First Memory Of Guns

[pop pop]

My first memory is of a Revolver my dad kept in the head of his bed. It was a pre model 10 38Spl he purchased and taught my mother how to shoot. He had tuberculous and knew he was going to be taken away to Ashville N C. He wanted mom to be able to protect us 3 kids and  herself. She had to put the revolver to use shortly after dad was taken away. A local drunk decided to come and pester mom and she used the revolver to dissuade his advances.  First time I realized one could use a gun for self defense. That incident made an indelible impression on a 4 year old boy. 

My second was when I was 5. I got a Daisy BB gun, however it was not a Red Rider. I loaded it and took it outside and shot and killed a Red Bird. A Cardinal was KY's, where we lived,  state bird. I thought I really had done something. My father was watching and came out and told me I should never kill anything that I wouldn't eat and just killing for fun was not a good thing to do if I didn't have a good reason. Told me God put song birds on earth to look at and admire for their beauty and songs. He made me put the bird in a shoe box and bury it. From that time on I began to realize nature and the things around me. 

My third gun was when I turned 7. It was a Stevens single shot 410 GA with a hammer. I got to go with dad when he purchased it used, in 1955, for 20 bucks. Oh boy, I was a gun owner. Dad made it an important thing to me and sort of a right of passage. Talked to me about responsibility of being a man. I used that gun to kill many Rabbits, Squirrels, and Quail. Dad liked wild meat and he would send me out whenever he had a hankering for some. He really liked quail and rabbits. Squirrel were tougher, harder to skin, and mom had to pressure cook them to make them tender. That long gun also kept me in spending money for years. I had a man who, owned a local grocery store, and he loved to eat wild animals. He would pay me 50 cents and give me a 410 shell every time I brought him an animal. I killed 40 rabbits one year and he froze them in a freezer and eat on the all summer.  I just gave the little Savage to my youngest grandson who has already shot swamp rabbits, with his dad, in South Carolina low country where he now lives this fall. 

That is my trip, and right of passage, to becoming a real life gun owner. What is your memories? 

[Alleycat72]

My dads lemon squeezer in 32 short. He got it for his father we he died. I got it from my father after his death. 

[E4 No More]

My first gun was a BB-gun. I can't remember the make, but it was a spring-operated pressure system that you cocked by pulling the barrel backwards into the "receiver" for lack of a better term. It had no front sight, so I sighted it by simply looking down the barrel. My first rifle was a Remington 700 ADL in 30-06. Dad had an old .410 bolt action that he got when granddad "made him" go hunting, but he never let me use it.

Edited December 10, 2020 by E4 No More

[Dirtshooter]

Pop Pop, That story was great your dad was like Isaac in the Bible telling Esau to get his bow and quiver and kill him some venison. I got a BB gun, lever action but not a red ryder, mine had a plastic stock and a 1/2 ton pickup would squat under the load of bb's I shot. LOL My first real gun was about 1961 I was 9 and got a 410 double barrel Stevens. I don't remember if dad traded or sold it and I got a brand new Remington 28 gauge semi-auto in 1964 some guy won on a raffle and sold it to dad for $75, we went goose hunting and I killed 1 goose, but the thing kept hanging up the spent shells. Dad found out they were bad about that and he traded that Remmy in on a 20 gauge Belgium Browning A-5 at Jim's sporting goods store in Carbondale, Il.that cost just a tad over $164 in 1964. I still have that beauty.