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Youth Shotgun II

3K views 21 replies 15 participants last post by  Pepper Dawg 
#1 ·
Another thread is about what the best gun to start a kid.When we(brothers) were kids our first gun was a stick.Our dad would make us carry a stick to teach us how to carry a shotgun.If you pointed it wrong or did something wrong he would correct you.We also were gun cleaners before we were allowed to really hunt.After he felt we were ready we all started with the same Harrington&Richardson 410 single that my dad started with.After that was a Model 12 16ga. or side by side Montgomery Wards 20ga depending on which brothers were hunting.It wasn't untill highschool until I had my own gun.A Citori. It's still my favorite.On the other thread,if I was buying a shotgun for a kid starting out it would be an 870.But the absolute best gun to give to a kid eventually is one that belonged to thier Dad or Grandpa.(just my opinion)

What was the shotgun you started hunting with?
 
#3 ·
gun

I began hunting squirrels in my teens with a .22 and I knew i could increase my success rate with a scattergun. Grandpa handed down his Winchester 37, a bare-bones single shot 20 ga. I've had it for over 40 years and I just took a look at. I want to go squirrel hunting again with it.
 
#5 ·
Winchester Model 12 16 gauge. I was 12 and it was already ancient- not a stitch of bluing and the stock was worn smooth. Kicked like a mule. I put a couple of railcar loads of ammunition through it and decimated the pheasant population with it for a lot of years.

Still have it and will till they carry me out regards.


Bubba
 
#9 ·
That sounds like our old gun.Did you ever find any good shells that will eject out of it? It works fine with the old shorter paper shells but most of the plastic shells are too long after they're shot and you had to pick them out.I still have a couple of unopened paper shell boxes but I don't want to use them.I've used the plastic but sometimes it becomes a single shot.I also made the mistake of having it reblued.I wish I left it like it was.The 410 has chunks of wood out of the stock from when my dad was a kid.The farmer let him ride on one of those old manure spreaders(I know,it was stupid.1930's style gun safety.).He hit a bump and fell in.The spreader grabbed his leg and the gun cought up in it and stopped the spreader.He spent a lot of time in the hospital.He had it infected and almost lost his leg.That's the only gun that my Ma wants to keep.It's the one that saved my dads' life.She keeps that one on the wall.
 
#6 ·
J C Higgins [sears] 16 ga. pump with a poly choke. I was 12 and it was a birthday gift. It was well used when I got it and I used it until I was 18 then traded it in towards a Zoli 12 O/U. That was the only shotgun I have ever gotten rid of in my life. Wish I still had it.

Carl
 
#10 ·
Never did find any shells that would feed reliably, the paper shells were the best and the plastic AA's worked OK. I worked at the trap club North of Denver and picked up a lifetime supply. It seems like there is almost a cult following for this gun and I've really never understood the fascination. It always was a known jammer and pretty unsafe as well. If you hold the trigger, every you shuck a new one in, you get another bang- pretty much full auto mode, just hand cranked. The 870 is now and always was a MUCH superior firearm in every respect but the prices at gun shows says differently. I paid $55 for it in 1963 and a guy offered me over $1000 for it a couple of years ago. It has a 5 digit serial number (what is left of it anyhow) but??????? Just has enough sentimental value to earn a place in the gun cabinet, and that is pretty much where it stays- kicks too much.

Never trust a manure spreader regards

Bubba
 
#11 ·
My late Uncle J gave me an Iver Johnson .410 for my eighth birthday in 1947. It has a circa WW I patent date and is still super tight. When I was 13 I found my Grandad's old hammer pump 12 way back in his closet - National Firearms Co. - Took it home, shot some doves, but had trouble with extractor, so took it to local gunsmith, whose shop was on his back porch. He racked the old gun once, looked at me and said "Kid, I wouldn't fire that damn thing for five hundred dollars a shot." My birthday present that year was an 870 which cost my dad $69.35. My older son shot it until his brother gave him a Beretta Extrema two years ago for Christmas.
 
#12 ·
BUBBA

The slam fire feature of the M12 is correct in the early guns.

Also some of the older ones had short chambers 2 1/2 and 2 9/16 instead of the more modern 2 3/4.

I have a Skeet 20 guage, M12. The only time it will Jam is when you use cheap ammo. Brass plated STEEL bases used on most all of the cheepie ammo will cause a condition where the hull cant be ejected from the chamber.(cant pump it)

The good ammo,, uses real brass bases, that dont expand as much.Win AA, Remington STS and PREMIERE!

Hunt with and shoot mine all the time! It's even got one of those ugly "Clutts Compesators" on the end of the barrel!!:rolleyes:

Gooser
 
#14 ·
To be perfectly honest, I LOVED the gun for a whole LOT of years until I had a windfall in the late 70's and bought a Weatherby Athena. Finally realized what a really superb firearm felt and handled like. In the worst conditions and despite years of diligent abuse and neglect it has never failed to shoot where I look every time I pulled the trigger. There are NUMEROUS occaisions where the bird was no longer where I was looking at that particular moment, but that's another story.

The old model 12's have their place in history and mine is a treasured posession, the fack is though that they just ain't the gun that the 870 is. I would be willing to bet that more pounds of meat have hit the table as a result of the 870 that ALL the others combined. Wanna get embarassed? Shoot with one of them old Southern boys (J Paul Jackson comes to mind) that have shot an 870 since birth and can run that thing to the plug faster than ANY autoloader ever made.

Raised on a model 12 regards

Bubba
 
#16 ·
First real firearm I ever shot was a Remington single shot .22 with a cocking knob that had to be pulled back manually for each shot. I began shooting that gun, my late fathers, at 5. The original bluing and stock finish still look good on it. I think pop said he paid $4 during the Great Depression for it. Its mine now and I still shoot it. First shotgun was a Mossberg? 20 ga bolt action.
 
#18 ·
Ya, my grampa had one. Now my cousin Steve has it.

I grew up on an 870 Wingmaster. The one I had met an unfortunate accident but I'm priveledged to own my grandpa's and my uncle's. In fact, grampa's old wingmaster took down 2 grouse for me yesterday. I haven't shot my uncle's since he passed 4 years ago.

/Paul
 
#19 · (Edited)
That was my Dads!

He grew up on a S.E. Kansas farm during the depression.
He told stories of not even being able to think about shootin a shotgun, cause the shells were too expensive and hard to find.

They were really lucky if they had enough to by a box of .22 ammo.
The only Meat they had to eat on the farm, is what they raised, or hunted.

I have his MAIN huntin weapon also! Its an Oak branch cut from a tree when he was just a boy, shaped in a perfect "V" ---A SLINGSHOT!--Kinda different if you were to ask Him what he learned to hunt with!

I remember those .22 pictured above (Winchester model 1890) as the rifle I learned to shoot with, but also as the guns that were common place in the Carnivals and county fairs shootin gallerys. Most were .22 shorts.
Cool Octagon barrels, and cresent buttpaltes.

Imagine that today!! A real gun in a shootin gallery!!

Gooser
 
#20 ·
My dad was pretty good with a shotgun. He too had little during the Great Depression, but was able to afford shtogun shells due to a neighbor. This gent, an immigrant from Italy loved to eat blackbirds of all things, and would give dad a shotgunshell for each blackbird bagged. Dad would flock shoot them on the ground( not exactly sporting I know) and then collect a shell for each, sometimes taking a dozen birds with one shot.
 
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