doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com How many of you started with a .410??

My Dad spent the duration of the war as a glider trooper in the 101st Airborne. He was in Bastone(sp)during the "battle of the bulge", ditched a glider in the North Sea on his way to a drop in Holland, and landed on the beach in the Normandy invasion (they'd run out of gliders). While he was serving his country his wife (my brothers mother) was back in the states dying of tuberculosis. I guess it was a whole accumulation of things, but right at the end of WWII he suffered a nervous breakdown and was finally discharged. After discharge our government did nothing to help him put his life back together. I don't know if things would have been better for him with counceling, but spending the rest of his life self medicating himself with alchohol certainly wasn't the answer. I missed the service, as a kid my big brother was my hero and a Marine. I wanted to be a Marine too but strained my back just before I went in for my physical exam. The doctors xrayed my back and found two compressed discs. When I refused to sign a form releasing the military of any liability should I injure my back they didn't take me and ended up giving me a 1Y classification. I was embarrased when I told my Dad but much to my surprise he was happy for me. This was during the summer of 1966.
Steve

My dad was a Navy Corpsman following the Marines island hopping,he went in in 42. I joined the Marines at 17 in 65 and served with First Force Recon. Loved the extra pay for jumping out of planes and scuba diveing.
Got my first good double in Nam a Win. 21,6" barrels and pistol grip the VC just let me take with no complaints.

Steve,
It gave me pause to read of your upbringing and your father's experiences. I now appreciate my late father just a bit more. He was a WWII vet as well. Though he never spoke of any combat, or any other WWII experiences for that matter, he was in a combat theater in the Pacific.

I was fortunate in that just about a year after your first pheasant hunt and encounter with the law, my father bought a .22 for me and my brother and was teaching us to shoot in Montana.

For what it's worth, even though I had already bought a .410 and was using it/them for skeet, I really didn't get inspired to use it for any hunting until you and a few others from this bbs related your hunting experiences with them. Thanks very much for that. Hunting with the .410 has given me great pleasure.

I got a single shot bolt action .410 by JC Higgins for my 12th birthday. My Dad had it all these years with his A5 and an old Marlin .22. I was really shocked to see it again after he died and all the guns came to me.