Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots What was your first gun?

Mine was an H&R 20 gauge single-shot, age 11. My dad cut the stock down and put a slip-on recoil pad on it. Little thing kicked so damn hard with goose loads! I got bruises from that thing.

Winchester md. 60
I still have it

My first rifle was a BB gun, a Daisy of course. After I totally wore it out, my folks gave me a Daisy Model 10 pump BB gun. This was the big time! Then, for my 11th Xmas, there was a Mossberg .22 under the tree! I still have that little rifle, and use it on occasion to dispatch a squirrel or racoon. No telling how many thousands of .22 ammo have gone thru that rifle.

First centerfire was a 'civilianized' 03-A3 Springfield, which I also still have to this day, although it has not been shot in years.

Winchester 370 16 gauge still got it 50 years later, I think my dad paid $39.00 for it brand new.

Winchester 121Y single shot .22 for my 9th Christmas. I wanted a BB gun that year for Christmas. I was so estatic I slept with it for two nights. My son received it as his first gun.

Marlin (Glenfield) .410 bolt action single shot. $19.95 at Gibson's Discount Center when I was 6 years old. Some 60 years ago. Still have it. My dad would give me one shell. If I got a dove, he would give me another. If not, no more hunting that day. That is a very good training method for a boy. Makes him a good shot!

I'm new on this site but I was wondering if you could possibly help me. I just inherited a 20ga single shot from my grandpa. On the left side it says Springfield manufactured by J. Stevens Arms Company Chicoree, Mass. USA. On the right side it says 94B which I've found out is the model. On the left side of barrel it says Proof tested 20 gauge 2 3/4 inch chamber and on the right it just says Selected forged steel. Do you know anything about these guns or how to find out when it was made? I know that they didn't use serial numbers back then but there has to be some way of tracking it. Thank you for any help you can give.

One of these, I can't remember which was first, but I still have them in the safe...

An H&R 490 Topper Jr 20 gauge. I still have it.

Winchester 1906 "gallery" pump .22, exposed hammer, coarse iron sights. It was used when dad 'n' grandpa (mom's dad) gave it to me, it's a hellofalot more used now. I put upwards of 100K rounds through it when I was growing up shooting paper, cans, tweety birds, ground squirrels, and all manner of back porch garbage can raiders and cat food eaters. The darn thing just plain shoots ... CCI Mini Mag HPs go into a third of an inch with the iron sights (25 yards) and Stingers do about the same. Cut a fine bead ... kill stuff.

Mostly it lives in my the closet in my old bedroom back at dad's house but a few years I brought it "out here" and shot it a bit. Kinda fun whacking ground squirrels with CB caps. Broadside they'll go clear through the skull with the predicted outcome.

It's a very nice gun to carry because being so little, light, and short, I often just shove it in my belt cross-draw like a big handgun.

Since we should be talking single shots on the single shot forum ...

I semi-bought / inherited a number of guns when my grandfather passed. Among them were 12-15 single shots. The first one I shot much was a low wall in .22 long. I wish I still had it, and a couple others like a light .30-40 high wall and a rolling block .45-70. I sold 'em 'cause dad felt they were not worth owning since they weren't 06's like his.

My oldest daughter has mine. Interesting rifle. I took it apart a couple of times. Pretty tough to put together again.

Marlin 39A, 22 LR lever action. Dad got it for me I think in 1952 when I turned 7. He got a 336sc in 35 Rem for himself to deer hunt. I still have both.

........... A Winchester Model 121D was my son's first rifle. Picked it up cheap at a gun show in 1994 because the varnish (?) was peeling off the stock. Stripped & refinished the stock and gave it to him for his 12th birthday in 1995. He had it until a couple years ago when I traded another .22 he wanted for it. It now lives in my safe but it'll always be his first gun.

A Marlin 100G single shot .22. Packed it a million miles shooting gophers. Still have it in the back of a safe, thinking about how much carefree fun was had with it 40+ years ago makes me think it should get out for a walk this spring

Baikal IJ 18 12 gauge 2 3/4" made in the old USSR. It has taken ducks, geese, grouse and even a deer, it will be the last gun I will ever get rid of.

EliRawlings,

Unlike I suspect most everyone here, I didn't grow up with a home that owned guns of any sort, as my parents died in a car accident when I was about 4 years young & I was raised, until I left home at 18, by a lovely but very traditional & widowed grandmother.
(My grandmother believed that I should be "girly", 24/365 & said to me thousands of times: NICE Sicilian girls don't do those things. Those things are just for boys.)

When Tex & I met & started dating, I quickly figured out that I could either join him in his shooting, hunting, fishing & camping or I could "sit home alone" more than half of the year.
(Personal to other women here: Don't think that you can "change the personality" of an adult of either gender. - My advice is to accept them, with their faults or look elsewhere for company or a mate.)

As a result of my intent to "keep him forever", I set out to become an "outdoor woman".
First I joined the local Ladies Field Archery Club, then the TSRA/NRA & went with Tex on a few of his day fishing trips trips & finally told him that I wanted to try an overnight camping trip.
(Until that first overnight camping trip to one of our State's Natural Areas, my idea of "roughing it" was staying at a cheap motel, much less had I ever considered sleeping in a sleeping bag or a tent. - I was quite surprised to actually enjoy myself, as the spot by the creek that he picked was especially lovely when I woke up about 630 AM.)

Years later, I'm married & am learning every day more outdoor skills, that most of the members of this forum likely learned as a child.
I now have my own suitable outdoor clothing (that is made for & fits a woman of my small stature. - I wear a 2 Petite in a dress.), my own rod/reels/tacklebox & I "adopted" one of his pump carbines in .223 Remington, which is small & light enough for me to comfortably carry afield & shoot.
This year, Im going on a special "ladies only hunting trip", that is sponsored by TSRA this Spring for Axis deer & perhaps a feral hog.

By the way, if I ask ignorant or even ask "dumb questions" here, please be patient with the "new girl", as I'm still an eager beginner at hunting, fishing, etc..

By the way, my first gun is a Model 7615P police carbine.

Sincerely, DarlaG
Neophyte Outdoor Woman

30-30 Savage Lever, pretty beat up but it went bang. I paid $30 for it in 1965 and shot my first deer with it.

First gun,Nobel 22 single shot,had to have a million rounds thru it.First real gun Marlin 39A,bought it used in 1976,still own it still use it.

Belgian Browning Sweet Sixteen. Saved all summer to buy it as soon as I turned 16. Still have it.

Savage over/under 22LR/410 our favorite thing to shoot was going to the dump and kill`n rats in the summer in the old days. i still own that old rat killer !