Who all's first gun was a single shot?

[Tdart]

Ithaca model 49 single shot 22. Still takes a ton of force to cock the thing! Don't know how I ever did it as a ten year old.

[floodgate]

A friend of my Dad's gave me a single-shot bolt action "Hardware Store" .22 LR - that he had won in a bar on a punch board (who remembers those?) about 1941 that got me started; my buddy Ted had a Winchester 02; he was pretty small so it fitted him OK. When he got bigger, his dad gave him a Remington 510 in 1946-7. We got a lot of use around the dump with these in those years, mostly with .22 "shorter-'n'-shorts" - which is what we called the .22 BB and CB caps that were all we could get in the WWII years.

Floodgate

"STAMP OUT VIOLENCE!!!"

[shredder]

Break action Cooey (Winchester) single shot 16 gauge shotgun. Got it when I was 15 and used it for many years. I shot quite a few ducks with that gun. I wish I still had it.

[aspangler]

Western Auto bolt action .410 for me, lots of rabbits ,quail , and pigeons fell to it. I hunted squirrels with Dad's Rem model 41.

You must be my long lost brother. Dad gave me a Mossburg bolt action single shot 410 from Western Auto when I was 12 for Christmas. It has accounted for 6 kids first kills now including two deer with slugs. Dad also had a Remington 41 Targetmaster that I have now. I've shot a lot of squirrels with that rifle. Brings back a lot of memories.

[fouronesix]

Single shot 16 ga Hopkins & Allen shotgun ca 1890-1900. Found it leaning against a tree when I was 9 years old. It'd been there awhile. Used it for all my earliest bird hunting. Still have it.

[Mk42gunner]

Savage-Springfield Model 120A for Christmas when I was ten. My older brother got the next sequential serial number. Still have them both.

I can't begin to count the sheer number of game animals that $33.00 rifle has gotten for me.

Robert

[supe47]

Mine was a Winchester Model 59 (variant of the 58) made between 1930-1931. I think only about 5000 were made. From Grampa to Dad and then to me. It's my only 22 cal rifle. Still very accurate.

[Forty Rod Ray]

Friends and neighbors, my first was a Winchester Model 36 9mm shotgun. A single shot bolt gun, at age 8, it moved me from retriever status in the dove field to shooter. The extractor was worn or broken so I not only the single shot to slow me down, I had to make use of a Dad made ramrod to remove the empty. I had many grownups come over to look at my muzzle loader. My very first kill was at a bird who lit in dead tree I was standing under.

Lesson 1- never ever shoot a lit bird, in a tree or on the ground.


Most grownups didn't realize that I had a real shotgun and almost everyone asked if my Dad was in the field. He was always a few yards away and usually answered. Some wanted to shoot it and were surprised at the little "poot" it made. Not much range, so fast, grey darters were safe. I picked up a couple, but honestly I feel that they fell to another's shot and not to mine. Funny what memories survive the years. I couldn't tell you who was there or what guns were there, but that first luckless mourning dove is as clear as the best B&L scope.

Thanks for listening to an old fool....

Warmest regards,

Ray

[Randy C]

Savage 22/410 over and under

[bigted]

the hardest kickin 12 gauge single from a coast to coast store and bought with my own hay money. crippled me for life and also hooked me for life.

[thekidd76]

Single shot H&R .410 when i turned 10.

[texassako]

Mine was a Remington single shot 20ga. The ones they imported from CBC. It has a 3" chamber which will really thump you in the little gun. I still have it.

[nagantguy]

iver Johnson champion .410. Great grandpas first, when I was born it was given to my dad to hold on to for me, use it every year still to hunt bunnies and doves at least once. was also the first gun I reblued and refinished the stock, looks mighty fine for the work of a 9 year old boy. I get emotional every time I take it out, so many memories, cried dad tears of pride and joy when my daughter shot it fer the first time!!!! makes me warm to think her kids will use it one day.

[oldred]

Another Winchester 67 here, got it back in'62 and fine old rifle it is!

[Marvin S]

H&R topper 410.

[Rangefinder]

OOPS--didn't look close enough. We're talking SHOTGUNS... Nope, first was a Mossberg pump.

[mazo kid]

Worked on my uncle's farm for $1.00 a day and board after my sophomore year of HS. That was '51, Took my first 2 weeks cash money, walked to the hardware store in my small home town and bought a Remington 511 (?) for $13.00. Still have that rifle and my grandson used it for hunter training three years ago.

[grumman581]

I think my first one was a .410 single shot shotgun. I probably killed more ducks with it than I have with any shotgun since then. Not sure if it was just that I liked the sights better or the fact that when you know that you only have a single shot, you are more likely to make it count. I do remember than as I got older and switched to a 16-gauge double barrel and eventually to a 12-gauge semi-auto, I ended up bringing home less ducks on each trip.

[kenyerian]

My grandfather started me out with a savage 503 double barrel in 16 guage that was my first gun . I was the youngest son and we had a lot of guns around and the first gun I shot was a 22 J. Stevens Crackshot 26 20" Single .22 . my first 22 was a JC Higgens bolt action with a 7 shot clip.
I didn't get a pistol until 1968 and bought a Ruger Single Six that I still have.

[colt1960]

My first was a H&R 12ga. topper. 1971 on sale at Kmart for $28.00. Mom and dad got it for me for christmas that year. 11 years old at the time. Wish I still had it. Rick!!