This is the story of my very first handgun.
I was turning 14 and my Dad asked me what I wanted for a birthday gift.
A real handgun I replied! I had a few bb and pellet guns plus a 22 LR single shot, but nothing fancy. To my surprise Dad bought me a Smith and Wesson 17-3 Masterpiece in 22LR! It was awesome. That night my Uncle Jack and my cousin came over to check out my new S/W.
Well we had to try it, right?
We drove to the local small town dump in two cars. My Dad had a 1969 Mercury Marquis two door in a silver green color with a black vinyl top. If I remember right it had a 429 under the hood.A very cool car I think.
Anyways once we got to the dump its was dark out so my Dad and my Uncle both parked their cars facing the garage with the lights on. Back then you just pulled out the light switch to turn on the headlights and the high beam switch was on the floor (foot controled). I had my new 22 revolver all loaded and ready to try. My cousin had a 410 single shot. Then Dad and Uncle pulled the switch to turn the headlights on and there were all these rats running for cover! Can't say I got one but I sure had fun.
My Uncle gave me a beer afterwards. A Labatt 50! Yum. This was one of the greatest days of my younger life. I still have the revolver and take good care of the old girl. These days when ever I'm shooting at rats with a 22, 12 gauge or even a 454C I think back to that special day.

Attached Images

	20220106_122359.jpg (83.4 KB, 389 views)
	20220106_122417.jpg (71.5 KB, 290 views)

Beautiful gun, and great story,

__________________
A Future and A Hope.

Very nice!

great story thanks for shareing

If you gave your 14 year old a gun in this day, youth services would take him away from you and the cops would charge you with a crime!

Love the story! My first handgun was also a Model 17, but I’m a little younger than you, I was 16 and it was 1988 and the revolver was a 17-6. The most shocked I’ve ever been by a gift! First Christmas after my Dad had passed away months earlier, present from Mom, she got me started right!

Bah, maybe fun to say but miles from the truth. I gave my daughter a Ruger SR-22 for her 9th birthday and she’s 18 now, so it wasn’t all that long ago.

Your Dad is a class act. Nice M17, great story. 👍

Great gun and even better story, I was twelve when I got my first gun but I didn’t get a beer till I was sixteen, I think we ended up pretty even.
Ted

Wonderful story. These are what make firearms so interesting.

__________________
I am a sheep dog!
1601 (ret)

Man, I like that story a lot. Cool gun and you have a very cool family.

Great story and the dump trip brought back some memories. When I was about that age (13/14) we use to shoot rats in the daylight at the open dump; in those days in Vermont, and elsewhere I suspect, open dumps existed in many smaller towns. I didn't get a new M17 and had to settle for a Winchester 69A which I bought with lawn mowing money; still have it, maybe the best $32 I ever spent.

When we hit 16 and could drive we did the night dump thing; line up a couple cars towards the dump, wait 15 minutes until we could hear the rustling of the cans/trash and then pull on the headlights. And blast away with whatever we had. Sounds a little weird I suppose but in those days you had to make your own fun and get it where you could.

Jeff
SWCA #1457

Awesome first gun, and a great story!

Thanks everyone for your kind words. Those were different times! As kids we would take our 22 ss rifles on our bikes to go shoot in the fields. Try that today and a helicopter will pay you a visit.

Did you live in Canada when this took place?

Great story and a fine looking revolver to go with it.

Good to hear you still have it. I don't have the first gun I shot (stolen when I was a kid) nor the first one I bought with my own money (traded away for something better). Trying to hang on to those kinds of guns for my kids...

__________________
Psalm 27:2

My younger son started shooting when he was 7 and used my guns all the time. He was getting good at trap and also good with my Super Blackhawk with 44 Specials and on occasion full magnums. Years later when I asked him what he wanted for his 14th birthday he said he wanted a gun of his own so I bought him a Ruger 10-22, a Remington 1100 Skeet along with a trap barrel, a slug barrel , and a model 63. He took to the 63 like wildfire and is very good with it. He still has all these guns today and at his age of almost 54 none of them are for sale.

No we moved to Canada years later. My Dad was an American citizen and my Mom was a Canadian.

That is an awesome story, and a sweet Model 17. Thanks for sharing.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

Excellent post, Bert! The Model 17 is a timeless classic. I don't know of anyone who has one that doesn't consider it a vital part of their collection.
By the way, After reading your story, I immediately thought that "This guy has a future here on the Forum!" Hope you'll stick around and participate for a long time to come.

Nothing beats a good Rat Killing for having fun !

Your post put a smile on my face ... Thanks !
I almost forot about the Rat Killings we used to have .
Gary

__________________
Certified Cajun
NRA Member

Great story, DB. I was quite a bit older when I first laid hands on a revolver. It was in Vietnam when I was stationed there, Smith & Wesson 4" model 15. I was finally able to replicate it a few years ago.

WR

__________________
God, Country, Family

Great memories with your father. My dad was a WWII veteran sergeant in Italy and N. Africa from 1942 until the end of the war in 1945 in the Army Air Corps. He wanted nothing to do with guns of any type all of his life after that (he died in 1982 at 62 years old of cancer). He probably saw a lot of death. He never would talk about the war. I don't remember when I first got the addiction to handguns, but at least it is getting less as time goes by. I am 68 and could not list all the handguns, rifles, and shotguns that I have had over the past 50 years; it would be a very long list. I am down to 9 handguns and one shotgun now, and they are all I need to do what little shooting I have done for the past few years. Great to hear a story like that.

And if you gave him a beer you might go to jail!

So much has changed, we drank water from a hose, ran around barefoot,
no helmet on our bikes, cars didn't have seatbelts (pre1964)
And Dad took me shooting when I was about 8, gave me his 22 Remington Model 341
bolt action @ 10 yrs (1958)... Yeah, times have changed. BUT !

I still have the Remington, still go barefoot, and drink from hose if I'm really thirsty and outside....

Two years ago I gave my then 5 yr. old great grandson a .22 rifle. He is not allowed to carry it when we go to town but he carries it around the homestead when I'm with him. His most favorite target is aerosol cans. Larry

Brought a tear to my eye. Look for this in thread in the Ampersand. Welcome to the forum.

__________________
Dave

Maybe on the right coast, aka the Commie coast. Home of Leftist twits.

Great story!

Got my 1st gun when I was 10. A single shot, Ithaca .22 lever gun. Beer not included.

Great story, thanks...your dad and uncle sound like great guys.

This story reminds me of my trash dump, rat killing, back in 1981, and my
very last gun out the 11 which had met with a natural disaster, divorce.
I had a Nylon 66 and a Dodge Ramcharger which had become my
mobile home. Sitting there at the garbage dump shooting rats under the
headlights just like you were.
It got to be about 1:AM and a car pulled up beside me. The Sheriffs
Deputies got out on each side of my Ramcharger and ask me what I was
doing and I told them shooting rats and they asked me to show them.
I turned on the headlights and rats ran everywhere.
They ended up using my rifle to shoot them and listened to my story
about the mobile Ramcharger as a home.
They didn't run me in or search the vehicle, they just shot rats with me
and then left.
We still have the same type officers here, just more careful of course
but and I have my own shooting range now even have some officers
come here to practice once in a while.
Junkpiles can make memories.

This story reminds me of the first time I brought my significant other shooting (we we were dating at the time). I brought a Winchester model 61 pump 22 and a few other guns to shoot. After I set up some targets that included 15 shotgun shells set up about 10 yards away I asked what gun she wanted to shoot and she immediately grabbed the 61, loaded it up and proceeded to wipe out the shotgun shells one by one not missing once in less than a minute. Since I obviously looked surprised she explained she used to go to the local dump with her dad to shoot rats several times a month with his 61 pump when she was in her teens. She said they were always quick and far away so she had to learn how to shoot fast and well to hit them.

It's a bit of hyperbole for sure but it's not completely untrue. The ruling elite here and their minions don't like guns and worse, like to dictate how people raise their children. I belong to a gun club that has a very active junior rifle team that shoots all over the country but as a general rule, kids around here don't get a lot of positive exposure to firearms. A lot of that comes from urban sprawl taking over and convenient places to shoot and hunt disappearing. I can't think of anywhere around me where I used to shoot as a kid that hasn't been developed. Heck, I used to shoot my 22 in my back yard where I grew up. There's a trailer park there now. Add that to a lack of support from anyone in the youth community and there's just not a huge amount of interest in getting kids involved in the shooting sports. I feel sad for them.

Great memory, great revolver!

__________________
Chief

Same here, re rats in the mid-1950s, but at a local beef farmer's barn whose rats were eating his feed corn. We strung a chicken wire "fence" around the rat exit door and with car headlights on as the barn lights were turned on, that resulted in piles of rats. Many more inside ... great fun shooting them as they ran along the feeding toughs. We used a mix of shotguns and .22s. Great sport about once a month. The farmer always appreciated the huge pile of dead rats we left as evidence of our work, often more than 100. Pretty good safety discipline, considering we were 15-16 years old.
It all came to an end when we invited our high school English teacher to join us one night. He brought a full-auto M1 Carbine and, in his dumb a** excitement, he managed to put a hole in the farmer's tractor's oil pan.

Holy crow! This... in CANADA? Shooting a handgun IN THE DUMP? "Think of the children", etc., etc. (Insert several "hand-wringing" emoticons here.)

Well, that was back before we went all weak-kneed and wibbly about such things. To even suggest such clearly dangerous goings-on today would have the RCMP at your door with a warrant for your - and your dad's - arrest!

Probably around the same time (c.1965 for me) I remember a school friend's dad had a big UNLOCKED glass cabinet full of handguns and I remember Tony & I fondling a 1911. In retrospect, that was irresponsible of his dad, but amazingly I am still here, and quite likely Tony is as well.

We have gone way over the top in present days. I went to high school in farm country over 60 years ago and we would often hunt before and after school and even got time off for hunting in addition to time off for planting and harvesting. Our school principal did not allow us to keep guns and ammo in our cars,(which were old junkers) on the parking lot. He told us to bring them into the school and lock them in our lockers for safe keeping. I also had a shop project which was refinishing my first real gun- -a Mauser Model 95 7mm carbine. The shop teacher liked the way it came out and brought in his 03-A3 and we refinished that one too. I shake my head trying to figure out what happened to make today such a mess.

I live in MA as well and have for most of my life. Back in the day (1970's) my cousin and I would spend many a Saturday at the local sandlot shooting our Marlin 39A's and my S&W 18. Seems like every kid had a .22. Now all of our shooting spots are housing developments or shopping malls. Now we need to drive to our gun club in order to exercise our firearms. It's no wonder todays youth don't seem to have the interest in shooting that we did.

Where there are often still shootings, unfortunately

My gosh Dirty Bert kept that thing in mint condition! Hardly has a turn line. A typical, good story to go with it. I bought my first handgun when I was 14. I had worked and saved until I had enough money for a Model 17 S&W.
When we went to the gun store, they also had a new Ruger Standard Auto. The S&W was $80, the Ruger half that. Dad said to get the Ruger and have more money for ammo so that is what I did. I still have the Ruger and I carried it a lot the first 10 years I had it. It was great for shooting rabbits from the corn picker. About 10 years later I finally got a model 17.

That's awesome!

Welcome to the group! Great story and memories of less complicated times. My first handgun was also a M17...do not remember the engineering change, but assume it was a -3 since it was purchased new in 1971. I could not shoot it accurately (pretty sure it was me and not the gun) and swapped it even for a Ruger Target Model Pistol which was more accurate for me. I have since replaced the M17 in my collection and shoot it well...just wish I had that "First One."

Love the story. The best part for me is the family aspect. Your uncle and cousin come over to try out your new gun. Your dad takes you to the dump even though it’s getting dark. Now that is a family. Not to many stories out there like this now. Thanks for sharing and count your blessings.

All you needed was a cigarette too, and you would, have had all three---- Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms!
Your Dad and Uncle Rocked!!

GREAT story!!

My standard response to that kind of emotional pabulum is, If even one child's life could be saved, shouldn't everyone be armed?


It never gets old.

__________________
Chris S.
Fort Lauderdale, FL

Ive been practicing with it for more than a few years and am finally getting the hang of it! Lol. It shoots very accurately. Pretty much the only wear on it is the cylinder face from cleaning stuck on lead built up. What a pain that is.

I too got my first handgun at age 14 in 1990- a pre-war Enfield DAO .38. It's purpose was serious, as we were in the midst of a mountain lion population explosion in the area of our mountain property. It was lots of use over the next 8 years or so, on duty for innumerable hikes, backpacking and camping trips. Still have it to this day.

My first was a Colt Cobra for off duty in ’68 @ $85, still have it.

__________________
Old Cop
LEO (Ret.)