How many here didn't start shooting until they were an adult?

I’ve had a gun in my hand since I was a boy in the 50s, when dinosaurs walked the earth and everything was in black and white.

My Dad and Mom were both "city kids" from Chicago and New York City, respectively. So, no hunters in my home, and none of my uncles hunted, either.

Like the OP, the first time I shot an actual firearm was a .22 rifle at Boy Scout summer camp. As a teen, I developed an interest in guns and hunting, and when I was 18 or 19 I bought a percussion Hawken Rifle. I shot that a little with a local Civil War reenacting group who had their own outdoor range outside of town. They were naturally enough more focused on the Civil War and dressing up for events, so I eventually drifted away from them.

Finally, when I was in my late 20s I bought my first modern firearm, a Gen2 Glock 17 (which I still have!).

My dad didn't hunt or shoot, he did sell guns though. We only had one gun ever in the house, and that was a 12 g shotgun right after MLK was shot in '68, the riots got to about a mile and a half from our house and dad brought home a pump gun and a couple of boxes of 00 buckshot. I remember the box of shells more than the gun itself. When the riots were done, the gun went back to work with dad. I shot a relative's 1911 when I was about 9, and didn't shoot anything other than a friend's Nylon 66 until I was 21 when I started shooting.

Air guns and a .303 until my Mom found it when I was 15. Then the Canadian military at 18. Big spell of no guns from 20 to 30 while I was trashing around North America trucking and was fairly unsettled.

My Dad, nor any uncles gun owners. None of my childhood friends were in gun owning families. The gun world only opened up to me later in life due to my B-I-L. Another plus is it happened after moving from NY to PA.

Purchased my first gun in 2019 at the age of 49. The bug really took off after getting some training and realizing that I needed a bunch more guns

I did grow up with a gun in the home, sort of. Dads old shotgun that was stored in the garage and rarely seen. Shot with friends some a few times, but never got into it until much later.

Me

Found out later in life dad had hunted, his dad did and on back. However my pop had gun-induced hearing damage, and when I was little he was told to stop shooting. Later, when the squirrels got into the attic, they started dropping from the mature Dutch & Chinese Elm trees courtesy of a Sheridan pellet rifle. Dad was a crack shot and enjoyed the work. No firearms though, until I was well into adulthood when friends invited me to go with them. It was (and is) so much fun to shoot. Dad handed over an old turkey box call handmade by my grandfather when I told him about my new hobby, and bragged about grandpa's proficiency with a rifle and a shotgun. Who knew?

As kids, all the TV re-runs we watched portrayed guns as useful tools of The Good Guys. We saw bad guys misuse guns and murder on TV shows, but the Good Guys (Lone Ranger, Cisco Kid, Dragnet, Kojack) put it right. We played with toy guns or sticks that became guns, endlessly. We were made to understand goodness or badness of a gun was in the eyes of the beholder, er, the hands of the Holder. My 2 cents: With this attitude instilled in today's kids we'll have more new, younger shooters. Do what you can!

Dad hunted to feed us when we were poor, and to get out with his dad and uncles once we weren't. So I learned early but we moved before I was old enough for him to take me out of boredom. Probably not a bad thing, I wasn't mature enough to deal with taking a life during the cold season anyway.

But I went shooting a couple times, only really started enjoying it and getting a little more serious in my 20s. He finally got around to buying me my first .22 when I was 23.

Me. Grew up in a "mom-only" household, and she was pretty gun-shy. I really didn't have much interest in shooting, anyway, until I was about 17 or 18, when I'd made up my mind that I was going to go into law enforcement.

The man she married when I was sixteen had two rifles, which I never laid eyes on until I was nineteen years old, when she agreed to let him sell one to me and show me how to use and care for it. It was a Winchester 190 in .22LR (the other one was something in .30-30, but I never saw it. He sold it outside the household.)

That was in 1985. The next year, Frank died, and the Winchester went to his son. I replaced it with a Ruger 10/22, which I still own. The year after that (1987), I did indeed enter law enforcement.

HoploDad said:

the Good Guys (Lone Ranger, Cisco Kid, Dragnet, Kojack)

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Don't forget "Hoppy" (Hopalong Cassidy).

I grew up in an entirely non-sporting family. Dad owned a few guns, as far as I knew, he fired them never. He hated hunting but loved steak. My wife bought me my first rifle after I showed interest in a 10/22 deluxe sporter at the local Walmart. I’ve been raising my children differently.

LAFWI writes:

My wife bought me my first rifle after I showed interest in a 10/22 deluxe sporter..

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Good woman.

I am 40. The last eight years has been super fun!
I’ve always been a good shot with an air gun. And I’ve always had an air rifle.
I didn’t “get into them” until my grandfather gave me an old 760 he had. Someone had turned the ocular with a pipe wrench, as was my grandpas M.O.
Thus, I began iron sighted centerfire shooting.

Now, I have too much, into too many firearms, that consume too much time.

Lovin’ every minute of it!
(And a lot easier on me body than wrecking bikes.)

I was married for 4 years before I bought & shot my first gun - a SIG P229. Marriage wasn't going well so I needed a distraction. That pissed off the wife even more. I bought more guns. We got divorced. No wife, but still shooting.

I don't recommend that path for anyone else though.

(We had two daughters. Both of them shoot with me on occasion. I don't think the Ex is happy about that, but they enjoy it!)

Been shooting since I was 6 owned my first gun at 8 have owned guns and been shooting ever since . My first hand gun was a Crossman pellet pistol when I was 8. I think it was a model 1377. Mine was all black and very accurate. Dad wouldn't let me have a 22LR or 38special hand gun till I was a touch older. Had a 22LR rifle and a 410 shotgun and Crossman Pellet Gun at 8. I never did understand why I had to wait for the 22 LR or 38special hand gun. I think Mom had some input on that. Plus we were pretty poor at that time.

Never shot anything bigger than a BB gun until I got drafted in 1968.

My dad was an MP in the Army for several years but never had guns at the house.

My first experience around age 10 was him and I holding a 12 gauge shotgun shooting a Folgers coffee can outside the backyard area in Kentucky (Where his family is from).

That was it until about 4 years ago. I talked my wife into doing a CWP course and the rest is history. For reference, I am 48.

JCooperfan1911: "I’ve had a gun in my hand since I was a boy in the 50s, when dinosaurs walked the earth and everything was in black and white."

I was introduced to shooting in the 1950s by my Dad and by my uncle with the rifle they used as kids to defend livestock from predators and to put meat on the farm family table. By that time, I lived in the city, visited the old home place and family still on the mountain in the summer and fall. Dinosaurs were in the movies like BEAST OF HOLLOW MOUNTAIN and KING DINOSAUR. My mom told me that everything was black and white until the scene in WIZARD OF OZ when Munchkin Land went technicolor. That pegs the invention of color at 1939.