Have we discussed hunting with BB guns when we were kids?

JerryBobCo

My first gun was a Daisy BB gun. I got it for my 8th birthday. I still remember waiting for my dad to return home with it. I ran to the car, opened the door, and didn't see a thing. It was there, laying in the seat, but I just overlooked it. Boy, was I one excited eight year old when I realized it was laying right there in the seat all along.

About all I had to hunt was tweety birds and lizards. No doubt my best all time shot with a BB gun was at a lizard. It was in the middle of a very hot, west Texas summer day, and I was hunting with some friends. I saw a pretty good sized lizard go behind a weed about 20-30 yards away. I carefully aimed at the side of the weed I expected it to move to. I pulled the trigger just as it moved out from behind the week, and my BB caught it right in the head. Needless to say, I was pretty impressed with that shot.

Surely I'm not the only one here who got their 'start' with a BB gun, and have their own stories to share. Please do so.

SirGeorgeKillian

That's how it started for me. I was 6, and dad was shooting squirrels that would dig up his flower bed. I remember the first one I saw get shot. I started to cry telling dad he killed it, and the squirrel started twitching. Dad thinking quickly put the bb gun in my hand and told me to shoot it quickly because it wasn't dead, I did and thought it was the coolest thing in the world. Been killing stuff ever since (tooth)

jbp-ohio

Got a Crosssman 788 when i was about ten. Put one of those cheap Tasco 3/4" 4x scopes on it. First thing I remember shooting was bumble bees off the old shed behind the garage. Went on a lot of grasshopper safaris too.

Shot a few birds. Our old momma cat used to follow me when I left with my bb gun. Knew she would get a fresh meal.

sakodude

Daisy Red ryder was what started it all for me. Don't recall any spectacular shots but pretty sure I flat wore out my first one. Graduated to a Crossman 760 pump in my later years and recall some great shots on crows. Pumped up to 10 or sometimes a few more and loaded with 2 BB's, no crow was safe in grandma's garden.

Sako

sakodude

jbp-ohio wrote: »

Got a Crosssman 788 when i was about ten. Put one of those cheap Tasco 3/4" 4x scopes on it. First thing I remember shooting was bumble bees off the old shed behind the garage. Went on a lot of grasshopper safaris too.

Shot a few birds. Our old momma cat used to follow me when I left with my bb gun. Knew she would get a fresh meal.

Even as adults my dad and I would play "hopper popper" shooting large Colorado grasshoppers as they crawled across the deck rails. Pretty good after dinner entertainment.
Come to think of it, that is probably were both my daughters took thier first shots again with a Red Ryder. Good memories.



Sako

bisley

Daisy pump, with the tubular magazine (more powerful, no rattle) at about 9 years old - I was a big strong kid and could still barely cock it. I was allowed to shoot anything but horny toads, mockingbirds, doves, and scissortails (Dad was an Okie and that's the state bird). I shot plenty of blue jays, ground squirrels, wasps, bottle caps, toy soldiers....and the bathroom window glass. My dad confiscated it till I paid for the glass (months), then helped me replace it.

Jayhawker

Very first critter I ever shot was a ground squirrel...did the deed with my Red Ryder..I went over to pick him up and he was warm, and soft, and dead, and cute...:tissue:

1965Jeff

Daisy or crosman pellet gun and grasshoppers= multiple target rich environment. I wonder how many 1000 pack BBs I went through those summers...

Quinian

Actually when I was a kid living in FL my first gun was a BB gun. I got plenty of doves with that thing when they'd land in the chicken coop. Not sure if that was legal or not but where I lived no one cared as long as you were not being unsafe or some kind of jerk about it. I also tagged plenty of squirrels.

SirGeorgeKillian

Ever give your bb gun those extra two pumps just to make it kill that tweety bird better?

tennmike

I guess I did it backwards. My first gun was a Marble's Gamegetter. But the next Christmas I got a Crosman 140 .22 cal. air rifle. 10 pumps of the handle and it would do in squirrels and rabbits pretty quick. I hunted with it a lot more than the Gamegetter (pellets were cheaper than .22 shorts; a 250 round box of pellets was same price as a 50 round box of .22 Short). Shot lots of grasshoppers, damselflies, and the best was yellow jackets on a piece of watermelon rind. Killed lots of tweety birds, too. My older cousin had the same model air rifle. We cooked quite a few sparrows-on-a-stick, too. :roll2:

gator

Red Rider boy here,spent summers on my grandparents farm in Trenton Nebraska.
Grandma would give me a penny apiece for grasshoppers and a quarter for sparrows,she had a verry large garden and a small fruit orchard,so I was protecting her harvest.(at least that's what I thought)
Spent all my profits on more BBs and an ocasional candy bar.

jbp-ohio

..... and frogs. Shot lots and lots of frogs in the swamp at the end of our lane.

Hondo

I had a Buffalo Bill lever action given to me for my birthday. Here in Florida the lizard population took a beating.....but they have since come back and flourish to this day.....LOL. It shot a little to the left but I learned to hold off for the shot. Even today I want to shoot a little bit to the right to compensate....lol. those sure were some great days for a kid. I sure would love to go back for a day and experience it again.

orchidman

I wasnt allowed a BB gun so had to make do with marbles, a piece of pipe and fireworks. Got them taken off me when I blasted a steel ball bearing through the drivers door of my uncles car when he parked it on my 30yd range ( the driveway)
Bloody inconsiderate of him.................

Fisheadgib

One summer when I was nine, we had a one eyed rabbit hanging around my mom's garden.

airhead

Red Rider here.

Cousin had a barn with one end full of yellow jackets. We'd aim for the bit that holds the whole nest up. I don't think we ever knocked a nest down, but we did put a round into the nest on occasion.

That would cause tremendous door slamming and running around the yard for a while. Then back at 'em.

***

Green army men standing guard on a large log in the fire pit were some of the most fun targets.
Battleship model in the creek took a lot of BB's to sink.

jbp-ohio

I also had a Crosman model 73 C02 lever rifle (talked it off of an Aunt, it just sat in the corner in her house), but I never used it as much. The C02 cartridges were to much $$$...

CaliFFL

I also had a Red Ryder as my first gun. But my first hunting gun was a Benjamin Franklin 347 .177 cal, circa 1977. I still have it and it still works.

I shot more cottontails and tree rats than I can remember.

shotgunshooter3

Wambli Ska wrote: »

I've got a T-38 just like that at home that I got from my grandfather. Great little pistol, though I don't shoot it that often. I haven't shot it in years, actually.

As far as starting, Dad skipped me right on up to .22 shorts. I didn't own a BB/Pellet gun for another 5 or 6 years after that.

bisley

orchidman wrote: »

I wasnt allowed a BB gun so had to make do with marbles, a piece of pipe and fireworks. Got them taken off me when I blasted a steel ball bearing through the drivers door of my uncles car when he parked it on my 30yd range ( the driveway)
Bloody inconsiderate of him.................

I got busted (literally) for something similar. Mine was a gallon can, full of gravel, and a M-80. We had a little 'over-spray' and peppered a car that was traveling down the road. It was single shot - meaning we had to have a new can for every shot, or at least we would have, if we had ever gotten to take a second shot.