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Christmas from years gone by


Widder, SASS #59054

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Always wanted a BB gun. Finally got it when I turned about 14 or 15.

 

Another great toy that I did get:

 

that great big BULLDOG TANK!

 

anyhow, with 3 brothers and 1 sister, we always managed to get a Basketball, Football, and maybe a glove.

plus, one of us usually got a new bike.

 

sister always got roller skates and a batton.

 

Mom and Dad, who are still with us (83 and 85 respectively) always insured that we had a good warm Christmas dinner also.

 

 

Just sharin. thanks for listenin.

 

 

..........Widder

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Sounds like the way it use to be for a lot of us. Now when my daughter buys Christmas gifts she has to buy 3 of everything. 2 Boys and 1 girl, but they wouldn't think of having to share toys. She could save a lot of money if she would teach them sharing.

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Guest Winchester Jack, SASS #70195
Always wanted a BB gun. Finally got it when I turned about 14 or 15.

 

Another great toy that I did get:

 

that great big BULLDOG TANK!

 

anyhow, with 3 brothers and 1 sister, we always managed to get a Basketball, Football, and maybe a glove.

plus, one of us usually got a new bike.

 

sister always got roller skates and a batton.

 

Mom and Dad, who are still with us (83 and 85 respectively) always insured that we had a good warm Christmas dinner also.

 

 

Just sharin. thanks for listenin.

 

 

..........Widder

I got the Bulldog tank one year, and a six shooter rifle but the best ever was the Remco Bazooka

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Sister must have been hard on roller skates and battons to warrent getting new ones each year? :rolleyes:

 

 

Howdy Blastmaster.

 

Yep. The skates would wear out and 'sometimes' us boys would use the wheels to make a homemade go cart.

 

And, sometimes, the batton would get broken ifn one of us boys got mad at the other and needed something to throw.

 

PLUS, rumor was that the batton was a good 'bat' when playing corkball when a good broomhandle couldn't be found.

 

 

..........Widder

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Brings back memories. I got a Red Ryder for Christmas when I was 9 or 10 and a Benjamin Model 347 when I was 14. Still have the Benjamin, its as good today as it was 32 years ago. My friends and I used to set up the little 3" tall green army men in a bare spot in my backyard about 25 feet from the deck and then snipe them from the deck. Once I got the Benjamin they started to lose their heads. When my dad died a few years ago I found a box in the basement full of little headless army men. A few years before the Red Ryder I got a toy lever action rifle that actually shot plastic bullets. It came with spring loaded brass colored plastic cases and gray plastic bullets that snapped into the cases. Loaded, fired and ejected just like a real lever rifle. Also got a caplock rifle and pistol set with cork balls. Shoved them down the barrels with the ramrods and then put a paper cap in the lock. When you pulled the trigger the hammer would fall setting off the cap and would shoot the cork balls out the barrel. Still have the caplock pistol, though the nipple area is now too corroded from the caps to actually work, and the cork balls are all long gone. They only went maybe 20 feet, but it was pretty cool to a 6 or 7 year old.

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I was @ 10 when my folks got me the .30 tripod-mounted machine gun with the flashing lights in the barrel and a constant, machine gun rat-a-tat-tat sound; what were they thinking? It was great.

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My grandma would always get me a Big Chief writing tablet and a small box of crayons.

 

 

Chili Pepper Kid

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Pop was a cop and a hunter so guns were always around. When I was 5 they started a train set for me. Still got the original locomotive and the four cars and caboose............................ along with about twenty more cars, four locomotives and a BUNCH of stuff to go around the tracks. :unsure::rolleyes:;)

 

Gonna set it all up in my son's basement next year for the grandkids! :blink::blink::blink:

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At 13, Dad got me a Winchester model 1300 20ga, at 14 he got me a Marlin lever action in 30/30. Both are still here in the gun cabinet, and my daughters use the 30/30 each year to deer hunt with. That gun has been in the deer woods every season for the last 26 years, and is still in excellent shape.

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Got my first gun for Christmas! Was a Benjamin CO2 rifle, only thing was the Co2 didn't last long. Couple a years later i got my first real rifle a single shot bolt action 22.

 

My best Christmas was Two Years ago when i was thinking about gitting into cowboy action shooting, my wife with the help from some friends surprised with a Guncart!!!

This was the O.K. to go ahead and join. ye ha!!!!!!!!!!!

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We didn't have a lot otherwise, but I guess you could say when it came to guns, I was a spoiled child. I got my first BB gun, a Daisy 1894, for Christmas when I was six. A Stevens .410 shotgun when I was about nine and I had access to numerous rifles and pistols. My cousins thought nothing of me wearing a pistol or carrying a rifle even when the huge family gathered. Other kids played with toys, I "played" with guns. I honestly don't remember not knowing how to safely handle a gun. There are home movies showing small kids running everywhere with me passing through carrying a gun. It would totally freak out most people of today.

 

By the time I was barely 14, my step dad was working for Daisy BB Gun and it was not uncommon for me to have 20-30 BB guns at a time. I would give them to younger boys, so the count was always going up and down. I have given away limited edition guns that I would give my eye teeth to have back. I had a Daisy 880 before they were available to be purchased. It was a prototype and I thought it was the bomb because it would bury a BB so deep in a 2' x 4' that it disappeared.

 

My BBs were kept in a three pound coffee can and when it was half empty, he brought me more. He brought home CO2 cartridges faster than I could shoot them. Living out in the country with nothing else to do, I shot them every day. It's a long story, but my BB guns were of every make imaginable. One of my favorites was a Hahn similar to this gun. I carried it in a Daisy leather holster made for their 179. Having unlimited ammo and lots of time to shoot certainly makes a difference in a person's shooting ability. I wish, I wish, I wish I could shoot today like I could then. But isn't that what we all want, some version of the "good ol' days?" :)

 

Here are guns like some of the BB guns I own...or have owned.

 

The Crossman looked cool, but wasn't much. The Daisy CO2 200 pistol shot a BB at 600FPS. 5 shot semi-auto.

 

Daisy wasn't manufacturing this pump at the time, so I didn't have one of these until I found one in a dumpster a few years back. I walked up steps to see a customer, glanced over at the dumpster and there it was.

 

A VL. The ammo was a .22 bullet with propellent/powder pill attached to the back. No shell casing. Its velocity was similar to a regular .22. This one has plastic stocks, I have one of these and I gave away a limited edition model with wood stocks. Found a wood stocked one. Look at the price. I gave it away? Double ouch! Ahhh. Here's the ammo.

 

Buffalo Bill Scout 1894. I gave one away and used steel wool to remove the screen printing on the one I kept....ouch!

 

Dirty Harry gun. Mine shoots .22 cal pellets.

 

Model 99. I had boatloads of this one. It was the gun used for the Jaycees International BB Gun Championship. I ended up with many of the left over door prizes....which were mostly Model 99s. I didn't like them and I don't know if I kept even one of them.

 

Daisy 26 which was modeled after this Remington pump .22. Mine needed some work, but I wouldn't send it back to the factory because it was no longer being made and I was afraid they would replace it with another gun.

 

Crosman V350. The barrel slid back into the receiver to cock it. Check out the front sight.

 

Another Crosman.

 

Crosman M-1 Carbine. Loved the look, but I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with it.

 

There are many others, but I can't find pictures of them. Good memories.

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I was @ 10 when my folks got me the .30 tripod-mounted machine gun with the flashing lights in the barrel and a constant, machine gun rat-a-tat-tat sound; what were they thinking? It was great.

 

I got the same one when I was about 8 or 9. Too bad it was only plastic and cardboard though.

 

Fingers (Got a Roy Rogers outfit once too) McGee

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Widder --

 

Thanks for the memories, amigo! :blush:

 

(I always thought that that emoticon was sappy, but in this Season, I reckon it fits.)

 

On my 12th Christmas, Dad gave me his "plinkin' gun". It was a Winchester Mod. 61, .22.

 

http://aaa-webs.com/aaa/webs/homestead/cou...61-1history.htm

 

When I was 17, I was "on the road" so I gave the gun back to Dad for safe keepin'.

 

Dad passed away in 1980 and Mom asked my survivin' brother and sister which of his guns we might want. She needed to pay off the mortgage on the homeplace and Dad's gun collection would help.

 

I only asked for the Win. Mod. 61.

 

When I picked it up in Georgia, it had been stashed away in the attic for quite a few years. The barrel was so full of green gunk that I didn't think it would ever be servicable again. But, that Mod. 61 had such great memories that I didn't care. I was delighted to feel it and remember how Dad had taught me to use it.

 

Not trustin' my own gunsmithin' skills to clean it up, I gave it to a local gunsmith to restore. As it turned out, the '61 was really in great shape and it took only a little cleanin' to make it serviceable again.

 

End of story? I taught both of my daughters how to shoot a long gun with that '61. When I told them about how Dad had caressed that hardwood stock and explained to me the intricacies of shootin' a little gun that would "take down a runnin' rabbit before it knew that you were huntin' it," they seemed a bit more interested in my instructions.

 

Today, my girls talk about how the tradition of how this little '61 got them over the jitters of shootin' firearms.

 

If one looks at the current value of the Win. Mod. 61, one might think that it would be smart to sell this pristine little longpole. But --it ain't for sale. Not no how, not no way, not ever. :rolleyes:

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It's neat to read the responses of fellow posters and their youthful introduction to firearms. Mine was a much different case however as I grew up in a gun less household. I do remember my brother and I receiving some pretty neat plastic toys (guns), my brother a spy pistol that shot plastic bullets and came with a briefcase that held the pistol and had an external button that would fire the pistol through the case (totally illegal in the real form). I on the other hand had a bazooka that would shoot grenades and rockets as well as bullets and was about four feet long. I was very proud of that gun. My brother and I would spend days on end shooting each other "playing war" and such. But as far as anything real...............no doing. I remember finding a box of twenty gauge shotshells once and asking about them. My mother had an absolute fit and let my dad know as much. The ammo was gone the very next day with not even a word as to where they came from. I was born on the fourth of July so I couldn't do it on my birthday, but on the fifth of July after I had turned eighteen I went out and bought a Winchester model 37A 12ga and have had a shotgun ever since. On the fifth of July after I had turned twenty one I went out and bought a Ruger Security Six in stainless and have not been without a handgun ever since. I am now fifty years old. My folks were totally taken aback and did not know what to think. They thought they had done something wrong in my upbringing and didn't know where I picked up my interest in firearms. I bought my brother a shotgun for Christmas one year (I think he was less than thrilled) and my dad asked "where was mine?" So I still do not know how my family is taking it, but I know that I for one am enjoying my hobby to the fullest and will continue to do so. Smithy.

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