Them old twenty-twos

[sm]

It finally snowed here.
Just a real pretty snow on lawns, shrubbery, trees and vegetation. Roads are fine, still wet like rain , so I just watched bridges and overpasses, still just fine.

Hunting seasons are over...still I did not grow up, just got bigger is all.

H&R .22 special accompanied me earlier this morning.
http://www.theshootersbox.com/hr_22special_pictures.htm
Mine has a gold plated front sight.

Twenty-Nine degrees Fahrenheit, with light rain wind blowing snow off trees I am outside.
I dressed proper of course being a bigger boy now...

My frumpy tennis shoes with the hole in the side of one, oxford shirt, another heavier cotton shirt, and my hooded sweat shirt that zips up with the Pizza stain, and black smudge mark from reloading shotgun shells...and that ugly cowboy hat that gets sat on,...the one I was reminded I left three 30-30 cts in when I put in on...*bonk-bonk-bonk*

FUN!!

Knocking snow off a spinner target, busting snow balls, knocking a golf ball off the soda can, (I'll find that golf ball later...maybe), and shooting a can with about half the grape drink a kid did not finish...

Wabbit darts out...not in season, but the wabbit did stop to sample the grape drink (need to remember that *evil smirk*).

Old .22's are fun anytime, still something about the snow, made this morning even more funner!

Of course everybody knows[tm] you have to have do-nuts with coffee before you shoot in the snow, yep, makes one a better shooter. *wink*

Get them old 22's out and have some fun!

 

[foghornl]

I don't have an OLD .22 revolver, but when I want to combine that ole Cowboy Feeling with cheap shootin'...I bring out the Ruger Single-Six


Oh, yeah, I once forgot I had put a couple of 12-Ga buckshot in my hat sitting on the table...OW! Quit it!

 

[Legionnaire]

Nice write-up, sm; thanks! I don't have an "old" twenty-two wheelgun, just a four-inch SP101 and a Single Six. Can I still play?

 

[NGIB]

My Dan Wessons are both older but I live in the city so this kind of enjoyment escapes me at present. I do remember the old days though and plinking at anything plinkable was just great fun.

Never shot a living creature though as this is not my cup of tea, but any other shootable stuff was fair game indeed...

 

[CraigC]

Ain't nothing like spending the day with a couple .22 sixguns. My favorites are an Old Model Single Six and a S&W K-22. Been spending a lot of time with a Ciener converted Kimber too.

 

[sm]

I don't have an "old" twenty-two wheelgun, just a four-inch SP101 and a Single Six. Can I still play?

Okay, but you have bring enough do-nut holes for everybody *smile*

Oh I like semi autos, in both rifle and handgun, just a revolver is ...
I still feel learning to shoot a .22 revolver double action is the best way to teach a new shooter. Then transition to a center -fire revolver.
Repeat with a semi .22 and transition to center fire semi-auto.

Old revolvers like this one, is my youth, what raised with and around, my memories.

Another darn thing is...my Mentors grinned a lot, and the older I get the more I understand reasons they did.

I was grinning not having to police brass off the snow covered ground. *grin*

No worries if I forgot a mag, and so easy to load and unload a revolver.
Oh this break top is a hoot!
I can pop out the 7 spent ctgs into a coffee can and have 7 more ctg loaded before one can stuff a mag with ctgs and shoot.

*cowboy up*

Just it seems over the years the sights shrunk , but I shoot a Bifocal Weaver-ish stance and it works out...*lol*

Oh there is just something about the smell of .22 ctgs anytime, on a crisp snow day, wunnerful!

This tight circle I hang with , includes kids. Now some of us got into shooting older .22s, some semis and one fella had his grandkid inform him "if you shot your revolver you would not have me down here picking up your brass, this is going to cost you Taco Bell you know?"
(I *might* have suggested this bribe )

So we shoot old H&R .22 Specials, H&R 999s , Model 17, 18 , some old Colts, ...

Kids are funny..."we want to shoot them old guns tooooo!"

One 4 year old got us so tickled, getting to shoot was great! She had a big time "Popping" them shells out of the break tops.
She did not want to shoot the Model 18 , "no, it don't bweak". *lol*

Colibri's in mine are a real hoot, that is what the littlest kids get a big kick out of.

"These cost more money than those - right? We want to shoot these".
FWIW a kid will see plumb through the notion a bulk pack costs more per ctg than a box of Colibris.

"I am not to that part in math yet, still it seems to me all them bullets cost less than this box of Colibris".

Mine has the factor gold plated sight, I grew up and still prefer gold sight on a serious gun.

Little ladies about so tall will wear gold ball earrings, or similar, because it matches my guns front sight.

You don't understand, a kid will get mom to assist in taking out pearl earrings and getting the gold ball ones in...a mom will go also change earrrings.

"Your gun matches my kid and my earrings, now hand it over".

Fun is not just shooting with us, we have a great time messing with each other.

"Tell your grandpa he needs a diamond sight on that Model 18 to match them new earrings grandma got you". - I suggested to one of the 4 year old.

Yes, I stay in trouble...

Revolvers are not ammo dependent, sure some ammo more accurate than other and some shoot more clean than others, still, for plinking, who cares!

I had shells, just it made sense to me, to see what the fillin' station/ bait shop had for ammo and get a box.
I got a box of .22 short, just because I wanted that little box of .22 shorts.

So I shot Colibri, .22 shorts, .22 longs, .22 long rifle, and Fed all brass "rat shot" with the crimped brass end.

Snow is great for patterning rat shot...Fun.

This break top is so easy to inspect and maintain.
Lift sight to break open, hold that sight up, and with a light pressure, turn the cylinder and it unscrews out.

Chamber is right there, easy to swab out with a cotton swap, or pipe cleaner.
Cylinder is easy to clean.
Everything is easy to get to, to wipe off residue, inspect and maintain.

These old guns to me, are really needed in today's market.
Mine fits smaller hands well, easy to see if safe.

We need in my opinion more of the older, simple, light guns that fit smaller hands for everyone, especially kids to have fun with and learn on.
Just improve the sights.
Even so, and I wear bifocals, them little sights would be fine, if there were quality for the money , affordable "hardware store" guns as I call these.

Oh I know all about CCW and all that...
Dad-gum it! Sometimes fun, quality time with family and others is what is needed. Responsible Firearm Ownership - includes all this.
This sort of activity attracts new shooters and promotes all we believe in.

I mean some folks not sure about all this gun stuff, has a kid and they have a ball shooting with another kid and family with one of these old guns.
Heck the parents come out to see and they too have fun.

The politicians are wrong, Brady is wrong, MSM is wrong, these guns and gun folks are really neat!

Just my over age 50 , traditional, practical, and big kid in me - perspective is all.

 

[NGIB]

All I can say to that sir is Amen...

(And I love shooting with all my kids as well, they just don't come around very often anymore. We had a hoot over Christmas though...)

 

[Tom2]

Wow I have an identical gun setting up on a shelf collecting dust. Grip almost the same but slightly different Roper type. The problems are that some idiot did a little file work on it. Filed the rear sight bumps, filed all over the hammer and hammer nose, and since they wore out the ratchets on the cylinder, they went to grinding on those and messed them up. Still it seems that the gun is functional and turns. I have been searching for a parts guy that can get me those buggered parts so I can redo it to make a nice shooter. The bore is perfect and the blueing on the gun is 99% but some pinhead bubba got fancy with his hand tools and messed up a classic. Soon as i can find the parts, I will be out with it........ Some clod had one like it at a gunshow, all the parts was perfect, but the barrel had a huge bulge in it, perfect parts gun for what I needed. But he would not come down from 150$, claimed the bulge in the barrel did not exist...

 

[Magnum Wheel Man]

very nice story... mine ( 1st gun ) is a single shot 410... & today I have a Contender 410 that is my favorite walk about gun... we have a mowed walking / ATV trail around the building site on the farm... the rabbits are pesky & as such are fair game any time of the year for me...

too many of us ( myself included most of the time ) just don't take the time to walk in the woods...

totally agree... take the kids, & that old gun... wheather it be an old 22 Revolver, or that single shot .410...

 

[Legionnaire]

And another "Amen." My eldest daughter (soon to be 20) loves to shoot with me. We've done the rifles, shotguns, and semi-auto pistols, but she really likes revolvers. While she has a penchant for my .357s, she is very happy with the .22s ... although she has a distinct preference for the .22 WMR cylinder over the .22 LR cylinder in the Single Six.

She can't have my Single Six.

Seriously considering giving her a .22 Mag Taurus 941 for her birthday, though.

 

[NGIB]

When my kids were up for Christmas, they shot up just about all the ammo I had on hand. My middle daughter got very attached to an EAA Witness .40 I had so I sent it back with her as a gift. Felt real good about that as well, I'll leave at least 3 shooters behind as my legacy...

 

[kristop64089]

SM, good post man.

I'm not that old (33) but I DO remember your story as it were mine. Less than a month ago I was walkin thru the woods here, just plinkin away with my "new" H&R 649.l

I posted when I got this gun(about a month ago) about how this gun already has found this weird little sentimental spot in my heart. I don't know if it's because of the memories I anticipate it will hold or what? It has already started to build a bond between me and my 2yr old son. It looks just like his "cowboy" guns. When I get mine out to clean or shoot, he is close behind with his.(of course he looks much cuter in his cockeyed cowboy hat, vest, undies(with holster) and cowboy boots) (I on the other hand look like a lunatic) There really is something about those old 22's, and those who have mot been around them probably don't understand.

I am just thankful I was not raised in the "age of the wussy", and that my parents believed in me, and trusted me. Plus showed me how to respect and care for firearms.

Once again SM, good story, you really know how to deliver, maybe some anti's will swing thru here, and this will change their outlook.

 

[sm]

Thanks everyone.

I have sentimental attachments to semi-auto pistols, single shot .22 rifles , single shot shotguns and the like.

Someone emailed me as to why revolvers? I have shared this before still for the new folks here it is again.

I was born in the mid 50's, premature. I came home from the hospital and in my dresser drawer crib my maternal grandma stuck a High Standard Sentinel 9 shot revolver in a leather holster, Case Peanut and ...somewhere amongst all this other stuff other folks added, in that dresser drawer was a baby a tad over 5 pounds .
*grin*

Three years old and I get to shoot my gun with grandma.
Now grandma could shoot anything, and shoot it well!
Mentors and elders could flat shoot too.
Three years old and getting to shoot my gun was the neatest thing!

Now at age 4 I shot my rifle and age 5 a shotgun.
Still that revolver is the first gun I had and shot. Grandma, Mentors, Elders all shared how learning to shoot that revolver double action would make me a better shooter when I shot a semi.
Sights, triggers, and all sorts of lessons from that revolver would help me on rifles, and even on shotguns.

Times were different back then, Robert Ruark had his stories in Field & Stream and other authors like Cory Ford. In those hunting stories were life lessons on Values, Morals, Integrity and the like.

I wagged my wittle gun everywhere! Just a kid with a revolver in a leather holster and belt cut down and holes added to fit me, and going across the property to shoot with grandma, or a Mentor.

Go somewhere, like my uncle, and my wittle pistol was with me. We would go out,or I would stay with him and had my pistol.

Responsible Firearm Ownership was in those stories, and Grandma , and Mentors and Elders lived it.

It was neat seeing someone shoot my gun to learn on, to see about gun fit and all sorts of stuff.

My B-Day is in April, and grandma died in March just before I turned six years old.
That revolver she gave me and other stuff meant a whole whole lot to me.
I would get 2 cents for a coke bottle turned in at the little mom and pop grocery store. One could buy one .22 ctg, or other other ctgs or shotgun
shells from a bucket, just whatever one needed and buy loose ammunition.

Pretty darn neat for a kid to wag them bottles in a red wagon, get money and get to buy .22 ammunition for his very own gun! I'd get my bottles, do what chores I could to help others and I knew where "my" ammunition in a box was on that shelf.
I'd get my self on the bottom shelf and reach way up and get a whole box!

Before grandma died we shot a lot together, I even got to shoot her guns.
Mean old feral cats would mess with the quail and grandma, and me would get them mean old cats messing with out quail. Mentors would too!

Respect the quail, always respect the quail - Ruark

Grandma died and I was a lost wittle boy. My most prized possessions, that gun, and other stuff...was put back. These were that special to me, and...just a kid, trying to deal with all this.
So I shot other guns Mentors had, they understood I had to sort all this out.

Time passes, and so many many memories of that pistol. The fella that sired me, ...that is another story, let us just say I was the male head of house coming up. He married again and had a surprise late in life and had a son.

He only took me out a few time as a wittle kid, and only because other fellas shamed into doing so. Then I made him mad, being able to shoot.

Still...I was trying to do the right thing, and he said he wanted to take that son out to shoot. I figured by now that boy had been out with someone...
Anyway, that kid was and is bad seed.
My pistol under the charge of the fella that sired me and that boy got that gun, and sold it for dope.

My most prized possession, and sold for dope. I got cops, pawn shop owners , gun stores, judges, everyone looking for my gun. I offered a reward...

It was never found...
A few years ago I was at the Tulsa show with some members of TFL and THR.
Having a good time, and we were looking for some guns, and I made a smart comment about following the good looking cowgirl and tight jeans as she might lead me to where some revolvers one of the folks wanted.

I rounded a table and froze. Larry came up and he did not say a word, I asked to see and the fella noticed how I looked.

I went outside to smoke, so I said, granted I wanted a smoke, just I needed some air and to think.
I could not afford that High Standard Sentinel in Tulsa.
I went back in Larry and some others just listened and watched as I looked at it again and shared how that was like the one Grandma gave me.

That is the gun I used to stop a threat against 3 adults that busted down the front door during riots...and I had younger sibs under my charge.

So my take on defensive guns, kids having guns, locking then up, control and all...my experiences and I own them.


Original thread I shared about a H&R .22 special, that was a gift from a husband and wife members of these forums.
Yes. That gun was a part of my growing up, and it too has special memories, and it too was used to make sure I stayed safe when evil had other plans.

Then old twenty-two's - quite a few could tell stories if they could talk.
My take is find these, and preserve and pass forward these guns.

Manufacture new ones like them, as not only would a kid, really be able to shoot them well, it might be like a gun mom or dad had too.

Buy your kids guns, new ones, they do not stay little kids forever, still when they are bigger kids, they too have those guns, with so many memories.



Grandma, my gun shoots spinach cans better that it does tomato soups cans; we need to get some more spinach at the store the next time we go... - Young-un

 

[Quick_Draw_McGraw]

sm: that was a great story.

i grew up in the city, my parents... well ive never been hunting with family, and to beg for a BB gun at 13 and finally got it at 15.

my grandfather whenever he was in town (lived 3hours away or in california now im in washington) would take me to his property and teach me how to shoot with his old crossmas BB gun off a piece of fire wood for a rest and hit soda cans. i love and miss those days.

i remember when i moved back from arizona from college. i had bought myself my own guns, my first is my marlin M60. then a few others. i made a trip to california on thanksgiving to visit my grandparents thats when my grandpa gave me a H&R 20gauge topper for my first shot gun for dove hunting.

needless to say when i moved back to washington my dad was upset and my mom afraid of the guns. (mom was used to me my grandpa was a police officer and marine)

now i got my brother into shooting, he now has his CWP as do i. now my dad goes shooting with us and loves it. he talkes with his co-workers on how great of a shot i am on long range with my .22 and how he loves shooting my beretta .22 pistol. its backwards. its like im teaching my family about guns and how to properly use them. and its funny being 21years old and teaching my 50+year old dad how to shoot. honestly it almost brings tears to my eyes because for once we are spending time together.

 

[Legionnaire]

It hurts reading about your lost gun. Like Quick Draw, I didn't grow up with guns. My family wasn't philosophically opposed to them; we just lived in the city and they weren't a part of life. As a consequence, I don't have any guns with sentimental value.

It was my father-in-law that really brought out my latent interest. He's an outdoorsman, who turned me on to Rourk and Capstick. He and my wife conspired to buy me my first firearm, a Mossberg 500 combo, that has taken many rabbits, squirrels, and deer in the intervening years.

But I made the decision early on that all my kids would learn to respect, and how to handle, guns. Started with safety very early. The four rules apply to toy guns, as well, unless you're playing "cops and robbers," in which case "be sure of your target" precludes pointing a toy at anyone NOT playing the game. Same rules now apply to airsoft battles.

My father-in-law and I still hunt together every year, and I hope we can continue to do so for at least several more (he's beginning to get "up there"). I don't care if my kids choose not to hunt (but my third daughter took her first deer this past season). But they all must know safety, function, and the basic skills to hit reasonable targets. And those that show any affinity at all have been, or will be, gifted with a gun at some point.

 

[B.N.Real]

sm,thanks for posting that.

I have always wanted a breaktop revolver like that and now I know what I'll be looking for at the gunstores and shows.

I knew that H&R made those until they went out of business but I never knew they looked that great.

Extremely cool.