An old Topper Tale

[petemi]

50 plus years ago I was stationed in North Florida, gunning doves with a Naval Officer I worked with.  He was a competition trap and skeet shooter, had two excellent German Shorthairs, and an arsenal of costly shotguns.  A superb wing shot.  The funny thing is his very real last name was Woodcock.

 I had an Ithaca Featherweight 16 and a dog that was part Lab and the rest of her came from a lower middle class neighborhood.  She was a great retriever though.

The doves were flying hot and heavy that afternoon.  We were burning ammo, and the dogs were working hard.  I pulled on a dove on a spent shell, and Woody saw me flinch.  He handed me his car keys and said "Go get what's in the trunk"  The trunk held a spare tire, a .410 single shot and a box of shells.  I figured he didn't want the spare tire so I brought the gun and ammo.  By the end of the day I was holding my own with him knocking down birds.

That began the romance of the single shot, through traditional caplocks and flintlocks, and pistols, Toppers, F.I.E. Brazilians, and now Handis, Huntsman and Pardners.

Woody opened the door to a whole new shooting world for me.  This Christmas, one of my grand kids is getting an old 12 ga. Topper.  He may want something fancier now, but I'll bet in few years he'll be glad he got it.  I still cherish mine.

Start a kid with a single shot this Christmas.

Merry Christmas, all of you good people.

Pete

[Lazermule]

Started my boy on a .410 single shot when he was 7.  He just turned 14 last week and grampa surprised him with a new (unshot) Beretta 303 20ga auto with 2 extra barrels. Wow was he excited when he saw it.  It is a beautiful gun and he can't wait to shoot it. 

His old .410 also has a 22 barrel.  Now that he is done with it I may rechamber it to 22 mag.

LAZER

[LONGTOM]

Good stories guys.
I too started the long life to gunhood with a H&R 410 topper.
The case harden frame was a thing of beauty to a kid of 7.
Wish I still had that one.
Have replaced it but with a matt finish one.
I do miss that color case though!
That was over 40 years ago and I still fancy a single shot.

Merry CHRISTmas guys!


LONGTOM

[quickdtoo]

Those are fine tales, but I started with a 12ga when Dad gave me his pre-1940 H&R when I was 8 or 9, it was my first centerfire, I'd been shooting his old Stevens M15 for a couple years til then. I didn't even know what a .410 was then, no one I knew had one, but that 12ga was quite a handful, I'll tell ya that, a lot more gun than I started my sons on, but it was what he had. It was only a couple years before I was on my own hunting with it. One of my most memorable stories is a day where I bagged a grouse on the way to the pond, then I got three teal with one shot when I snuck up on the pond, I don't think I've seen that many ducks in one spot since!! 

Tim

[deadrabbit]

I started with my Dads single Topper 20 gauge and bagged enough pheasants to fill a pickup with it.  My childhood hunting memories would be empty without it.

I strayed away from single shots for a while, and other than my love of pistols, Ive returned to them.

During deer seasons, I used to joke to my friends about getting a "repeater" and how deadly I'd be, but of course i stuck with my NEF 12 slugger.  Once on a day that i said i wasn't going hunting deer, I heard a lot of shooting and saw a buck running towards my parents property.  I went and grabbed my NEF single and dropped the buck with one shot... meanwhile without me knowing it, it was my friends and others that chased the buck up, shot about 20 rounds at it missing it,  and my friends were joking after they missed it, hoping I heard the shooting, then they heard one shot over the hill and started swearing(I was told) that SOB got it!  LOL   

Dogs from lower middle class neighborhoods are the best!

[Sourdough]

I know some people really think a lot of the .410.  But to be honest I don't have anything good to say about it.  That is what my Dad started me with, and I hated it.  We would go squirrel hunting and I always missed.  Rabbits were safe with me around, so were quail and dove.  The only thing I ever killed with it was a goat, 10ft right in the forehead.  When I left home I hated that .410 so bad I refused to own a shotgun till I was in my mid 30s.  Then only 12 gages for years.  I currently own two .410s.  I have owned them about 10 years now, have never shot them, probably never will.  I got them as boot in a trade.  Told my brother he can have them if he ever comes to visit.   

Hate being so negative.

Started my youngest brother off with a 12ga Topper, he was a big kid.  That was the right gun for him.  He kept birds on the table at home till he left home.  Today he really loves to shoot dove and quail.  Ducks too.

[Rustyinfla]

 Anybody that can hit a dove with a .410 sure has my respect. Around here I save the box the shells came in so I have something to take my doves home in.
    I love the H&R single shots but I always had trouble shooting them. I always shot low, until I got he deluxe version with the vent rib. I'd take that gun over any Perrazzi ever made. When I got the Deluxe I put away my old Wingmaster and haven't touched it since except to move it out of the way.
  When I got mine I got the 12 ga. but I'm seriously thinking about getting a 20 ga barrel for it as well. Now y'all really have me thinking. A 20 ga. with the straight style stock from a BC would be a fine looking piece. I'm drooling on my keyboard now.

[John Boy]

My daughters, now 42 and 39 started out with Topper Youth model 20ga's at the ages of 12 and 9.  Best memory was daughter #2 and I were hunting squirrels one day.  She called over to me; 'Dad, come see this piece of glass in the rabbit hole'.  Going over and looking in a woodchuck hole was a piece of glass showing.  Digging the dirt away, it was a perfect unbroken pottery jug.  On it in cobalt scroll letters was - Salmon Bros, Newark, NJ.  So when we got home, I penciled the date on the bottom of the jug.  It's next to my wooden decoys and we still talk about that day ... nice memories of a hunt with one's young daughter - now married with 2 daughters of her own!

The Toppers are still in their cardboard shipping boxes waiting for my 2 grand daughters to reach the age when we can hunt with these 2nd generation Toppers 

[Doublebass73]

  A 20 ga. with the straight style stock from a BC would be a fine looking piece. I'm drooling on my keyboard now.

Rusty,

Here's one in 28 gauge, it is a joy to shoot:

[Lucky Joe]

I started out with a Excel 16 ga. single shot and moved to an Ithica 16 ga double sxs. When I was 16 I bought an 1100 Remington 12 ga., at 23 a gentleman gave me an 870 Remington 12 ga. with two barrels. I won a Ruger Red Label 12 ga. at a White Tails Forever banquet when I was 45. Several years ago I purchased an H&R 12 ga., .50 cal ML combo. My favorite shotgun to hunt with, the H&R 12 ga..

I still have all the shotguns except the Red Label, another fellow really wanted to have it, I've been fortunate to own such a variety, guess I've kinda completed the circle.

[walnutred]

An old H&R single shot 410 was the family training shotgun the everyone used until they saved enough to buy their own shotgun. I remember someone commenting once that a 410 was a hard gun to learn to hit with and my dad's reply was: These kids have it easier than I did.

For my dad and uncles the first gun was a Stevens Favorite 22. Granddad was not going to waste money on shotgun shell until they could learn to shoot and it's a lot cheaper to miss with a 22. Whenever they got to telling hunting stories it seemed they each eventually got around to discussing their first quail on the wing with that old Stevens 22. They would recount how they picked which quail in the covey to try for, deciding how much lead to give etc. The other part of the ritual was once Granddad confirmed the bird had only one 22 hole in it the next morning a trip was made to the hardware store to select a shotgun.