The long story of my .22 trilogy. This story begins in 1957, three years before I was born.
My dad, who had just completed a tour with the U.S. Navy, was a member of the Air Force, and was stationed at Offutt AFB in Omaha, Nebraska. In the PX he spotted a pair of .22 Remington 510 TargetMaster rifles. $17.50 later, he was on his way up to my GrandPa Elmer’s farm near Moorhead, Iowa, to give one a workout. The rifle turned out to be a tack-driver (all of these guns are), and GrandPa Elmer was impressed enough that he asked my Pop to go back and get the other one for him. Pop decided to just give Elmer that gun, and Pop purchased the other one for himself when he returned to Offutt. Pop ate a lot of rabbit and squirrel taken with that second 510, but he eventually traded it for some other piece. Meanwhile, the original rifle lived a quiet life in the basement ceiling joists of the old farmhouse. I’m not sure if Elmer ever shot it. But growing up, it was always the highlight of a trip to the farm to take “the gun” out behind the house, set a few cans on the fence posts, and poke holes in them.
Years later Elmer retired, sold the farm, and moved into town. The rifle found a new place in a closet by the back door of the new house. I’d ask to look at it on every visit, but it seemed like I would never again get to shoot it. I guess old Elmer knew how much I admired that rifle, because in 1975 or 1976, I was elated when he passed the gun down to me – it was mine! I didn’t understand the tradition of passing things down, but suddenly I understood how it felt to win the lottery, especially since it bypassed two older brothers to get to me!
It became a project that Pop and I worked on together – reshaping the pistol grip, adding flutes, and shortening the “clubby” (Pop’s word) fore-end of the stock. We added attachment points for a sling, and had the receiver milled to accept modern scope rings. Although it had been fired very little, the years took their toll on the finish, so the last step was to have it re-blued. It was a great time of learning and bonding with Pop during some troubled times for me.
I’d always been aware that there were three guns in this family; the 510 single-shot, the 511 which had a 6-shot clip, and the 512 which had a 16-shot tube magazine. At some point it became a goal to have all three, finished and blued as identically as possible. Over the years I found a 512 at a pawn shop, then a 511 at another pawn shop. It was always in the back of my mind that the original 510 was “different”, and just last year Pop found another 510 and gave it to me, 35+ years after Elmer gave me the original farm rifle. So now I have the original AND three factory correct rifles!
Pop/GrandPa's original 510
The 'Family"
