Kid with a gun

[bettis1]

You've got to be careful starting young boys too soon with guns! Never know where it will lead them.

My brother just sent this picture to me. It shows me with an old Stevens .410 at approximately age 7 or 8. (Probably taken in the early 1940's)

My dad made a scabbard for it and we carried it on our saddles to shoot rattlesnakes. I always had the feeling that the horse's hooves were at more risk than the snakes.

I've often wondered what happened to it but my brother told me that our dad traded it to an old time gun collector for a large mounted board of Indian arrowheads. My brother still has that board of arrowheads in his study...his gain, my loss.

Bob

 

[bettis1]

You've got to be careful starting young boys too soon with guns! Never know where it will lead them.

My brother just sent this picture to me. It shows me with an old Stevens .410 at approximately age 7 or 8. (Probably taken in the early 1940's)

My dad made a scabbard for it and we carried it on our saddles to shoot rattlesnakes. I always had the feeling that the horse's hooves were at more risk than the snakes.

I've often wondered what happened to it but my brother told me that our dad traded it to an old time gun collector for a large mounted board of Indian arrowheads. My brother still has that board of arrowheads in his study...his gain, my loss.

Bob

 

[Bassamatic]

I think I would negotiate with the brother a bit on that one!

Pictures in the old days are funny things. I would have been about your age in the picture around 1957 and although I never left the house without a BB gun or my .22, I have never found a picture of me with a gun until my early teenage years.

What the hell were my parents thinking?? Well, we really didn't have the availability of cameras back then that we do now.

 

[s&wchad]

Great photo. You're probably safe posting it now, I'm sure the statute of limitations on short barreled shotguns has run out!

 

[moolan1]

Hey keith44spl! I take it that's your boy in the picture,what a great photo! What is that he's holdin? Somethin to eat? Does my heart good to see a kid havin fun with a gun. When I was comin up,I rarely got to shoot at all and I've loved guns and shooting always! Now I'm 57 with 5 grandyoungins.Alex is my oldest,16 now,reminds me of me.He's all about gun shows and shootin!Now he's MY sidekick.Found a good deal on a little savage mkII 22 with a black composite stock and got it for him.I mounted a bsa 3x9x50 on it,now he thinks he's really hot stuff!Got it dialed in the other day and he could'nt wait to show his dad,a police officer, the tight groups on his targets."Bet I'm better than you"he tells his dad."Oh really?"says dad.I see a shootoff in the near future,I wish I could"ve done that with my dad!I'll let you know how it comes out. Jim

 

[Wheelgunner840]

Bettis1,

Great old picture. I have a question though. Was there a stock on that gun, or was it cut down to just a pistol grip. I can't see it in the photo. Thin stock hidden behind your arm maybe?

Those are some fine lookin' grandchildren you got there Dave!

WG840

 

[bettis1]

Great young'uns, Dave. You can high jack my thread any time to show pictures of those boys.


Wheelgunner,

There was no stock other than the pistol grip. It was called the Stevens Off-hand Shotgun or Stevens Auto-shot. Mine had a 12" barrel. It would now be classified in the "Any Other Weapon" category by the BATF and have to be registered. Of course, 7 year old boys out in West Texas during the middle of WWII could have cared less what future laws the bureaucrats were going to come up with. (Probably still do

)

Bob

 

[JoeR]

Yeah, some even grow up after touching an evil gun.

My son Gabe on a South Dakota doggin trip back in June of 03.

Joe

 

[Guest]

Bob;

I purchased my first & second Handguns before I was 21 and even managed to "Smuggle" the Model 10-5 back into the Country - with the blessings of my CO and finally the US Customs people but only after they hung on to it for 90 days or so.

I also toted a .22 rifle to school when I was in the fifth grade. I walked the two blocks to school and then walked the two miles home again; all with the blessings of my Grandfather and not known by my Mother or Grandmother. The game I shot went to a few of the neighbors widows and others because if it had made it all the way 'home' the jig would have been up for sure!

My box of ammo sat in the Teachers' desk while I was in class and the policy was that if you didn't behave yourself you didn't get your ammo back at the end of the day!

The times they do change. Now days there isn't a single place to shoot, except on a 'certified' Range, anywhere West of the Cascades summit in King County.

 

[bettis1]

Mike,

That true. It was pretty common for boys to ride the school bus in from the ranches with their rifles. At school the guns would be stood in the back of the room until after class and then the rabbit or coon hunts would start.

Wonder what kind of SWAT response that would stimulate now. I 'spect your family would see your name on the evening news!

Bob

 

[Guest]

Bob;

Yep, things have changed. Just a few years ago a grade schooler got tossed out of school for bringing the pistol for his 'GI Joe' to school with him!!! As far as the school board was concerned a gun is a gun is a gun - now that's an education system for you.

I did have to do a bit of education work just yesterday when I had to explain that a box of Nosler Bullets wasn't 'Ammunition' and thus the Company policy about "No Returns on Ammunition" didn't really apply. Now, the Store Manager did require the Ammo Department Head count the whole box before I could get a refund!!! I've done enough business with 'him' that he simply asked if I had used any of them and he took my word for the fact that I hadn't. Now, I suppose the fact that 'he' might have attended the same "kind" of grade school I had, just might have had something to do with it.

 

[bettis1]

Just to show that I wasn't the only "gun nut" in the family, here is my younger brother practicing his "Right Shoulder Arms" at about age 6.

Bob

 

[Smitty500Mag]

I was still a little to young to have a real gun here here but I was practicing anyway. I see a shadow of my Grandpa at the bottom right of the photo. I think that was on Christmas Day in 1953. Can't hardly read the date at the top.

Smitty

 

[oldfella]

Yes, Kids can be a danger to themselves and others without meaning to be. I used to make muzzle loaders out 1/2" water pipe, and "duel" with my younger cousin each behind a tree at about 30 feet

 

[Smitty500Mag]

Originally posted by oldfella:
Yes, Kids can be a danger to themselves and others without meaning to be. I used to make muzzle loaders out 1/2" water pipe, and "duel" with my younger cousin each behind a tree at about 30 feet

Yep we used to make rocket launchers using a piece of pipe that the inside diameter of the pipe just fit a D cell battery. We'd put an M-80 fire cracker or a cherry bomb (back when cherry bombs were really cherry bombs) in the end of the pipe with the fuse sticking out of a small hole in the side of the pipe, then put a cap on the end of the pipe, then drop a D cell battery down the other end of the pipe and KAR-BOOOOOM! That sucker would fire the battery clean out of sight.!!!

If Granny knew what we were doing she'd have killed us. The good thing about Granny though was she wouldn't rat on you to the higher ups.

Smitty

 

[bettis1]

Smitty, it's strange how kids seem to have parallel lives. We used to make the same type of pipe mortars with cherry bombs except we didn't have any batteries. We sure had a lot of corn cobs though and we'd fire them up into the hay loft of my grandfather's barn. Never gave a thought to the fact that we could easily have burned that old structure down in an instant.

Bob

 

[Mickey D]

Originally posted by JoeR:

I hope those huge ants don't come out and fetch that kid down the hole!

 

[moolan1]

To KKG. Hi. I picked up on what you said about the Cascades mtn. range and King co. I was born and raised in Kitsap Co.in Bremerton.I lived near Kitsap lake,in short walking distance from the public boat ramp.I'll bet you know where that is,don't ya? My folks,now in their 80's,still live there.I live in S.Carolina with my family.I like the weather down here better if ya get my meanin.Them are some GREAT pictures of the kids,are'nt they?Can't wait to get my camera hooked up where I can send some of my own!Have fun guys! Jim

 

[Guest]

Jim; Yep, I've spent some time over there and I'm looking forward to The Bride retiring in a couple of Years - I've been retired(medically) for some time now - so we can get out of this Humidity and move South away from all these Liberals who have taken over this part of the Country.

 

[moolan1]

To KKG again. Definately a different kind of people down here.I'm lookin to retire out on a medical myself,soon I'm thinking.We live in the Charleston S.C. area,over 30 yrs.now.The V.A. hosp.here is great!I've had to use them an awful lot,57 now and all busted up.You may wanna consider this area if you gotta go to the V.A.regularlly,can't beat the care they give there!Good luck to you!Jim