Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire First guns

My wife and her ex bought each of their sons, as they were growing up...... a Browning 22 BLR, a Remington 870, and Winchester Model 70 Featherweights in 270 Win. A pretty good start for the young men! memtb

.22 Remington M33 which my Dad let me trade in on an Ithaca M49 in a fit of youthful foolishness.

12ga Winchester M37 which I still have. The M33 and M37 were Dad's guns from when he was in college. He had little interest in firearms but enjoyed getting out in the woods and hunting.

Remington M10 12 ga pump which was traded off after the action was filled with sand. I stuck the muzzle in the bank hopping a creek and lifted the barrel up to see if it was plugged....it was until the sand plug fell past the choke and into the open action. Regret not keeping it and paying a 'smith to clean out all the grit.

Cut down Argentine M1891 traded for a FN98 30-06 with a Luxembourg crest and a Lyman peep sight when I realized how difficult/expensive getting 7.65 x 53 ammo was.

Ithaca M37 12 ga with a 28" modified choke barrel to hunt woodcock and grouse with. Hunting buddies were shooting open choke doubles and after the first season either missing completely or making woodcock burger the modified barrel was replaced with a cylinder bore slug barrel. Traded off after and unexpected discharge at the skeet range. A bad crimp resulted in a no. 9 shot finding it's way into the trigger group and it fired when I moved the slide forward while checking shell feed. Safe gun handling prevented injury and property damage, but it was a pant filler.

you were spoiled and probably the envy of every guy you knew. i got a marlin model 80. before that i got to use my father's 12 ga pump,

I bought a Stevens 16 gauge single shot at 14, then I bought a 22 mag Kodiak which I still have.

The first gun I had to use and carry , was a Marlin 783 .22 WRM. when I was 9. But right after I was born dad bought me a Browning A5 magnum that I was presented as a 10 year old! That big heavy full choked 12 ga was used for all my small game hunting . In the desert out side of Phoenix that meant doves,quail,rabits,and squirles up north and a couple times we went duck hunting.. Looking back I know how that wasn't a perfect choice for such uses but I learned how to shoot it well and to this day it is my go to. I shoot it better than any other shotgun I have tried.

On my 13th birthday, Dad got me a Marlin 60, my first .22. I still have it. The next year, I got a Winchester 370 20 gauge single shot shotgun, and the following year I got a Winchester 94. A High Standard .22 revolver was a Christmas present at 16. Somewhere in between, I ended up with a Mossberg 12 ga. 500, and it went away a couple of years later for an 870 Remington.

I'm not sure I can even recall all those that have come and gone since then. It's been a bunch..............

When I was6 my Grandfather died and I was given his Remington model12C pump 22. Dad bought me a New Haven bolt action 410 when I was 8. A
BL-4 20 gauge when I was 13. And a BL-22 for graduation. I wanted it instead of a class ring.

When I was 6 my father gave me a J.Stevens 141/2 .22 Little Scout he bought for $3.00 when he was drunk at an auction. The falling block spring was bad and if you shot anything other than 22. shorts it would pop open and the empty would hit you in the face. II rarely shot this gun, but kept it for many years. Great guy! The next gun I got was a Mossberg 183-K .410 (C-lect choke) he bought from a coworker in a machine shop for $10.00 and gave me at age 8. It had been used and abused and was longer than I was tall but I managed to kill sitting squirrels and rabbits if given enough time to shoulder it. It was confiscated by the Tulsa Police Department when I was 11 after he got drunk and was arrested for threatening to kill my mother, me and and my sister with it. Great guy! To make up for getting my gun taken away he bought me a used Mossberg pump 410 he bought from a known thief for $50.00 for Christmas that same year. I learned to shoot a shotgun with that gun and killed nearly every game animal available in Oklahoma except for deer with that gun. After my father died in 2017 I sold it and the Little Scout at a farm auction. The first new gun I got was when I was 12 and my mother bought me a Remington 742 rifle in 30.06 for Christmas because I had used a borrow one to kill my first deer that fall. The first new gun I bought for myself was a Remington 1187 Camo dipped 12 gauge.

A little youth single shot 20ga, I remember that gun kicking the heck out of me with 3in 00 loads at deer. 9yo, first time I ever shot at a deer was a doe at about 30 yards under a crabapple tree, must have been quite the spread because it dropped the yearling that was behind her, two with one shot. I still have it and a few years ago I tried some turkey loads out of thinking my son would be able to shoot it, punishing!

Other than that dad got me 10/22, marlin 883, and a model 7 243.