Just a box of shorts

[sm]

Just a box of shorts


The young lady was not raised around guns.

When the divorce hit, momma got the daughter, moved out of state.
Daddy got hit by drunk driver one night a few years later coming in from work, and this young lady was severely restricted about guns, shooting and everything else.
Seems momma, saw to this, and the private school was indoctrinating the young lady to be like her momma.

She had some of her daddy in her, a bit rebellious, curious, and one to check out matters on her own.
She waited until she was no longer under control of her mom, and went to college out of state.

~~~

Two ladies sitting at a kitchen table, with a Remington 514 single shot bolt action rifle, with the bolt on the table.

Rules have been shared, the gun looked at, questions asked and answered.
Lady grabs the Gun and this lady learning about guns says “Hey we need this…the bolt right?

“Yes, that is the bolt, now come on…”

The Zeiss shooting glasses are really neat, so are the pretty ear muffs, one can tell the student is admiring these and thoughts running through her brain.
“Yes those ride high on the brow, for shooting shotguns…”
And explains why all this is important for shotguns to the student

Finally arriving down on the back of the property, the lady says to the student,
“Wear those, I got these to wear”.
Student is flabbergasted to be wearing these really nice shooting glasses and muffs.
Lady Mentor does not seem bothered to be wearing some Aviator shooting glasses and some “plain” muffs with some scratches.

Some .22 ammo in a cigar box is snagged and this one small box catches the student's eyes.
“These are so cute, can I shoot these?”

“Yes you may, remember I showed you how to tell what ammunition a gun takes, and this gun will”.
“Yes…Ok…I see this on the gun” replies the student

Correct basics on shooting a single shot rifle.
Fun factor is high; tin cans are getting knocked off and …
Words cannot describe what this student is feeling.

Time passes and this student gets her very own used .22 rifle.
Pretty big deal, and while she does not get Zeiss shooting glasses, or muffs that nice, she gets some pretty Aviators that ride high on the brow…shotguns are pretty cute and later she wants to do that.

Years go by, and she has more guns, votes different than momma, writes letters, and assists new shooters.

“What got you started shooting?” ladies asked one day

“Just a box of shorts”

After some chuckling and smirks, she explains a bit more about these “shorts”.


.

 

[oneshooter]

Everybody has to start somewhere, and a single shot 22 is about as good as it gets! Still keep a couple of boxes of shorts around, nexer know when an oportunity to start a new shooter will come around.

Oneshooter
Livin in Texas

 

[Cannonball888]

I have a Savage Stevens model 73 single shot youth rifle. It will be my son's first gun when he comes of age. Safety automatically goes "ON" when you cock it. Great beginner's rifle for learning basic shooting, function, and safety.

 

[308win]

My dad bought me a Stevens 22 single shot for my 6th Christmas. I had a BB gun for a couple of years and had been introduced to shotguns but hadn't developed much of a yearning for same at that point. When and where I grew up many gasoline stations, almost all grocery stores, all hardware stores, certainly all stores selling guns, many department (now called big box) stores, feed supply stores, and a couple of other sources I have forgotten in the intervening 55 years sold 22's. Shorts were the cheapest and at $.20 cents a quart a kid didn't have to pick many blackberries to buy a days worth of fun.

The world certainly is a better place today./sarcasm off

Edited to add: And they didn't even lock them up, it was self serve. Funny thing, I don't remember great carnage or an out of control occurrence of street violence, school shootings, gang violence, accidental shootings or any of the other ramifications of virtually unrestricted access to firearms. What I do remember is that we read Ruark, Boys Life, Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, Sports Afield, etc. and watched little or no TV. But then, that has to be a coincidence and has nothing to do with the state of the world today.

 

[yhtomit]

Y'know, though I have a bolt-action .22, I've never once fired any shorts through it -- nothing but 22LR.

Shorts are way too expensive

timothy

 

[Alphazulu6]

Wow your writing is almost something of that from a novel. Very well done. And your point of getting new shooters started... you hit the nail on the head. Too many times growing up I have seen my friends parents give their kid their a 7mm mag at age 9 and let em get spanked... for laughs I guess and then hand them a smaller caliber to shoot with :banghead:. Dont know what habbits could be relinquished from that first life experience and I doubt that they really ever do.

A nice little .22 is one of the best ways to introduce firearms to a beginner (no matter what the age). Learn the five fundamentals first then go shoot whatever. Any full grown individual can handle the larger .400+ calibers. But not everyone can shoot well. So great job with your approach I just wish more practiced this.

 

[MilsurpShooter]

Started with a .22 Chipmunk. Still sits in my safe and get's cleaned every so often

 

[Dave Dembinski]

Ya know, this is just the excuse I needed to buy an inexpensive bolt-action .22.

You can chalk up one more to the "blame it on sm" pile.

 

[woerm]

ye olde Cricket .22 just got used to begin corrupting one of my nieces 8-> this last weeked.

box o shorts I love that,

snicker, snicker

r

 

[sm]

Thank you for the kind words.

Those that know me, understand how I feel about passing forward what was passed to me, and my attachment to old wood and blue firearms, like bolt action single shot .22 rifles.

I am not the only one around here that collected Soda Bottles to sell back to the Mom&Pop Grocer for two pennies each.
I am not the only one that stood on the bottom shelf and looked at boxes of .22 cartridges and had to make a decision.

.22 shorts were like 15 cents, Longs were 17 cents, and Long rifle were 19 cents.

I had just turned in seven "coke" bottles, so I had a dime and four pennies.
I would reach deep into my little jeans pockets, all of them, and double check them and all I had was lint, my pocket knife, some string, some ball bearings from the Filling Station [ where I had found 3 "coke" bottles nearby in the ditch] and ...*sigh*.

MY box of shells were on the shelf and I did not have enough money.
Oh I could just buy some from the tin can on the counter, they would let me do this like everyone else did...just...I really had my heart set on getting a box.
Where did I lose those two pennies I had?

"You look a bit disappointed" Grocer and customer would say. Me still hanging onto a taller shelf, while standing on the bottom one so I would not fall.

"Oh, I am OK, just these like my gun" pointing to a box of cartridges "Just I will have to wait until I get at least one more "coke" bottle." I replied.

Oh well...
I went out front to mess with the dawg a customer had left on a leash and attached to the "sittin' bench", and figured I would start walking back home with my red wagon in just a little bit.

The customer that had spoke to me earlier I knew, just neat older fella, widowed. He was drinking a 6 1/2 oz Coca-Cola , when he exited the store, unleashed his dawg, and the Grocer was carrying out his two paper sacks to his truck.

Groceries up front, dawg in the bed, and I waved "bye".
Old boy tossed that now empty Coke bottle over the cab of the truck, and into the soft grass.

As he pulled away I heard the "Three-on-the- tree" shift into second gear , as I raced across the street and got that Coke bottle.


It does not take long for a kid to rinse out a coke bottle at the faucet on the side of Grocery store, turn that bottle in, hop onto a shelf, snag a box of .22 shorts, pay the Grocer and start heading back home with his very own box of .22 shorts.

Hard part is a little boy pulling a wagon going straight home...
There is that new puppy down that way...
Might be a Soda Bottle in the ditches over that-a-way...
Then there is them tin cans I got saved up and whole box of my very own ...

Boy! Grownups just don't understand how hard it is being a kid...

 

[230RN]

Wasn't interested in buying a rifle, only wanted a mag for one of my handguns.

But while proprieter was on the phone, something else called to me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw this old Remington Model 512 Sportmaster .22 with a tubular magazine.

The only clean blueing on it was behind the trigger on the inside of the guard. The rest was a well-used brownish tinge.

Cracked buttplate. Brass bead for front sight. Not grooved for scope. No serial number.

But it was just like the one I used to shoot whenever we went upstate New York many decades ago.

And it shot shorts, longs, and long rifles.

And it had nice wood, for a department store .22.

I can't imagine how it might have got from NY to Colorado, but inside me, I felt that it was that first gun.

Cheap enough that I didn't even have to write a check for it, just dug some bills out of my wallet.

I drove home with it in my trunk, remembering.

There's nothing like the smell of a .22 cartridge wafting back at you after each shot.

And I remembered shooting until well after the sun had ducked behind the mountain.

And I forgot to buy the magazine I had wanted.

 

[Will Fennell]

WW .22 Short HP's

There was a wonderful period of my life when my weekly "allowance".......payment from Mom and Dad for doing chores and such....was metered out in the form of Winchester Western .22 Short HP's

The shorts kept my cut down Remington Rolling Block fed, and the local rabbit population under control

 

[sm]

How many of you :

-Got a box of .22 rim-fire whether is was a Gift Giving day or not and said -
"I don't have a gun that will shoot these"
And the next thing you knew you were handed a .22 rifle that would shoot .22 rim-fire?
New gun, older gun passed down...all the same feeling.

-Picked out a vegetable or fruit that came in a tin can when shopping with adults ["Yeah, I like these, can we get it?" ] because the can was neat, and label would make a neat target later.

Man- if we were attached by Fruit Cocktail, I was ready to shoot hordes of attacking fruit.

-Fussing at mom to not mess up the label...
Fussing because you wanted to open the can...
Fussing because mom threw "your" can in the trash...
Volunteered to take out the trash ["kid must be sick , he/she WANTS to take the trash out] and dug around in the trash getting your cans and anything else that looked like it needed a .22 rim-fire hole(s).

<raises hand>

 

[pdowg881]

I started on a single shot .22.

 

[Odd Job]

I also started on a .22 (it was a Stevens .22 /.410 combination). I fired every size of .22 up to LR in that, and I enjoyed it.

On Sunday I helped two young ladies who were curious about target shooting. The one hadn't even held a firearm...hell, not even an air rifle...before. The other had fired a shotgun once and had also used an air rifle.
I took these two young ladies (one Aussie and one Kiwi) for a leisurely stroll alongside the river Thames and when we got to the rifle club they had a look around with some other members while I set up a bench on the 50 yard range. They took an instant shine to my Thompson Center R55 and went through at least 100 rounds each. Then they had a go on a .357 lever action and loved that too.
But I guarantee you, these young ladies will remember my .22 fondly. You always remember your first

 

[sm]

So what kind of .22 single shot do you have Steve? - PM asked.

Currently I do not have one.
See, I wuz publik skooled in the South, and can't count.

I and others always bought .22 single shot rifles every time we run across one.
Some gun shops, and pawn shops would hold them back, call us and we would get these to give to kids, teenagers, adults , adults with kids and little clubs / ranges, Boy/Girl Scout Troops...etc.

My "pet" was a Rem 514 , single shot, that would shoot S, L, and LR. It was still adult sized, and only had added sling swivel studs. I bought this along with about 5 others one time, and this one winked at me to keep him/her.

Time passes and I have over a dozen of these .22 rifles, most are single shot, and some Marlin 60s in the mix as well.
I / we was letting kids shoot guns and keep the guns.
Gun shops/ Pawn Shops at the time, gave us ammo, some eyes and ears.
Just what we did.

I loaned my gun to a Single Mom to shoot with her kid. These two had a ball.
Young man was using the Youth Single Shot Marlin, and ...well...pretty neat seeing these two.
"I can keep it! Really!" and this young man just went nuts! His mom got all blubbery too.
"Can mom keep hers too?"
"Sure" - I replied.

Honest, I lost track of my gun, I was busy doing some food fixing and when it dawned on me what I had done...I felt funny for a nanosecond, still It was supposed to be, as seeing these two, like all the others that day...

How raised - what you do.

For a bit I had a kid's sized Marlin single shot, then a kid needed a gun and I gave it away.

I just use the guns of others, like these kids I assist with.
Gee I remember how neat it was when a Mentor & Elder wanted to shoot 'my' gun.

I'll get another old Wood & Blue single shot with iron sights that takes S, L, LR someday...

It was always about other folks, still is.