Memories

[steve_b_wales]

Yesterday, I was having a good sort out of all my shooting gear(jackets, camo nets etc etc) which are kept up my attic, and I came across a suede 12g cartridge belt. Straight away I remembered when and who I bought it off. I was 15 at the time (1972) and I bought a Baikal single barrel shotgun, two boxes of Baikal cartridges, a gun slip and the belt off my friends brother for the pricely sum of £20. The shotgun was my first 12g I had and I remember firing it up on the farm with the Baikal cartridges and the 'enjoyable' recoil. Not long after that, I purchased a Savage 5 shot pump action from Kays catalogue. Happy Days! 

Edited June 13, 2023 by steve_b_wales

[ditchman]

i only have one item from my first days out with a newly aquired shotgun certificate  £1-13s-6d...and that is a canvas and leather edged cartridge bag bought it from Partridges store in Hadliegh (suffolk)in the 1960's

it hold 25 carts and still is just servicable

[Westley]

Ah, BUT can yo still fasten the cartridge belt  ?.............I can't fasten mine  !  😄

[johnphilip]

28 minutes ago, Westley said:

Ah, BUT can yo still fasten the cartridge belt  ?.............I can't fasten mine  !  😄

He couldn't  his mum. Did it when she did his shoe laces😀😀

[steve_b_wales]

1 hour ago, Westley said:

Ah, BUT can yo still fasten the cartridge belt  ?.............I can't fasten mine  !  😄

Yes, it was 'big'! 

1 hour ago, ditchman said:

i only have one item from my first days out with a newly aquired shotgun certificate  £1-13s-6d...and that is a canvas and leather edged cartridge bag bought it from Partridges store in Hadliegh (suffolk)in the 1960's

it hold 25 carts and still is just servicable

My first shotgun licence was puchased from my local police station back in 1975 and cost, I believe, £8 for 3 years. When asked where I was going to use it, I replied, 'farmland and waste ground'. This was accepted. No need for a cabinet either.

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, good post Steve, sadly I have nothing from my early shooting days only memories 🤔🙄😁

[Rim Fire]

Still got the very first SBS hammer gun my farther bought in the pub off a bloke for 10shillings i first shot it around  15yrs of age when i became 17 had my first cert he gave it me 

[Westley]

1 hour ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

Hello, good post Steve, sadly I have nothing from my early shooting days only memories 🤔🙄😁

As I recently posted on here, I have bought back my gun that I sold over 50 years ago. Apart from test firing it  I haven't shot it yet, although I did finish 9th in a National skeet Competition in the early 1970's using it  !

Edited June 13, 2023 by Westley

[Bigbob]

Same here being a hoarder  i spent three month at inverness doing forestry every saturday i would go down to the gun shop and buy stuff most of which i still have must be 45/50 years old now 

[oldypigeonpopper]

1 hour ago, Westley said:

As I recently posted on here, I have bought back my gun that I sold over 50 years ago. Apart from test firing it  I haven't shot it yet, although I did finish 9th in a National skeet Competition in the early 1970's using it  !

Well done, I often wonder if my old AYA yeoman still going 🤔

[Westley]

40 minutes ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

Well done, I often wonder if my old AYA yeoman still going 🤔

I am sure it is, they are bombproof  !

[team tractor]

I have a few special things but nothing from my teens when I started shooting .

I have a jacket off my late friend that I’ve yet to shooting anything with whilst wearing it 🤣. I swear he’s watching .

a webley jaguar I was given to teach my kids with off one of the highest judges in the country . Judge Taylor . He’s passed away since . He had it from new .

I’ve had a few bits of mates 20+ years ago like cartridge belts and cleaning rods . 

 

[JKD]

Crickey,,,, when I was 15 I was bunking off school to go fishing on the local lakes etc 🙈 Didn't know anything about shooting,,,, except watching villains on TV. Yup, I was very late to the party 😇🤣 Happy days anyway !? 😁

Edited June 13, 2023 by JKD

[39TDS]

Have a SXS 12g hammer gun I bought 44 years ago when I was 15, didn't have a license. Paid £50 iirc for a pretty much unknown make, so unknown I can't even remember what it is.

I couldn't hit a damned thing with it so cut a chunk off the end of the barrels to improve the choke.  

Got pretty good with it after that, or reasonably good anyway. It was and still is my main shotgun but tbh I have always favoured my 22 if going shooting.

[marsh man]

Apart from a few bits and pieces like my W A G B I membership cards and the ten bob gun licence's that is more or less it , but my first gun I brought of Darlows of Norwich for £17.00 would now be well over 60 years ago and is now just a memory in the melting pot .

This is not to say that just because I have no longer have got a lot of the stuff that have been through my hands I have forgot about , no I haven't forgot and my memory bank is full of happy memories , my first gun punt I bought with my brother for £10.00 off ( Diamond ) Allan who was one of the last professional wildfowlers on Breydon water , two 12 bore hammer guns of unknown makes , proof , chamber sizes or anything else about the guns , simply because makes , proof and chamber size had any interest to us , we bought these for £5.00 the two , we were buying Yellow Wizard cartridges at the time for 12/6d a box , the guns were kept in the shed up the garden and we practised on the Starlings that were about in abundance , we got pretty niffty on these and would often hit around the 20 mark from a box of cartridges , these were far better practise than the clays and were well on form when the duck season arrived.

Talking about duck , one of my best deals was buying a Midland Company 3" hammer gun , this gun had 32" barrels and the chokes were full and full in each barrel , the gun was £20 and he chucked in a leather cartridge belt full of three inch shells for another three quid .

This was my main wildfowling and pigeon gun for many years and had 1000s upon 1000s of cartridges put through it , in those far off days I was shooting between 2 and 3000 Pigeons a year and over 100 duck each season plus many bits and pieces we wont go into detail , these will just stay locked up in the memory bank , or that's where I would be if they were ever disclosed 

[JohnfromUK]

I still have my first shotgun - given to me as an 18th birthday present, and still use it.  I bought soon afterwards a Brady sleeve (still going strong, but a bit of a 'Triggers broom with new zip, and other repairs), a Brady cartridge bag, now well worn, a Brady cartridge belt, still fits, but relatively little used as I found I didn't like belts and a Brady hard case - again relatively little used.

In the nearly 50 years since receiving it, the gun, which was a well used example and over 50 years old when I got it has had a new joint pin, new firing pins, ribs relayed and re-blacked, a repair to the ejector on one barrel.

[ditchman]

2 hours ago, marsh man said:

Apart from a few bits and pieces like my W A G B I membership cards and the ten bob gun licence's that is more or less it , but my first gun I brought of Darlows of Norwich for £17.00 would now be well over 60 years ago and is now just a memory in the melting pot .

This is not to say that just because I have no longer have got a lot of the stuff that have been through my hands I have forgot about , no I haven't forgot and my memory bank is full of happy memories , my first gun punt I bought with my brother for £10.00 off ( Diamond ) Allan who was one of the last professional wildfowlers on Breydon water , two 12 bore hammer guns of unknown makes , proof , chamber sizes or anything else about the guns , simply because makes , proof and chamber size had any interest to us , we bought these for £5.00 the two , we were buying Yellow Wizard cartridges at the time for 12/6d a box , the guns were kept in the shed up the garden and we practised on the Starlings that were about in abundance , we got pretty niffty on these and would often hit around the 20 mark from a box of cartridges , these were far better practise than the clays and were well on form when the duck season arrived.

Talking about duck , one of my best deals was buying a Midland Company 3" hammer gun , this gun had 32" barrels and the chokes were full and full in each barrel , the gun was £20 and he chucked in a leather cartridge belt full of three inch shells for another three quid .

This was my main wildfowling and pigeon gun for many years and had 1000s upon 1000s of cartridges put through it , in those far off days I was shooting between 2 and 3000 Pigeons a year and over 100 duck each season plus many bits and pieces we wont go into detail , these will just stay locked up in the memory bank , or that's where I would be if they were ever disclosed 

i think will garfit's weapon of choice for pigeons was 32" barrells full &full SXS....whilst sitting on a 1950's secertary's swiveling chair...........

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, ditchman said:

i think will garfit's weapon of choice for pigeons was 32" barrells full &full SXS....whilst sitting on a 1950's secertary's swiveling chair...........

All I had to do was to put the decoys out ten yards future out and then you didn't have to swing that quick , apart from the early 3 inch shells that came with the gun I could never remember buying any more 3 inch shells , you could feed it Alpamax 2  3/4 and get very little recoil , I was a fairly strong fit person that weighed for getting on to 14 stone so the weight of the gun and recoil was nothing to bother about , as I used it all the year round I also took it on walked up and the odd day on the peg , it went in the slip when the drive was over and I doubt if anyone knew or cared what I was using .

A bloke ended up giving me more or less what I paid for it to use as a wall piece , that ole gun well deserved a rest after I let it go to a new home 

[Dougy]

22 hours ago, steve_b_wales said:

 from Kays catalogue. Happy Days! 

Kays catalogue, 🤩 

 

Remember as a kid the first glossy mag, always struggled turning the pages while going through the underwear pages then finally getting to the sports bit. Buying a gun via mail order just image that nowadays. 

[Penelope]

I still have a Barbour Northumbria coat from the early 80's. Fit's too, although it's not been worn for an eon. I also have my grandads Solway Zipper from the early 70's.

[London Best]

20 minutes ago, Penelope said:

I still have a Barbour Northumbria coat from the early 80's. Fit's too, although it's not been worn for an eon. I also have my grandads Solway Zipper from the early 70's.

I, too, still have my Northumbria from the ‘80’s. 
I really wish I still had a couple of the Solway Zippers I wore out in the ‘60’s/‘70’s.

[Townie]

15 in 1972! That makes us the same vintage. My dad bought me an unnamed Spanish s/s for £25 and a box of cartridges that year. After the .410, I thought I'd never miss with a 12. Soon found otherwise...