What was your 1st gun

[RedEyed Duck]

So, what was your 1st gun and how’d ya get it? BB guns don’t count, talking 1st shotgun or rifle. I’ll post up my story tomorrow once I have access to my pc.

[Odis]

.410 H&R, single shot, I was 8-9 years old, my Dad did not hunt and a friend of his encouraged him to get it for me, I’d hold it a imagine all the stuff I could with it, I thought I had a cannon! 3” chambers, a magnum by the way! I was so proud of it, wiped it down with oil at least once a week for quite some time

[novacaine]

1st purchase in 1976 was a 12 ga. Remington 870 pump wingmaster 30" left handed.......
#5 lead on ducks was deadly..........

[marionfd708]

Mossberg 500et .410 pump. Dad bought it for me when I was 10 back in 82! Shot many of creatures with it, Ready to bring it out again just for old times sake!

[jacksbuddy]

Ahh, what memories. Like Odis, my first gun was a .410 single shot. Mine was a bolt action Springfield, with a 3" chamber.

My Dad could hit anything with it.

Me? Well, let's just say that there were a lot of deer at Donaldson Point that were saved by the errant sapling, limb, etc. that somehow jumped into the path of my slug. And for small game hunting, after shooting a box or so of shells through it, that screw on the bottom of the fore-stock would get REAL hot.

Fun to shoot? yes. Deadly? With me, not so much.

But I still have it. Even though I haven't yet replaced that little ejector on the bolt that broke sometime during a squirrel hunt back in '78 or '79.

[teul2]

I don't remember which was first, my H&R 410 or my Ruger 10/22. I still have both. I have loaned out the 410 to lots of kids, and it has been the gun that many kids since have killed their first duck with. And the 10/22 has seen many a modification over the years. Still love to shoot it a lot. Just last month had the barrel setup for future "accessories". Pic in link below (cause the site won't let me embed it).

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5zRzBKTxa38Bq3JK7

My first memories of that 410
The 410 was a surprise in the dark predawn light before a duck hunt. We pulled up to a pothole we had permission from the farmer to hunt in Holly Bluff. Everything was the same as any other morning. Pulled up on the turn row in the baby blue, double low geared stick shift, single cab Ford F250. When we got out and started putting clothes on, dad lifted the seat back to retrieve his full choked Ithaca 37 pump. But there was an extra gun case this time. Dad told me to open it and see what it was. It revealed the little 410 that has been a part of my life ever since. I was enchanted. The rest of the morning is a blur till i got to pull the trigger. It was very cold, icey, and slow. We only had a few teal pass through the decoys. A drake GWT landed beside the near new Flambeau teal decoys. Dad offered me the shot at the bird on the water, but I couldn't pick him from the decoys. Dad shot and I ran to retrieve the bird. A little later, another landed in open water in the plastic "blocks" and I took aim. Cocked the hammer, and let fly the shot. crippling the bird. I immediately reloaded, and took chase, breaking the skim ice out into the ankle deep water. I hadn't gone 10 yards when dad called out to me and stopped my progress, "!!WHEN!! you fall down, don't get the gun wet." Foreshadowing that was wasted on my young ears. I resumed pursuit. The bird ducked into the brush on the far side of the pothole and vanished. I was pointed to a spot to the left when motion was seen, and I began to run that way in the once rowed up water hole. With that 410 over my shoulder, my toe caught the top of one of those rows, and down went Fraiser. I somehow managed to stick my left arm out to break the fall while holding that 410 up with my right, but was immersed in the first of many to come Baptisms of duck hunting. I was wet from my left collar bone to my right armpit, all the way down. My rubber hip boots were full to the top. And DAMN was it cold! I never retrieved that bird.
I tried to tough it out for what seemed like an eternity, teeth chattering and all. But finally sucome to the fact that I had to go home from my first duck hunt as a hunter, rather than an observer.

[Denduke]

410 single barrel 2.5”. Had 2 beagles and worked on rabbits. Didn’t try moving shots had to wait till stopped. Broke the firing pin and Pops replaced it with 6 penny nail. Deer camp guys reamed a shell so it would brake off to deer hunt. No kill to later with 12. Squirrels too but woodies tempting on creeks were protected in ‘50s in DeltaArkie. Didn’t duck hunt till way later with Savage 12auto built on A5patent.

[missed mallards]

410 single shot. Still shoots great!

First hunt/shot was in a delta hardwood forest at a squirrel.

Right handed, left eye dominant. I’m right eye now but couldn’t close my left eye to aim. So I closed my right eye and aimed with my left. My dad didn’t know until the gun went off and bam! He knew something didn’t look right but figured I’d learn. Blood went everywhere, knocked me over the log, and left me squirrel less! First kill, hen shoveler. Still vividly remember that hunt.

[RedEyed Duck]

Sorry for the delay in posting my story. Growing up my dad let me shoot he has 22 rifle and his shotgun so I didn’t get my first gun until I was 12 years old. It was Christmas day and when I woke up there was yarn that went over and under and inside and outside and up and down and around everything in the entire house. It look like a crazy spiderweb from a horror movie. All of us kids basically had to crawl underneath the spiderweb of yarn to get to the living room. When we all begin to ask about it my parents informed that it was a present for me and then the yarn started on my bed post And that the other end was attached to the present. My task was to collect all the yarn in order to find my present. Well at the end of what must’ve been two or three balls of yarn I had a new ball of yarn that was about the size of a basketball that was attached to a Winchester model 1212 gauge and that the other end was attached to the present. My task was to collect all the yarn in order to find my present. Well at the end of what must’ve been two or three balls of yarn I had a new ball of yarn that was about the size of a basketball that was attached to a Winchester model 1200, 12 gauge. That was by far the coolest gift that I ever received for my parents for Christmas. We hunted the next day and I was able to kill the first of many ducks but I would shoot with that shotgun over the years.

The gun that I received wasn’t new and it certainly had quite a bit of character but it is still my favorite.

[Wildfowler]

My first gun was a brand new browning auto 22 that I received on my eighth birthday.

At one point my lead consumption was so great because of that rifle there was talk of a second lead smelting plant going in.

It started its life with me with the factory fold-down iron site, and at some point along the way I put a scope on it. Then later in life I took the scope off and put the iron sights back on which is its current configuration.

For those of you who don’t know the browning auto 22 is a takedown rifle meaning it unscrews in half. Very handy indeed.

There’s no telling, but lots of stuff bit the dust back at the pearl river when I was a kid. Good Times!!

[SB]

A Ted Williams 20 gauge. Has the Polly choke on the end. It was my brothers first gun. He handed it down to me as a Christmas present when I was 9-10 years old.

[donia]

as many before me, .410 H&R single shot. dad wasn't a hunter, so it came from grandaddy (grangetty, 'til I was old enough to pronounce it correctly). mom was none-too-happy about it, but was her dad that gave it to me, so she begrudgingly caved and let me have it!

dad had to cut a few inches off the barrel...learned a big lesson in just how clean the barrel has to be...tripped and stuck it in the mud, so I unloaded and got a stick to clean it out. I was sure that the mud was out, but obviously missed something because the tip of the barrel split like a cartoon gun... when they stick a finger in the end of the barrel and it banana-peels.

it is now my handy snake charmer and still tames them, well!!!

[bigwater]

Great topic

20 gauge single shot mule kicker jack-wagon son of a gun
First kill was a scarecrow in my papa’s watermelon patch in
Webster county little over 40 years ago