What was the gun that seeded your hobby?

[Spats McGee]

For me, it probably was my first gun, A Heritage Rough Rider that I bought just a year and a half ago. I grew up around guns as well like many of you, but never was particularly interested. Until I bought that gun, anyway. Now I own well over ten!

Let me warn you, we have a whole bunch of enablers around here.

 

[WestKentucky]

Taurus 689 6” blued

I loved that gun, and like a sports car I beat on it until it died. It got out of time and started having endshake issues. I wore it out by shooting overloaded 357 mags through it nonstop, but I was good enough with it that I could hit from 3 ft to 300 yards. I made a pile of money with that gun in little nothing bets. I once sunk a tame duck with it at 300 on the water. The gun was so enjoyable that I just had to take it to the range regularly.

 

[.455_Hunter]

For handguns and defensove concers, an Enfield No. 2, MK 1* .38 S&W DAO supplied to me at age 14 by my Father.

Hunting and general shooting was a .22 Remington 33, Eastern Arms .410, NEF 20 ga, and an Spanish 1916 7mm, all in the 13 and under period.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

The road to many guns starts with but a single purchase...

And that, for me, was a Marlin 783 bolt action .22 WMR.

It took me a few years, but the next was the AMT Automag II.

And it kept on from there.

 

[BigBL87]

Probably would be my Savage Mark II. My first two firearms were my Mossberg 500 (still have it) and a SAR B6P (traded in towards a Taurus PT92 which ended up being sold to buy my CZ-75B). Both of those were more utilitarian, though. My Savage, though, was the one that got me into shooting for fun not just as a practical thing. My PSA AR is probably a close 2nd after the Savage.

 

[mokin]

Probably a Ruger Mk II. I already had three or four guns - including an SP 1, but there was something about the handiness of that handgun that changed my perspective about guns.

 

[ColoradoMinuteMan]

I grew up around surplus firearms but it was really the 1911 that fascinated me. I fantasized about carrying one in my WWII issue leather leather holster on my early WWII Calvary Pistol Belt. I wasn’t able to afford to buy one for myself until I was 30 years old. My first handgun was a first model Star D in .380 ACP which I got because it sort of looked the part. It’s was a good little pistol too. While I still have my 1911, I’ve mostly moved on to newer polymer pistols from a everyday use perspective but I still enjoy the 1911. I recently filled another lifelong desire to get a WWII issue Browning Hi Power which is also a joy to shoot.

 

[kimberkid]

My “seed” gun was a Colt Target Match, then I met a guy at work with a FLL and he introduced me to the SKS and a CZ-52 pistol, then a Turkish Mauser ... then I learned I could buy a stripped AR receiver and build my own, this was 27 or so years ago when the “bull barrel was just starting to be a thing and custom parts were obscure and rarely seen ... in fact, home built AR’s were looked down on as “Frankenstein-guns” and you could go to a GunShow AR’s were a rarity.

 

[bannockburn]

John_R

Probably the airgun I had as a kid. It was pot metal, shaped vaguely like a 1911, and you pulled back the rear of the slide to charge the air vessel. It would shoot BBs or little darts. Couldn't hit a thing with it, but I sure filled up the backyard with BBs.

My brother and I had one of those: a Crosman Marksman Repeater BB gun. It was shaped like a 1911 and the rear half of the slide moved back to pump the gun up and had something that looked like a thumb safety which locked the slide in place. You could load it with BBs or these really small darts by pressing up on the muzzle of the gun, raising this magazine-like opening to drop the BBs in.

 

[Ifishsum]

I have always liked guns - especially rifles and received my first air rifle at 11 or 12. That said, it was a couple decades later bout 2004/2005 when I decided I needed a true varmint rifle (other than a .22) and ended up with a Savage M12 chambered in the then-new .204 Ruger. The initial inability to find enough factory ammo led me quickly into handloading, which I had always had a passing interest in. That is the point where it really started becoming more than an occasional pastime and more of a full-time hobby. Also my weekly fishing buddy moved across the state about that time...I really like fishing and still enjoy it but I'm not as motivated to go do it alone....

 

[Mk-211]

The thing that did it for me was the movie Terminator.

I ended up buying a SPAS-12 and HK-91 because of it. Those led to more HK's a Galil ARM, AK-47...

I'm still waiting for a Phase Plasma Rifle in 40 watt range. Wondering if they'll have a program to print out a ghost gun of it?

 

[JTHunter]

The first firearm I actually purchased myself was a Marlin Golden 39A .22 rifle. It had the old half-cock safety and would take any mixture of Shorts, Longs, and Long Rifle ammo and shoot them with ease. For a rimfire, it was pleasantly accurate, possibly because of its longer barrel - 24" IIRC. That got me into a Ruger .22LR pistol in the mid-70s. The problem is, about a year later, I traded it for an Astra .380 because of certain "problems" where I was living at the time. I still miss that Ruger but it taught me to value every gun I have and not to part with them unless absolutely necessary.

 

[commygun]

I bought my first gun, a Colt Trooper Mk III, with no conscious intention of buying another.
Ha! That bug bit fast and hard.

 

[Riomouse911]

My first centerfire purchase; a Win 1894 .30-30.

I bought it at Siegles Guns in Oakland, Ca. a few days after turning 18.

My Grandfather had an old one in the gun cabinet that would often ride with us in the gun rack of his pickup truck during calving/lambing season. I grew up loving the look snd feel of the 1894, so I bought one as soon as I legally could.

I now have three 1894 .30-30 carbines and a Trapper in .44 Mag. To this day they’re still my favorite lever guns.

Stay safe.

 

[swg1]

Before I even owned a gun, it was reading about the Winchester M70 Featherweight in 7x57 in Guns and Ammo.

I never did get that gun, I decided I liked controlled feed rifles once I got rolling. I do have a Winchester M70 Classic Featherweight Stainless in 30-06. And a few 7x57 Mausers in stock now as well.

 

[JCooperfan1911]

The matchlock muskets everyone used when I was a kid.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

View media item 94

 

[godale]

Marlin 25 22 lr

 

[RCB]

My dad is a gun guy as was one of my grandfathers, but I had a P-38 cap gun and a transformer toy that was also a P-38. Add to that my interest in WWII history (primarily aircraft) and it tipped me over. But that P-38 mini cap gun was definitely the starting point.

 

[BigBore44]

I’ve always owned guns. But the one that sent me on the road to where I am was a Marlin 1895. It my passion for leverguns. And then that progressed to reloading.

 

[J-Bar]

About 1980 I found a S&W Model 18, the .22 LR version of the Combat Masterpiece. I really enjoyed shooting it. About 20 years later in 2000 I found a pristine Model 15, the numbered descendant of the .38 Special Combat Masterpiece hiding in a pawnshop. I bought it and marveled at how identical they were. Other S&Ws have joined them. Which was the seed, the .22 or the.38? I don’t care. I’m still planting!

 

[bannockburn]

When I was a kid I always had an abiding interest in things mechanical: cars, planes, boats, and especially guns! Had a subscription to Guns and Ammo which only fueled my fascination for guns, more so with handguns, but also with rifles and shotguns as well. Mom wasn't anti-gun so much as she just didn't want them around (BB guns were out but toy guns and squirt guns were okay though), and Dad had lost interest in any guns or going hunting when he got back from fighting in Europe during WWII.

So it was pretty much up to me and one of my older brothers to get things going firearms wise. My brother first bought an Interarms Mauser HSc and then a Browning Hi-Power. The Mauser had it's share of feeding problems but the Browning was rock solid in it's performance. From there we went halves on a Colt AR15 SP1 which I had dreamed about getting for years; so much so that I had already purchased spare magazines, magazine pouches, a cleaning kit, and even a bayonet for it! When I was 18 and able to buy long guns my first buy was a Ruger 10/22.

This was fueled mainly from borrowing some guns from a friend of mine to go hunting with. One was a pump action Remington .22 and the other was an Ithaca Model 37 20 gauge. Both were lightweight, easy to carry and use, fairly accurate, and above all, fun to shoot! So naturally my first gun was a .22 followed by a pump action shotgun; a Remington 870 to be exact, and I have been buying, selling, and trading for guns ever since.

 

[IMAhobbyist]

Honestly? This one, about 60 years ago.
View attachment 996643

Wow...what a flashback that just created. For those not fortunate enough to have been users of this style firearm during introduction of the perforated cap roll. Let me just say that advancement was no less important for many than going from cap/ball to metallic cartridge in history.

 

[WheelGunMan]

Stainless Ruger 6" Security Six
Circa 1978

 

[SwampWolf]

None. I was "seeded" way before I got a real gun. I guess cap pistols paved the way for me. Ammo was a lot cheaper too.