What was the first gun you ever bought for yourself, not given or inherited?

[Straight Shooter]

1980. Got my first income tax refund...$350.00.
Had BEEN telling my dad what I wanted..so I cashed the check, gave Pop the money...and when he came in that evening, there it was.
A NIB Colt Series 70 45 Automatic. With an extra mag and some kinda holster and if I recall 50 rounds of hardball.
Stuck it out the back door and fired a mag into the back 40...just because I wanted to & could.
I wore that pistol slap out for the next decade or more.

[OH58D]

A Smith & Wesson Model 66, purchased in early 1983 after flight school. Took off the wooden grips and put on Pachmayrs right after I bought it. Ended up taking it with me to the Invasion of Grenada later the same year. Below is the gun, and the take-off grips showing an October 1982 stamp. Times have changed - bought it at the Sporting Goods section of a Wal-Mart:

[Jellybean]

Bought my "just as good" Spike's Tactical 16" M4 LE.

Back in 2010, new baby on the way, along with replacing our flooring and redoing his bedroom my version of nesting was adding a firearm to the house. Sobering moment when you realize you are responsible for the safety of someone else.

I still have it, it's the sbr I've posted. Swapped the barrel and handguard, just about everything else is the same.

I'll see your "just as good" Spikes and raise;
First personal gun ever was a Stag Arms Model 2 AR15 in '08 right before ol' Bummer got elected. Because I said, 'shit, it's now or never probably'.
Then I bought a drop-in YHM Cheese grater and a knockoff Eotech (yes, at a gun show). Immediately discovered the "joy" of pre-election mag-ban panics when there were no more mags to be found. My first interaction with BCM was calling them to ask about mag stock, because they ran big ads in the gun magazines I used to peruse, so I thought they were some huge company like Cabelas...
Bought a case of Black Hills red box from Cabelas for way to much, then blew easily half of it trying to zero the shit-tier Eotech-clone... only to find out after disassembling the thing that there was no hope of it ever zeroing in because the internals were plastic and stripped...
Went out and got a proper Eotech 512 after that (then sold it after reading about battery issues).
My first interaction here was a thread about which Magpul stock to get for the thing... because that same magazine with the BCM ads said M4C was "where the professionals go", and after the "adventure" with the Eotech clone I was starting to realize I didn't know enough to make an informed purchase, and I had no idea who magpul was, aside from their mags.

Then after all that, I went out and bought a full-size Springfield XDM .40 for my first-ever handgun. Because it had a MaTcH GrAdE BaRrEl...
Yes, I was very stupid.

The OD-green BFG padded VCAS (that I still have to this day) was the only good thing I bought out of that first couple-year splurge.

[eightmillimeter]

I had a huge, huge fascination with Mauser rifles, it was based on my favorite episode of “Tales of the Gun”.... yeah I know.

Anyway, I decided I wanted to buy a German K98k.

Saw an ad for Mitchell’s Mauser’s and got it ordered after a long talk with mom and dad, convinced dad to do the paperwork since I was 16.

Then after it showed up I quickly figured out I actually got a Yugo M48. I was kind of pissed at the marketing of it but it was a beautiful rifle. Had to clean cosmoline out of that thing for months. Still got the whole thing for $299 and a case of Yugo 8mm from SOG for $60 delivered. Man those were the days... sold it a long time ago but wish I had it back.

The serial number was H5502 if any of you have it drop me a line LOL.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

I want closest to the pin in a golf outing and the prize was $100 to the bass pro shop original store in Missouri. Drove down there with some friends and bought my first 870 pump shotgun. . Is that action ever slick now...

My first AR was an Olympic Arms kit gun. 20 inch H bar, that I sent off to Compass Lake to free float.... You can’t Make up stupidity like that.

[TomMcC]

1980. Got my first income tax refund...$350.00.
Had BEEN telling my dad what I wanted..so I cashed the check, gave Pop the money...and when he came in that evening, there it was.
A NIB Colt Series 70 45 Automatic. With an extra mag and some kinda holster and if I recall 50 rounds of hardball.
Stuck it out the back door and fired a mag into the back 40...just because I wanted to & could.
I wore that pistol slap out for the next decade or more.

What a dad...I mean it.

[The_War_Wagon]

Polytech AK - July of '88. Gave $260 for it new.

[LMT Shooter]

In the fall of 1988, I came home from Ft. Benning & spent some of what I'd saved during Basic & AIT on a new Remington 870 Express at Wal-Mart. I still have that gun. If I had a dollar for every time I shortstroked that thing....

[vandal5]

I'll see your "just as good" Spikes and raise;
First personal gun ever was a Stag Arms Model 2 AR15 in '08 right before ol' Bummer got elected. Because I said, 'shit, it's now or never probably'.
Then I bought a drop-in YHM Cheese grater and a knockoff Eotech (yes, at a gun show). Immediately discovered the "joy" of pre-election mag-ban panics when there were no more mags to be found. My first interaction with BCM was calling them to ask about mag stock, because they ran big ads in the gun magazines I used to peruse, so I thought they were some huge company like Cabelas...
Bought a case of Black Hills red box from Cabelas for way to much, then blew easily half of it trying to zero the shit-tier Eotech-clone... only to find out after disassembling the thing that there was no hope of it ever zeroing in because the internals were plastic and stripped...
Went out and got a proper Eotech 512 after that (then sold it after reading about battery issues).
My first interaction here was a thread about which Magpul stock to get for the thing... because that same magazine with the BCM ads said M4C was "where the professionals go", and after the "adventure" with the Eotech clone I was starting to realize I didn't know enough to make an informed purchase, and I had no idea who magpul was, aside from their mags.

Then after all that, I went out and bought a full-size Springfield XDM .40 for my first-ever handgun. Because it had a MaTcH GrAdE BaRrEl...
Yes, I was very stupid.

The OD-green BFG padded VCAS (that I still have to this day) was the only good thing I bought out of that first couple-year splurge.

Sometimes it all about the lessons we learn on the journey. Lol

I also had to factor getting a safe. After talking with the wife about what I wanted to get we talked about getting a safe to keep it in. That turned into me needing to get the safe first. Thankfully that didnt take too long and it worked out well enough as we still have it.

My first optic was a vortex sparc and that's (after a phone call to them) how I learned I have astigmatism. I ended up replacing that some time after my first class I took at Sig. When I joined here everyone talked about taking classes.

Still have the aimpoint Pro, and I got a vcas padded sling (but in coyote brown).

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[WS6]

My very first gun purchase was a Universal M-1 Carbine in 1987 while stationed at Ft. Knox. I had just PCS'd from 3 years in Panama or I would have had a firearm earlier than that. It was soon followed by a 4" Taurus blued .357 magnum revolver. Third was a Norinco AK, and fourth was a SA M1A (used).

A Ruger MK77 Varmint Target with a Leupold MK3 (friction turrets) 6.5-20.

I sold it to my father a decade and a half ago, and plan to buy it back this year.

Using Q3131, it would shoot the white .223 ammo boxes with little concrete rocks in them at 200 yards with me behind it boringly. At 415 yards, I shot 7/10 into a 2" circle, the other 3 typically going absolutely wild (feet off) due to Q3131 quality, lol!