I couldn't have been older than 10 or 11 when we marched as part of the CAP with our make-believe rifles and chrome plated helmet liners.
We were given cards with silhouettes of Russian planes and sat in a small, concrete observation post looking at the sky. nobody was going to fool with me when I had my little M1 Garand by my side.
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One "Bad Ass" dude in those days Ron. No wonder you turned out the way you are .... :p....:D....:cheers:

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Don't know what happened to the first gun I ever fired. It was a family 22 LR single shot, brand unknown, but labeled "Little Krag" on the barrel or action.

I am rather pleased to have the first rifle I ever hunted with, a Savage 99 in 38-55. Took an eight-point (eastern count) NH whitetail by sitting in the corner of the stone wall around our apple orchard. When I came west to study forestry at Colorado State I was in the dorm with some guys from Rifle. They invited me to go hunt elk with them. Dad crated up the 99 with some ammo and shipped it.

Opening morning came and "the boys" took off on horseback. Their Pa told me I was going to hunt with him. After more coffee we got in a battered old Jeep pickup and rattled off for 30 minutes or so. Stopping, Pa G. said "Go down hill here to the bottom of the valley and sit." He went back down the ridge. After a while there was some shooting way up higher. Thirty minutes later I hear large animals moving. A few minutes after that I saw the first elk I had ever seen in my life, a small group of cows with two spike bulls. After thinking "They're BIG" I aligned the sights, put the bead a third of the way up from the belly line just behind the shoulder and fired. Good hit on one of the spikes. Waited a few minutes- was shaking a bit- and found spike dead 60-70 yards down the valley. A while later Pa G. came up the valley to help me clean the beast. Learned he had heard the group of elk, but didn't get a shot.

In those days there was the Forester's Banquet and Ball just before Christmas Break. I was rather proud to have my name in the program as having donated elk meat for the dinner.
 
I've lived most of my life in rural areas and have always hated cities. And, Ron, I know about whippoorwills. In Georgia we lived in the boonies for a few years. I remember those whippoorwills waking us up in the middle of the night.
 
Cool thread. First firearm was a daisy lever action bb gun that you poured the bbs around the barrel. At 15 (1973) started shooting target .22s , single shot Remington's as I recall. These were in a formal setting at local pistol club. Got my marksman and marksman first class and sharpshooter patches. Never did shoot the ten 40 plus scores to get my expert patch but.......... Shot with young girls from neighboring town. Friday evenings. Did end up with one of the girls in 1974

My first shotgun was a Mossberg bolt action 20 gauge with poly choke. Could hit anything with it, safety broke and in 1974 I think dad took me to buy an ithaca feather lite I think model 37? Unfortunately the store was out and I ended up buying a Marlin 120 12 gauge pump. 28 inch barrel mod choke. Wasn't much better with that one. In 1976 started hunting with a friend's 16 gauge double. Shot grouse and snowshoes in Maine from 1976-1980. Bought a slug barrel for Marlin in early 80s and couldn't hit anything with that either. Bag trigger.
First rifle Marlin 336c in 35 rem in 1981. I could shoot that ok. In 1982 picked up my first handgun. Colt trooper in 357 brushed stainless or anodized stainless. With the exception of the Colt, the other three are gone. Only miss the .35. just wasn't using it

Plenty of antiques in my collection now as well as some beautiful deer rifles, and have my dad's Luger (1918) which he picked up in WWII but staying with the thread those are my first.
 
Great topic. Started shooting with my Dad at about 7 or 8 the best I can remember. My parents bought my brother and I Crossman pump up pellet/BB air rifles at 9 years old and we shot the crap out of them. I still have it but the seals are gone. We would set below a pond dam on my uncles place and shoot cans, green walnuts and Hedge Apples with his Steven Single Shot rifle with plunger and open sights he had had since he was a kid. At 11, my Mom & Dad gave me a Remington 514, single shot 22 for shorts, longs or Long Rifle shells. Still have this rifle today and it still looks pretty good. That was 55 years ago.
If my Dad and I went hunting he would let me carry his old H&R 410 single shot with a few shells for rabbits or squirrels. I got it when my Dad passed.
When I turned 16 I bought a Remington 1100, 12 gauge, ribbed Modified barrel at TG&Y department store with some shells. Got it for a great deal. My girlfriend's Mom worked there and I got a employee discount which brought it to about $125.00 out the door. Still have that one with an extra barrel I can put Rem Chokes in for any game. Still shooting it when we do pheasant or dove. At 21 and having a good job I bought a High Standard 939, 22LR 9 shot revolver with slab barrel with rib on barrel and adjustable sites. I put many rounds through it until leaving it with the ExWife, on loan after divorce. Someone broke into her house a few years later and took it and all of the electronics in the house. After that I purchased a Dan Wesson 15-2 8" heavy barrel and still have it.
After my Dad passed I got that Stevens 22, H&R 410, that I had shot for many years and a 1911 45ACP I didn't know he had. My Mom said he had it from Korea. In 1975 one of my co-workers came out to the place I lived and wanted to site in his gun for deer season. He pulled out a Hawken, TC with a tool box full of "Stuff" for shooting it. I was pretty amazed at the accuracy of it and within a month I went back to that TG& Y department store and put a TC Hawken 50 cal. on layaway. That was the start of my muzzleloading venture that is still bright to this day. I went through a barrel on that gun in about 3 years. Some of the older ones were known for soft barrels and most of the rifling was gone. I called them and after shipping my old barrel back to them they shipped me a new barrel, with sights, and ramrod. In the time I was waiting on that barrel I found a guy that was a Trader at some of the blackpowder shoots that had a drop in 54. cal Green Mountain barrel, browned, with under rib, ram rod and sights. I'm still shooting it along with many of my flintlocks. That TC with drop in barrel has taken many deer, two elk and some pigs before I got into flintlocks.
You talk about shooting other peoples guns at a young age my Brother and I would stay a week or so on my Uncle's farm during the summers and fish, run the 800 acres with our pellet rifles and help around the farm when we could. My uncle would get out his 16 Gauge Shotgun and an old Craig 30-40 sported rifle he deer hunted with and let us shoot a few rounds though them. That thing kicked like a mule but we loved shooting it. I wanted that rifle but after his passing I think either his adopted son or daughter took it and pawned it. Another firearm I was always amazed by was my old uncles Flintlock Longrifle in 40 caliber he got from his grand dad in the late 1800's. I got to shoot it a few times. I think that is what put the bug in my on muzzleloaders long before I knew it. During his funeral that rifle and some others disappeared from the house. Some grandkids of his took them.
Sorry for being so long winded. This post brought back a lot of good memories.

Mike
 
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One "Bad Ass" dude in those days Ron. No wonder you turned out the way you are .... :p....:D....:cheers:

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Yep. Turned out to be a 73 year old bald guy with reading glasses and a big ole scar down the center of my chest.:rolleyes::)Important part is that I am still here to bug you fellows. You can see one of my favorite possessions behind me: A Tweety Bird and Sylvester clock.
Basement office at  computer mod2.jpg
 
My near 60 year old 514.

My "little" guns. Third from the right is a pre-WWII PPK 7.65 that I inherited from my FIL. War souvenir and I have all the papers for it.



Not firearm related but some of these memories were lost in our last move, including my only basic training photo.
DSC00299.jpg

Two photos taken 35 years apart, 1971 to 2006. Third one taken about 2016.
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