[WaltGraham]

I was inspecting and cleaning some iron last night and uncased the M-49 Ithaca .22 rifle that was my first real firearm. Haven't eyeballed it in a while - might do some plinking with it this weekend. Just curious as to how the rest of y'all on the board made your initial foray into the gun world.

 

[Fernando Coelho]

My first "real gun" was a Colt AR-15 with the triangular handguard and pre forward assist. That was circa 1982. Prior to that I lived in the city, keeping me from anything greater than an air rifle.

 

[SpecialEd]

I lived in the burbs in a non-gun household. I was never allowed to have an airgun even. I bought a bunch of air guns and a mini cross bow when I was in my late teens. When I was 21 and just got out of the hospital after breaking my back in a car accident I bought a Ruger 10/22 and a MKII pistol. Soon after that I picked up a Walther P-38 and a PPK/s (being a history buff). This was while still living in the same house with my parents. I told them. "I have some guns, the ammo is locked up and the grand kids won't be able to get to them." They never said anything one way or the other. Now my parents have retired to a log home in VA and my father has a .22 pistol and a shotgun.

Ed

 

[csmkersh]

The first gun I bought (1955) was a .25ACP which was traded back to the same dealer the following week and replaced with a S&W M37 Airweight. I've owned a J-frame on one type or another ever since. My third purchase was a Marlin 39 follwed by a High Standard, probably a Field King since it had adjustable sights and a 6+ inch bull barrel. My next handgun as a rack .45 "loaned" to me by an uncle with the same first name. :?

I've been forced to abandon the "one gun a month" program and enroll in the one gun a year program. I'm now 68. :roll:

 

[SpecialEd]

Nice stocks

Sam your snubbies have some interesting stocks. The one at the 7:00 position has a particularly nice molded wood stock but how are they for concealment purposes? Also the two up at the 11:00 positon what are they? Half wood stocks with the metal frame showing?

Ed

 

[csmkersh]

The one a seven O'clock is a S&W 640-1 .357 and factory stocks. They're not the ones that came on it but I found them on Ajax's web page. I normally carry it either without a holster in front of my hip bone (gangsta style) or with the Sparks Summer Special II shown in the pic behind the hip bone. If I'm over in NM or AZ, I stick it in a Biyanqi No. 5 I've had for 30 years and open carry.

The two up at 11 O'clock are car/truck guns. The outside one is an old style Colt Detective Special with Tyler-T grip adapter and bobbed hammer. The inside one is a S&W M36, also with a bobbed hammer and Tyler grips. Both have factory wood grips. The Tyler Ts grip adapters aren't seen often, but I sure like them.

What appears to be a Model 60 at 5 O'clock is really another S&W M36 with a Nitex finish.

 

[SpecialEd]

Nice! Now how about a picture of your .45's :lol:

 

[JRWnTN]

The two up at 11 O'clock are car/truck guns. The outside one is an old style Colt Detective Special with Tyler-T grip adapter and bobbed hammer. The inside one is a S&W M36, also with a bobbed hammer and Tyler grips.

Ever have misfires due to the lightened hammers?

 

[csmkersh]

Well, Ed, since you asked...
[IMG=left]http://home.earthlink.net/~csmkersh/images/Colt.jpg[/IMG]
This one I bought when I made SSGT(E6) mumble years ago. Paid $105 and no tax. It stayed box stock for 30 plus years except for the Herrett Shooting Stars grips. Then, about 1997, I said what the heck with it, added the ambi saftey myself along with a full length guide rod but farmed out the grip safety, tritium sights, hammer, sear and trigger to my 'smith. I've since removed the full length rod and re-installed the one Browning thought it needed.

[IMG=left]http://home.earthlink.net/~csmkersh/images/Kimber.jpg[/IMG]
This was a replacement for a Springfield V-10 I no longer own. You may have seen CP and my comments about compensated carry guns. I learn, but not always without blundering first.

I've given away a Colt Gold Cup and a brand "X" bulit at home (Vesper frame) to one son and a SIG P220 to another.

No, JR, no mis-fires. I didn't lighten the spring in the Colt but did install a set of Wolfe springs in the Smith. I then loaded some empty cases with small rifle primers and checked for just that. I've fed them both Fereral HydraShoks or Nyclads and they never miss a beat. Wouldn't carry them it they did.

 

[jar]

My first foray was when I was probably in 2nd. or 3rd grade and it was my Dads 1911 that followed him home. I was still young enough for Show-n-Tell to be a big thing and so took it to school.

 

[SpecialEd]

Really nice Sam, I like your style. Does that second one have a Roguard finnish?

Ed

 

[csmkersh]

No, Ed, that's the Custom Shop Kimber finish. The slide is stainless and has a matte finish and the alloy frame has something simular to a Robar finish but or it may just be blue anodized, I don't know.

 

[WaltGraham]

I like those Herrett stocks, Sam - that Kimber looks like a compact CDP...

 

[csmkersh]

Thanks, Walt. I don't know if Herrett is still a business. I believe he died about 4-5 years back. I boght the Colt on 1968 and put the Herrett grips on a couple of years later, so they're close to 30 years old.

As to the Kimber, it's marked Combat Carry on one side of the slide and Custom Shop on the other. The only thing I sort of don't like is the reverse plug and flaired/belled barrel and it takes a damned bent paper clip to dis-assemble it. If the Tactical Pro II is a shortened down government model, I may just buy one next year. As it is, Navy Arms has a .32-20 SAA I like and Cimmaron has a Civilian Model SAA in .44 Special that keeps calling my name. Then there's another Savage Weather Warrior in 22-250 and a Remington 40X --- some many guns, so little time and money

 

[Richard Jefferies]

First a Daisy pump BB gun at Christmas when I was 6 1/2. When I turned 8, Dad gave me an old H&R Topper .410 full choke. It was a neat gun, very well made. There was a recess in the forearm which fitted the trigger guard so the gun could be folded in half for convenient transport.
When I was 10, I was graduated to a Fox & Sterlingworth 20 ga. SxS with auto ejectors, and the stock had been shortened to fit my Mom. Such an improvement for wingshooting doves! I went on probably 20 hunts with that Topper, and fired it maybe 50 times at doves, and probably killed only five. When I switched to the Fox, I started getting 8 to 10 doves per hunt with 2 to 3 boxes of shells fired per hunt.
When I was 14, my Dad took me along with him on a hunt to a private game preserve which was at that time owned by Southern Railroad, and they had racks of shotguns for guests to use. I had my Fox with me, but asked if I could try the Remington 870 12 ga. they had. I fell in love with it, and for my 18th birthday, Dad gave me one.
However, my first real purchase of a gun had happened two years earlier. I had a friend who was over 21 purchase a Dan Wesson .357 6" from a pawn shop. I made the mistake of going in with Henry, and the day after the sale, the pawn shop owner called Dad and told him what had happened. Dad confiscated the gun from me, and I didn't get it back until I was 19.
I learned a little from this; be sneakier!
I spotted a Walther PP Sport .22LR that I liked at the same pawn shop a few weeks later. This time, I gave the $ to my friend and told him what to get, and stayed at home while he did the deal. That was a sweet shooter, and I've never seen one since. It was in the factory box with an extra mag that had a finger rest. It looked like a cross between a PPK and a P-38. It was built on the PPK frame, but had a 5" barrel with adjustable target sights. Two bricks of ammo went through that gun in two days' time.
If I still had ever gun I'd ever owned, my collection would be somewhere approaching 300.....c'est la vie. Live and learn.

 

[Gage1911]

My first gun was a Winchester Ranger Model 120 Youth, a 20ga... Not the best choice for a kid under 10, probably why I developed a flinch. It is so short it could qualify as "tactical" ohhh ahhh.
My second gun was a Winchester Model 9422 XTR in .22LR... I shot the snot out of it and it still looks new.

I still have both and don't plan on ever selling either....

My newest favorite gun is an M1 Garand that I got from the CMP... I have a friend who is an M1 nut and according to him the rifle is just awsome.... I seriously LOVE this rifle, I wish the ammo was cheaper.

 

[BobMac]

Gee, you guys do have some pretty nice guns.

My first one, and I still have it, was a Mosburg 46BT with a tubular magazine under the barrell, 5 front sight posts that could be raised up and a peep sight that had 5 different appertures that were set up by turning the sight. Cut my initals in the fore end. That was when I was 12 years old. That was 66 years ago and it still shoots great. That was given to me by my dad.

First one I ever bought was a Ruger Single Six .22 with 2 cylinders, regular and .22 magnum. That was in New York, Westerchester County, and the shop had to hold it almost a year while I got a permit. Finally got a police chief that was sympathetic to people arming themselves.

Bob

 

[Nemo]

Back in 1992

Already married and my first born roaming the house I purchased my first handgun: A hard-chromed 9mm EAA/Tanfoglio Witness Sub-compact.

Little later, when I found out what shooting was all about and what I wanted to do, sold it and bought my Colt Special Combat Government. Still have the Colt.

 

[MikeO]

My first gun was a birthday present and it was a Remington Nylon 66 .22 rifle.

Second was a Xmas pres and it wa a Mossberg 500 20g shotgun.

First rifle I bought for myself was a Marlin 30-30, first shotgun was a Rem 870 12g.

First handgun I bought was a Ruger Super Blackhawk 44 Mag, second was a Security Six .357 Mag, third was a Colt Combat Commander 45 ACP...

 

[Clark Kent]

Mossberg bolt action .22, the one that looked like a Mannlicher, with the hinged forestock. Dad gave it to me for Easter when I was about 12.

Don't know what happened to it -- suspect it disappeared into the same hole as my collection of baseball cards, which are udoubtedly worth more now than my 401K.