Dad’s first gun was an old Winchester 37 Redletter in 12 gauge gifted to him by his father for his 12th birthday. This was in 1958.
Dad went on to become quite the outdoorsman fishing and hunting and even scuba diving for several years. He also enjoyed shooting and had an appreciation for a fine firearm.
Dad bought me my first gun in 1973 when I was but six months old. It was a Browning BL-22. My uncle followed suit six months later giving me a 12 gauge Winchester 37A with a 32 inch barrel. I still have both.
Dad had pretty well given up hunting by the time I came of age but he still liked to rabbit hunt and fish.
Pops liked nice guns acquiring several through the years. He took extremely good care of them and would clean them and polish on them as if they were worth millions.
Somewhere early on I was bitten and became a full blown loony at an early age. I would sit and stare at the guns in the gun cabinet as the light seemed to cause the walnut and blue to take on some type of seductive sheen.
Dad worked with a bunch of gun nuts and hunters in the tool room at GM. Several had their FFL’s. They were all the time sending Shotgun News home with Dad along with gunmakers catalogs which I pored over.
My Grandfather and Uncles had all given up hunting but they loved their guns and rare was the Sunday dinner when there wouldn’t be someone bringing a gun they had bought or traded for. When Dad’s older brother died, he had 176 guns.
All of the the neighbors had guns and traded them for firewood, hogs, cows, trucks and whatever else was needed. Guns were everywhere.
Having no television, if I wasn’t working or in school,I was hunting, fishing or reading about it.
When I hired on the Fire Department there were a lot of gun guys working there. They would pay me to clean their guns.
We had a big kitchen table and some evenings that table would be covered with guns. There would be retired guys there, off-duty guys and even some cops. I would hate to think how many guns that I saw bought, sold and swapped in that place. I thought I was in heaven and pretty well stayed broke, lol.
So, no, I never had a chance and wouldn’t have it any other way. More of a loony now than ever!
So yes, I guess you could say I was raised a gun guy!

Last edited by JTrapper73; 07/05/21.