Yep. I never used them.I had two emergency slugs in the top pocket of my vest. I carried them religiously, just in case.
For three or four years...
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The Good Ol Days
- Thread starter Nicodemus
- Start date
I learned how to ring a #8 shot real early in life.
You must have grown up around Waycross like I did. I spent many a day on the Satilla.
Railroader
Billy’s Security Guard.
Co-rect!
35 Whelen
Senior Member
Rural Northwest Pennsylvania starting in 1969, get off the school bus, change clothes, grab a shotgun or 22 and hit the woods, swamp, and fields for squirrel, grouse, rabbits, or groundhog. Get home right before dark to eat supper. When it wasn't hunting season, we fished two small lakes nearby that were loaded with bluegills and large mouth bass. Loved every minute of it!
ddd-shooter
Senior Member
I also had the topper jr model. Love that thing!! And I’m familiar with the ‘emergency’ slugs as well! HA!Grew up like that, too. I got a cheap .410 single shot for my 8th birthday, and graduated up to a 20 gauge H&R Topper a couple years later. When I got home from school and got the chores and feeding done, I was out the door, hunting for anything I saw-squirrels, rabbits, grouse, groundhogs, quail, whatever. Always carried a punkinball for a big-game emergency.
I felt like I could take down an elephant with my trusty slug! Man what memories
When I think about the problems we face as a nation and as hunters, I think about how few get to experience a childhood like that. That’s a sad tale.
bighonkinjeep
Senior Member
Yep those Savage model 24s are awesome for a woods walk. Mines 22LR/.410 If you miss with the .22 the .410 would knock em out of the tree even on the run. The rifle barrel wasn't near as accurate as Grandaddys Winchester model 74 that Id get to use when visiting. Havent had my old combo gun out of the safe in quite a while. This threads giving me a hankering to take it for a walk.
dwhee87
GON Political Forum Scientific Studies Poster
I got my first gun, a single-shot Savage/Stevens 12 gauge, at 14. Lived 'in-town' in a small southern Indiana town, but could walk out the back door and across a couple farm fields, and be down in the river bottoms squirrel hunting in about 30 minutes. Shot a ton squirrels with that gun (many getting cooked over an impromptu campfire) and my first two deer.
Traded it and $50 for a Mossberg 20-ga pump that I still own. Come to think of it, made that trade at the Western Auto store in Casselton, ND, when I went up there for school my first year of college. While I love the 20-ga, I do wish I still had that old single-shot.
Traded it and $50 for a Mossberg 20-ga pump that I still own. Come to think of it, made that trade at the Western Auto store in Casselton, ND, when I went up there for school my first year of college. While I love the 20-ga, I do wish I still had that old single-shot.
Redbow
Senior Member
Reading these good posts of days gone by tells me that kids growing up in Georgia especially farm kids lived about the same life style as we farm kids here in NC did. All of us hunted and fished and we had an old swimming hole on the farm across the road from us in Catfish Creek.
My first experience with hunting came with my Grandpa's single barrel .12 gage shotgun made early in the twentieth century by the Bridge Gun Company. I started hunting with that old shotgun at about 8 years of age. Even though the thing kicked like a Mule I still killed Squirrels, birds and rabbits with it I still have that gun today.
There were very few Deer in Johnston County NC where I grew up but today there are plenty of them all over the County. Every now and then when I was a boy someone would see a Deer but I never saw one as much as I walked the fields and woods when I was young.
One day my Uncle Jimmy my Mom's brother came to visit us he and his family lived in Virginia at the time. He brought with him a Remington .22 rifle, model 514 that he had bought at a pawn shop for 5 dollars. He and his family stayed with us for a few days and I think all of us except Grandma shot that little gun while my Uncle was there. On the day he and his family were about to leave for home Uncle Jimmy pulled out the little Remington and handed it to me. He told me take care of the rifle and use it well, but use it safely. I was 9 years old at the time. I promised my Uncle that I would take care of the little rifle and never let it go.
I hunted with the Remington for years. That little gun killed squirrels, rabbits, birds of many varieties, hogs and a dog or two. Strange dogs when they came to a farm didn't fair well back in the fifties. Usually those kinds of dogs were homeless and starving and the first thing they attacked were the chickens. They had to go.
My Uncle Jimmy moved to Florida in the early sixties where he lived with his family for the rest of his life. About two years before he died he called me one day we always kept in touch with each other but he asked if I still had the rifle he had given me now over 6 decades ago. I told him sure I still have it that little gun shoots as good and as accurate as it did when you gave it to me. Then my Uncle asked if I would be willing to give the Remington to his Son in Law who also lived in Florida. He went on to say that his daughter and her husband were going to pay my Mom a visit after a trip to Virginia as they would pass right by my Mom's house just off I-95.
Well reluctantly I told my Uncle yes. We still live about 100 miles from where I was born and raised in NC but I told him to let me know when George and Sandy would be at my Mom's house and I would go up and give the rifle to George. I hated very badly to part with the Remington but when the day came I did so. My Uncle was pretty sick and I felt that I should comply with his wishes before he died.
Jimmy Bailey my Uncle died on the 30th of December last year at the age of 89. He is the longest living Bailey that we know of my Mom also died at 89 years of age but Uncle Jimmy lived a few months longer than my Mom did. Funny thing is, not long b4 Uncle Jimmy died he called me and told me he wished he had never asked me to give the little Remington to George his Son in Law. A piece of my childhood is now gone forever but that's okay, I still have fond memories of that little gun and the good times we had together now so many decades ago.
My first experience with hunting came with my Grandpa's single barrel .12 gage shotgun made early in the twentieth century by the Bridge Gun Company. I started hunting with that old shotgun at about 8 years of age. Even though the thing kicked like a Mule I still killed Squirrels, birds and rabbits with it I still have that gun today.
There were very few Deer in Johnston County NC where I grew up but today there are plenty of them all over the County. Every now and then when I was a boy someone would see a Deer but I never saw one as much as I walked the fields and woods when I was young.
One day my Uncle Jimmy my Mom's brother came to visit us he and his family lived in Virginia at the time. He brought with him a Remington .22 rifle, model 514 that he had bought at a pawn shop for 5 dollars. He and his family stayed with us for a few days and I think all of us except Grandma shot that little gun while my Uncle was there. On the day he and his family were about to leave for home Uncle Jimmy pulled out the little Remington and handed it to me. He told me take care of the rifle and use it well, but use it safely. I was 9 years old at the time. I promised my Uncle that I would take care of the little rifle and never let it go.
I hunted with the Remington for years. That little gun killed squirrels, rabbits, birds of many varieties, hogs and a dog or two. Strange dogs when they came to a farm didn't fair well back in the fifties. Usually those kinds of dogs were homeless and starving and the first thing they attacked were the chickens. They had to go.
My Uncle Jimmy moved to Florida in the early sixties where he lived with his family for the rest of his life. About two years before he died he called me one day we always kept in touch with each other but he asked if I still had the rifle he had given me now over 6 decades ago. I told him sure I still have it that little gun shoots as good and as accurate as it did when you gave it to me. Then my Uncle asked if I would be willing to give the Remington to his Son in Law who also lived in Florida. He went on to say that his daughter and her husband were going to pay my Mom a visit after a trip to Virginia as they would pass right by my Mom's house just off I-95.
Well reluctantly I told my Uncle yes. We still live about 100 miles from where I was born and raised in NC but I told him to let me know when George and Sandy would be at my Mom's house and I would go up and give the rifle to George. I hated very badly to part with the Remington but when the day came I did so. My Uncle was pretty sick and I felt that I should comply with his wishes before he died.
Jimmy Bailey my Uncle died on the 30th of December last year at the age of 89. He is the longest living Bailey that we know of my Mom also died at 89 years of age but Uncle Jimmy lived a few months longer than my Mom did. Funny thing is, not long b4 Uncle Jimmy died he called me and told me he wished he had never asked me to give the little Remington to George his Son in Law. A piece of my childhood is now gone forever but that's okay, I still have fond memories of that little gun and the good times we had together now so many decades ago.
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WOODIE13
2023 TURKEY CHALLENGE 1st place Team
Started out with a Winchester 37a 410 and a Remington 22 single shot, tended to like the 410 more. Get home from school, hunting was a minute out the back door. Feathered a lot of grouse with it, decided I needed something bigger.
Worked for my uncle my 4th grade summer mixing mortar, carrying brick and building scaffold, had enough money to get one, a few boxes of shells and a few other hunting items. My uncle took me to Hecks in Beckley and I bought a Stevens 9478 20 gauge single shot they had on sale, $59.99. Took it out that evening and shot it, was impressed. Shot a lot of squirrels that year, but the most memorable hunt with that gun was I was close to my uncle's house, walking out a logging road and jumped a grouse going straight away. On the flush I was ready, got the gun up and swung ahead of it, pulled the trigger and down it went, I was ecstatic.
Used to jump a lot of grouse back in the early 80s to early 2000s, but now your lucky to jump 2 when 40 was the norm. Just glad I got to experience it.
Worked for my uncle my 4th grade summer mixing mortar, carrying brick and building scaffold, had enough money to get one, a few boxes of shells and a few other hunting items. My uncle took me to Hecks in Beckley and I bought a Stevens 9478 20 gauge single shot they had on sale, $59.99. Took it out that evening and shot it, was impressed. Shot a lot of squirrels that year, but the most memorable hunt with that gun was I was close to my uncle's house, walking out a logging road and jumped a grouse going straight away. On the flush I was ready, got the gun up and swung ahead of it, pulled the trigger and down it went, I was ecstatic.
Used to jump a lot of grouse back in the early 80s to early 2000s, but now your lucky to jump 2 when 40 was the norm. Just glad I got to experience it.
Railroader
Billy’s Security Guard.
The good old days ain't quite over yet...This is the Stevens single shot that I carried on the school bus.
It trained my eldest grandson The Kid, who carried it a couple years...
This year the youngest, Little Brother began using it.
One day, maybe it'll train their kids, and I'll still be around to see it...
It trained my eldest grandson The Kid, who carried it a couple years...
This year the youngest, Little Brother began using it.
One day, maybe it'll train their kids, and I'll still be around to see it...
Redbow
Senior Member
If I remember correctly the Stevens guns were sold by Sears & Roebuck? I think they were bought out by Savage maybe not sure but I knew lots of folks back in the day who had guns that they bought from Sears. And from Montgomery Ward also.
Redbow
Senior Member
Honestly when I was working in tobacco I couldn't make enough money to buy a gun. I had to buy what I needed not what I wanted. I used to look at the guns in Sears and drool.
WOODIE13
2023 TURKEY CHALLENGE 1st place Team
Hecks sold them too, they unfortunately went out of business in the 90s, was a great store.
en.m.wikipedia.org
Savage bought out Stevens in the 1920.
Heck's - Wikipedia
Savage bought out Stevens in the 1920.
I got $6 a day. That weren`t too bad for the times.
The Original Rooster
Mayor of Spring Hill
At least they paid you. They didn't pay me.
Hillbilly stalker
Senior Member
First ”new” gun I ever owned, my dad bought for me at Heck’s in Huntington. It was a Winchester 12 gauge pump. I don’t remember the model #number.Hecks sold them too, they unfortunately went out of business in the 90s, was a great store.
Heck's - Wikipedia
Savage bought out Stevens in the 1920.
Redbow
Senior Member
I worked many days in tobacco for family members that I never got one red cent for. I only got paid for working in tobacco when I worked for a local farmer outside of the family. If I made 5 bucks per day I was lucky. When I moved to SC in 1965 down there they were still paying 4 bucks a day for tobacco croppers.
I also picked cotton for one cent per pound.
