Family tradition was you started with a shotgun so at age 12 I killed my first buck with an H&R 20 gauge. My older brother had put me in the middle of a huge old pine tree figuring I would not wander off and get lost while he hunted else were. He was surprised when he came back, a 6 pt had walked under my tree and stopped so my first kill was at 5 yards.
At age 15 I got a new Winchester model 94 in 30-30 it cost $65 back then times were tuff, I earned money cutting grass and paid half the rest was my Christmas gift from mom. Used that 30-30 for deer for a decade before moving up to a 06.
