I learned to shoot at summer camp...sort of. My grandparents owned a campground on a lake here in VT, and every year my parents shipped me off to spend signficant portions of the summer with them -oh, the horror! My earliest shooting recollection at about 4 y/o is sitting on my grandfathers lap and "shooting" a little single-shot 22 pistol that had an attached skeleton stock. No idea of the make or model, but it fit a 4 y/o. Ironically, 8 years later I got shipped off for a week at one of the State run "Conservation" camps so I could take the full course needed to get my Hunter Safety Cert. After having the run of the roost at the lake, which continued on weekends into my early 20's, that week at organized camp was like being in prison to me.
Who fired a rifle for the first time at a summer camp? Part two.
- Thread starter Starter52
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vanfunk
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I love this nostalgic thread! I was given a Marlin 25 for my 5th birthday, and my 6th birthday brought a Weaver 4x scope for it. So I was a pretty well-seasoned shooter by the time summer camp rolled around. However, I’d never used aperture or “peep” sights as we called them when I got to camp when I was 8 or 9. The rifles we used were US-marked Remingtons and Mossbergs of WWII vintage, I think 541x and M44 models if that makes sense?
I can’t remember his name but our instructor was pretty good at teaching the fundamentals of trigger control. We shot prone off of a covered platform to NRA targets at 25 yards. Ammo was 29 grain CCI short; 5 of us would shoot at a time and we were each handed a single round between “shoots.” I loved it and thankfully, we were able to shoot every day. I really didn’t care about playing capture the flag or whipping around in Sunfish sailboats on the lake; all I wanted was the thrill of getting another .22 short placed in my palm and sighting down the long, heavy barrel of one of those rifles.
Darn it - now I am going to have to track one down for the collection!!!
I can’t remember his name but our instructor was pretty good at teaching the fundamentals of trigger control. We shot prone off of a covered platform to NRA targets at 25 yards. Ammo was 29 grain CCI short; 5 of us would shoot at a time and we were each handed a single round between “shoots.” I loved it and thankfully, we were able to shoot every day. I really didn’t care about playing capture the flag or whipping around in Sunfish sailboats on the lake; all I wanted was the thrill of getting another .22 short placed in my palm and sighting down the long, heavy barrel of one of those rifles.
Darn it - now I am going to have to track one down for the collection!!!
351 WINCHESTER
Member
Boy Scout camp. Mossberg single shot .22. I spent most of my $$ on ammo. Even got a merrit badge.
Driftwood Johnson
Member
YMCA Camp Bernie in New Jersey. No idea the make of the rifle, but we were shooting 22 shorts. We got 5 rounds each as I recall.
Starter52
Member
.22 Shorts must have once been common at summer camps. You hardly ever see them today.
Not quite, I shot the first time in Boy Scouts. I was on a summer camp shooting team, myself and four girls. I already had 50 foot 22 target experience from boy scouts; the instructors preferred girls because they didn't assume they already knew how to do it and took instruction better than most boys.
The Boy Scout shooting was done with a Winchester 69A my dad had fitted with a Lyman peep and a cut down stock to fit my 11 year old reach. I still have it, along with a full size stock. The summer camp guns were Remington 5?? bolts with peep sights.
I remember....1957 at Camp Ti-Wa-Ya-Ee, Troop 527 Buffalo Area Council, Boy Scouts of America. The rifle was a well used, and equally well cared for Winchester 52 with a peep rear, and an aperture front. I could afford 20 shots at 2 Cents a shot. Camp was on my nickel out of money saved from my paper route and a trapline. I made Eagle Scout four years later...one of the proudest moments of my life....but never completed the requirements for Marksmanship merit badge....
Best Regards, Rod
Best Regards, Rod
Starter52
Member
A Winchester Model 52?
That's an outstanding target rifle. A bit heavy though.
That's an outstanding target rifle. A bit heavy though.
My summer camp wasn't that fancy, although I did have the treat of shooting the instructor's 52B to qualify for Hunter's Ed. It was well used and well kept. It had the best trigger of any gun I've ever fired, it was perfectly safe but it was so smooth it was like telepathy. I thanked the instructor for the privilege of being able to fire it.
The Happy Kaboomer
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Same here........Country boys didn't go to camp. Killed my first deer at 9yrs old and was hunting by myself from then on with a H&R 20 ga single shot
Yeah, how could your parents afford camp? That was a lot of money back then!
I do recall the first rifle I fired, at the age of 13, a Marlin Golden 39A rifle .22LR. I was 13 years old. I’m disappointed I got such a late start in life, as it seems many of you were not much older than kindergarten when you fired your first gun.
By the time I attended summer camp, I had already fired a 22 Rf rifle many times. Dad belonged to a gun club that put pheasants out duing pheasant season. In the summer, they had family activities.
I did go to summer camp, Mondamin near Ashvilkle, NC. I got my first experience with organized target type shooting. The rifkle was some kind of single shot bolt rifle with iron sights. It broadened my shooting experience at the time.
We are talking 1965 to 1966 or so.
P.S. I got my first exposure to Mo-Skeet-O 22RF clay busting game with a Rutledge barreled 22RF bird shot gun at the shooting club. It makes .410 skeet look like a walk in the park. I still have a Rutledge barreled Remington pump gun and a Mo-Skeet-O trap. Sadly, targets are no longer available.
I did go to summer camp, Mondamin near Ashvilkle, NC. I got my first experience with organized target type shooting. The rifkle was some kind of single shot bolt rifle with iron sights. It broadened my shooting experience at the time.
We are talking 1965 to 1966 or so.
P.S. I got my first exposure to Mo-Skeet-O 22RF clay busting game with a Rutledge barreled 22RF bird shot gun at the shooting club. It makes .410 skeet look like a walk in the park. I still have a Rutledge barreled Remington pump gun and a Mo-Skeet-O trap. Sadly, targets are no longer available.
You guys must have been rich to get to go to summer camp 
. I was so jealous as a kid until one day I read about what kids get to do at a summer camp. After reading the article and then contemplating a bit on it, I came to the idea that I must live at a summer camp. Canoes, pirogues, swimming, gator wrestling, gun shooting, hooting and hollering, camping, making fires, catching fish and cooking a rattle snake or armadillo over a fire for dinner, yep, I was in summer camp all year long .
. I was so jealous as a kid until one day I read about what kids get to do at a summer camp. After reading the article and then contemplating a bit on it, I came to the idea that I must live at a summer camp. Canoes, pirogues, swimming, gator wrestling, gun shooting, hooting and hollering, camping, making fires, catching fish and cooking a rattle snake or armadillo over a fire for dinner, yep, I was in summer camp all year long .vanfunk
Member
I wish my parents had spent their camp money on ammo for me! Would’ve accomplished the same thing.
Though I have to say, one night a camper’s big brother drove up and met us clandestinely in the woods with a carload of fireworks. A bunch of us dragged the whole load into a clearing in the woods and lit it all off. What a thrill seeing those 4” mortars exploding over the tall pines! The camp counselors inevitably found out but we weren’t disciplined. It was pretty obvious who had participated as we all reeked of sulphur, lol. Good American pre-teen fun, I say! No doubt today we’d all be on a watch list with an alphabet agency or two.
Though I have to say, one night a camper’s big brother drove up and met us clandestinely in the woods with a carload of fireworks. A bunch of us dragged the whole load into a clearing in the woods and lit it all off. What a thrill seeing those 4” mortars exploding over the tall pines! The camp counselors inevitably found out but we weren’t disciplined. It was pretty obvious who had participated as we all reeked of sulphur, lol. Good American pre-teen fun, I say! No doubt today we’d all be on a watch list with an alphabet agency or two.
tazbigdog
Member
Camp Wapalanne, North Jersey. 10 years old. .22LR bolt action rifle. Achieved expert designation. Still have the paperwork somewhere.
