My Dad's .22 Rifle

[Watchdog]

My dad turned fifteen-years-old in May of 1930. The Great Depression had most of the country in a stranglehold. South Carolina was no exception.

He got up early every morning to get to the schoolhouse by 5:00 A.M. to fire up the furnace that heated the school. His teacher gave him $.05 a day to do this. That's five cents, y'all. A nickel. Consider the fact that in 1930, a loaf of bread would cost you $.09...so two day's work for dad would've bought the family a loaf of bread with a penny left over. After school, he had a part-time job sweeping up at a mill. Any of you older forum members from upstate South Carolina ought to know about Springs Mills in and around Lancaster. He got $.10 a day for that. A dime.

So dad had a combined income of $.75 a week. He gave $.50 of that to his parents to help with family expenses. Dad had three brothers and five sisters.

Dad had his eye on a gun. A pretty little .22 bolt action...a Stevens 66, sleek and deadly looking, all blued steel, chrome, and wood. Steel buttplate. I think he said the store wanted $11.00 for it. So you can do the math and figure up how long it took for dad to save up for his rifle. I think he may have got a bit impatient and maybe complained some, cause he told me his father gave him a dollar towards the purchase price. Probably in hopes of keeping him quiet for a while.

Anyway, dad got his rifle. It came with an adjustable aperture rear peep sight, and a hooded front sight with interchangeable sight posts. He used it to shoot squirrels and rabbits...all additions to the family's menu.

It's the gun I learned to shoot with. As a boy, I made an amateurish attempt at refinishing the stock and repairing a crack in the forend part of it with (sigh) plastic wood. It still has most of its original bluing. One of the screws for the trigger guard is missing. Some of the chrome has flaked off the bolt handle.

I'll take it out every now and then, fire off a few rounds for dad. It's very accurate. I imagine it'd still be deadly on squirrels, but I have no need to shoot squirrels now.

I may make some more photos of it, but this one will do for now, I think.

 

[mauser9]

Enjoyed the story immensely and am sure you are thrilled to still own Dad's rifle from the past. Love the build of those vintage 22s. This is a gun to be cherished for sure.

 

[TIMETRIPPER]

I love any old gun with a peep sight. We have a beat up old Stevens model 53 that I believe has the same style aperture sight. My dad got it by selling subscriptions for the old Grit Sunday magazine, back in the 1930's.
That rifle of yours is one fine example of a family heirloom gun. I'm sure you will enjoy it for many years.

John

 

[AZ2VET]

Thanks for sharing the story and the picture. Wish I had the story to go with my grandfathers rifle.

 

[16thVACav]

Inexpensive, yet priceless!

 

[mauser9]

Probably walnut and built like a tank back then. Very graceful looking rifle

 

[les.b]

That is a handsome rifle, and a beautiful story to go with it. Thank you for sharing with us. What a tribute to your father.....

Best Regards, Les

 

[Watchdog]

I love any old gun with a peep sight. We have a beat up old Stevens model 53 that I believe has the same style aperture sight.

John

It's kinda funny. A few years ago, I bought a Mossberg 930SPX 12-gauge semi-auto. One of those all black things. It came with a ghost ring rear sight.

And I remember thinking...ghost ring? It's a peep sight, fer cryin' out loud. I reckon "ghost ring" sounds more tacticool.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned.

 

[Watchdog]

Probably walnut and built like a tank back then. Very graceful looking rifle

At one time, when I was very young, the gun was malfunctioning. It would fire when you pressed the bolt handle home after chambering a new round.

I have vivid memories of dad and I going to this old gunsmith's shop...the man's last name was Lacy. The place had wooden floors and the smell of steel (yes, old gun steel has its own special smell), wood, oil, and solvent permeated the entire shop. The shop was filled with strange (to me) machines and racks of guns; benches with guns in different stages of repair. Mr. Lacy fixed it, I don't remember what he did to it. He kept it a few days. But it was as good as new, and still functions just fine today.

Mr. Lacy and his shop are long gone now, of course. The old building is still there, though, and is now a trendy bar/restaurant.

 

[catadjuster]

What a great old rifle - thanks for the story

 

[Watchdog]

From the Catalog

I found this online. This is dad's rifle.

Although the rifles are referred to in the catalogs as the 066, or sometimes just the Stevens 66, the rifles are actually rollmarked Model 66.

I saw an explanation for this somewhere, but can't remember where...now I can't find it again.

The stock, by the way, is held on by a single turn screw on the bottom of the forend part of the stock.

Anyway...

 

[silentflyer]

One of those "not for sale at any price guns", hopefully you have someone in your family to pass it on too who will appreciate what it stands keeps it in the family when they are done with it.
My brother and I have our grandfathers and Dads guns, never to be sold if we can keep it that way.

After you are gone you have no real control, but hopefully we have helped foster a tradition in the family tree..

 

[Watchdog]

One of those "not for sale at any price guns", hopefully you have someone in your family to pass it on too who will appreciate what it stands keeps it in the family when they are done with it.

You are correct. You can't put a price on priceless, even though the gun isn't a collector's item by any stretch of the imagination.

That said, the future of my father's guns is assured for long after I'm gone.

 

[DWalt]

My dad's 22 was very similar, a Stevens 83. Much like the 66 but it was a single shot bolt action. You had to manually cock it for each shot by pulling back a knob on the rear of the bolt which was a pretty good safety feature for use by a kid. It was the first .22 rifle I ever shot. I do not know the circumstances under which he bought it, except it was back during the Great Depression. The only other gun he owned was an ancient H&R break-open single shot 12 gauge. Back when I was a kid, we had a flock of chickens and they ran around pretty much free in the yard. We lived sort of out in the country where people did that. I guess you would call them "free range" today. When we needed one for Sunday dinner, he would take that .22 and shoot the head off of a chicken while standing on the back porch. He didn't like the idea of catching a chicken and chopping off its head with a hatchet. The range was usually less than 50 feet and he didn't miss often. After my dad and mom died back in the 1980s, I had someone come in and auction off everything in their house, including those two guns. I wish now I had kept at least one of them.