Christmas memories

[Mr. Completely]

Merry Christmas! to all THR members and viewers. I would like to hear of special christmas memories involving first firearms, bb guns etc. I remember one year maybe 1964 or so I got a plastic rifle that looked just like an M-14 and it shot plastic bullets that were spring loaded in a plastic case. I shot half the ornaments off the tree before Mom saw what I did, Ha it was great!

 

[Romeo 33 Delta]

Nice idea ... something pleasant in this sea of unpleasantness.

In less than 48 hours ... 58 years ago, my late father bought me my first firearm. It was a beautiful Marlin 81-DL. I still have it and fondly remember Dad everytime I take it out and shoot it. "Thanks, Pop, for everything ... and for teaching me firearms safety. It's worked for me, without fail, for the last 58 years". Love ya'.

 

[Coltdriver]

For Christmas at 13 I moved up from a Daisy Model 25 Pump to a Daisey Model 300 CO2 powered bb gun. I have great memories of a group of three or four of us, each with a bb gun, on the hunt in the alleys and woods and fields around Colorado Springs. And there were a couple of years when we met up Christmas afternoon meet up to hunt with our newest bb guns. My good old Model 25 was no slouch but the 300 was a whole new deal.

 

[smalls]

No first guns, but I always remember heading up to my dad's house for Christmas break. We would go goose hunting for Christmas dinner with my uncle and cousin. Then the rest if the week we'd kill TONS of clays, and throw in the occasional coyote or rabbit hunt for the rest of the week before I went home to my mother's house.

On Christmas day we always had the whole family out shooting clays. Unfortunately we haven't done this in a few years. Maybe I'll see if a few would like to pick this tradition back up.

 

[tcanthonyii]

Got my first bb gun for Christmas. Being a kid it wasn't the one I wanted, and my parents knew it. Told me I could return it for the next model up if I paid the difference. I willingly did that and still own and shoot it today. I like to shoot it in my house when it's too nasty to go out. It's a Daisy Powerline 990.

Got my first shot gun, a single shot 410 from my Ex Wife as a Housewarming/Birthday/Christmas gift. Even though we are divorced it's still one of my favorite guns to shoot.

This year I got my reloading set (Lee Classic Turret) from my Dad and brother as a birthday/Christmas gift.

A couple of Christmas's ago we as a family went out and shot some clay's. Not very often that side of the family all gets together to do some shooting. We had a blast in the snow.

 

[JohnBT]

I admit it, we had good stuff back in the '50s.



A pic from a couple of years later showing it wasn't just for the boys. (fwiw, our moms were identical twins)



John

 

[Ky Larry]

In 1958, I was 5 and my sister was 8. For X-Mas that year she got a doll that could stand and walk by itself. I got a gun that shot corks. The corks were tied to the gun by a piece of string. Of course the first thing I did was cut the string and the corks would fly accross the room. I spent the rest of the day ambushing her doll. Every time she would get it started walking, I'd knock it over with my cork gun and she would scream. We had dinner at my niece's today and we had a good laugh over it.

 

[2ifbyC]

My first gun was a Daisy BB spring rifle with detachable tubular 50 “shot” magazine Christmas 1958. I can still remember the smell of the 3 in 1 oil that I used to keep the spring lubricated.

My Mother was the Dianne Feinstein of the household so I had to work on my Dad for acceptance. We had a lot of abandoned mines in western Pennsylvania where I would go to set up targets and shoot with my friends. Although I never had an incident, my Mother would constantly hide the gun from me. I would always find it until the day she finally threw it away.

I never understood her fear of guns or why she would deny me the pleasure of enjoying a hobby that I safely practiced. As I reflect back on those 50+ years ago, its déjà vu all over again.

 

[SwampWolf]

Christmas 1957: at the age of fourteen, I got my first gun, a Winchester Model 67, .22 single-shot, bolt-action rifle, from my father. Yes, I still have it and a grandson will be getting it as a gift on another Christmas day not too for away.

 

[rodgers330]

Like most of us, I got my share of die-cast single action style cap guns with cowboy holsters. My all-time favorite Christmas gun was a large plastic battery operated machine gun on a tripod that made a loud "click clack" sound when the trigger was pulled. A red plastic tube cycled in and out of the muzzle to complete the visual effects. It must have driven my parents crazy.

 

[JohnBT]

I still have all of my cap guns and holsters. My mother saved them.

She also saved my Hopalong Cassidy breakfast set. Hoppy was on tv from '52 to '54, but the movies go back to the turn of the century. I must have received this for Christmas in '53. Fwiw, the horse's name was Topper.

 

[LOLBELL]

During all of the mayhem this thread is a welcome sight. Christmas 1973 my Mom and Pop got me a BL22 ( with a $50 contribution from me ). I was 13 at the time. I remember many bricks of WW Wildcats being shot while Pop gave advice and instruction. Mom and Pop are no longer with us but did get to see that same BL22 passed down to their 13 y/o grandson. Pop was there helping me instruct my son. Merry Christmas Pop. Thanks for being a great father and role model. Love Ya !

 

[strange246]

I just picked up 2 Heritage Rough Riders in .22lr/.22mag, 3.75" with the birdshead grip, one is for my son, he's 8 and it'll be his first pistol, last year I got him a red ryder bb gun and he's been asking for a .22 pistol since shooting my MKII, the other one my wife bought for me for Christmas so my son and I have a matching set, with sequential serial numbers even...