The old .22 I learned to shoot with

[spenom]

There's something about having a connection with the past that brings back a lot of good memories. I still have my old Daisy BB gun, although it doesn't work anymore. I can't bear to chuck it.

Don't ever chuck it! Ask around, maybe in the equipment exchange. Build it back up to its former glory.

 

[nuncupata]

I grew up with the same model 68. Loved it. Learned to shoot with it. When I got back home many years later I found the old girl to rusted down the bore to rehab... Nice to see you rescued yours.

 

[iceman2]

I too have a Model 68 that I learned to shoot with. It was my Dad's. He bought it from a kid that worked on my Grandpa's farm one summer. He bought it with his own money that he earned working on the farm. His mother wouldn't let him bring it back to the city with him.(Montreal) My dad gave him what he paid for it. $10.00. I have taken my share of groundhogs, rabbits and grouse with it. Yes 38.55 same iceman from leverguns.

 

[Jeff/1911]

What a wonderful discussion! Thanks for the great story Win38-55.

 

[Z06corvette]

I don't have any old timey photos but here's a pic of the Model 68 my Grandfather gave me. It has the finger grooved forend like the one in Win 38-55's OP, and uses a Marbles rear sight. I've shot a lot of gophers with this gun, some great long shots too. Grandad said he had taken a few deer with it, back when he worked on Paradise Ranch near Naramata in the Okanagan, that would have been some time in the 50's.

 

[cjs]

Great story, I had a 60's cooey that I started with at age 5 in 1975. It is far away in Northern BC, but I will have to get it sometime and shoot it and remember days gone by.

So many grouse, rabbit and tasty meals.

 

[canuck]

When My Dad was a young teen, he had a terrier named "Tuffy".
Tuffy was a born rat killer (as are all terriers), and at that time there was a two bit bounty on rats. Dad would send Tuffy in under the grain elevators at the edge of town to catch rats and then collect the tails.
It wasn't long before he had enough bounty money to buy himself a .22 off the used rack at the hardware store.
That old Savage pump went everywhere with him, and filled the stew pot regularily.
When Dad was about 20, he and a friend were shooting muskrats in the local reservoir from a canoe when the wind came up and capsized them.
The old Savage laid in the mud on the bottom for a whole year, till the water levels were lowered the following fall for dam maintenance.
Dad spent a whole day digging around in the mud, and found his rifle!
He gave it to me when I turned 14, and the old pump went everywhere with me - and filled my stew pot regularily!!
I slipped on the ice one day and fell on the buttstock, shattering it
It was just a couple of years ago that I finally found a replacement and did my best to bring the old girl back.
Someday, I've got to get around to taking some nice "after" pics with decent backgrounds like you fellows have done.......

 

[Win 38-55]

Great stories and photos, men! It is the history behind these old rifles that make them so interesting!

 

[bushwhacker]

I have a photo of my Paternal grandparents and one daughter sitting in a Model T Ford touring car with three of their sons alongside. My uncle Les has his foot up on the driver's side running board and my uncle Cecil is standing on the left side behind the radiator holding a Savage model 99. My dad is just visible through the windshield. Don't know what year this would be taken. My Dad was born in 1908, would guess him to be in early teen years in photo. It is a framed enlargement, so would be a bit of a project to get a copy that could be posted here.
Bill

 

[archie_james_c]

Your wife must hate you dragging leaves and crud from outside into the house for photo's all the time

 

[Win 38-55]

Your wife must hate you dragging leaves and crud from outside into the house for photo's all the time

She makes me clean up my mess and, by gum, I do. After all, if the cook ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!