Calling Old Timers To The Firing Line

[madmag]

I know you are out there, I am not the only one. I am 71 and starting shooting in circa 1948/1949. I still have my first rifle, a Winchester Model 57 22LR (photo attached) made in 1928. This was my Dad's gun, but it was my growing-up gun. In fact I still shoot it to this day.

So, how about you old timers? I am sure there are some on this forum older than me and with longer shooting histories.

-What was your first gun?
-Do you still own your first gun that you shot?
-Are you tired of hearing from young people that don't know anything about shooting or firearms?....just kidding.

If no one answers then maybe I am the oldest one here.

[Slotback]

I like that rifle. It is great that you still have it.

[madmag]

Originally Posted by Slotback

It is great that you still have it.

Thanks. It draws attention at the range at times. It has all the original springs/parts. It even still has the peep sight disk... which is missing on some older rifles.

PS: It has a 6 shot mag not shown.

[foxytwo]

I am also 71 and my father started me shooting when I was 5 at the indoor range that he belonged to. I shot for many years and was on the ROTC rifle team for 3 years and then on the marine rifle team (small bore). I still enjoy shooting and carry concealed.

[brotus2]

Not as old as you, madmag, but old enough to still have the Winchester Model 62A that I got longer ago than I can remember. My kids shoot it and my granddaughter will in a couple of years.

I shoot every week, without fail, at a range my buddy and I have to drive an hour and 20 minutes to get there. Shoot my 1952 Win Mod 70 in 270 and rotate my old lever Wins (73, 86, 92 and 94's). Once in a while I shoot a pristine Win 52 serial number 15XX. Range goes to 300 yards.

I just shot my first 1000 yard match last weekend with the Model 70. Did very well and now I'm hooked.

Keep shooting.

[tekarra]

I am a couple of years younger than you madmag and my father taught me and my brothers to shoot with his Winchester Model 52. That rifle was bequeathed to me in his will and I have since given it to my oldest brother.

Yes, I am tired of hearing the ignorance of young people with regards to firearms. To combat this problem, I teach as many youngsters to shoot as are prepared to learn. Most of them are receptive and enjoy shooting and the discipline that goes along with the activity.

[The Real Wyatt]

Was taught to shoot in 1945.
Was given my first gun, an old octagonal barrelled .22 in 1946. That gun brought home a LOT of game in the ensuing years. Lost it in a house fire in 1971.

I still shoot at least once per week, more often most weeks.

My favorite pistol is any one of my 1911's.
My favorite revolver is my Ruger Redhawk in .45 Colt.
My favorite rifle is ... can't choose one, love 'em all.
My favorite shotgun is probably my Saiga-12.

I have a fair number of guns and try to alternate 'em at the range so they all get exercised somewhat during the year.

I have two guns that've never been shot. A 1972 S&W model 19-3 and a quite recent Emiiano Zapata commemorative Vaquero.

So no, madmag, you're not the oldest one here and I don't think I am either.

[Eagleks]

Started learning to shoot in 1956, with a .410 single shot shotgun. Then got a .22 bolt action single shot rifle. Then later a pump shotgun.

I remember how cool I thought it was when my uncle let me shoot his pump .22 rifle.

The only one I don't still have is the single shot .410.

[Jeff OTMG]

You have me beat. I am only 54 and have been shooting since the 1960's. My father gave me the bolt action .22 that he bought new in 1936, when he was 12, for my 7th birthday in 1964. He gave me a S&W mod 19 that he carried when he was in the FBI for my 16th birthday in 1973 when he went to the mod 66. I still have both of those guns and my father, he is 86.

[CWKahrFan]

I'm only 63... Remember those Win 57's from my boyhood too... Some of my friends had 'em. I started out on a rolling block JC Stevens single-shot .22:

No, I don't have it anymore... That's a stock photo... I had a Win bolt-action .22 later on.
My shotgun was a 20 ga. double-bbl. stamped with either Sears or Montgomery Wards name... Can't quite remember which.

Wasn't it cool when a good gun could be had for $40?... I'm sure that was the price for that excellent-condition barely-used 20-ga. It was very nice!

[GM2]

Just turned 73 Have been game hunting and shooting longer than I can remember. Had a little 22 pump to start and shot several Long guns and hand guns that belonged to my Granddad, Dad and Uncles . Fired on a range for the first time in The US Navy served six years firing weaponry of all Descriptions . Was LEO for 32 yrs had Qualifications every 13 weeks . Now retired and shooting as much as possible when my hands are not swollen to
bad from the arthritis.

[armsmaster270]

I Am 66 and I started at about 5-6 yrs old shooting a S&W K-22 and a Winchester 06 .22 pump Still have the pump today. A H&R 20ga single shot. Then a Remington mod11 12ga Still have the Rem 11 at 16 my brother gave me a 1911 Colt as he had just got a new 1911A1 from the NRA for 19.00 if I remember right



Now I have these

[madmag]

I appreciate the responses. Great stories and photo's.


GM2 you are older than me. Hope your hands let you continue to shoot. Like you, in the military (Army) I got to fire several types of weapons. M1 rifle (of course), M1 Carbine, BAR, air cooled .30 BMG, air cooled .50 BMG, .45 Grease gun, Winchester 97 shotgun, 1911, etc.

[wcar]

I was 75 last January. Dad started me squirrel hunting when I was about 9 years old. That would have been about 1945. He only had two guns: A .22LR Springfield Model 84-C and a double-barrel 16 gauge marked 'American Gun Co., New York' on one side plate and 'Knickerbocker' on the other. The shotgun has a hand-carved stock. Maybe the original stock had been broken at some time. I still have both guns. He would let me use the .22 and he would carry the shotgun. I got the chance to shoot the squirrels but if they ran he would use the shotgun. On our place in North Mississippi in the '40's, squirrel was about the only game. Quail and rabbits were few and far between and deer had not arrived. The shotgun belonged to my grandfather(my Dad's dad.) When I was about five, my grand-dad was accidentally killed with this gun. He was leaving his house, carrying the gun by the barrel, and apparently lost his footing in the front yard. He reflexively tried to use the gun to regain his balance and bumped the stock on the ground. It discharged into his chest and he only lived an hour or so. In 1947 'Santa Claus' brought me a J.C. Higgins Model 101.13 .22 rifle with a tubular magazine. I shot many rounds through that gun in my teen-age years and still have it. I, too, have accumulated a fair number of guns through the years and no longer fire these guns. But they remain a reminder of where I started.

[madmag]

wcar, thanks for the story.

On the accidental shooting. As you know, most of the old time shotguns had what I call a trigger only safety. You could lock the trigger, but nothing really prevented the sear from releasing the internal hammer if it jarred. Of course now days all have some sort of hammer or fining pin block.

I had an old Remington double barrel with the trigger only safety. It would automatically cock when you opened the action. It had a thumb safety, but the internal hammers could still fall. The classic accident was hunters climbing a fence with their gun leaning on the fence. Then if it fell it went off.

Things have certainly improved with the safeties.

[WIL TERRY]

I am four years younger than you. Did manage to burn up a bit over 9000 rounds in September but was a piker this month at only 3000. We go up in the Hills shooting every chance we get which can be three or four times a week. Have all but quit shooting any autoloading centerfire pistols and DA revolvers and gone back to almost exclusively shooting SA sixguns in every caliber and darned near every make and style.
As far as the younger crowd is concerned if ignorence is indeed bliss they should be the happiest generation in history; ALAS, they are not !!!! I do not mind helping any of them out but have found most of 'em so lazy you have to spoonfeed 'em information like pablum to babies. It also appears they absolutely will NOT read the books form which they could learn by the most about the shooting sports. They do their " research " on the 'net which is so laughable as to begger comparison.
AND so it goes....

[bikerbill]

66 this past summer ... started shooting as a teen-ager with a Red Ryder bb rifle, was a member of my HS skeet club (with school-owned .410 shotties, wonder if that exists anywhere in our lawyer-plagued country now) and fired a number of weapons in the AF. Then, I got out of the shooting game when I moved to CA for college after the military and then a 30+ year career in journalism in SF ... got back into shooting maybe 20 years ago after a murder in the house behind ours ... Mossberg 500 was my first gun, hired a police trainer to instruct my wife and I in its use ... first handgun was a Taurus 85, still with me and still trouble-free ... moved to the great state of Texas when I retired eight years ago, own maybe a dozen guns now, carry concealed, love to shoot and don't plan stopping any time soon ...

[madmag]

Originally Posted by WIL TERRY

As far as the younger crowd is concerned if ignorance is indeed bliss they should be the happiest generation in history

Yes, we have three sons. Their knowledge base has actually gone down over the years. In their teen years they knew ever thing about everything. Now in their 40's they seem to know a lot less and ask our advice...at times.

[Eghad]

Turning 55 in a week..I don't know where that puts me in this group. I have my Great Grandfather's Daisy BB Gun and his Savage 22-410

[madmag]

Originally Posted by bikerbill

Red Ryder bb rifle

The lever action type was also my first BB gun. But I also had a pump action that held about 30 BB's...forgot the brand, but I guess it was also Daisy.

Eghad, yeah you make the group.

[Old Grump]

First gun, Savage/Stevens single shot bolt action 22 bought right after I got out of boot camp. Half a million rounds later it still shoots like this and it has been used to teach a lot of new shooters the correct way to shoot, it will be going to my nephew who is learning on it now. I'm getting to old and won't be teaching much longer unless there is a miracle and the clock starts going backwards.

I have a lot of other guns but 22 is still my most shot caliber and the first gun just never stops being a favorite gun.

[wingspar]

Well, I haven’t hit 70 yet, but it’s not far off. I’m 65 and my father gave me the Stevens Model 56C in the photo below when I was 5. That would have been about 1951. Actually, he probably told me it would be mine some day, but I forget. I was around 13 or 14 before I was allowed to keep the gun and ammo in my room.

I took the photo earlier this year.

[Rifleman1776]

I'm 73 and started shooting at about age 12. However, my first gun was a Luger my uncle brought back from WWII and gave to me. I was only about eight years old. While playing, yes playing, with it I slammed by thumb in the toggle, got mad and gave it back to him.
The first gun I ever used was a Fox SxS .410 shotgun I hunted squirrels and rabbits with. I hated, even direct hits would not kill the animals. To this day I consider the .410 a gun that has no justification for existing. I don't recall what happened to that shotgun and don't care. It was wuthuless.
Sometime in the 1950s I bought a Sears Roebuck Ted Williams 12 ga. SxS shotgun and used that for pheasants and many other things until a few years ago then traded it off for an 870.
I also bought a .22 Favorite at a junk shop for myself and used that a long time but I still have it. Or rather, recently gave to my daughter along with several other guns she wanted.

[larryf1952]

I turned 59 in August, so I'm closing in on my 60's fast and furious. I have my grandfather's Winchester Model 61 pump in my safe. It's chambered in .22 Short, has an octagonal barrel and was made in 1933, the 2nd year of production. I've had knowledgeable people tell me that the gun could be worth somewhere between $2K and $3K. I've never fired it, but I remember my grandfather taking it with us on pheasant and quail hunts back in the early 1960's.

The gun that I shot most as a boy was my Dad's Marlin 39A lever action .22. I carried that rifle along the river bank on many occasions, killing rogue cans and other vermin.

That gun also sits in my safe, and it brings back a lot of very pleasant memories when I hold it...

[specs]

I guess that I belong here with you guys. I still have the "Little Pet" (engraved on the receiver) ca. 1920, 410 single that was my grandfather's and I am 68 years old. I shot my first pheasant on the wing with it at age 9 and also my first rabbit. The stock is beat to Heck, the forearm is missing, it is rust, not blue, and has seen a lot of hard service. It still fires, but I rarely use it. It will go to my youngest son, who values these things as I do.