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Yours or your kids first gun


sodfather

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First gun for me was a handed-down winchester model 70 in 243. My dad has been using it the past few years since it's lighter and easier to carry. I hope one if not both of my sons get an opportunity to take a deer with it when they come of age. 

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Mine was a 20ga 870 that “I won” in a raffle at 8 years old. Really my uncle won it and gave it to me. Took my first deer with it then a season or 2 later it got stolen out of the trunk of my car just before opening day. Still pissed about that. I might buy one in the future just because.


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Starting late in life, I really don't recall what my first gun was.  Possibly my CZ 455 in .22 cal but I know I bought a few centerfires about the same time.  Natalie's first is my CZ 455 and she has also been given the tikka t3x 7mm-08.  When she gets her license, I suspect a savage 220 will be in order.  

That's a really nice gun you bought her Sodfather and I suspect she will cherish it for life!

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A single shot Savage 22 similar to the one pictured below, the bolt was used to push the cartridge into the chamber and to extract. To cock the gun the little knob on the back of the bolt had to be pulled out. It was pretty accurate with the open sights and I killed my first Woodchuck with it, an event I still remember vividly to this day. 

One thing I took away from that rifle was I am not handicapped or under gunned with a single shot firearm, it is all about making your first shot count, I have acquired and still love to hunt with and use various single shot firearms today.

Al

2019-05-03_090559.png

Edited by airedale
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15 hours ago, airedale said:

One thing I took away from that rifle was I am not handicapped or under gunned with a single shot firearm, it is all about making your first shot count, I have acquired and still love to hunt with and use various single shot firearms today.

This was my dad's strategy for giving me single shot beginner guns. Exact same mind-set that eventually got me into ML & bow hunting.

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20 hours ago, airedale said:

A single shot Savage 22 similar to the one pictured below, the bolt was used to push the cartridge into the chamber and to extract. To cock the gun the little knob on the back of the bolt had to be pulled out. It was pretty accurate with the open sights and I killed my first Woodchuck with it, an event I still remember vividly to this day. 

One thing I took away from that rifle was I am not handicapped or under gunned with a single shot firearm, it is all about making your first shot count, I have acquired and still love to hunt with and use various single shot firearms today.

Al

2019-05-03_090559.png

That was the first gun I bought myself. I was 17 and had worked summer jobs to buy it . both my boys learned to shoot with it and it will never leave my gun cabinet. 

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On 5/3/2019 at 8:21 AM, grampy said:

. My first REAL gun was a Model 37, 16 gauge Ithaca, that I purchased with money earned working for that farmer. 

That gun has killed everything from chipmunks to deer. I still have it.

Same here.   My grandpa, on my mother's side, left me his guns when he passed and that was the first one I used.  It has a modified barrel and a long "deerslayer" barrel.    The modified barrel still sits in the back of my gun cabinet.  I only used it one time: on my very first, when I was 14 and my uncle took me grouse hunting.   I fired 14 shots at 10 grouse and never even took a feather off from one.    After that hunt, I used the other 16 gauge that grandpa left me ( J Stevens side by side choked imp cyl and mod), and finally managed to bring down a few grouse with that.   All of the grouse that I have killed with shotguns have been with 16 gauges, including going 2/2 the only time I hunted them with my dad's Browning sweet 16. 

I still use that Model 37 for deer now and then, and it only failed me once, on the second year I hunted with it, and before I put a 1-1/2 power Weaver scope on it.  I missed a big buck, at almost point blank range, with the open sights.  I think that "buck-fever" may have prevented me from bringing up the rear sight properly.  I killed my first deer (a button buck) with it, earlier that same year, using those open sights (no buck fever on that one, that I thought was a doe).  The family still talks about that shot.   In truth, I might have been aiming at the leader of a pair of twins, as they ran full-tilt down a mountain in Allegheny state park.  It may have been the following twin that was struck perfectly thru the front shoulders.   

I am still kicking myself for not toting that Ithaca on a late-season hunt on my grandfather's old farm last fall, when the gun I used instead misfired on a doe that a couple little bucks had chased directly under my stand.  Because of that misfire, I took a farther running shot, that I probably should not have, just to see if it would go off, when they chased her around my stand a second time, about a half hour later.   I am 95 % sure that shot missed because I spent several hours following tracks and looking for blood on the snow, finding no signs of any. 

That was the first deer I shot at, with any weapon, and did not recover in more than 10 years.   Now I have missed two in a row, including another doe that I shot at with my ML a few weeks later, striking a branch instead.   Maybe it is time to bring out that old Ithaca again to end my current "miss" streak.    Were it not for the generosity of a neighbor who gave us a badly shot up 2.5 year old buck, and a wonderfully tasty (just finished her last pack of grind) doe fawn,  we would be hurting for venison right now, due to those two mishaps.                   

Edited by wolc123
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My first gun would be a Winchester Model 69A.  It belonged to my uncle but he left it with his sister (my mom) for safe keeping.  I put probably 1000 rounds through it before I was 16.  Not many compared to lots of kids I'm sure but a lot to me.  My mom died in '86 and my uncle died in '88 and the gun became mine in a sad kind of way.  I still have the gun but it gets shot rarely........

Many a head of small game fell to it, along with a truck load of Campbell's soup cans. 

Edited by Lawdwaz
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After I got my hunter safety, Dad had a friend pick up a bolt action JC Higgins 12 gauge goose gun for me, which he refinished the stock on. Dad was only an occasional hunter, and not a successful one at that, so pretty much any gun was good enough. I carried that telephone pole for small game and deer until I found most of a Winchester model 94 sticking out of a trash can one day. We ordered up the needed parts and thank goodness I had that for deer hunting, anyway. I actually shot a huge southern tier doe my first season carrying the JC Higgins...dad was close to seizures when he saw it!

I bought a Savage bolt .22 for my son to start with, followed by a Stevens 20 gauge side by side. As he took an interest in muzzleloading I built him up a Dixie Gun Works 40 cal Cub rifle, which was alot of fun. 

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My first gun would be a Winchester Model 69A.  It belonged to my uncle but he left it with his sister (my mom) for safe keeping.  I put probably 1000 rounds through it before I was 16.  Not many compared to lots of kids I'm sure but a lot to me.  My mom died in '86 and my uncle died in '88 and the gun became mine in a sad kind of way.  I still have the gun but it gets shot rarely........
Many a head of small game fell to it, along with a truck load of Campbell's soup cans. 

I'll have to dig it out but I think I have a model 67. It was found in my grandmothers attic after she passed away and my uncle gave it to me. It's a sweet little gun that kids love shooting
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My first gun was "loaned" to me by my Grandfather and My father had used it as his first. It was a Remington model 9.   12 gauge with a side cock and concealed hammer. 30" barrel that had a fixed full choke. It was ALL this 10 year old wanted to handle. My father said it was my small game gun and I had to take my first deer with it before I got anything that was more than a single shot. Wish we still had it but Grandpa got rid of it because the cocking lever started slipping over the screw head that held it cocked. Never quite knew when it could go off as you cocked and shouldered the gun. 

Since my daughter doesn't hunt I guess her first gun is whatever she wants to pick up of mine to shoot. I do have to say that her favorite is the 357 Taurus that Cabin Fever sold me. 

357.jpg

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My uncle lent me his guns the first few years that I hunted.  The first gun of my very own was bought by myself.  It was a Remington 700 BDL in .270 which I still hunt with today, although the stock has needed to be replaced.  It's 35 years old now, but still puts down the deer I shoot at so why change things?
 

 

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Pedersoli 50 cal. traditional black powder rifle when I was 11 was mine. Killed my first deer with it. I still use this every year . I do not own an inline muzzle loader and never will. It’s just my preference. I was raised on traditional and hope one of my boys carry it as well. You knock my crossbow I’ll knock your pretend muzzle loader with your fancy scope and clean powders... just kidding I could careless what you hunt with just shoot straight!

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My 1st gun was a Marlin lever action 22 model 39A . Bought it when I was 14 years old . Shot a lot of woodchucks with it in Groveland , NY . It was just collecting dust so I gave it to my youngest son recently as he didn't have a 22 . I told him to take care of my baby . My next 2 rifles were an M-1 and then a M-14 compliments of the USMC . Didn't get to keep those .

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On 5/3/2019 at 10:28 AM, airedale said:

A single shot Savage 22 similar to the one pictured below, the bolt was used to push the cartridge into the chamber and to extract. To cock the gun the little knob on the back of the bolt had to be pulled out. It was pretty accurate with the open sights and I killed my first Woodchuck with it, an event I still remember vividly to this day. 

One thing I took away from that rifle was I am not handicapped or under gunned with a single shot firearm, it is all about making your first shot count, I have acquired and still love to hunt with and use various single shot firearms today.

Al

2019-05-03_090559.png

My dad gave me mine when I was 10 and still use it.Stevens model 15 a great shooter it is.

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