Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns When you were a kid, what shotgun did you want most ???

Browning Sweet Sixteen

Savage 311 12ga S/S,used to see one everyday walking to school at the Western Auto store

Ithaca 37 in 12 gauge. I bought one at about 16 with money from hauling hay. It was stolen while I was in college and replaced when I graduated with an Ithaca 37 in 20 gauge that I still own.

The first and maybe only gun I ever really wanted bad was a Browning Superposed. Rifles, and other shotguns just didn't matter much to me. Don't for sure know why.

I bought my first Superposed a long time ago, had a couple more over the years but never really liked any of them enough to keep them. Did however come to like the Miroku Dalys a lot and still have a number of them. Model 12s and 870s were just working tools to me. I bought an 870 in 16 gauge back in the 60s that for some reason I just really liked using. I always shot my father's model 12 in 16 really well, and I've accumulated a few over the years. I have a sort of hobby going gathering up model 12 parts and building them into real working guns. I now enjoy that more than accumulating "complete" model 12s. I just switched to a "franken gun" model 12 in 16 for grouse hunting that is built out of parts from about 8 guns. It started as a rescue of a barrel with a potato on the end getting replaced by a WS1 barrel with a solid rib. Thinking the O/U grouse gun will move to the back of the safe and I will maybe be hunting the rest of my birds with the model 12.

When I was a kid, I wanted any shotgun I could call my own. I was given an old Winchester Model 37 "Red Belly" 16 gauge from my Dad. I still own that shotgun, and will until I part.

All of them.

Belgian made Auto 5 or a Fox double in 16 ga.

My grandfather's Belgian A5 was the one I wanted. He was a bird hunter and had two shotguns that he loved. He would let me and my cousin clean them with him when we were kids. He would tell us that one day those shotguns were going to be ours. That Belgian A5 is now mine...but I wish it was still his and I could go quail hunting with him again.

One that was hammer less Actually my grandfather's 16 ga Parker DH S/S which I have today.

Well in 1974 when I stopped "hunting" with a bow or slingshot and could actually buy a license...THE Gun was a 20 1100 Liteweight with the Mahogany stock! My first shot on my first rabbit hunt was with my Dad's 311 16 Gauge. Carried that purple shell for a long time. Yup one lucky pellet hit the bunny in the navel, it was a going away shot at probably 45 yards.

Had to be careful not to shoot Arnie the Beagle. Never got the 1100.

A side X side, as a kid I did not know enough about brands and quality just always knew it had to have two barrels.

Anything other then the 16 gauge bolt action shotgun, I had. That gun hurt every time it went off.

Jim

My 'first' shotgun was my Dad's Stevens single-barrel 12. This thing had a brutal kick to it, and was very hard for me to shoot well.

Then, one day, Dad came home with a Winchester Model 12, 12 ga., with modified choke. I guess it was 'our' shotgun, but I was the only one who ever shot it- and I shot it well. Still have that shotgun.

One of the two of my early wants..model 12 12g. mod...

I wanted a Browning Automatic Light 12, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. Winchester had just come out with the new 1200 pump and that was what my Dad was pushing. Since, at the time I was 13 years old, still pretty much listened to him, and he was buying it for me for Christmas, that is what I got. That was in 1964. It wasn't a bad shotgun. I was proud of it until I showed it to my Granddad and he pointed out to me that it had an aluminum receiver and pressed in checkering. From that point on it was like a hammer, just a tool. I used it for many years and it was always a good shotgun, but I don't wish I still had it...

I hunted with various "family" guns for a number of years, so by age 10 I "knew" exactly what I wanted......a 12 ga. L.C. Smith or at least an A.H. Fox.

That winter my mother's father died and left me a FINE French double (not even sure of the maker) in 16 ga. that he had brought home from WWII. It wasn't a 12, but it was beautiful with scroll engraving covering the action and even ejectors. Unfortunately I only hunted with it one season before all of our guns were lost in a fire.

As soon as the insurance money came in my father went hunting for new guns (before even buying clothes...he had his priorities straight). He explained that the money had to buy guns for the entire family, so L.C. Smiths and Fox's were not an option. So I told him a 870 pump or Ithaca would do just as well (for some reason I never liked the Model 12....and still don't own one).

He came home with and presented me with a beautiful 870 in....20 ga. I "knew" I really needed a 12, but at 11 years old I had to settle for what I got. Somehow I managed to kill several truckloads of small game and a half-dozen deer over the next few years with that "too small" 20.

When I was 17 I got into duck hunting and just had to have a 12ga. Magnum (or so I thought at the time). I went looking for another 870, but instead discovered the only semi-auto shotgun I'd ever wanted.....a Belgium Browning A-5....and in Magnum chambering!!

I didn't have the cash or trade to own this gun, but it's owner took pity on me (having known me since birth) and allowed me to "work out" the difference on his farm and store. I still own that gun today.

I've been pretty lucky to own almost all of the guns I wanted as a kid....even if it did take me a lot of years to accumulate them.

A Browning BSS. I settled on a very early Belgium A5 and was happy as a camper.

No hunters in my family so I went with the gun that I could afford with the fanciest brand name, a Winchester Model 37 "Steelbilt" .410 from our local hardware store. Still have it, after almost 65 years, and still take it hunting at least once a season.

Cost a whole $23.50 plus tax (a fortune at 25 cents a full lug box for hand-pickin' walnuts and prunes), and the shells were over a dollar a box! It's killed quail, grouse, wood ducks, hawks, crows, squirrels, bunnies, rats, and snakes in 11 states!

Dad started me off with a little Winchester M37 single shot .410 when I was eight years old for our rabbit and squirrel hunting trips. We hunted nearly every weekend during the seasons along with Grandpa. Dad had a Browning A5 Lightweight 12 gauge that I thought was magic. When I got older dad would sometimes switch guns with me and I was in heaven when that happened. Sometime later our guns were stolen in a home burglary while we were gone on vacation. Dad replaced his A5 with an Ithaca SxS and my single shot .410 with a Wingmaster 12 gauge. I still lusted after a Browning A5 and eventually bought one. I appreciate it for what it is but today find myself taking lighter weight guns like my Benelli semi autos to the field hunting.

As a kid, I thought my old man's 311 16gauge w/Tenite stock was the be-all-end-all shotgun. It fueled my lust for things two-barreled. To my (minor) chagrin, he bought me a new 12gauge Ithaca M37 for my HS graduation in 1970. It served me well until I was through college and shopped for my first double which was an L.C.Smith, then a Fox Sterlingworth, then another Smith, and another Smith, and another...

I still have dad's Tenite stocked 311 16gauge, but the only reasons I hang onto it are nostalgic in nature. Crude in detail compared to many other makes, and with horrid balance, it does remind me of my roots and as such holds a place of honor in my collection (along with the single shot 12's that I initially hunted with).