My very first handgun

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
 
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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
 
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.
 
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....
 
cmj8591 said:
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!
Click to expand...

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
 
Great story!

Got my 1st gun when I was 10. A single shot, Ithaca .22 lever gun. Beer not included.
 
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.
 
Sevens said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
 
Dirty Bert said:
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....
Click to expand...
Holy crow! This... in CANADA? :eek: Shooting a handgun IN THE DUMP? :eek::eek: "Think of the children", etc., etc. (Insert several "hand-wringing" emoticons here.):eek:

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.
 
cmj8591 said:
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
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