My First Rifle

   My First Rifle

                                                                                 By

                                                                          Mike Capron

When I turned 8 years old my dad bought me my first rifle. It was a small 22 rifle, Winchester Model 67 A. It was a single shot and I hunted with it until after I graduated from high school. I took it to my first job the summer I graduated. I went to work for Solon Spence on a farm north of Artesia. We baled hay and chopped cotton and lived on the farm in a little adobe house. Solon saw my little rifle and asked me if it would shoot good.  I told him I sure like to shoot it. He asked if he could shoot it and I said sure.  We had plenty of 22 shells and he grabbed a couple and got a quarter out of his pocket and threw it straight up in the air as high as he could throw it. He aimed my 22 at the quarter and about the time it started to fall back to the earth he pulled the trigger and that quarter flew sideways for a good bit. I watched it and I went to get it where it fell and hit the ground. It had a dent in it. I asked him if he could do that again.  He got another 22 shell and another quarter and did it again, much the same as he did the first time. I figured we were playing his game, so I didn’t take it much farther.  Times have changed, Solon was a hard worker and raised a family on that 160 acre farm. He had one old John Deere Model A tractor and I wasn’t ever a good tractor driver. It would put me to sleep while I was cultivating cotton, I probably dug up as much cotton as I cultivated .  Solon said he didn’t think I would ever make a very good farmer. I would be irrigating behind where I was cultivating and would get the tractor stuck because my irrigation ditch would break and get ahead of where it was supposed to be watering. Solon was a good man and had a lot of patience with my poor farming habits. I started college at the end of the summer at NMSU and did even worse in college than I did on the farm. At the end of the second semester I had spent all the money I saved on the farm, which wasn’t much at fifty cents an hour. But I had a little scholarship and spent it also the first two semesters.

I decided to change occupations.  I found a job cowboying for $125 month with grub.  I thought that I would give it a try, and fell in love with my new job.  I borrowed a saddle and leggings along with spurs and a bridle.  At the end of the month we got three days off and I took my first check and went to town. I bought a used saddle with bridle, new Lee Storm Rider jacket and a case of Bull Durham. I headed back to the ranch a happy camper and was pretty sure I had found me a new home. I left my little Winchester 22 in my old pick-up along with a few other old possessions. I don’t have any of those old possessions left except that Winchester 22 rifle. I have long given it to Wilson and still enjoy seeing it sitting in the corner of his living room. Lots of old memories.