My First Gun

After my first hunting season, I was all excited about hunting, but I didn’t own a gun. So I went down to the local pawn shop to go shopping for a gun. Not knowing anything about guns this was not going to be easy. I didn’t even know if I wanted a shotgun or a rifle. When I walked into the pawn shop I saw this 12 gauge shotgun. It caught my eye as it had the longest barrel I had ever seen. So I inspected it and it was within my budget. It was only $25.00 (remember it was the Sixties). So I bought it!! And I now had my first gun. 12 ga shotgun with 36 in barrel.

Now that I had my gun I headed to Mr. Avery’s house to show him of my Great Find. When I arrived at his house I showed him what I had bought. His response was “ this thing is so long you can reach out and hit the deer over the head”. He then proceeded to explain that this was and excellent duck gun, but I didn’t care as I had my first gun. Now all I had to do was get a gun rack for my truck. It was close to thanksgiving and Mr. Avery came and said he was going to a turkey shoot and wanted to borrow my 12 ga. He asked me to go and he said he always won a turkey for dinner all the years he had been going, but I had duty, but I was so proud that he wanted to use my shotgun. I got home about 6 that night and Mr. Avery wasn’t home yet and Mrs. Avery said he should be home anytime. About an hour later in comes Mr. Avery and the first thing he says to me is “ where did you get this gun”? I replied that I had gotten it at a pawn shop downtown Brunswick. He then proceeded to tell us the story.

There he was lining up to shoot and after he fired his load he missed the target completely. He couldn’t believe he missed and shot again and again he missed the target completely. Trying to figure out what was going on. Mr. Avery had a second shot gun so he got his turkey that year. He also said on the way home he stopped at a gunsmith friend of his to check out the shotgun. Turns out the barrel was bent and the gun couldn’t shoot straight. Mr. Avery of course had a solution. He informed me that this gun would make a great lightning rod. My feelings were hurt a little but you have to admit it was funny. Finally, we took that gun and made it a camp gun, one we left at camp which hung over the front door and every time some asked about the gun the reply was “Oh that is tom’s gun. He bought it to shoot around corners” A couple years later, we lost that gun in a fire when two 16 year olds boys decided to burn the camp down while they were drinking. They didn’t even know who the camp belonged to. Anyway that is the story on my first gun.