These are the author's current pair of Kimber Model 82 rifles, chambered in 22 Long Rifle. They provide the feel of a centerfire rifle.


young and sharper then. As I was a pretty good swimmer, my dad deemed it safe for me to prowl the canal banks alone with strict instructions that I try not to fall into the water and shoot only down into the waterway. That was a tall order for a young boy. My family also occasionally paid a summer visit to some folks in Tennessee,


who lived on a farm near Cookville. On these visits, the exotic quarry was fence lizards and blue tailed skinks. However, there was really big game on the farm also – like woodchucks! The 22 short with a 27-grain hollow-point bullet was a marginal performer on the ’chucks, to say the least. But, since our ammunition allotment for a week on the farm was a


whole brick of shorts, we learned a lot about basic marksmanship and shot placement on these forays. Like many kids in the ’50s, I also had a Daisy BB Gun, and later a Ben- jamin .177 air rifle. But, we all coveted our 22 because it was a real gun and that first one was, and is, truly special. It’s hard telling how many rounds the little Savage 1911 has digested in its long life and, I’m pretty sure that be- fore I owned it, a lot of the ammo was corrosive. I know the total volume was sufficient to warrant having the barrel re-lined in an attempt to make it fit for my then young son to shoot back in the early ’80s. Alas, that was not to be, as the firing mechanism was worn beyond repair. So a new rifle was obtained for young Brock – but that’s another story. The Savage now hangs above the door of my ammo closet and is a pleasant reminder of untold numbers of happy days spent afield as a young boy study- ing to become a man. THE MOSSBERG YEARS


The rifle that started it all: a Savage Model 1911 boy's rifle in 22 short. Page 18 Winter 2013


The O.F. Mossberg company’s 340/360 series of 22 rimfire bolt-action rifles were mostly priced below $40 when I had a paper route. These rifles supposedly shot 22 shorts, longs, and long rifle cartridges interchangeably. The good news was they shot long rifle ammo quite well, and that was all I was concerned about at the time. With their bolt handles awkwardly located out in front of the trigger guard, and with either a detachable box magazine or an under-barrel tubular magazine, these rifles were manufactured with a myriad of stock configurations. There was a very clunky attempt at a Mannli- cher style stock and another model with a black, fold-down, fore-end tip that worked pretty well as a monopod. And there was a model called the Chuckster (Model 640K), which was more expen- sive than all the rest at $40+. I don’t know how many different models of the Mossberg 22s I owned over a period of several years as I entered my early teens but it was a pretty good bunch. They were available in great numbers on the used gun racks of our local firearms em- poriums and my dad would indulge me when I decided to trade one for another. This usually involved no more than $5 boot money and I quite probably owned some of the guns twice and didn’t even know it. With these rifles I entered the


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192  |  Page 193  |  Page 194  |  Page 195  |  Page 196