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Having returned to shooting recently, I remember my first gun. I was about 10 or 11 and it was a .177 air pistol called ‘The Gat’. You cocked it by pushing in the barrel and took a screwed in pin out of the back to load in a single pellet. Squeeze the trigger and off it popped with the barrel shooting out. Was heavy and made of steel, it was also possible to shoot corks out of the end of the barrel.

Used to have hours of fun in my youth plinking at tin cans etc. I seem to remember the gun broke after 3 or 4 years, I’d discovered computers and girls by then so didn’t replace it.

I think many of us will remember the old Gat type pop-out pistols. - My first airgun too, bought secondhand for 9 shillings in 1958, my pistol was a Diana No 2, same type but with a wooden grip. All my pocket money went of Cat slugs. I still have to pistol now and still works well.

I've still got mine, and my brothers, 33 years later still perfectly functional (and still couldn't hit the broadside of a barn with one )

When I moved to Oxfordshire at the age of 16, my next door neighbour (who I am still good friends with all these years down the line) had a basic break barrel .177 air rifle. We spent ages firing at everything from a tin can to trees with targets stuck on them. Great fun….

was down at an indoor range yesterday and a guy i know pulls out an old BSA 22 rimfire with a falling block martini action.... same as the first gun i fired 'properly' rather than plinking with airguns at cans - lovely condition, diopter sights.... still bloody accurate

nic wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 3:05 pm was down at an indoor range yesterday and a guy i know pulls out an old BSA 22 rimfire with a falling block martini action.... same as the first gun i fired 'properly' rather than plinking with airguns at cans - lovely condition, diopter sights.... still bloody accurate

first rifle I ever touched for me too. I bought it from the club.

Like many before me my first rifle was a Mk1 BSA Meteor.
I thought it was the bees knees until my mate came up with a Relum. It seemed more powerful than the Meteor and of course it was, at around (or more) 12ftlbs whereas the Meteor was only around 9-10ftlbs.
Still have it.

The first rifle I ever shot was a Crosman, it came from the Sussex Armoury Catalogue. We used to sit on top of my mates shed in the middle of a city, he was 9 and owned the rifle, I was 8 and we would happily plink away all day. We weren't too descerning about targets, but we never caused any damage, nor did anyone ever call the police. I remember once he shot an aerosol can from quite short range. A split second later he and the rifle were bright yellow. We tried paint stripper but it just removed the finish, so we painted the whole rifle in black paint and were shooting it again before the paint properly dried. Seem to remember us cutting off big chunks of his hair matted with dried yellow paint, with scissors. Carefree times in the 70's.
The first airgun I owned was a Diana SP50, I traded somehow for, it shot about a foot high and half a foot to the left. But was great fun. We moved to the country and after that a Meteor appeared from my parents and I was off and away hunting with a real rifle.Which pretty well took up my teenage years.

My first gun was a Slavia 618 air rifle in .177, which I had when I was 7 years old.
Which I still have.
Used to use it in the garden with darts, but was not allowed to use pellets.
Only when I walked around the field with my Dad.
So began over 50 years of shooting

First airgun - Webley junior .177 with hair trigger given to me by a fun uncle...much to mu mother's annoyance.

Actually my first airgun experience was my old boy's air gun from when he was 14..so it dated back to around 1940. .a .177 smooth bore barrel

For my 15th birthday I got a BSA Metor Super (should have chosen the Airpsporter or a Webley / Diana instead).

Had loads of fun with it and the old boys gun till some utter bampot in Scortland decided it was like a REAL AK 47 and needed an FAC! My old BSA is now 53!!!!!!!!!!

Both are now languishing with my friendly RFD mate... a sickener!