Gary Reeder
it's amazing how the older we get the more we want to
Wednesday, October 16, 2019, 15:46

bring back the fun stuff of our youth. Several years ago I decided I wanted to go back and find the guns I grew up with. My original ones had gone somewhere thru the years. Where I have no idea, but gone.A couple of these pictures are pics off the internet while most are my actual guns.

For my shotgun I had 2. One was actually my Dad's which he let me use which was a Sears 12 gauge semi auto made I found out later by High Standard.


I was 20 in the picture hunting doves around our pond. Note the high class camo.
It was heavy and bulky but to a 15 year old kid it was the perfect shotgun. On this one I didn't have to look far. When my Dad died I got this gun which had been put in a closet for years and was rusted so I refinished it and brought it back to life.

But that was my Dad's gun. Mine was a Marlin bolt action 20 gauge. Not the greatest shotgun but to a 13 year old it was great and I slew my share of cottontails with it. This one I didn't feel the need to search around and replace it for some reason as my Dad's 12 gauge was my favorite. This was my 20 gauge bolt action.

Most of my early hunting was done with 22 caliber rifles. They, like my other guns were sold by Sears and i found out later, like my Dad's shotgun, were made by High Standard. These were not the little child size 22 rifles we have today. They were full size rifles and I walked many a mile carrying one for squirrels and for rabbits in a snowstorm where they huddled under logs and such. My rifle was the J.C. Higgins model 31.

Apparently there were a lot of baby boomers that were trying to re-live their youth as these guns were extremely hard to find and when I did they were $350 or more. I learned that there were 3 of them, the model 29, 30 and 31. I liked all three so i eventually was lucky enough to find decent prices on all 3 and grabbed them up.

A year or so after getting out of school and getting into radio I bought another 22 rifle, the Marlin model 99 M1, a little shorty that looked like an M1 carbine in 22 LR. It became my all purpose hunting rifle for small game. At the time I was writing for a Nashville newspaper a weekly guns and hunting column (imagine that happening today). I did a test on all the new hyper velocity 22 ammo coming out at that time (1979 and 1980) and that little 99 M1 beat them all including some high dollar 22 rifles. But somewhere along the way it was either sold or traded for something else. But I decided a couple of years back that I needed to replace it. Like the Sears High Standard guns this proved frustrating and everyone I saw on gunbroker, I was outbid on it in the middle of the night. Plus these guns, like the High Standard were going for 4 or 5 times what they cost originally. It was unusual to see a good one under $300. I finally found 2 of them and bid on both. Typically I got both, but that was fine. I kept the best one and passed the other one along to another old goat trying to re-live his youth.

A long story but blame it on John Taffin who brought back some old memories with his Red Ryder BB gun post. Oh by the way, I never did have a Red Ryder lever action. I had a pump BB gun. I don't remember who made it. Probably came from Sears. I sawed the long stock off and left a pistol grip. I played with the inners so that everytime I pumped it it fired. I killed a truckload of snakes with that one wading the creeks in Tennessee and finding them sunning on a flat rock.

So for you old goats, you can still re-live some of your youth. About that cheerleader you were chasing and never got, well you might still be able to catch her. She is in the old folks home being visited by her great grandchildren.