Your first rifle. Where is it now?

[robmcleod82]

Ill also go with my first hunting rifle. One of my best friends uncles had gone blind in his right eye and had to start shooting left handed which left his old faithful tang safety Ruger 77 in the Lords caliber available so I snagged it with a leupold fixed 6 heavy duplex for the sum of $450 Canadian pesos. This rifle was a great learning platform for me in my gunsmithing adventures. It was the second rifle I ever chambered a barrel for of course in a 300wm again. After the new barrel I learned how to adjust the trigger, and check the ring alignment and lap the rings and install the new fx3 scope. I then fit my first composite stock on it by a company called wildcat stocks and learned how to bed, paint and fit a recoil pad. I went on to kill a pile of whitetail with it for the next bunch of years. It ended up sitting for a few years without getting used and I had a friend at work that had recently immigrated from England and was getting into hunting and was in need of a rifle. I gave it a new cerakote job and sold it to him for $650 Canadian pesos and he is still hunting with it til this day.

 

[ctpritt]

Ruger 10/22 my dad gave me in 1979- with some crappy weaver scope. Sitting in my safe with 45 years worth of more poor decision making.

 

[bigal4272]

Mine is a hand me down .30.30 Winchester model 94. My grandpa ordered it from the Sears & Roebuck catalog way back in the day. Killed my first elk with it when I was 12. It’ll belong to my son someday, the kid shoots it like he was born with it in his hands. It’s fun to watch.

 

[aenglehardt1]

Remington Scoremaster bolt action 22LR, no clip provided so had to hand feed individual cartridges. Grandpa would pick me up from school, give me a handful of cartridges and tell me to be back to the barn by dark.

Before he passed he gave me his Belgian browning 12 gauge, M1 garand, favorite 243, and 1894 Winchester but the old reliable Remington 22 was sadly lost to history or the pilfering hands of my relatives

 

[johnmaskell1986]

I had a brno mod 2 in .22.
I actually gifted it to a youngster when i was upgrading it.

 

[wburns]

My 1st rifle was a no.4 Remington rolling block 22. It sits in my safe.

 

[chris_lees]

First rifle was a Tikka T3. Still have it in my safe. Still shoots sub MoA groups a few thousands of rounds later, same factory barrel. Still stalking with with it too.
First shotgun was a fabarm side by side, also still in my safe and still gets used on driven days in my plus 4s and flat cap!

 

[cerowe3]

My first rifle was a Browning 22 lever action, given to me by my Dad ages ago. Spent a lot of time plinking away with it on my grandparents' farm. It has a good home now, passed it down to my nephew, but I miss it. After many higher-powered toys, I bought a Henry 22 a couple of years ago just to get that feeling back.

 

[grieggsy]

My first rifle was a Remington 710 in 30-06 with a Bushnell scope. Still have it in the gun cabinet. My parents got it for my birthday when I was 12 which is when you can start hunting in PA at the time. It was ~$300 which was a big chunk of money for my parents but my dad made it happen. He took me to go pick it out. I remember him telling me he didn't care what I got as long it was a 308. 270, or 30-06 so we could find ammo easily enough in our little town.

 

[walton1219]

First rifle was a Springfield 22-250. I was 8 or 10 when my Dad got it for me for Christmas. I beat the absolute piss out of that gun for years. Finally the bolt on it broke when a bunch of us were out shooting prairie dogs. Got it fixed for $100 but the poor gun never was the same. It sits nicely in the safe with all the memories of dead critters I took with it in my youth.

 

[deadeyejunior]

Like @Tony Caggiano I grew up in a shotgun only zone outside of Detroit. I didn't own a centerfire rifle until I was 17-18yrs old.

When I was 12 I recieved a Browning BPS 12ga 28" with an extra Hasting slug barrel from Santa. Shot that gun thousands of times on everything. Upgraded to a Beretta auto when I was 21.

34 years later(Last fall) I pulled out the old Browning and shot some doves with it for nostalgia reasons.


My first centerfire was a sporterized Mauser 98 in 8x57 with a Curly maple stock, a gift from a family friend. Still have it too but rebarreled it to 6.5x55.

 

[raymizejr1232]

Remington SPR100 4/10. Hasn't came out of the case much other than to kill a couple of snakes. I'll hopefully give it to a son one day!

 

[andyhaggerty]

My first rifle was Parker hale .303, sold it a few years ago, regret it selling it now.

 

[kleinermatthew]

My first rifle was a .35 Remington lever action and I still have it. I shot my first deer with it back in the 90s. It is a rare caliber now and tough to find ammo.

I’m looking for a Marlin in 35-REM there’s a bunch out there. I keep coming across ammo for it just 1-2 manufacturers for it though. My first gun was a Marlin 336 30-30

 

[mteague90]

My first rifle was a crosman 2100 pellet gun. I was 10 years old when my grandfather bought me it. Still remember taking it out of the box, and the smell of the oil in it of course.

I spent many hours in the summers pounding BBs into the side of his shed in New Jersey, shooting at whatever I could staple to the side of it. Sometimes they bounced back. Sometimes they found soft targets… which happenned to have wings.

Then I took it apart, and couldn’t figure out how to put it back together. It would take a few years for me to pick it up again and manage to reassemble it.

Eventually my uncle wanted to borrow it. He was living in the same house in New Jersey. My grandfather was long gone. He said he had some pests to take care of, so I lent it to him.

Not long after that hurricane Irene hit. Of course he got everything he owned into the attic of the house, but the rifle was left underwater downstairs.

I still have it to this day. It looks as bad as you could imagine after spending a week or two in saltwater. Looking at it, someone might see a rusty old airgun of no value, but to me it’s a reminder of an important milestone in my youth, and also why you shouldn’t loan people your gun.

 

[jamac87]

My first rifle my dad got me was the classic ruger 10/22 then a Remington 12Ga, but the most important was the one I bought for myself and that was a Remington made Marlin 1895 SBL. Not going to lie the movie Wind River sold me on the Marlin. Sits in my secure it locker but may go on the wall because I’d rather look at my rifles to use till them than have them locked away.

 

[JRQ]

My old man gave me a Remington single shot .22 when I was 5 years old. The bolt mechanism was too hard for me to pull back with my hand, so I would clamp my teeth on the bolt and pull the gun away from me with both arms. The gun is in my closet and I use it to snipe at crows from the house. The gun was also a muse for a Halloween story I wrote for FE a couple of years ago:

“He Knows”

 

[richmanzer]

Marlin Model 60 .22lr was technically my first rifle. Original fell victim to poor decisions as a kid, but I bought a used replacement as an adult. My first high powered rifle is a Remington 788 in .223, that I bought in 8th grade, which is in one of my safes and I'll never part with it.

 

[josephpbaker]

Remington 870 junior express 20 gauge when I was 10. I broke it in and a dozen kids of the families of our hunting club members got their first dear, duck, or goose with it. Now my son shoots it with his sisters in the wings waiting to get a crack.

 

[chedo398]

The first rifle I bought was in 1969, mail ordered it, I was in 9th grade. It was a Remington model 788 in .243, I paid $49 for it from Parker Brothers in New Rochelle NY. It was a tack driver; I still have that rifle and will never get rid of it.