A Gun a Week: Winchester Ranger Model 120

I might as well start the Gun a Week thing with the gun that started it all. The summer I turned 18 years old, I had to make that choice that all first time, gun-buying hunters have to make: Remington or Winchester? I already knew I needed a shotgun so I could hunt anything that walked, crawled, climbed, or flew in NC, (a more expensive rifle could come later) but there was that nagging question. 

Back then, in 1984 at Best Products at least, the two pump shotguns that a farmhand from Lakeview Farms could afford was either a Remington 870 or a Winchester 1200. And since I was on my own and making a whopping $25.00 dollars a day, it sort of became an easy choice. After some fondling in the store and alot* of hemming and hawing, I bought the Winchester.

The Remingtons at the time, by the way, came with vent-ribbed barrels and fixed chokes. The ventilated-ribbed barrels were kind of a new thing that everyone had to have, but the screw-in chokes were something else. Choke tubes had come and gone over the years, and then, in the '80s were coming back but were being met with skepticism. I can remember a friend laughing at me for buying a shotgun with screw-in chokes.

A few test shots in the back yard onto newspaper hung in the trees made believers out of us.

Back then, screw-in chokes were "new" again.

Obviously, choke tubes are here to stay! So are ribbed barrels it seems though I forget what they're supposed to be doing. As loosely as this shotgun's rib is attached, I can't see that it does anything except look cool. Oh, it makes a handy place to attach a bead.

They're still making these! 

This shotgun has been with me under the bed or in a safe or cabinet ever since that summer of '84. It's been hunting many times and killed a few doves, ducks, geese, and squirrels. Early on too, when teenage boys were bored after work, it killed a few dragon flies, frogs, bottles and dirt clods thrown in the air. And at the heights of boredom, it has even been used to dig holes in the ground! I think I shot a catfish once too.

This shotgun also taught me a valuable lesson about gun handling shortly after I bought it. I was smart enough not to blow anyone's head off, or my own foot, that's always been a no-brainer, but I sure wasn't smart enough to not lean it against a buddy's car.

Two big gouges to remind me not to lean a gun against a vehicle.

Slam a car door on one side, and your gun will flop right onto the gravel driveway the car's parked on. I remember the clatter it made hitting the rocks and will never forget the two gouges that remain on the receiver to this day. Lesson learned.

I shot my first round of skeet with this gun--a respectable 18--and for a long time after that became addicted to chasing 25 targets with a whole host of different shotguns and gauges. This gun served me well until I realized I had to shoot skeet with an automatic and fancier over and under models. It's only recently that I've began to pull this old thing out of the safe when I'm off to shoot or hunt.

Turkey season is cranking up around these parts right now and I have a huge failure with this gun that I have to erase. Having called a big Tom right to my feet a couple of seasons ago, I had to jump up, gun blazing, to try and get him, but I missed...and missed...and missed. Completely surprised by the success of my calling, but utterly flustered by my misses, I'm now on a mission to get the stink off this shotgun this year.

Old "corn cob" forearm is a reach for a little feller like me.

Anyway, I'm glad I still have the first gun I ever bought. So many of my friends do not have their first gun. Part of me wonders if it's because I had to work my ass off for the money to buy the gun rather than have it just handed to me. Back then, to say money was tight would be an understatement, but being a teenager, I could live on popcorn, rice, and water. I'd say it was worth it.