Reminiscence anyone? Join in.

My 1st rimfire lever gun

Browning BL22 grade II
then a Marlin 1897-1997CL
then a 9422 magnum
then a 9422 Legacy Hi-grade magnum
then a 9422 trapper magnum
then a 9417
then a Marlin 39a golden
then an Ithaca 49r
and lastly a Henry Golden Boy, Hunting Heritage tribute magnum

My Browning is still my finger flicken favorite.

btw I just bought my 2nd gun safe. The first one is a 14 gun the new one is a 19 gun. I looks like one of them will be for rimfires exclusivly. I'll let you know which later, as soon as I figure it out.

buying ammo from a country store!

vetsvette said:

I remember my Dad talking about him and his brother going to the country store and buying 5 or 10 loose rounds of 22 to get squirrels for supper. They used my Dad's first rifle that cost about 7 bucks new. I've still got that old Winchester model 67 and it's still one of the best shootin' rifles I own. My son and daughter learned to shoot with it and my grandson will in about 4 more years.

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Hi! vetsvette I can remmber getting of work as a kid on saterday and riding a bike in to the closest town about a mile and a hafe and buying a few boxes of shorts to feed my old 67A , And a few cheep cigars and a coke if it was hot and riding home thinking of going out in the woods with some others and shooting just for fun , Didn't have to hunt for food as my brother and I saved up our change and bought some peepes the year before and now we could have chicken on sunday ,an eggs though the week, Dad brought home three young pigs in a gunny sack the that fall and we were set with pork when they were ready , So we were in hog heaven , I love the smell of the fired 22's still do , the only place you can shoot now is at a range and that dont seem to cut it now that I can not work and my eyes are bad I would like to go back and plink like I use to then ,But as a city dweller now thats not posible Shame peeperx

I apologize for posting again, but you folks are pulling memories out of me that may never have come to the surface without your own memories.

When I was about 14, my parents dropped a friend and me off at the Greyhound station in Birmingham. We were off to hunt swamp rabbits at a farm near Greenville Georgia, where a family friend had a pack of beagles. We didn't trust our cheap but treasured long guns to the luggage compartement and instead carried them in canvas sheaths onto the bus with us. We didn't think anything about it, and no one complained about the two boys with guns. Most of the hunts I went on weren't planned. Two or three of us would just get a parent to drop us off a few miles from town and we'd walk up rabbits and wild quail. If land wasn't posted or fenced, we figured it was ok to hunt, and, again, no one ever complained to us.

I guess DDT, predators and encroaching developments led to the demise of wild quail. And that's a shame. Walking up wild quail without dogs and the thrill when a covey flushed rank among my most treasured memories. I've considered a time or two going to Calloway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia to hunt quail. But I don't think I want to water down my memories of coveys, with shooting "planted" birds.

I'll shut up now, and listen.

I was born at the end of WW-II and grew up in the 50's. I feel very lucky to have experienced that time. It was a good time in America. I grew up in the country-- 5 miles from the nearest town. We had all the modern stuff I would need today: electricity, stove, refrigerator, indoor plumbing, and even TV (only 3 stations-- but even today with 100+, I'd still watch reruns of Rawhide, Have Gun Will Travel or Gunsmoke). A simpler time for sure: no cell phones, no i-Pod, no computers, no video games, etc.-- and we very, very rarely ever got bored. (You never, ever wanted tell your folks you had nothing to do, 'cause they would come up with all kinds of extra things that you HAD to do-- because there was already a pretty good list of things you HAD to do.) I was a really good kid. I wasn't inherently better than either of my older brothers, but I learned early what happened when you gave dad or mom any back talk. (I guess today they would call it child abuse)-- but I learned it was easier to just do it- it was so much easier, and they (parents) really were not all that demanding-- they just did not tolerate any lack of respect (for any adults).

Just about every boy I know over 12 (except those that lived "in town") had a .22 rifle and his own, or access to a, shotgun. No one ever shot anybody. Our family would go away for a weekend and not even lock the house. The garage full of tools and stuff did not even have a lock; nor did the barn where we kept the saddles and tack. I don't ever recall anything being taken by theft-- sometimes a neighbor might borrow something-- but you got it back. Even as a young boy (8-10), I'd tear out of the house on a summer morning and my mom would tell me to be home for supper; nine or ten hours later, I'd be home for supper. No questions; no worries.

I'm sure the decades before the 50's were nealy as good of time to grow up-- but probably a bit "harder". While we had guns and shot a lot, we did not have to hunt to eat. Even in the 50's I had couple of friends that did not have "running water' and electricity. By the mid to late 60's, the times were changing . . . the 60's were great, but there was loss of the simpler times that will never be known again.

As I've gotten older, no just plain old, I have remembered a lot of the things
you are bringing up. Remember sitting with my dad on Sunday nights watching
our special shows, Gun Smoke, Maverick, Have gun will travel, It was sort of
a date with dad .Remember playing with knives at school on the playground.
No one said a thing. Try that now.

In 1957 I took some guns to school to use for visual aids in a speech I had to
give for a final exam. Got permission from the principal. I can remember to this
day his answer, "I don't see anything wrong with it. "

Those were simpler times, You had a group of friends who had similar interest,
you ran together and never got into trouble. You found things to do and learned from those things.

I encourage everyone to try and introduce the youth of today to the outdoor
sports. My grandchildren love to fish and I enjoy just watching them . Am slowly introducing them to shooting.

Thanks to everyone.

Wildwillie

The 50's

I was in the forth grade in 1950-51 I believe. During the fall of the year I had 2 or 3 teachers that loved cottontail rabbits, but no way to get them. I used to carry dressed rabbits to school that I shot on the farm. They would give me 25 or 50 cents a piece for them. I always shot them with a .22, more often than not in the head, or if running through the ribs. The money bought me more shells. I remember all the mumbly peg games we had on the school yard, stretching each other out by sticking our pocket knives in the ground outside the other guy's foot. A well balanced pocket knife was a thing to treasure. I don't remember ever sticking anybody in the foot. Or seeing anybody else ever get stuck in the foot. Me and a buddy almost got in a heap of trouble when our Herter's Fox Scent that we used on our trap lines got somehow spilled outside the principal's office door. Whew! Was there a STINK over that! . We didn't take any more trap line scents to school to swap between our trap lines. VH man:

Cowboy Action Shooting

Just like the rest of you I grew up watching the old cowboy shows (well they wern't old then) & I lusted for a six shooter on my hip & a reason to draw it. And the lever action rifles used in all the cowboy movies set my young heart dreaming. But reality, being as it is, kept me from behaving like a cowboy. Immagine for a moment.."Hay Mom, can I have a Colt .44 sixgun & a real leather holster & a sawed off coach shotgun & maybe one of them lever action carbines like the Rifleman has?" ... And then the reply "Son are you crazy, now go to your room & forget that foolishness" Well what do you expect, a seven year old boy growing up in a row house in Baltimore Maryland. That was then & this is now. I'm 60 & just found SASS (Single Action Shooting Society) two years ago. These are a bunch of like minded old timers who grew up as I did & are now fuffilling thier dreams. Shooting at steel targets (which we believe to be real bad guys) for accuracy & speed in competition, dressed up like the cowboys of old in simulated cowboy towns. Some of the old timers are so feeble they wobble to the firing line but when they "slap leather" they are as quick as a teenager ( must be that muscle memory) Well Cowboy Action Shooting brought back my boyhood days & I can find no better way to spend my summer weekend afternoons then with my Posse...

Had to give up duck hunting several years back, but I am lucky. The dog died and I just got a little old.

Dad gave me a .22 single shot for Christmas when I was 11, and a 16 ga. bolt action when I was 13. I had had bb guns for years, so gun safety had already been drilled in me. The land all around the little town we lived in was open to us kids for hunting, so we worried the small game for years.

My wife and I drove to the area where I was raised several weeks ago. I think they have posted any land which is not in one of the numerous housing developments. The fields we used to play in or hunt quail in are now wooded, as there is no farming to speak of up there.

City folks have moved up there, and you don't get the flavor of the older generation now. Back then, if you showed up at someone's house at mealtime and did not eat, they were insulted. Today if you show up at mealtime, they are insulted.

Those over "39" of us were very lucky to grow up back then. If you want to shoot, today, you go to a range. I have no place to shoot the shotguns, and paper targets just don't hack it like acorns, tin cans, etc do for me.

Lots of memories in this thread. Thanks for starting it.

Well just let me share one more memory & then I'll take my nap. I was about 12 or 13, going to a private school in the city, & guns & hunting was not what my parents had in mind for me. But after school I would go down to the malt shop & read, Sports Affield, Guns & Ammo, etc. I was inspired. I took my hidden birthday money & walked about 6 miles to Montgomery Wards, they sold guns then, it was a simpler time. $49.95 later I walked out with a Mossberg 12ga. Poly Choke shotgun & thought I was king. No paperwork, no parent approval needed during those years. But then came the hard part. I needed to get myself & my new shotgun out to the country to hunt. Hmmm! The only transportation I knew was the bus. Saturday morning finally came it was still dark outside at the bus stop & here comes the bus, Hunting clothes on, 12 1/2 yrs old & a shotgun in my arms & I boarded the bus. It worked, the busdriver did not even flinch, the good folks on the bus just smiled & life was good. Let me see you try that.. now. Well coming home was another story but it's nap time now, maybe I'll tell you about it later.

Fellow mentioning the pocket knife made me remember my first. I had to be less than 10 when Dad gave me a single blade Barlow knife. Mom had a fit as someone had been killed with one of those years ago, and she was afraid for me to have it. They reached an agreement where I was not allowed to use his sharpening stones and that was that.

We did not have toys like the kids have today, so any toy was a treasure. The knife enabled me to make my own and was probably one of the best gifts I ever received.

I got around not having access to a sharpening stone by sharpening on the concrete stairs at school. One of the teachers saw my toys and decided I had carving talent. She bought me a chunk of chalk and encouraged me to make a carving. I don't think I ever carved the chalk. Little different now as knives are considered weapons and truly are to some kids. Times change. Back then they were keys to make sling shots, pluffers, toy boats, cars etc.

In later years I learned to carve minature decoys and such, but a stroke and heart attack took away my fine control of my hands and I had to give that up.