How Did It All Start?

[MtnCreek]

We didn't have a squirrel dog, so being the first born male, I was the official squirrel fetcher from about age 3. Dad started letting me shoot at about 5 or 6. By age 10 I would shoot all the 20ga ammo I had before dark on opening day of dove season. Dad would let me finish the day with his 12ga. My shoulder would be blue and green the next morning. Good Times!

 

[GroovedG19]

My dad owned guns for protection while I was a child. We lived and worked in a rough part of the city. When I turned 21 I purchased my first and it went downhill from there.

 

[Mr.510]

There were always guns around our house, even when I was a toddler. A loaded 1894 Winchester leaned in the corner of the coat closet, that was my dad's go-to home defense gun in the '70s. lol I remember knocking that thing over and it whacking me in the head while playing hide and seek when I was about five years old. I ran to my mom with tears on the outside and stars on the inside of my eyes. A had a big lump on my forehead and my first real pounding headache. She told me that's what I got for not being careful. Ah, tough love. Lesson learned = gravity sucks, especially in a dark closet. Thanks mom! I played with toy guns and cap guns but absolutely knew that real guns were not to be played with. I guess knocking one over on accident wasn't that big of a deal. We lived in a nice neighborhood and never locked the doors unless we were going out of town. Different times.

My dad taught me to shoot my older brother's air rifle, probably when I was about eight years old. It was a Crosman 761XL. I really took to shooting it and I'm sure I put ten times as many BBs through it as my brother did. I think I was ten when my parents gave me a Crosman 1377 target pistol for Christmas. Within a couple years I had an air rifle and an R-12 Freon powered(!) BB submachine gun, the Lark M-19A.

I'm pretty sure that shortly after proving that I was safe with my air pistol my dad taught me to operate his Walther P38 9mm. I know it's the first real gun that I fired. My dad always carried the P38 when we did stuff in the woods and as I got older he made a point of putting a box or two of ammo in his pack every time we went out so we could shoot pop cans or plink stumps or whatever. This is probably why I grew up to be so much more interested in hand guns than long guns.

My brother got the first real long gun in our family to actually be fired during my lifetime when he turned 18, a Ruger 10/22. I was 11. After the "new" wore off a little bit he let me shoot it, the first real rifle I fired. I went out to the woods with my brother a lot to shoot it. I bought my own 10/22 on my 18th birthday and a Winchester 1200 12 gauge not long after. From that point forward my dad and I went shooting at least a couple times a month for probably ten years.

I think the last time we went shooting together was on a wheeling trip about two years ago. He'll be 80 the day after Christmas, doesn't get around all that well anymore, and arthritis has really messed up some of his fingers. I don't know if he even wants to shoot anymore. On Christmas I'm going to ask him if he wants to drive out to the woods with me to pop some cans with my .22s on his birthday.

 

[Reloadron]

In the beginning I was born in a log cabin which I helped my father build.

On a more serious note as a kid I always had a fascination with guns. My father was a combat veteran of WWII and never had an interest in guns at all following the war. However, my grandfather (mother's side) was a doctor and avid hunter. I was 8 years old in 1958 when my grandfather and uncle took me on my first hunting trip in upstate NY. While I didn't actually hunt I was handed a .22 rifle to drag up and down the mountain all day and in the afternoons was given ammunition and taught to shoot it. My uncle's friend Charlie gave me that rifle to use and when that memorable Thanksgiving weekend came to an end gave me that rifle to keep. This past Thanksgiving makes 55 years I have had that little Remington 510P. I just developed a love of the gun and shooting. A fascination of how different guns worked.

While in Vietnam I developed an interest in snipers and their rifles and ammunition, interesting as I had nothing to do with snipers. I started hand loading when I got back from Vietnam around 1972. All in all about 10 years USMC and another 10 years DoD had me traveling all over the planet so much of my shooting was intermittent. Thank God my parents house provided refuge for my guns over all those years.

The last 25 years were spent here in Cleveland, Ohio where I ended up. Retired back in May and plan to really enjoy my shooting in retirement. More time to get the grandchildren out (both 9 years old) and see if the interest in the gun exist in them. I have hopes for the grandson but the granddaughter, not so sure. I hope to get other kids (with their parents blessings) out shooting. I am just finally happy I can enjoy my shooting and not have job or money concerns.

Ron

 

[Schwing]

When I was growing up, the subject didn't even come up until I was about 12 years old. A group of friends were going rabbit hunting and I was invited. I had never even held a gun. I was trying to borrow one when my dad handed me an old Mossberg 46b .22. He spent the next several hours showing me how to take it down, clean it and reassemble it. I went on the trip, had a blast and never looked back.

I found out later that my Dad had actually been a very successful competition shooter in his younger years. His years during Vietnam had driven the desire out of him. It was such a sore spot that I don't ever remember him talking about it when I was a kid.

The irony is that I have dragged him back into it with me. He is getting up there now and doesn't get out much anymore, but the years that we went shooting together as adults were about the closest we have ever been.

 

[Agsalaska]

For reference, I was born in 77.

I was raised on Westerns. My grandad and dad loved them and while most of the production had ended they were still syndicated well into the 80's. My grandad was a WW2 vet and sold guns at a Dept store after that. My dad was also an army vet so they both like guns. That beign said they did not do much with them. My dad only owned a 1911 for protection and his 22 and 410 from his youth. My grandpa had a Luger from the war and a S&W 357 for bad guys. Most trips to the range though were only to shut me up and were pretty rare. I also shot a lot at camp.
My dad gave me a BB gun styled after an M16 when I was baout 7 I grew up about two miles from downtown in a major city but I shot the heck out of it righ tthere in the neighborhood. There was probably a sparrow shortage at some point. When I went to college I bought a 1300 defender and that more or less satisfied me for a long time. It was a job in a pawn shop that changed everything. I was immediately the resident expert and had a blast watchign everything come thru. I bought a S&W 9mm from the performance center, took it to the range, and have been hooked ever since.

I have a very weird relationship with guns that I have shared many times on this board. That is that I rarely shoot at all other than rimfire, deer hunting, and the obligatory training with my CCW. I dont really shoot for fun though. I hunt for guns that interest me, buy them, and put them in the safe. I have not shot probably 90% of the guns I own and never will. My grandkids are going to think I am the coolest person ever to die.

That being said I think I picked that up from the pawn shop. I would see guys bring in beautiful rifles that had been beat to hell because they didnt care. Now when I get a gun and stash it I feel like I am doing it for the fifty just like it being destroyed.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

My ex-brother in law, a veteran Vietnam door gunner, stoked the fires of my love for firearms, though it had gotten a good start with toy guns as a kid.

 

[Inebriated]

Went to my uncle's house once when I was probably 9 or 10, and got to shoot his Marlin 60. I loved it, and kept shooting every time we went. My dad always enjoyed shooting at the time, but wasn't really into it, and didn't want to spend money to get into it. I never really asked for a gun or anything, since I could just go to my uncle's house, but when I turned 18, I started buying some guns, and actually got my dad into it.

 

[henschman]

Unlike most of you, I didn't have anybody to teach me how to shoot. I truly was a self-taught shooter. I got my first BB gun when I was about 8, which I picked up at a garage sale. Most of what I knew about shooting I learned in books... I read one non-fiction book about snipers that I picked up a few decent techniques from! My Dad had an old .22 and some ammo that was kept down in the basement. When nobody was home, I would sneak it out and go hunting for small game, or set up some targets. That old .22 was an auto with a broken recoil spring guide, so it only worked as a straight-pull bolt action. I bought an SKS when I was 15, and a CZ-52 pistol and a Kalashnikov when I was 16, and taught myself to shoot those too. I had a couple friends who also had guns... we would get together to practice every now and then. We also did a lot of stupid things with guns when we were teenagers. I didn't have any formal training until I was 22, when I went to an Appleseed event. That was a real eye-opener.

 

[Serenity]

I didn't shoot or even hold a handgun until in my late 30's. I was looking for something to do with my teenage son during the summer. I called to find a basic rifle class but handgun was the only thing on the schedule. Our NRA Basic Pistol instructor was awesome and we were hooked. Now I am a member of the pistol club and my Basic Pistol Instructor runs the steel matches. I don't go as often as I'd like, but I consider all of the regular attendees of the matches to be my mentors.

 

[hemiram]

I have an odd story, as we never had any guns but toys in the house until I was about 11 when I got the first of several crappy Crossman BB pistols, the ones that came with BB's, pellets, and those little darts. My mom hated me even having them, and it didn't get any better after she found out (A year later), that I had been shot in the face by my best friend, when he was goofing around with his Crossman Powermaster 760. I still have that BB in my face, about 45 years later. Until I was 21, I only fired 3 real guns, a 1911 my mom's cousin had, a .22LR lever action of some kind, and an old 32 S&W Iver Johnson POS my friend found in his dead grandfather's stuff soon after he died. After we shot it, he put it back into the box, and he little brother soon found it and shot a chunk of their basement wall out with it. Oops.

When I was 21, I got hired as a security guard by a local company. There was no qualifications needed to carry a gun, so I went to a local GS inside a department store and, at the advise of a friend of my mother's, bought a Taurus Model 83. Worst gun I have ever had, by far. I soon sold it and bought a Dan Wesson 15-2, and I was hooked from that point on. It was a great gun, and did a lot to make the bad memory of the Taurus just a bad memory. When I saw the guy who advised me to buy the Taurus in the first place, he was shocked that it was so bad, and even more shocked that I had bought the DW, which he considered a "hunk of junk". At that point, I no longer paid any attention to his gun opinions. That "Hunk of junk" was flawless over thousands of rounds through it, and I only sold it because I needed cash. It's been replaced several times over, and I've never had a bad DW gun. My second Taurus, an 809, is proving to be a chip off the old block, not as bad as the first one, but pretty bad.

 

[TURNBOLT]

My Dad and Daisy...

 

[KansasPaul]

As a kid I grew up in a populated area on the east coast. My Dad never had any firearms and we never had much money so asking for a BB gun was out of the question. I was about 12 years old when I learned that our neighbor had 2 "broken" BB guns in his basement. I have always been a tinkerer and I asked if I could have the broken air rifles. He gave me them and I quickly took them apart to see if I could get them working. I was able to get one Daisy BB gun to work and I spent my allowance buying BBs for the next couple of years. I got to be very accurate with my shots and in my teens I joined the JROTC program in HS and was taught proper gun safety and got introduced to shooting indoor .22 rim fire match competitions. I continued to shoot air guns as a young adult and I didn't own a true firearm until I was 30 years old. I had moved to Colorado and I bought a used Ruger 10/22 from my brother-in-law; from that point I have had countless rifles come and go. However, I still have the first 10/22, now with tens of thousands of rounds through it. As my collection grew I added reloading to the mix. I now enjoy introducing people to the sport, teaching them firearm safety and how much fun it is to shoot.

 

[Devonai]

I never really thought about guns until i went to a very liberal college in Boston MA (liberal even by Boston MA standards) and was confronted by people who were virulently anti-gun.

Do you mind if I ask where? I started at Gordon College but did my senior year at Suffolk University. I had my LTC by then, and it was a fairly amusing conversation when I asked the chief of campus police for written permission to carry on campus.

(spoiler: he said no)

For myself, I'm the first one in my family to bear arms in any capacity since my great uncles served in WWII. I've studied martial arts most of my life, including during my teen years, and my instructor was very matter-of-fact about the place of firearms for self-defense. I applied for my LTC in advance and got it on my 21st birthday.

By then I'd had a chance to try out a Beretta 92FS, and I got one for myself. It's still my favorite pistol.

 

[22-rimfire]

Dad had long guns. Everybody I was friends with hunted. I started looking at guns when could write the address on a post card or envelop legibly (probably 2nd grade) and requested gun company catalogs, all of them. There was a constant stream of catalogs coming to me at home as a kid. I pretty much was familiar with just about every model at that point in time and could spout off specifications and so forth from memory.

Gun Digests and Shooters Bibles were wonderful when I got a little older and could afford to buy them.

I had a BB gun at age 7 which I shot a lot. A 22 rifle appeared in 9th grade which I shot a lot. It was all down hill from there. I constantly lusted for the next one.

 

[9mmfan]

Both of my grandfathers were sportsmen. Hunted, fished and such. We ate what was killed or caught. On one side before I existed, I suspect it helped them get by. Pop always owned guns, and of late has gotten back into acquisition. I shot .22s a couple times in the Boy Scouts.

However, by the time I had become old enough we had moved to a less rural area away from extended family, and it was less of a day-to-day thing.

While my exposure to firearms was lessened I still found them interesting, though I didn't own one.

Fast forward to 2006. I was working in/running a little neighborhood bar in Dallas. The City Council decided that commercial false alarms were wasting money and manpower. Subsequently, the police no longer responded to commercial alarms without a witness to state that a crime had or was occurring. I lived approximately 700 feet from the bar, so when the alarm went off, the monitoring company called me. Says I, I best get a gun just in case. Went to a pawn shop and bought a Smith & Wesson 64.

If I was gonna own it, I better know how to use it. Went to a range, remembered I enjoyed shooting. Smiled.

A good friend ragged me for owning a revolver. I went and bought a 9MM. Took it to the range.

My inner Texan came flying out, and I haven't looked back.

 

[1911 guy]

Dad taught me basic gun handling and safety. Grandpa taught me how to hunt. Uncle Sam taught me how to shoot well enough to make Dad and Grandpa nod in approval.

Now I'm passing the collective wisdom of a few generations and a misspent early adulthood on to my own son.

 

[SouthernBoy]

For me, it started with a small pocket book called "Guns" that I bought in a local drug store in 1968. Like many young boys, I had owned BB guns and a few .22 caliber pellet guns when I was just a kid. But that little book I bought in 1968, really started it for me.

I bought my first gun, a Ruger Super Single Six with a 5 1/2" barrel, the day after MLK was killed. That little gun shop did a heck of a business that day. Loved that revolver and wish I had never traded it. The Super Single Six was the upgrade of the Single Six in that it had an adjustable rear sight. It came with the extra .22 Magnum cylinder and I had a ball with that little gun. For $78 new, you couldn't beat it.

 

[chupacabrah]

while my dad was a marine and has a couple of "classic" firearms, in general growing up I never saw a gun. I guess another "guns are fine but not for us" type situation.

when I was younger we always got some catalogs from some gun companies, and I always was drooling over some of the milsurp stuff and the revolvers.

When I was in middle school or so my older brother got a G17 and I remember shooting it a couple of times, and maybe going to the range with him once in college.

I got a BB gun when I was like 18 (sad, huh?) and had a blast with it. I got into paintballing around the same time and really enjoyed building and fixing mine and those for my friends. Kind of learned some gun safety that way.

A guy from work moved from Texas and we became friends, and talked about guns a bit. He introduced me to this site where I learned a lot of things starting out.
A while later I bought my first: a S&W M&P 9mm. Since then I've sold that one and bought/sold several others.

 

[HexHead]

The summer camp I attended as a kid offered Riflery for the older campers. I excelled at it and was on the rifle team, shooting against other camps. They were part of the NRA Junior shooting program. If I'd returned the next year, I would have earned my last Sharpshooter bar and Expert medal.