Were you an armed child?

[mainmech48]

My father started teaching us about safe gun handling as soon as we were able to understand speech. In those pre-PC days, it was considered 'normal' to do so, and to reinforce the lessons in a non-verbal fashion when necessary.

I went along on my first hunting trip (Mountain Quail near Yrerka,CA/Mt. Shasta) with him and a cousin of my mother's at age 5. I had a 'cork gun', but was required to handle it as though it were 'real'.

Progressed to a Daisy BB gun at about 6, and the old Winchester single-shot .22 Dad had learned on shortly thereafter.

At 9 or 10, I used the same Iver Johnson Champion .410 he'd had as a boy to hunt quail and rabbits. Still have it, although it's been retired for some years now. Also started learning about handguns with his Colt OP .22 revolver.

Got my first personal weapon for my 12th BD, a Savage .410 BA. At that time, many of my friends and I would routinely ride our bikes out to the fringes to plink or hunt with our .22 or shotgun strapped across our back. Even when we travelled in a group, nobody seemed 'concerned' enough to call the police or sheriff. And the occasional Game Warden just checked our licenses and made sure that we had permission to be where we were.

I bought my first deer rifle, a 'sporterized' Long Branch No. 4 SMLE, when I was 17.

I wasn't until after I finished my obligatory military service that I started accumulating. I inherited my grandfather's Winchester M97 12 ga., bought a Marlin 336 in .35 Remington, a Marlin M57 and a Browning Nomad in .22 RF.

 

[Jackal]

Yup.

 

[dgray64]

Started hunting very young...rabbits and squirrels. I used my grandfathers double barrel 12 ga with light loads (it had double hammers and Damascus barrels). It took a lot to get the thing up and lined up, but after that it was all meat on the table. Finally graduated to an Ithica model 36 16 ga. Great gun. After that was a Winchester Model 12, Winchester 30-30. Had all of these until I got old (now) and acquired some more guns. Fun!

Dave

 

[Gunrnr]

Great topic -- really shows the difference btwn just the past 2 - 3 generations. I'm in my mid-50s, grew up mostly in southern New Mexico, but the son of two New Yawkers (yeah, the city, not upper NY state). Dad liked his pump BB gun, Mom was afraid of anything that went bang. Despite that, I was able to fernagle permision to get a Crossman BB gun by 13. I put an Ithaca Saddlegun .22 LR on layaway at the Western Auto store when I was 14 and paid it off in just a couple of months.

In High School it was common to see rifle racks in kids' pickup trucks with a shotgun or a rifle or two. The school was only a couple of miles from the Rio Grande, where a lot of guys shot dove after school.

We had the normal fistfights and stuff, like any school, but never NEVER had any firearms incident ever. Now that I think about it, the only firearms incident I ever knew about throughout my childhood was when we lived in California for a short time in my 8th Grade year, a kid came to school with a .38 and wanted to kill an assistant principal. He was caught before he did.

 

[abrink]

I've been carrying automatic pistols since i was 13 years old (when legal and a few times when not)

 

[tntwatt]

Spent every summer on the grandparents farm. Was not only trusted but expected to keep rabbits,crows,etc... off the farm. I had a Marlin 22lr and my brother had a .410 pump shotgun. I think the earliest we were sent out alone, I was 8yo and he was 11yo. His first time he was around 8yo.

 

[hank327]

I suppose I was an armed child. I got a BB gun at a young age, 9 or 10 I suppose. At about age 12, I was allowed to take my father's Winchester Model 37 .410 single shot shotgun hunting. Although it was never formally given to me, that .410 was practically mine as I could use it whenever I wanted and my dad never used it himself.
For my 14th or 15th birthday, my dad took me to the gun shop and "bought" me a Remington 870 12 gauge shotgun. I put the word bought in " " as the money used to pay for the 870 was that which I had earned while working during my summer vacations. I kept that shotgun in my room and I could use it on my own whenever I wanted without adult supervision.

It was good growing up in the country. What I most wanted was a .22 rifle, but my dad wouldn't let me have one. He said a .22 bullet carried too far. When I was in high school during dove season, we often took our shotguns to school with us. We left them in our vehicles during class and stopped off at the milo fields for a little dove hunting on the way home after school.

 

[Gaucho Gringo]

I had guns and knives when I was growing up. I think I was about 9 when I first fired a .22 and on my 12th birthday I got my 1906 Winchester .22 rifle that I still have today. From that day on it was always in my closet. Always carried a knife with me but never caused any trouble with either them or my .22 . I knew better.

 

[lonniemike]

I wasn't farm raised but I have been to a number of them. I was raised in a small town in central FL in the 50,s. Not much in the way of material possession was given to me. But by doing lawns and other chores my father approved and mother begrudgenly allowed me to purchase firearms. My first was a 410 break action missing the ejector at age 8 for $7 from a local smith. At age 10, I bought a sporterized 7.62 Russian carbine(7.62X54 Finnish capture and redone by Interarmco) from Sears via mail order for just under $10. It came including 100 rounds of FMJ 180 grain 7.62R. More ammo was available through mail order at $3 per 100 rounds. Those were the days. Still ammo was to expense( I thought), so I got an original Lee Loader and other loading componets somewhere between 11 and 12 years of age. I shimmed American primers into berdan holes with tinfoil. Primer gas leaks encouraged me into buying expense Norma brass. At 14 I paid a whopping $75 for my first American centerfire, a M1 Garand, at a local auction. Shooting, buying, and reloading are some of my old hobbies that I still very much enjoy. I guess I got the bug from my older brother. He had a couple of 22,s and a double barreled 12 guage. I learned to like my 410. Unlike myself, his interest in firearms dropped off many years ago.

 

[Smilin Jack]

azhunter12
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Preserve wildlife...use freezer bags

Help keep guns off of the streets and out of the hands of criminals! Buy them for yourself.
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azhunterr12,
I like your style! You are wise beyond your years.

I've got 5 grandkids and enough guns for all of them. I got my son his first shotgun and rifle about a week after his birth and he's had to buy the rest himself.

Smilin Jack
western Oregon

 

[Smilin Jack]

Armed
I had pocket knives, BB guns, Benjamin 22cal, Remington bolt 22LR, 12ga single shot, 22LR Ruger Super Single-Six LONG barrel as a kid, and too many since getting older.
Wish I still had the Ruger Super Single-Six. Do still have the Benjamin and the old Remington bolt that was dad's. He got it during the depression for not much over $10 new.
We shot rats at the chicken coup and water rats (nutria) in the swamp. Started driving a John Deere D at age 6 on the rye grass farm south of Salem, OR back in the mid 50's.

It snowed an inch today while riding my old Honda CB250 to a friends' house ...and my boots did leak... oh well. Not spring yet, but did see three black bears last weekend while spring bear hunting on the south coast in unit 20.
Smilin Jack
Western Oregon

 

[Dienekes]

Heck, yes. Had a CCW permit at age 17.

I also went to a Catholic boys' boarding school for 4 years. Kept a Ruger .22 pistol in my desk in a tackle box with the full knowledge of the school and it was not even worthy of notice.

Along about the same time a production of some play or other was put on that required one of the kids to dress up as an MP. The kid went all out to do it right and came up with the full rig including a highly functional 1911. We all got to look it over and that was the day I decided I "had to get me one of those" too.

In other words a bunch of teenage boys were treated more like adults then than adults are today...

I guess "girlie men" missed out on that part of life.