Who first fired a rifle at summer camp?

My first non-air rifle was a bolt .22 at scout camp. I would’ve been 12 at the time (1996?). No idea on make/model, but I remember it had aperture sights.

I’m teaching my kids much earlier.

My first experience was at a NRA youth competition in the late 60's. The match was held at an indoor range at the National Guard Armory in town. At that very impressionable age, I was hooked for life. I didn't win but it didn't matter.

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I fired a smooth bore .22 bolt action at clays in the air at scout camp, think it was a Marlin, but not sure.

To be honest, I don't know if anyone hit one. Seemed to me later to be almost cruel to have kids shoot at something without almost any chance of hitting them. I think it would take an expert to hit and break them in flight with a .22.

Boy Scout Camp 1965. Mossberg bolt gun, single shot.

Not me. My summer camp was a cotton patch with an idiot stick, a file to sharpen said stick, and a 1/2 gallon glass jar wrapped in an old shirt and filled from the windmill in morning and noon. Morning was a soon as you could see the difference between a weed and a cotton stalk and quitting time when you couldn't. I did get to take a 2 hour break at noon but the days were still terribly long to a kid.

Poor me, I had it so tough or at least I thought I did.

Summer of 53 or 54, Boy Scout camp. Targets were clipped to frame with a spring clip
RSO told us clips would cost 10 cents if one was hit.
Yours truly hit one on the first shot. Could not have done that had I been trying to.
I had a little job paid 25 cents an hour, so I had the 10 cents.

Starter52 said:

Did you fired your first rifle (likely a bolt action .22) at summer camp? How long ago, and do you remember the make\model of the gun?

When I was a kid every boy scout camp had a rifle range.

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Yup. This would have been in 1958 or so. The guns were generic single-shot bolt action .22's. I never noticed the brand.

Speedo66 said:

I fired a smooth bore .22 bolt action at clays in the air at scout camp,...

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That must have been a "thing" at some scout camps for some reason because I did that also. And no one hit a flying clay. Maybe the thought was back in those days that instead of creating a task where "everyone is a winner", they wanted to build character by creating a task where everyone was an equal loser...

But it wasn't the first time shooting for me - both Gramps and my Dad had me shooting when I was quite young. Pretty sure I wasn't still wearing diapers, but it probably wasn't much after that.

Hi...
Never went to summer camp...family couldn't afford such things.
I fired my first rifle, a .22LR bolt action when I was about 8-10 years old along about 1962 -64. Rifle belonged to my father...I still have it.

I won the Silver Bullet award at S-F Scout Ranch. I think it was the first rifle I fired.

Starter52 said:

Did you fired your first rifle (likely a bolt action .22) at summer camp? How long ago, and do you remember the make\model of the gun?

When I was a kid every boy scout camp had a rifle range.

Click to expand...

Same experience here. I don't recall the make/model of the rifle, but it was a bolt-action .22LR. I was 11 going on 12 and thought it was the coolest thing ever. Camp Cherokee at Lake of Isles Scout Reservation in N. Stonington, CT. I have no idea if that campground even exists anymore.

I got to shoot my dad's Marlin 60 before I was in Boy Scouts. However, I do remember shooting a single shot bolt action in summer camp at El Rancho Cima back in the 1970s for three summers in a row. If you proved yourself and had enough ammo money, you could move up to a lever action .30-30.

I never could see paying for .30-30 ammo at Scout Camp when that money could be spent on beef jerky and Cokes. Commissary food was only for sustenance, I had to break it up with something that actually had some flavor.

DairyVet said:

My first non-air rifle was a bolt .22 at scout camp. I would’ve been 12 at the time (1996?). No idea on make/model, but I remember it had aperture sights.

I’m teaching my kids much earlier.

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Same. Was 12 in '96, .22 at scout camp. I had a bb gun but that was the first time I got hands on the real thing. I too will teach my daughters as soon as they're ready.

doubleh said:

Not me. My summer camp was a cotton patch with an idiot stick, a file to sharpen said stick, and a 1/2 gallon glass jar wrapped in an old shirt and filled from the windmill in morning and noon. Morning was a soon as you could see the difference between a weed and a cotton stalk and quitting time when you couldn't. I did get to take a 2 hour break at noon but the days were still terribly long to a kid.

Poor me, I had it so tough or at least I thought I did.

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Same here. And I never had any interest in going to a summer camp, I just enjoyed being free and on my own whenever I had time off from the farm work. Looking back, I went with my dad and granddad every day I could from the time I was about 2 years old, by the time I was 10 I pretty much made a full time hand if I wasn't in school. I don't recall complaining much about it at the time, and I think I had the best childhood ever. Very unlike kids today who are, in effect, raised in cages.

I asked my grandpa about joining Boy Scouts and Camps at a young age when I became somewhat jealous of other kids in my school class. He replied, “why would you go into town to join a club that comes out here once a year to do the same **** we do out here every weekend?” He had a point.

I do challenge myself, now, however, having been blessed as I was, to volunteer time, earnings, and learnings through various programs to help kids, like those kids of whom I was once briefly jealous, who do NOT have organic opportunities to spend time in the outdoors. Hunter’s Safety Education, Outdoor Mentors, Pass It On, free rifle instruction “seminars” for local Scout and 4H troops, etc... there are wonderful opportunities out there for kids —> ONLY BECAUSE OF VOLUNTEERS WHO WORK HARD TO PROVIDE THEM!

I never was a scout, never did go to summer camps, but I did participate in 4H and FFA which had great opportunities. It’s on us, as the guiding generations to make sure to Pass It On.

If you find yourself complaining that today’s kids don’t get outdoors and learn field craft and marksmanship skills, answer this: what opportunities have YOU created to help kids, or even A kid, get outside and experience the outdoors?

Some kind of crap BB "rifle" (I use quotes because BB guns don't have rifled barrels) at a faith-based summer camp in central Florida in around 1976, at age ten. Never attended a camp after that, likely due to difficulties with being an (high-functioning) autistic.

My first rifle experience was at Camp Tiak back in 1991/2? the choice was either a Remington bolt action rifle or a Mossberg bolt action rifle. I later became a counselor at that camp and taught a number of kids how to shoot with those same rifles.

Goshen scout camp, single shot bolt gun, mid-1970’s. I have no memory of what gun was used. The next time I shot a gun, it was an M16A1 given to me by my rich uncle.

I fired a 22lr rifle before I went to camp, but we had 22lr bolt action rifles with detachable 5 round mags. That was the frustrating part because the counselors removed the magazines to make them single shot. The big thrill was the one day that the counselor let me use a magazine, and I was Alvin York with my trusty Springfield, even though I found out years later he used an Enfield.

I did not fire my first rifle at summer camp. I just think that this is a really good Thread @SUBJ.

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Dad handled that introduction ~60 years ago and ~500yds NE (in front of the 18th century farmhouse) of where I sit typing this.

JC Higgins Model 103.181 Bolt .22... a single-shot .22 rimfire rifle. Kid-size, very short LOP. I still have it.

A single 50rd box of ammo could easily provide a boy with a full afternoon of fun.

Never was a scout or attend summer camp. 1960's six kids, family couldn't afford it. My son on the other hand is an Eagle Scout. His first shot was long before summer camp. I'm a NRA certified rifle instructor and have helped many kids fire their first shots. Just spent two nights at a pellet gun range helping kids and adults learn the basics of rifle shooting. Amazing how well they do when the listen. For first time shooters the young girls 7-12 yrs old seem to do the best.

Like was said before, if you don't like the lack of opportunities for kids today - VOLUNTEER.

It was 1963 and my parents were the cooks at the summer camp so my little brother and I got to be there all summer.
The rifles were 22's and probably single shot. I learned to shoot and swim that summer.
Both skills have served me well over the years.

Speedo66 said:

I fired a smooth bore .22 bolt action at clays in the air at scout camp, think it was a Marlin, but not sure.

To be honest, I don't know if anyone hit one. Seemed to me later to be almost cruel to have kids shoot at something without almost any chance of hitting them. I think it would take an expert to hit and break them in flight with a .22.

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It would have been better if someone had made a track and a steel bunny on wheels for the kids to shoot at, in front of a berm. It would have given some feedback on where the gun was aimed when it went off.