We’ll get back to the serious stuff here soon.  For the moment, I’m thinking falling snowflakes and carols and Christmas trees and watching kids, grandkids, and now a great grandkid enjoy the most iconic holiday.

But, hey, this is a gun blog.  Not too long ago, I mentioned some of my most memorable gun-related Christmas presents. 

I’d like to invite you to share some of yours here, both given and received.

The gun is a gift that speaks of recognized responsibility and trust.  It is a gift of protection.  It is symbolic of that, and of freedom, and so much more.

From all on this end, our best wishes for a safe and joyous Christmas for you and yours.

40 COMMENTS

  1. Merry Christmas Mas! Also, Happy New Year!
    Maybe Trump will give us all a present by naming you the ATF Director!

  2. Mas,
    Merry Christmas to you and yours!
    After serving in the USMC in the early 60’s and training with a M-1 I finally pulled (pressed) the trigger and bought a service grade M-1 from the CMP. It is all I remember and recoils less than I remember! It was manufactured by Springfield Armory in July 1941 which makes it 2 years older than I am!

  3. On my 10th Christmas I received a Stevens Bolt Action 22 rifle that my dad had spent many hours refinishing. During the restoration I was forbidden from going down in the basement. It was a labor of love on his part. I was elated when he gave it to me. I bugged him until he took me to the gravel pit outside our small town where we shot at tin cans. I’ll always cherish that time in my heart.

  4. We have the same Nativity ?

    I’ve never received a firearm as a gift, but my first Christmas spent with my new in-laws (or maybe the year before I married their daughter?) my M-I-L gave me a gun sock. I was blown away happy, since I’m pretty much the sole gun owner in my own family.

    This year I’m giving my 7-year old twin girls a Savage Rascal. I’m looking forward to much fun!

  5. Christmas when I was 12 I received a Western Field single shot .22 rifle. Most of my friends had a repeater of some kind but my dad said a single shot would make me a better shot. He grew up in the 1920s and living thru the depression knew how to save ammo. My car was broken into and the rifle stolen while at college. Sure wish I still had it.

    • Fascinating, my first experience of becoming a victim of theft occured at college as well. After growingup on a farm with tens of thousands of dollars of equipment and tools in unlocked buildings.

  6. My very first firearm was a bolt action Marlin .22LR rifle which was my Great Uncle’s who passed it along to my Uncle and my Dad, who then passed it along to me in the mid 1960s. Unfortuately it was stolen in a home burglary. I wanted my two oldest grandsons to get their first firearm from me, so for Christmas 2015 I asked Santa to bring them each a Marlin Model XT 22LR. He came through and the looks on their face was unforgettable.

  7. Be careful.

    To buy a firearm to give as a gift, that would be a straw-man sale. Maybe Mas knows of a work around.

    MERRY CHRISTMAS to all!

    • a straw purcase is defined in law as purchasing a firearm for someone else who is a prohibited person, thus cannot legally buy or possess one. Purchasing a firearm as a gift, unless your child, nephew, cousin, neighbour, is debarred the use of arms is no crime at all.

  8. When I was 14, my older brother (R.I.P.)gave me his 357 Ruger Black Hawk Revolver. He taught me how to fish in the U.P.of Michigan…I am almost 60 now. I fished by myself a lot. I thought he gave it to me to protect myself from bear…LOL so naive.

    Have a great Christmas Mas, Gail, and family

  9. This year I bought myself a Canik TP9SFX and it is a really neat gun. I took it to the range and was having a great time shooting a plastic bottle someone had left out there. It came with the red dot already on and I guess they sighted it in, because I was hitting that plastic bottle quite often.

    • I love Canik pistols and hope to buy one this year. Maybe uncle Mas here will give us a heads up if and when any US agencies adopt one as standard issue or at least allows for optional carry. Have fun with yours!

  13. My cruel father propped the Winchester 67A Boy’s Rifle behind the TV & let all 3 kids open all the presents before casually asking a deeply disappointed 11 year old boy what that was leaning on the TV. I was the first of my friends to have their own real rifle, but not for long. Dad was redeemed & back to the best father ever.
    Merry Christmas to all.
    Regards,
    turnerriver

  14. Dear Mas, after mentioning one summer that I always wanted a Colt Series 70 Gold Cup, my wife surprised me with one a few months later under our Christmas tree. What a thoughtful and wonderful gift it was!

    Merry Christmas!

  15. When I was 14 or 15 my parents got me a 12 gauge pump shotgun, with adjustable choke, (probably) from Sears or Monkie Wards. As was their tradition ammo was placed in the stockings, however a box of 12’s wouldn’t fit so they had to find somewhere else. Between us(three brothers and a sister)we were able to find them. So shotgun and shells in hand, we proceeded outside to the quite tall bank that was some 20 or so yards from the front door, and proceeded to “test” the new shotgun. OH, the fireballs were spectacular, and we ‘wasted’ a few shrubs on the side of the bank. Needless to say, our folks weren’t too happy about being woke up at the very crack of dawn, but I don’t remember too much fall-out from the stunt. Neighbors were few and far between and I don’t remember if anyone in the area reported hearing the noise.

  16. Firearms are tools of civilization. Very best of the holidays to you and yours! Thank you for all of the well-crafted words over the years.

  18. The most memorable gun-related Christmas gift was from my brother-in-law. Then, a retired LAPD sergeant who helped me pick out a handgun for self-defense after my studio apartment had been broken into by a third-strike neighboring resident.
    He helped me choose a Smith & Wesson 686 that I purchased and he helped me practice and train with near his place on the mountain. Although at the time I had no need or intent to carry this handgun around with me he felt if just for training purposes I needed a holster for it. He rummaged through a box full of appropriate holsters and let me select which one I’d like to keep as his gift to me. Without any prompting from him I went through them and selected a very practical straightforward holster that suited the need. He paused with a big grin and said “That’s the holster I graduated the academy with!”
    I’ve long since moved out of the neighborhood that prompted its need and after my brother-in-law passed away my practice with the 686 had deminished.
    Some 25 years later, a new series of slightly more formal practice sessions lead to a qualification on that same mountain with multiple firearms inwich the 686 in that same holster was included.
    I know it’s just a holster and I’ll not likely ever carry it around outside of a practice target shooting venue but it will never she’d the family history or sentimental value to me.
    Merry Christmas and a huge thank you to all the uniforms helping to keep it safe for all of us out there.

  19. I am giving my wife her first 22 rifle this year.
    I remember getting my first .22. A Winchester 9422 for Christmas when I was 14. I handed my fathers 9422 to my son for Christmas when he was 14.
    There is some thing about old guns and Christmas with big red bows.
    Stay safe and enjoy the season.

  20. Dad worked a lot. A LOT. What time we had to spend together was pretty scarce and mostly, it involved work. Those times we hunted, or fished, or vacationed together, were pretty awesome.

    One thing I never had an opportunity to do, one thing he loved, was rabbit hunting out on Beaver Island Michigan. He went up a couple years in a row, for a week each time, and before I had an opportunity to join him he’d died.

    I did get to be there in spirit, though. A couple years before he died, he mentioned he had always wanted a light double for rabbit hunting, and since I was never any good at figuring out what dad wanted or needed, I took the bait.

    It took a while, but i found a clean, well kept LeFever Nitro Special, in 20 gauge.

    I gave it to him for Christmas. Took it out to him wrapped in a blanket, and gave it to him in the shop. Away from the women, where the tools were. Smelling of wood shavings and oil and old wood fires.

    Dad unfolded the blanket and sat it on the bench. He picked it up and put it back down again. Then he picked it up, broke it open, looked down the barrel, and sat it down on the bench again.

    Dad was never good about showing his emotions, but tears welled up in his eyes.

    That is my most memorable Christmas.

  22. A Remington Model 512X bolt action .22 rifle with a tubular magazine, sights adjustable for windage and elevation and a walnut stock purchased by my father for my Christmas, about 1964. I never had a better present. He only lived a little over three more years, but the times we spent together with that rifle left an indelible imprint on my memory. In time I passed the rifle to my son, and when the time comes, we will use it to train my grandsons.

  23. Merry Christmas Mas! Was going to send a card but that never happened… It’s the thought, right???

  24. A “Red Rider BB Carbine action, 200 shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time.”

  25. Greatest gift I’ve received was this year when my 34 and 37 year old daughters warmed to the idea of learning more about gun ownership and use after having been anti’s since their college days. Patience pays off and I’ve got a lot of work to do now to help them (and possibly provide some hardware). ?

  26. On our first Christmas together, my wife bought me a 10/22, years later we needed money, and I pawned it, went back to claim it and found out I took too long and it was sold, I was physically sick!!!

  27. The most recent Christmas memories are of a CZ 75 SP-01 Tactical from my wife and a CZ 75 B Compact to my wife. Merry Christmas all!

  28. Not a Christmas gift, but for our 10th anniversary, I got my wife Bonnie a 1-carat diamond ring. For the 20th, she got an original Bren X (yes, it has a working magazine). I think she likes the gun better…

    Merry Christmas, Mas, Gail and family!

    -Sam

  31. Merry Christmas to you and family Mas and to all the MAG members and more. Unfortunately I didn’t get an actual firearm for any present delivered by the guy in the red suit, but I did get a pair of single six, chrome plated cap guns, complete with right/left hand western holster set up. Plastic cartridges in the gun belt, and to top it off I got a Lone Ranger cowboy hat and cowboy boots.

    That was back in the 1960’s and I don’t know if they even sell them anymore. But this is my contribution to the Ayoob Christmas thread.

    Stay safe all.

  33. Hey Mas/Gail, have a great Christmas from us here in Utah! My eldest son gave me a box of Federal 9mm ball and an A1 Tactical light this year, I highly recommend the latter for everyone, it will be my new EDC.

  35. Christmas of ’73’ I was 15 and received a Winchester single shot 20 ga. I still have it.

    Merry Christmas belated and many blessings for the New Year.

  36. In my family growing up we never got really expensive birthday presents, but sometimes at Christmas we did. I had turned sixteen in August, and was taking on more adult type respnsibilities, and was allowed a lot more freedom to go places on my bike.

    Christmas that year I was SHOCKED to find a .22 rifle under that tree…… I knew Mom wasn’t keen on guns, she sort of grimaced and huffed a bit on the rare occasions Dad took any of us shooting. He had an ancient old .22 S/L/LR bolt action single shot, which I think he’d had since he was a kid, growing up on a farm in rural NEvada during the depression. That rifle put a fair bit of protein on the table in his capable hands. Back to this year, though…. it was a new JC Higgins (Sears) bolt action repeater, and I sort of remember it had a tube magazine. I only ever had iron sights on that, but got half decent at murdering tin cans and such.

    Later on, Dad confided to me that he had wanted to give me my own gun when I turned twelve, but Mom was adamantly opposed to my getting one that young. So he left it aside…. and I guess persuaded her four years later. After a while I was actually allowed to strap that rifle on my bike and ride up into the hills and go shooting with friends.
    Sadly the rifle was stolen in the break-in of a shop I had more than a decade later. Looking back, it wasn’t much of a rifle… but it was THE ONE Dad gave me for Christmas. That made it special.

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