As A kid what did you use yours for

[Garvin]

A few memories stand out. Shooting a Crosman 1300 with mates in waste ground, It was powerful enough to break the thick glass of a jam jar. In those days, pumping to 15 pumps was a breeze and being caught by the authorities held little fear. Another memory, shooting sparrows off the roof (they were considered vermin in those days, before the 'blight' or whatever it was that wiped them out - slug pellets?) with a small Milbro Diana (like a Diana 16). It had a smoothbore brass barrel but was pinpoint accurate at short ranges. Lastly, accidentally shooting my best mate in the thigh with a Harrington Gat aged about 11. Fortunately he was wearing jeans. The pellet hit a seam and the only damage was a small welt. Our weopons handling was atrocious back then.

Happy days.

[BRET22]

I Can remember being shot twice in the leg on the common near our house and that was while running like hell from these older lads then digging the pellets out at my mates dads allotment afterwards and boy did it hurt but in those days you didn't run to the police as if your dad found out you would get a good hiding Oh such happy days of youth

[lodmoor]

Diana model 2 in a shoulder holster at school under the blazer in the 1950s - until my mate shot a first year with his dad's Webley MKI and there was a bit of a purge. We both got away with it and I still have both guns (he gave me the Webley a couple of years back).

We had a sort of airgun mafia, one of the guys had been allowed to build a range in his back garden behind his father's shop where we all met, favorite targets were Foxes glacier mints, they 'exploded' on impact.

Otherwise it was off to Allypally* to try and shoot squirrels though we often wound up shooting each other.

(*Alexandra Palace, home of the first TV for the uninitiated )

[magnummike]

My first rifle was my dad's BSA Cadet Major and was only alowed to shoot it in my grandads back garden shooting at toy soldiers and hunting butterflies in his cabbage patch . When I was 14 I moved up a BSA Airsporter and me and a mate with his Meteor roamed around shooting rabbits and pigeons in our local woods , poeple were interested in what you had bagged for the pot rather than why you were roaming around armed to the teeth now I worry about getting the gun's from the car and in to the house incase anyone gets a glimse and reports me

[I. J.]

Firstly I used a Diana G34 and later a BSA Airsporter. There used to be a pack of us, at one time 13, walking along the local canal tow path shooting at bottles. You didn't tell anyone when you saw one and you usually only got one shot so you had to make it count.
We once got stopped by the police who just told us to behave - which we did.

[silva]

As a kid in Leicester in the mid 70's, I used to have to walk home from school down I think Gainsborough road, which led to the Welford Road. The most memorable part was avoiding the sniper who lived about half way down. He always remained hidden and I never actually saw him in the flesh, but we used to have to run past his house and fairly often a pellet would whistle out and make us jump. I remember the slugs stuck in the fence ! It was a well known fact amongst us kids not to linger in the vicinity in case you drew fire. As I remember he had hit someone at some point in the chin and drew blood but somehow avoided being disarmed.
On another occaision an ex pupil started shooting at the runners at the school sportsday at Mundella Boys School with an airgun, but he was chased and caught by a member of staff !

[SRV1]

For what it's worth - quite stupid really:

In the early 1960's, with my friends, we used to kick around a football in the road where we lived, hardly any cars around then and less than a handful of neighbours owned cars, the smartest was owned by the local doctor - a Rover, I think model 90.

Mrs Tremain's front wall made ideal goal area, often the ball ended up inside her property, initially returned without fuss, but, gradually with anger and complaints to our parents.....the last time being a punctured ball.

I had a Original 0.22, I think it was model number 35. One day when she was out, I put a few shots through her bra that was out with the washing, it was an easy target as she was well endowed - maybe I had invented the first peep-hole bra...? Thankfully nothing came about after this irresponsible action.

In those days we carried our air-guns around quite openly as we wandered to the canal, river or woods. Now, I need my neighbours to be out before I work on any of my collection on a sunny day in the garden. I remarked in an earlier post how my neighbour challenged me if I had a licence for an old Cadet I was working on in my garden. Hell, you can't get a better weapon of mass destruction than a car being piloted by a mobile phone user, and the fine is paltry.

Best regards to all.....

[Blackrider]

One summer in my later early childhood, during a sojourn in Matebeleland. I killed a thimble-scorpion on the banks of the Limpopo with my uncle's break-action Greener in No.2 bore. Although the calibre is hardly relevant as the size and ferocity of the thimble-scorpion is, as you know, not amenable to its destruction by airgun pellets either singly or by volley-fire. It was only the extreme militarism of my uncle - some say he had a drop of Prussian blood in him - that saved me, as he had fitted the Greener with a spike-bayonet of considerable size.

If you haven't killed a thimble-scorpion with a bayonet-thrust before the age of ten, then there is no point in me sharing the details for you will surely not believe me. Let us say that at the village, the Mbelelekweke elders presented me with a young goat and a night of dancing and feasting in celebration of my courageous act.

Always a joy Mr. D, always a joy !

[nige346]

BSA meteor .22, used to carry it around Bluebell woods near brands Hatch, a small group of us used to walk there with our rifles from Farningham occasionally walking the river Darent looking for rats etc, an old fella nearby used to keep tin cans for us to shoot and would teach us how to shoot better, make bows, catapults and fishing poles, How things have changed, can't imagine kids getting far now walking along with rifles and an old gent spending time with a group of young kids would probably get accused of all sorts, it's a much sadder world we live in now, my 14 year old loves bushcraft and enthusiastically learns skills that I learnt as a kid yet I am unable to provide him with a simple penknife to use when he's out and about, by 14 I had made my own sheath knife which I still own to this day, ok it ain't a Damascus but it was mine, I made the blade, carved the handle from a. Piece of antler and hand stitched the sheath and carried it with great pride, I still look at it with pride now as I explain to my kids when and how I made it, and why they can't do the same

[Hairydavey]

In my early teens I used to walk my German Shepherd on some waste ground well out of the way and on the edge of a wood. I would then tie her up so she was safe and out of the way and have a plink at a nearby stream (I enjoyed the splashy effect like in the movies, I had no concept of accuracy!) with a .22 BSA Scorpion air pistol that I had bought from a second hand shop.

As I was a stupid immature teen with no grasp of chemistry, or anything resembling common sense, I later on decided that I would prefer the air pistol in a shiny finish so I took sandpaper to it. Rust did the rest!

If it's any consolation, it wasn't in particularly good condition anyway.

[where's it gone]

I got a second hand Webley Jaguar from a hardware shop for £13 with a 4x20 scope in .177, if I recall correctly in 1969. Use to shoot starlings in the orchard, all 3 apple and 1 plum trees, down the garden, about 25 yards away. We had big gardens, with Dad's greenhouse to one side. Never broke a pane of glass and kept in Dad's good books. Dad had a BSA Meteor in .22 to shoot rats. I went on to buy a Relum Tornado when I started work at 15 out of the lady down the road catalogue paying weekly. Happy day's.

[daveh]

At the age of 11 in the late forties I used to walk about half a mile through the local streets to the river and open fields carrying my prized Webley Junior. Nobody commented. We grew up in a gun culture which saved our country in WW11. Those were the days.Daveh

[BRET22]

Thanks for all the responses please keep them coming

[Muskett]

Upgraded my father's Webley MKIII for a FWB Sport 124, the better calibre, sporting a 4x40 Optima scope. Lived near Stansted and rabbits were hard to find, but found them I did; squirrels and pigeons too. Basically, had the run of the countryside though my patch wasn't big. Had all sorts of skins nailed out on boards, not that they ended up exactly useful. The local Woodsman taught me about snares, trees, edible things and how to fish. Built our own treehouses, rafts and tunnels. Used to go hunting with my cat, a huge farm cat that could bring down and bring home a hare (fun watching him drag one through the cat flap). Taught me how to move quietly unseen in the woods. Frankly, I was let out in the morning and left to come home when hungry.

Skills that I used later as a Rifleman.

No one thought twice of a young lad in DPM with an air rifle. It was normal.

[Gamocfx]

Rolling laughing at some of the exploits that you criminals got up to. My stories are very mundane by comparison but I enjoyed taking plastic soldiers to the woods to blow in half. No one ever gave you a second glance carrying an air rifle. Times have changed.