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I’m 83 and started collecting Fox double barrel shotguns around 1968.
One of my first nice ones was an early A grade 12 gauge that I got from Glen Appleby from Galeton PA for $175.00 in 1968. I still have that gun and have shot about 15,000 reloads thru it in the past 8 or 9 years. 100 rounds this week on Sporting Clays.
Then Winchester .22’s about 20 years ago. All good.
Jolly
clarence said
Wow–never heard of such a thing as a “gun show” until a few yrs after I left HS in ’63. That one (local collectors, very bush-league) was about 30 m. away. However, for the next 50+ yrs, I sure as hell made up for lost time. (Money I squandered on gas & motels would have financed a significant collection.)
Somebody wanted that Mossberg MIGHTY bad!
Clarence, in those days the Mossberg bolt action shotgun I traded was worth about $20 and I had to add a key wind pocket watch to the deal to make up the $35 value for the Colt. I really wanted a lovely Marlin 1893 in .38-56 that had a factory engraving of a buck deer on the receiver for the same $35 but while I was trying to raise the cash it was sold and the new buyer had it on his table for $60 which was out of my league.
I grew up around guns, my dad had a guns store and had been a Winchester collector since the 1960’s. When our gun store burned down in 1976 everything salvageable was sold — what was not sold my brother and I got to pick guns and I ended up with a Winchester 9422 in 22 mag, a Rossi 22 pump, a Scoremaster Model 511, and a couple single shot shotguns. I must have been 10 or 11 years old at that time. Kind of an eclectic collection at that time I guess. All those guns are still in the family and in use. BTW, if anyone knows were I can find a stock for the Scoremaster M511 let me know.
I didnt start collecting Winchesters until a little over 20 years ago with the first purchase of Model 64 carbine, and that has expanded onto the 1892’s, 1894’s, and a few 73, 76, 86’s, and for a short time Colt SAA’s. Im not sure if my kids will be “Colllectors” but they both enjoy shooting and hunting with the Winchesters as well as others.
1892takedown @sbcglobal.net ......NRA Endowment Life Member.....WACA Member
"God is great.....beer is good.....and people are crazy"... Billy Currington
I grew up around guns ever since I was knee high to a duck
, but did not get interested in them as a hobby until the late 80s and early 90s when I kicked around with a friend. By 1994 I got into the hunter-gatherer stage with inexpensive pieces. I’ve been there pretty much ever since, but have managed to pick up some collectibles. I’m 76, and very much enjoy reading and learning mainly about old Winchesters, and this forum is a great place to be to do that!
James
I guess I should add my background here as well. My father had a couple of model 94 Winchester’s when I was a teenager he used for hunting which was very popular. I always had an interest in western movies & thought the lever action Winchester was a very cool gun.
With 32yrs in law enforcement & mainly handguns, I took an interest in rifles after SWAT training & sniper status. These of course were bolt action but Lever guns still peaked my interest.
In 2016 at age 50 I bought my first pre 64 carbine & it’s grown into an obsession, for better or for worse. I keep saying no more Guns but this is a decease I live with.
I’ve gradually acquired higher condition guns but my main interest is rarer Winchester’s & good shooters. I hope to have another 20-25yrs at this & wouldn’t change a thing. When I acquire a new piece I still wonder if only this gun could talk to know it’s history.
AG
November 7, 2015
Offline
In 1982 I purchased my first Winchester levergun, a new Big Bore 94. Still have it but it’s probably my only post-64 Winchester levergun at this time. I accumulated several others when they could usually be had in 95% condition for around $250. I sold most of them off when I decided to become a collector a little over six years ago. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to purchase a few dozen very interesting old guns since then. I turned 60 recently, I think that still counts as a youngster around here.
Mike
My Dad bought Me . single shot Cooey .22 when I was 11, although I couldn’t take it out alone, but the next year, after i’d learned how to use it properly, He would give Me a couple of bullets and I’d damned well better bring home something edible’ My Dad spent 6 years over seas during W.W.2 , He was a crack shot with His old .303 Enfield or a .22 and expected the same from Me. At 12-13 years old, when all My buddies were playing hockey or ball, I would get home from school on a Fri. afternoon , pack a bedroll, the .22 or a fishin’ pole and Mother wouldn’t see me until Sunday evening. Can You imagine a parent to-day turning their 13 year old loose, on their own for 2 or 3 days with a gun, unthinkable now but things were different then. I got married in Nov. 1966, at the age of 18, and that first Christmas My Wife, Dianne, bought Me a Cooey mod. 62 bolt action repeater. In the winter We would drive the back roads of Huron County shooting Jack rabbits, then sell them for $1.25 ea. to a local trapper who would skin them for the hides and sell the carcass to a mink farmer. I could make nearly a weeks wages, at $2.00 an hr., on a Saturday doing this. At about 9 years old I saw My first western movie at the local Roxy theatre, We did’t have power or a t.v., and man I’ve got to tell Ya’ that started a love affair with those Cowboy guns, although I didn’t get one until I was 18. That love affair has lasted a lot of years,(I’m 71) and it hasn’t changed much over time, I still do love them old cowboy guns, My favorite being the short trapper ’94’s and ’92’s. Good post with a lot of remember whens.
W.A.C.A. life member, Marlin Collectors Assn. charter and life member, C,S.S.A. member and general gun nut.
I was raised in shotgun country. Not much could be legally shot with a rifle in those days. Rimfire for squirrels and rabbits, centerfire for varmints though. My family shot groundhogs with shotguns or .22’s, no need ever for centerfire. Thus it was not until I was on active duty as a LT in 1973 that I was motivated to obtain my first Winchester, a model 1873 rifle, serial number 83848, that was on consignment in Jensen’s in Tucson. Paid a princely sum of $200 for it. Unfortunately, I traded it off some years later when I had obtained 1873’s in better condition. Sure wish I still had the one that started it all. I am now 70, and while I keep my antennae operating to find the old 1873, am running short on time. Tim.
Tim; Think positive, I’m coming up 72 and I am planned out to 114. That’s how long I figure it’s going to take to amass the Winchester collection I’m hoping to put together.
W.A.C.A. life member, Marlin Collectors Assn. charter and life member, C,S.S.A. member and general gun nut.
Lol good post Harry. I’m enjoying reading all these replies. I like Clarence’s especially haha.
AG
Well hopefully I bring the average down a little at 46.First gun was my high school graduation(92)present my Dad got me at a gun show that is still around and I still attend, it was a Stevens 12 gauge pump. He had a model 12 solid rib but said it was worth to much money and he’d get me something else. He asked me back in the fall if I still had it, so I pulled it out, showed him and he smiled, he’s 84. Sorry for the tangent…..
originally all I wanted was what I need to hunt, so what else would one get but a Winchester model 70 30-06. Most of my twenties,thirties and now forties has been chasing critters wherever I am lucky enough to. It hasn’t been until the last five years when I realized it would be possible to hunt down some of the firearms I had often admired. When I started I had no idea how bad it could get, but the history, 99% of the people involved, the chase, and just the way a piece of wood can grab you and take hold- I am hooked
I started collecting Winchesters about 15 years ago, at the age of around 50, when I picked up two in one day …. an original Model 1894 38-55 with full octagon barrel, received in warehouse December of 1899; and an original Model 1892 32 WCF. My collection is very modest due to budget constraints and an unfortunate obsession with photography and very expensive lenses (here is my photo website). A requirement for all my Winchesters is that they be in honest, unmessed-with condition, and they have ranged from very well-used to very high condition 98% guns. I find, however, that my favorites are those that have earned their keep just enough to be around 80% condition and are also reasonably accurate (i.e., should be capable of 5-shot groups at 100 yards that measure 3″ or less). Consequently, I’ve gotten rid of my very high condition Winchesters and specialize more in the 60 to 85% category and shoot and hunt with all of them.
Kirk Durston said
I find, however, that my favorites are those that have earned their keep just enough to be around 80% condition and are also reasonably accurate (i.e., should be capable of 5-shot groups at 100 yards that measure 3″ or less).
Nice (& rare) to hear someone honestly describe what constitutes a “reasonably accurate” lever gun. All these 1 or 1.5 MOA guns other folks talk about…well, maybe so, (esp. when you count two shots & call the others “fliers”) but I’ve never encountered one.
Kirk, I like the the slightly used guns myself. They have some character and are a lot easier on the wallet. I feel lucky if all my shots go in the black at 100 yards.
It looks like the consensus is that us collectors are mostly old farts (or soon to be) and most susceptible. That said, everone take care of yourselves and be safe and diligent in the fight against the current pandemic.
Don
deerhunter said
That said, everone take care of yourselves and be safe and diligent in the fight against the current pandemic.Don
Would be wise to be vaccinated against pneumonia (I did 10 yrs ago, having already had it once), otherwise I’m sick of this mindless hysteria being whipped up deliberately by the left-wing media as one more way to bash the President they hate.
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