doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com A "keeper" gun

My Dad thought that a .22 rifle required a greater level of safety in use, because of the extended range at which it could cause harm, and so my first gun was a .410 S X S at age 8. I was allowed later, probably around the age of 12, to begin using my Grandad's Rem. Model 33 single shot .22 to try to kill those squirrels that would run to the top of the great old pines on the place. Then, I was given my first .22, a Remington Nylon 11, for Christmas when I was 14. From then on the .22 was my gun of choice for squirreling. As an adult I have had great fun hunting squirrels with my S & W K22 pistol and my Southern Mtn. style 36 cal. long rifle, taking head shots only with it.

I'm addicted to doves and ducks, but nothing takes me back to my carefree childhood days more so than wandering the woods with a .22 in hand. What wonderful days those were. The .410 S x S is gone, and the Nylon 11 was stolen from my truck, but I have Grandad's old Model 33. It is indeed a keeper.

I really never gave that much thought because a lot of kids I knew were given a .22 at a very young age. I wasn't allowed to keep my .22 rifle in my own bedroom until I was about 13, but I always had access to it because it was kept in my parent's bedroom closet, along with my Dad's hunting guns. My Dad had been drilling gun safety into my skull for several years, and I was forbidden to mess with my gun without his supervision. I knew better than to test him on that. I'm not saying I was never tempted to take my .22 out to shoot it when he wasn't around. But deep down, I knew the consequences would be pretty bad if I got caught. I was warned that if I messed up even one time with a gun in my hands, that I wouldn't ever be permitted to hunt or shoot until I was grown up and living on my own. There was no question in my young mind that he meant every word.

My Dad would never allow me to own a BB gun. He felt they were too dangerous for kids because the steel BB's were prone to ricochet's, and I could "put my eye out". He did allow me to use my paper route money to buy a .177 cal. Benjamin air rifle when I was 12, because the pure lead pellets were unlikely to ricochet. It was far more accurate than any BB gun, and .177 Pellets were much cheaper than .22 shells. I shot that thing countless times, and literally wore it out. I liked it because you could vary the power depending upon how many times you pumped it up. I remember one time I took a shot at a rabbit in the yard. I didn't want to kill it. Just wanted to sting it in the ass to discourage it from coming around the garden. I gave the Benjamin just two pumps and held the sights about a foot over its' back, knowing the trajectory of the pellet would drop roughly that much at about 20 yards. When I squeezed the trigger, the rabbit jumped at least 3 feet straight into the air and came down dead as a stone. I couldn't find a mark on it, and I think it must have had a heart attack. A few years ago, I bought new piston seals and other parts that were worn, and rebuilt it and refinished the walnut stock. So I guess that's another of my "Keeper" guns.

You did better than I did. My first round of trap I broke 12. And stumbled along for several weeks. Skeet was even harder for me.

No, I did not do better than you did. My first round, I maybe broke eight, and I was as happy as a clam. Might have broken twelve or thirteen my last two rounds that day. As I said, I was maybe breaking half of 'em at the end, which astonished me. I need to have a quiet word with your high school mathematics teacher, sir.

But, yeah, Skeet. Going from Trap to Skeet, for me, was like going from go-karts to Formula One. My eyes watered, my first two rounds. In a good way. Because I was thinking, 'Okay, this is unpossible. But. Other people can hit these. I oughta be able to. Oh, and this is fun!'

I ain't shot Skeet often, and I'm still happy if I break more than half. The Superposed Lightning Skeet with those goofy Carl Barks dollar-sign choke-marks on its flats I bought this past autumn told me I can probably do even better.

Blowing-up porcelain penguins is fun. Blowing-up porcelain penguins with a shotgun I like and trust is even more fun. I think I'll be keeping the Superposed, too.

It occurs to me that what was considered a gun that the game keeper would use in England, would be typical of what American manufacturers produced for everybody, here. The highly engraved models, typically the same exact gun as the hardware store version that was the manufacturer’s bread and butter, are few and far between.

Best,
Ted

Walsh - "The Modern Shotgun" - defines " the Keeper's Gun " as sold (? manufactured?) by Thomas Bland.
I should have said "The Modern Spotsman's Gun & Rifle" - by Stonehenge ( Dr Walsh).