Omaha-BeenGlockin
Member
I was immersed into it from day 1----its part of my DNA
Your Journey to Firearms
- Thread starter BigBL87
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Ignition Override
Member
375supermag: you should be in a remake of High Plains Drifter, or the Magnificent Seven.
A friend who grew up in Germany found the $1,500 Henry (45-70?) rifle so cool that he just bought one.
A friend who grew up in Germany found the $1,500 Henry (45-70?) rifle so cool that he just bought one.
Ive always been fascinated by weapons, and projectile launchers specifically. I had bb/pellet guns since about 10 i think, had or build bows, and slingshots etc before that.
Didnt start shooting firearms till i was in intermediate school. Started with a Nylon 66 that a family friend gave us. My dad would take me out in the afternoon after work on the farm was done and we would shoot a few dozen rounds. I got a Mossberg 500 for bird season the next year, and a Remington 700 BDL in .30-06 that summer.
I spent nearly every moment i wasnt at school, or working around the farm shooting or hunting. Even sports, and a love of video games didnt put much of a dent in my time spent with a gun in my hand, I just slept less. I got into reloading during highschool, and begin tinkering with everything about that time also.
When I went to college in 2001, I left all my firearms on our farm, and sold my reloading gear. I even left my archery stuff behind.
I only lasted a year in college, but my interests drifted away from guns. I went from motorcyles, to cars, to computers, back to cars. The only hobby I was heavily involved in thru all of it was
paintball....and while i played, i never really had a desire to shoot guns, tho I still hunted back home at least once or twice a year.
Round about 2008 Id quit my job in Kona, and moved back to the other side of the island so my wife could finish school. The job I got out here was minimum wage (i left 2 years later highest paid guy on the floor at 8.25 lol), and i was the only one working, so most of my hobbies took a major nose dive. What did come of it tho, was I started hunting again.
Eventually my wife graduated, and I got jobs that allowed me to start spending money on hobbies again, but hunting and shooting had once again become my major focus.
Here we are 10 years later and I still havent found a hobby Im quite as passionate about.
Didnt start shooting firearms till i was in intermediate school. Started with a Nylon 66 that a family friend gave us. My dad would take me out in the afternoon after work on the farm was done and we would shoot a few dozen rounds. I got a Mossberg 500 for bird season the next year, and a Remington 700 BDL in .30-06 that summer.
I spent nearly every moment i wasnt at school, or working around the farm shooting or hunting. Even sports, and a love of video games didnt put much of a dent in my time spent with a gun in my hand, I just slept less. I got into reloading during highschool, and begin tinkering with everything about that time also.
When I went to college in 2001, I left all my firearms on our farm, and sold my reloading gear. I even left my archery stuff behind.
I only lasted a year in college, but my interests drifted away from guns. I went from motorcyles, to cars, to computers, back to cars. The only hobby I was heavily involved in thru all of it was
paintball....and while i played, i never really had a desire to shoot guns, tho I still hunted back home at least once or twice a year.
Round about 2008 Id quit my job in Kona, and moved back to the other side of the island so my wife could finish school. The job I got out here was minimum wage (i left 2 years later highest paid guy on the floor at 8.25 lol), and i was the only one working, so most of my hobbies took a major nose dive. What did come of it tho, was I started hunting again.
Eventually my wife graduated, and I got jobs that allowed me to start spending money on hobbies again, but hunting and shooting had once again become my major focus.
Here we are 10 years later and I still havent found a hobby Im quite as passionate about.
Firearms is a passionate hobby, so is hunting, so is archery, so is fishing; I do any/ all of them anytime I can. I cannot tie my father into my passions, the 2A is a legal thing with me and I do not necessarily intertwine my hobby with the legalese - I am just as legally passionate about the 1A (and all of the A’s) especially with what is going on today.
A well made/ engineered/ executed firearm (ie a high grade Shiloh Sharps) is a shooting hobby firearm to me and in turn, it is also an item of beauty - sometimes just something to hold and admire - I am a sucker for a beautiful/ quality firearm - Cost? Money? Who cares? What is money compared to this gun????? But so is a high end compound bow or a high end rod/ reel. I am a sucker for the high end of my passion - it is like a drug to me.
Shooting? I reload for a rifle until I can one hole cluster a group at 100 yards - tests the rifle and continues to test my shooting ability. I love to shoot/ practice, but not all of the time - I love all if it, but not all of the time. I am also passionate about investing and trading stocks, but not all of the time.
I am rambling here but those that are passionate understand my rambling - it is a feeling, it is a burning and it never goes away. Oh and btw, there is no better confirmation of my passion than first light on a crisp, clear opening morning of firearms deer season - for me, it is the Super Bowl of the culmination of it all - on that kind of morning, I am that elated, excited and exhilarated child again - I am one with the universe and I got to be here for it all. What a great, great Country!
A well made/ engineered/ executed firearm (ie a high grade Shiloh Sharps) is a shooting hobby firearm to me and in turn, it is also an item of beauty - sometimes just something to hold and admire - I am a sucker for a beautiful/ quality firearm - Cost? Money? Who cares? What is money compared to this gun????? But so is a high end compound bow or a high end rod/ reel. I am a sucker for the high end of my passion - it is like a drug to me.
Shooting? I reload for a rifle until I can one hole cluster a group at 100 yards - tests the rifle and continues to test my shooting ability. I love to shoot/ practice, but not all of the time - I love all if it, but not all of the time. I am also passionate about investing and trading stocks, but not all of the time.
I am rambling here but those that are passionate understand my rambling - it is a feeling, it is a burning and it never goes away. Oh and btw, there is no better confirmation of my passion than first light on a crisp, clear opening morning of firearms deer season - for me, it is the Super Bowl of the culmination of it all - on that kind of morning, I am that elated, excited and exhilarated child again - I am one with the universe and I got to be here for it all. What a great, great Country!
bangswitch
Member
When I was 8, a friend of my parents and a WWII Marine veteran who never had any children, gave me a Daisy BB gun. He taught me how to shoot it; my Dad did not care for me to have one but tolerated it because of who gave it to me. It was made clear to me that I didn't kill any birds (like Opie did) and to never point it at anybody. For my 10th birthday, my "Uncle Jack", the Marine vet, gave me a Remington 510 Targetmaster .22 rifle. Dad wouldn't let me shoot it until I earned the Boy Scout Marksmanship merit badge, which I didn't get until I was 11. I plinked with that rifle for many years.
In my mid-20's I went to work for the NC Dept. of Correction; handgun, rifle and shotgun training was mandatory, and I embraced it. I bought my first handgun, a S&W Model 19 with a 6" barrel and started shooting on the unit's pistol team in PPC competition. I traded the M19 for a M66 with a 4" barrel and shot in the Service Revolver class. I did some deer hunting with a Marlin lever action 30-30 that I'd borrow from a friend, but gave up deer hunting after a few years. I'd sometimes go dove hunting with a couple of cousins, but never bought a rifle or shotgun until I was almost 30, when I bought a Daewoo K1A1 .223 rifle on a whim (wish I still had that one).
In my early 30's, I joined the USAF and qualified expert in handgun and rifle, and bought my first shotgun, a 12 gauge Mossberg 500, which I still have. Over the years since, I bought and sold a few more handguns and rifles, but in the last 20 years have not sold anything, but have purchased several more rifles, handguns and shotguns. I have about 25 firearms now, and I've gotten very choosy about anything I buy. Now, I'm an active clays shotgun shooter, long distance rifle shooter and handgun shooter. I've done some IDPA handgun competitions for fun as well as a few CQB shoots, but its mostly target shooting at the range. I got started reloading about 10 years ago and reload for everything I regularly shoot.
In my mid-20's I went to work for the NC Dept. of Correction; handgun, rifle and shotgun training was mandatory, and I embraced it. I bought my first handgun, a S&W Model 19 with a 6" barrel and started shooting on the unit's pistol team in PPC competition. I traded the M19 for a M66 with a 4" barrel and shot in the Service Revolver class. I did some deer hunting with a Marlin lever action 30-30 that I'd borrow from a friend, but gave up deer hunting after a few years. I'd sometimes go dove hunting with a couple of cousins, but never bought a rifle or shotgun until I was almost 30, when I bought a Daewoo K1A1 .223 rifle on a whim (wish I still had that one).
In my early 30's, I joined the USAF and qualified expert in handgun and rifle, and bought my first shotgun, a 12 gauge Mossberg 500, which I still have. Over the years since, I bought and sold a few more handguns and rifles, but in the last 20 years have not sold anything, but have purchased several more rifles, handguns and shotguns. I have about 25 firearms now, and I've gotten very choosy about anything I buy. Now, I'm an active clays shotgun shooter, long distance rifle shooter and handgun shooter. I've done some IDPA handgun competitions for fun as well as a few CQB shoots, but its mostly target shooting at the range. I got started reloading about 10 years ago and reload for everything I regularly shoot.
I mentioned earlier in this thread that I drifted away from guns for a number of years. One of the reasons I got back in was for CC. I was in business for myself and that meant a lot of late nights and early mornings, a lot of time walking downtown in the dark. Once I started to get back in, though, I realized that guns were one of the only really 'mechanical' things in my life. Virtually every other 'machine' that I dealt with had a computer chip, a program, electronics that I couldn't possibly understand. A gun, though? It was all about physics and geometry, and I found them somewhat fascinating because of that.
entropy
Member
Don't take up Trap shooting!
375supermag
Member
I have the necessary firearms for the period.
Some modest level of skill and most importantly I have plenty of free time.
If somebody wants to fund a hundred million dollars for a movie project, I am available.
I don't work cheap... that's one of the benefits of being retired. I get to set the terms for any work I perform.
bangswitch
Member
Gosh, I totally forgot to include that part. I did the class and got my CC permit in 2005. About 2007, I got it in my mind that I'd like to do some instructing, so I went through the NC Justice Academy's Concealed Carry Instructor course, and then did the NRA rifle, handgun, shotgun and Chief Range Safety Officer courses. I taught the concealed carry class for about 4 years, but it became too much on my plate with working full time and some other issues that came up. The NRA courses required yearly renewal fees, I felt like it was just another means for NRA to milk the membership. I don't regret taking any of the courses, though.
bangswitch
Member
The military is cool because you get access to stuff you never would as a civilian. During Desert Storm, I was TDY at Ramstein AB, assigned to an Air Staging Facility. I was a Flight Nurse, and much of the time we were sitting on our thumbs, because the ground war didn't create the US casualties that were projected. I flew a total of two flights into Saudi to medevac casualties, and the plane only had about ten patients both times. (we could carry over a 100). I was the liaison between the composite medevac group and the base armory, my responsibility was to sign in and out the revolvers (S&W M36) issued to the Flight Nurses on medevac flights. As a result, I got to meet the combat arms training group on the base, and in my down time (a lot of it) I'd sign up for every familiarization and qualification course they had. I qualified on the M-16 and the M9, and did familiarization courses on the Ma Deuce (M2 .50 BMG), the Mk 19 40mm automatic grenade launcher, and got to shoot the German Schutzensnur course, although I missed qualifying by two points (you shoot the Walther P-38 and the MG42). Had I stayed long enough, I'd probably have been invited on deer hunts on the base. Deer were an issue at Ramstein, they'd get on the runways, and the base commander regularly authorized hunts to thin the herds That would have been fun. The hunts were done in the traditional German way, with a Yeagermeister coordinating the hunt.
Legionnaire
Contributing Member
No guns in our home growing up. I was raised in the city, and although both of my parents had some history with guns as children, it didn't carry forward in any way. They weren't opposed to firearms, just didn't have any need or interest in that direction. The first I remember shooting was when I was 10-11 years old or thereabouts, shooting a bolt action .22 rifle at the farm of some family friends.
I tried out for the rifle team in college (back when colleges had such things) and made varsity and lettered in the sport. It was great fun, but the interest didn't linger post graduation. I went on to grad school, started professional life, moved back to the city, etc.
Then I married the daughter of an outdoorsman. My father-in-law hunted, fished, hiked, camped ... even rode dirt bikes. He was the one who introduced me to hunting, and he and my wife joined forces to gift me my first personally owned firearm: a Mossberg 500 combo that I still own. That 500 took birds, rabbits, squirrels, and--in NY's shotgun only areas--plenty of deer. I got interested in handguns because I lived in a shotgun only area, and thought a T/C Contender might give me a bit more range. That meant I had to go through NY State's crazy process to get a handgun license. Doing that got me interested in handguns more generally. A friend who was a big 2A guy found out about my interests and introduced me to Mas Ayoob's Lethal Force Institute. I took several classes there and then went to work on getting the "Hunting and Target Shooting Only" restrictions removed from my NY permit. Took a couple years, but I was successful.
From there, my interests blossomed. I started out as a hunter armed with a do-everything pump action shotgun and added a Contender in .223 and .35 Remington. Then got into general handgunning and eventually CCW. Somewhere along the way my FIL gave me my first rifle: a Marlin 336 in .30-30. I replaced it with a Remington Model 7 in .308 and, as they say, the rest is history. I now have a full safe, reloading gear, and lots of related paraphernalia. I haven't hunted since moving to TX, but have a lifetime NY Sportsman's License and expect to use it again when I retire back to northeast in a few years. I am deeply indebted to my FIL, who died several years ago. I miss him.
I tried out for the rifle team in college (back when colleges had such things) and made varsity and lettered in the sport. It was great fun, but the interest didn't linger post graduation. I went on to grad school, started professional life, moved back to the city, etc.
Then I married the daughter of an outdoorsman. My father-in-law hunted, fished, hiked, camped ... even rode dirt bikes. He was the one who introduced me to hunting, and he and my wife joined forces to gift me my first personally owned firearm: a Mossberg 500 combo that I still own. That 500 took birds, rabbits, squirrels, and--in NY's shotgun only areas--plenty of deer. I got interested in handguns because I lived in a shotgun only area, and thought a T/C Contender might give me a bit more range. That meant I had to go through NY State's crazy process to get a handgun license. Doing that got me interested in handguns more generally. A friend who was a big 2A guy found out about my interests and introduced me to Mas Ayoob's Lethal Force Institute. I took several classes there and then went to work on getting the "Hunting and Target Shooting Only" restrictions removed from my NY permit. Took a couple years, but I was successful.
From there, my interests blossomed. I started out as a hunter armed with a do-everything pump action shotgun and added a Contender in .223 and .35 Remington. Then got into general handgunning and eventually CCW. Somewhere along the way my FIL gave me my first rifle: a Marlin 336 in .30-30. I replaced it with a Remington Model 7 in .308 and, as they say, the rest is history. I now have a full safe, reloading gear, and lots of related paraphernalia. I haven't hunted since moving to TX, but have a lifetime NY Sportsman's License and expect to use it again when I retire back to northeast in a few years. I am deeply indebted to my FIL, who died several years ago. I miss him.
Trey Veston
Member
My biological dad owned a chain of gun shops, a USMC sniper, a professional writer for Field & Stream, and prolific big game hunter. My stepdad was a cop and a hunter. I can't remember ever NOT having firearms around and shooting being as natural as breathing.
Obturation
Member
Raised by leftys, my dad had a police trade in s&w revolver when I was young but sold it to make ends meet. But that was it.
I always liked guns but when I moved to Tennessee when I was 21 I met some gun guys. I'll never forget going to a coworkers home and there were guns, everywhere. I looked around and was interested . I asked to see a revolver that was sitting on the living room table, a single action ruger in 44 mag and when he asked if I wanted to shoot it and of course I said yes. Then he grabbed a 30-30 winchester and I could hit what I was aiming at and loved it. A month or so later I had saved my pennies and got a Taurus gaucho in 45 colt, I didn't make much money and would skip lunch a couple times a week to buy a box of ammo for shooting on Sunday. I lived out in the sticks and could shoot from my front porch but a box of 50 goes quick when you're a kid with your first gun.
Then I got a uberti cattleman cause I found it cheap at a pawn shop and my friend gave me a holster and belt that fit the uberti but it had a holster on the other side so I bought another cattleman that matched the first one . then a buddy let me borrow a marlin 60 that I kept for years. When I returned to Illinois I didn't have the required FOID card so I had to get one so I could retrieve my guns from Tennessee, which of course I did .
Then I picked up an old junk jeep that had been sitting for years and got it running and put it up on Craigslist for trade on guns. A guy came up from Indiana and traded me a sig gsr revolution 1911 for the jeep and when I went to get ammo for it I found a Mossberg 500 cruiser used LNIB at the lgs for $180 and bought that too. The rest is history, since 2006 I've bought all the guns and ammo I could afford and continue to do that to this day, my collection was larger 6-7 years ago but I've gotten rid of lower quality guns towards the purchase of better guns and guns I like more. Now I only buy good quality guns and load most of my own ammo . I'll teach my daughter's to shoot as they get old enough and make sure they don't have to figure it all out on their own like I did.
I always liked guns but when I moved to Tennessee when I was 21 I met some gun guys. I'll never forget going to a coworkers home and there were guns, everywhere. I looked around and was interested . I asked to see a revolver that was sitting on the living room table, a single action ruger in 44 mag and when he asked if I wanted to shoot it and of course I said yes. Then he grabbed a 30-30 winchester and I could hit what I was aiming at and loved it. A month or so later I had saved my pennies and got a Taurus gaucho in 45 colt, I didn't make much money and would skip lunch a couple times a week to buy a box of ammo for shooting on Sunday. I lived out in the sticks and could shoot from my front porch but a box of 50 goes quick when you're a kid with your first gun.
Then I got a uberti cattleman cause I found it cheap at a pawn shop and my friend gave me a holster and belt that fit the uberti but it had a holster on the other side so I bought another cattleman that matched the first one . then a buddy let me borrow a marlin 60 that I kept for years. When I returned to Illinois I didn't have the required FOID card so I had to get one so I could retrieve my guns from Tennessee, which of course I did .
Then I picked up an old junk jeep that had been sitting for years and got it running and put it up on Craigslist for trade on guns. A guy came up from Indiana and traded me a sig gsr revolution 1911 for the jeep and when I went to get ammo for it I found a Mossberg 500 cruiser used LNIB at the lgs for $180 and bought that too. The rest is history, since 2006 I've bought all the guns and ammo I could afford and continue to do that to this day, my collection was larger 6-7 years ago but I've gotten rid of lower quality guns towards the purchase of better guns and guns I like more. Now I only buy good quality guns and load most of my own ammo . I'll teach my daughter's to shoot as they get old enough and make sure they don't have to figure it all out on their own like I did.
hemiram
Member
My dad sold guns, along with bows and arrows and hunting/fishing stuff, but we never had any kind of firearm in the house, period. I had a couple of BB guns, but not even a .22 was allowed to come home. When I was about to turn 21, I was hired at a security firm and I had to have a .38/.357 revolver for most of the posts. No qualifying, just the gun with 6 rounds in it. On the advice of a family friend who was retired NYPD, I bought a Taurus 83n "n" stood for nickel. Pretty gun, but was junk. It went down to FL for repairs and I bought my first Dan Wesson 15-2 to use while it was gone. When it came back, it went right back to FL again, and then I sold it off. I've had at least one DW 15-2 or 715 since 1977. And I never asked the family friend for gun advice again after the Taurus. When I told him I had replaced it with the DW 15-2 he called it "junk", and I knew right then he didn't know what he was talking about. Years later, he asked me if I still had it. I said, "Yeah, and I've got two more of them!", he was shocked that "I got them working". I have no idea what he was thinking about.
my Mom and Dad both hunted so there were always guns in the house. My first shots were from my dads lap at age 5 using a Winchester 22 that I still have. Bought my first centerfire rifles while in the Army and started reloading in 1966 when I was discharged.
Reloadron
Contributing Member
I grew up, well wait maybe I have yet to grow up, before what we call a "second amendment community" as we know it today ever existed. Born in Brooklyn, NY 1950 I had my formative years on Long Island. My father was a returned WW II veteran so it was typical Americana. I was the eldest of four kids. My grandfather and my uncle were the hunting and gun types and for reasons I will never understand from a young age I simply had a fascination with guns. Keep in mind that pre the gun control act of 1968 you could not only mail order a gun but buy a gun and ammunition as easily as a claw hammer in the local hardware store.
The thanksgiving weekend of 1958, when I was 8 years old, my grandfather and uncle took me on my first hunting trip upstate NY. A friend of my uncle had a cabin in Liberty, NY. My uncle's friend Charlie handed me a Remington 510 to carry, of course no ammo but I dragged that rifle everywhere. After a day of hunting in the afternoons I would be given a box of 22 ammo and instructions of how to shoot. I loved it, every moment of it. When the weekend ended and it was time to drive back to Brooklyn (The City) Charlie gave me that rifle.
Come Thanksgiving that will be 62 years ago and it's the rifle on the top. I simply very much enjoy my hobbies and shooting has pretty much become a lifetime hobby. During most of my life I never had to fight to defend my hobby or my right to have a gun, any gun. I never had a need for a second amendment community nor did any gun owners. Today I support the NRA and gun rights, not so much for me but so my grandchildren may enjoy the same freedoms I did during my lifetime. I really don't know why I was drawn to the gun but I know I enjoy my shooting sports. Thanks Charlie and Uncle Will wherever you are.
Ron
Wow. Those old Remington rifles are so very nice. I have a Remington Model 41 Targetmaster that my Father in law willed to me 30 years ago. It has a 30 in. bbl. and is a tackdriver. He bought it when he was a kid in 1937 for like $12.00 and fed his family with it.
Reloadron
Contributing Member
Well you know how it goes, they multiply.
I have always been a sucker for .22 rifles. Actually Remington liked the name "Targetmaster" as they also used it on the 510. Go figure? Ron
My Grandpa had me set up with a Red Rider at about 4.
Did kill a bird and was mad as hell grandma refused to cook it.
By the time I was in first grade I had a bolt action 22 and a single shot 16 ga.
Gun bug has never faded or left my whole life. Only gotten worse.
Still have the 16ga but I wore it out hunting rabbits as a kid.
Did kill a bird and was mad as hell grandma refused to cook it.
By the time I was in first grade I had a bolt action 22 and a single shot 16 ga.
Gun bug has never faded or left my whole life. Only gotten worse.
Still have the 16ga but I wore it out hunting rabbits as a kid.
wiscoaster
Member
I didn't own a gun at all until about three years ago. I'm a very strict and conservative interpreter of the U.S. Constitution and have been concerned for some time about the bit by bit encroachments upon our Constitutionally-enumerated rights. I felt that a right not exercised is a right in danger of being lost. So I purchased my first handgun mostly from a motivation to exercise my Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. If you don't use it then you're going to lose it, right? Then I discovered learning about firearms and the challenges of using firearms was just plain fascinating and got hooked into learning more about them and acquiring more of them of different types with different operating characteristics, etc. It's a bottomless rabbit hole I very much have enjoyed diving into.
I grew up with BB guns and wanted something more. My uncle, who grew up in Morton Grove, IL (most anti-gun city in USA) was an avid trapshooter, duck and pheasant hunter and shot shell reloader. He also started re-building Model 12 Winchesters for relatives. He gave us the itch. My dad, who grew up on a farm with a o/u .22/20 gauge didn't get going again until we did. My older brother started collecting shotguns after college, also gave us all a lot of options.
Vern Humphrey
Member
I was born wearing combat boots, a steel helmet and an M1 Garand in my hand.
Both sets of grandparents were farmers. My dad and his family kept a shotgun primarily for varmint eradication around the hen house and the occasional rabbit. Not big hunters. Dad owned 1 shotgun in his life and took me hunting occasionally. Dad never owned a handgun. He brought back one from his service in WW-2, but it was stolen out of his duffle bag during the boat ride back home from Europe.
My mom's dad however was a big hunter who owned many nice firearms. Mom only had one brother but 5 sisters. My uncle and his only son, a cousin much older than me ended up with all of grand dads classic guns. Both my uncle and cousin are gone and I have no idea what happened to those guns. My uncle showed me the collection once sometime during the 1970's. I can't remember all of the details, but there were several Winchester lever guns from the late 1800's into the early 1900's.
I grew up hundreds or miles from both grand parents and none of them had much of an influence on me. I never really knew any of my cousins.
I started reading Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, and Sports Afield every month in the library at school. I read every issue front to back during my high school years. After graduation I subscribed to continue reading One of my football coaches, who was also my scout master was big time into hunting and he had an influence in me as well.
I've always considered myself a hunter 1st, but enjoy anything shooting. I own quite a few handguns and several AR's that I shoot a lot. In fact as I get older I find more time to shoot at the range than hunt. My more recent purchases have been geared more toward shooting than hunting.
My mom's dad however was a big hunter who owned many nice firearms. Mom only had one brother but 5 sisters. My uncle and his only son, a cousin much older than me ended up with all of grand dads classic guns. Both my uncle and cousin are gone and I have no idea what happened to those guns. My uncle showed me the collection once sometime during the 1970's. I can't remember all of the details, but there were several Winchester lever guns from the late 1800's into the early 1900's.
I grew up hundreds or miles from both grand parents and none of them had much of an influence on me. I never really knew any of my cousins.
I started reading Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, and Sports Afield every month in the library at school. I read every issue front to back during my high school years. After graduation I subscribed to continue reading One of my football coaches, who was also my scout master was big time into hunting and he had an influence in me as well.
I've always considered myself a hunter 1st, but enjoy anything shooting. I own quite a few handguns and several AR's that I shoot a lot. In fact as I get older I find more time to shoot at the range than hunt. My more recent purchases have been geared more toward shooting than hunting.
kBob
Member
Well my Mom gave me a tooth brush that had a revolver shaped handle to help with teething that I chewed on a lot that I only know of because she took pictures of me in my out door crib wearing diapers with the tooth brush in hand and mouth.
I grew up on TV westerns.
while five I got my first BB "rifle". Initially Dad took out the barrel bit so it was just a noise maker unless he was there to suppervise BB shooting. His Baby Brother, Uncle Mike, just 12 years older than me, had a Targeteer BB pistol that was notoriously hard to cock so he offered it to me with the parents approval. I soon found I could cock it by leaning into it against the edge of the back porch and began shooting mainly Little Plastic Army Men in the open end of a box with a wadded up blanket in the back of it. AH! you say, "the kid wanted a safe back drop" Nope I just wanted to recover the BBs and figured that out myself. Anyhow when Dad Found I was shooting the air pistol safely, he reassembled my "rifle" and gave it to me with warnings that miss used equaled gun gone.
At around nine or ten I graduated to a Winchester M67 .22 single shot but Dad kept it except when hunting. After only maybe three trips out this was changed to a Winchester M37 .410 for actual hunting as Dad favored eating over shooting "AT" squirrel with a .22. He let me keep the barrel and stock of the M67 in my room but kept the bolt at that point. A move later and at 12 he gave me the bolt but insisted that it be kept out in the house and let me keep my .22 ammo and .410 ammo in my sock drawer.
Very soon afterwards I used that M67 to defend my family successfully. No shots fired but it did its job and the bad man with the loaded revolver he had been waving about and pointing at my folks went away appologizing for theatening Dad and Mom on their own door step. Notice the prescence of a (second) gun STOPPED the criminal and life threatening behavior. That really impressed me as a 12 year old and still does.
Though that was the first time I "used a gun" to prevent deadly violence it would not be the last and as a result I believe the RKBA is at least as important as any of the other civil rights mentioned in the Bill of Rights.
I also enjoy tinkering with guns, the way some guys like tinkering with cars or clocks or other mechanical devices and I enjoy shooting and I like history....a flintlock can get me right on the road from Concord and an 1853 Enfield can set me in the corn field at Gettysberg and an M1 Garand....
-kBob
I grew up on TV westerns.
while five I got my first BB "rifle". Initially Dad took out the barrel bit so it was just a noise maker unless he was there to suppervise BB shooting. His Baby Brother, Uncle Mike, just 12 years older than me, had a Targeteer BB pistol that was notoriously hard to cock so he offered it to me with the parents approval. I soon found I could cock it by leaning into it against the edge of the back porch and began shooting mainly Little Plastic Army Men in the open end of a box with a wadded up blanket in the back of it. AH! you say, "the kid wanted a safe back drop" Nope I just wanted to recover the BBs and figured that out myself. Anyhow when Dad Found I was shooting the air pistol safely, he reassembled my "rifle" and gave it to me with warnings that miss used equaled gun gone.
At around nine or ten I graduated to a Winchester M67 .22 single shot but Dad kept it except when hunting. After only maybe three trips out this was changed to a Winchester M37 .410 for actual hunting as Dad favored eating over shooting "AT" squirrel with a .22. He let me keep the barrel and stock of the M67 in my room but kept the bolt at that point. A move later and at 12 he gave me the bolt but insisted that it be kept out in the house and let me keep my .22 ammo and .410 ammo in my sock drawer.
Very soon afterwards I used that M67 to defend my family successfully. No shots fired but it did its job and the bad man with the loaded revolver he had been waving about and pointing at my folks went away appologizing for theatening Dad and Mom on their own door step. Notice the prescence of a (second) gun STOPPED the criminal and life threatening behavior. That really impressed me as a 12 year old and still does.
Though that was the first time I "used a gun" to prevent deadly violence it would not be the last and as a result I believe the RKBA is at least as important as any of the other civil rights mentioned in the Bill of Rights.
I also enjoy tinkering with guns, the way some guys like tinkering with cars or clocks or other mechanical devices and I enjoy shooting and I like history....a flintlock can get me right on the road from Concord and an 1853 Enfield can set me in the corn field at Gettysberg and an M1 Garand....
-kBob
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