Do you remember the very first time you went shooting?

[Sniper X]

I do, distinctly. Like it was yesterday. I was 8 years old and got my first real firearm for Christmas. I am glad it took another five years or so for my Mom and Dad to become liberals!

The gun was a Montgomery Wards single shot break open 410 shotgun. I remember sitting up with it almost all night just looking at it I loved it so much when I got it!

The very next day, my Dad took my sister and I to the Auto parts store that also sold guns and ammo and had a GREAT selection of knives, it was a Western Auto in Columbus outside Ft. Benning Georgia.

We bought four boxes of 410 shells and headed back towards Ft. Benning and pulled over at a lonely old dirt road well away from everything. Back in those days, this was 1966, we had a box full of glass Coke bottles as targets. And there were a couple washers or dryers out there as it turned out to be a pretty popular shooting spot that we just happened on!

I got to shoot it first after a primer from my dad, and will never forget the smell of the air after the first shot. It was magic and I to this day remember it so perfectly like it was yesterday. to this day, when I smell a shotgun shell, it brings back that particular memory.

My dad would throw the bottles up in the air away from us and make sure my sister was right behind me and I would shoot at them. I remember hitting all of them from the start except for one I missed because I took too long to aim instead of just pointing at it and it hit the ground right before I took the shot.

Man, those were some good times. I have been into shooting ever since and that day changed my life.

I went on from that 410 to a Marlin Golden 39A as my first rifle at 9 and a Colt Daimondback at 12 as my first handgun.

 

[Rawb77]

Cub scouts. BB guns at day camp. Boy Scouts, 22's at Scout Camp and weekend camp outs.

I'm now just out of college as of May 2009. My ARMY buddy and I go shooting his AR every so often. I shoot just as well as he does even though hes a Rifle Marksman.

When asked where I learned to shoot. My answer is "Boy scouts and video games" (and I'm talking duck hunt not Call of Duty)

 

[CoRoMo]

Do you remember the very first time you went shooting?

Nope... dang it!:banghead:

I do have some very early memories though. Probably the earliest, I remember my Dad out pheasant hunting and I was a very little boy. My mom drove me out to where he was hunting, and I went out into the field with him. He let me shoot his 12ga. bolt action Mossberg by squatting down and I got inside his arms. He held the gun and pointed it at a yellow-breasted lark that was up on a nearby weed. All I had to do was aim down the barrel and pull the trigger. I aimed for a long time too, but when I pulled that trigger, the rear of the bolt hit me right in the face and made me cry. It put a bruise below one eye, but I got that bird and I was hooked.

He took me bird & rabbit hunting when I was young.
Now I take him elk hunting. He killed a big bull last October; his first elk.
No words could describe...

 

[Sniper X]

That bit about your dad is Priceless CrRoMo! Glad you chimed in! It's friday, and I wanted to bring back some fond memories with this thread.

kev

 

[OregonJohnny]

I don't remember the very first time, since I was probably about 7 or 8 years old. My dad took me shooting a lot. I do remember putting a whole lot of .22LR through a particular Browning semi-auto rifle when I was little. That distinct smell of freshly-spent rimfire ammo, wafting through the air. Nowadays, that smell instantly triggers memories of these early shooting trips.

 

[Walkalong]

I was about 8ish. It with my father and we shot his Marlin 39A. Hooked for life immediately.

 

[doc2rn]

The very first time I was with greatgrandpa and he put me against a tree with a side by side 10g shotgun. He pulled both hammers back put me against a tree told me to aim at the old hen house and pull the trigger. Man did he get a laugh out of that until I showed grandma the bruise and she ran him off for 3 days! The next weekend she gave me his .22 and a box of shells and things changed for me!

 

[Sniper X]

The first time I ever shot a rifle was abou tthree months later. We went to visit my grandma and grandpa up at Killarney lake out in the Mo. Ozarks. After a first day fishing on the lake, my Grandpa took me shooting. He had the most beautiful Browning top grade .22 auto I have even seen to this day! I loved that little thing! He also had a marlin Golden .22a which I liked even better since it was a lever gun. I ended up with a 39A not much later! I wish I would have also bought a Browning high grade .22 auto too. I am still looking for one!

 

[Quoheleth]

1983...I was 8 or 9 --- I forget which side of my birthday this fell. My folks just found out they were expecting my little brother, and I suspect Dad wanted to make sure I knew I wasn't being forgotten. This day was one of THOSE special days: anything I wanted to do, we did. The culmination was when he took his Winchester 250 out of the box and a couple boxes of .22s and we went down to "the dump" - a ditch out in the pasture that we threw brush, etc. in - with some bottles and light bulbs. He showed me how to sight the rifle and then, after some basic instructions, let me at it. I was hooked. I loved lever actions from the Westerns on TV and, although Dad's wasn't like Chuck Conners' Winchester, it was a lever action and I shot it every chance I could after that.

Dad's gone now, but I still have the Winchester. To be honest, I hate the rifle, but I love the memories it summons forth. Thus, I will never part with it willingly. I also have his old Stevens 15A and a Winchester 97 pump 12 gauge that belonged to his dad (maybe even grandpa...I forget). All are heirlooms and the Stevens still gets used.

Thanks for stirring the pot of memories, Sniper.

 

[jigglyjames29]

Shooting a .22lr rifle when 12 at a summer camp. Bastards at the camp didn't offer us hearing protection or anything.

 

[wishin]

That was a long, long time ago. I think it was with my uncle at a fair when I was 13-14 years old.

 

[shibby]

8 years old, browning high power.

 

[harmonic]

I was in the fifth grade and went squirrel hunting with my father. I had his Savage 16 guage shotgun with poly choke. I distinctly remember tightening the polychoke as far as it would go so that it wouldn't fall off.

A chipmunk ran across a log and I blasted it at near point blank range. I'd never seen a squirrel so I didn't know what to shoot. Literally, the chipmunk just left a bloody spot. Full choke at that range did the trick.

 

[Warhawk83]

My dad took me rabbit hunting when I was 7 years old. I carried a Stevens .410 that a family friend gave me when I was 4. I was a bit hyper,so I finally bugged my dad enough to let me shoot it.

He showed me the proper stance,how to work the gun, and then let me at it. It was very loud and all I remember seeing is the sky and wondering wth had just happened. Knocked me square on my butt lol.

I still have that gun and in fact I just restained it cleaned and lubed it for my 4 year old. Planning on taking him outside later, putting it on my shoulder and letting him pull the trigger.

Great memories were made with that gun and hopefully my son will feel the same way about it that I do. You couldn't give me enough money for that gun.

 

[rygould]

First time was a Boy Scout camp. I was almost 11 and got to go to camp with the older boys for the first time.

I took the Rifle Shooting merit badge, and we shot bolt action .22's. I felt like I was an Army sniper making precision long range shots. In reality targets were probably less than 20 yards away, just far enough to be safe, but let a green-horn kid achieve some level of accuracy.

It was love at first sight, and I ended up teaching the merit badge class later in life. Although my boys will know how to shoot before 11; I look forward to them earning their rifle shooting merit badge.

 

[RobMoore]

The first time I was taken shooting wasn't the first time I went shooting.

My dad wasn't a "gun guy", but allowed me to have a BBgun, then a .22, and a 12 gauge as I started hitting my teens. I went off in the woods by myself plenty of times, but never visited a real range the first few years as a "gun owner".

He wanted me to have some proper instruction. So, when I was 15, my uncle Scott (super gun guy) took me to the range, and I spent the whole day with him firing all manner of things. His collection included many NFA items, to include a Sten, FA AK47, Uzi, and Mac-10 w/ suppressor. Also present was a mini-14, and AR15, and a couple S&W pistols.

Somewhere my mother has this great VHS of the day, including a portion of 105lb me burst firing some cans in a rock quarry with a MAC-10, with my cast-laden broken left wrist (105 lb sophomores shouldn't try to stiffarm seniors) holding down the front end of the gun by the wrapped suppressor . The sound of the rounds hitting the targets is louder than the report of the gun.

I was only sort-of interested in guns before that day. My dad created a monster, sending me off to uncle Scott. I'm glad I grew up to have a job in firearms. It feeds me occasional need for full-auto, and makes the hobby easier on the wallet getting paid to do it instead of paying to do it (which I still find myself doing in my off-time).

 

[Boba Fett]

12 years old - Marlin 22, 30-30 lever action (Marlin IIRC), 357 Ruger revolver, 9mm Beretta. Good times.

 

[rondog]

Um, no. That was probably 50 years ago, and guns were always involved in family gatherings. Had several relatives living on farms and ranches back then. Recently uncovered an old movie showing my grandma blasting away at something with her 20 gauge. I found guns in my grandparents house that none of us had ever seen before. No telling when I pulled my first trigger, probably had a loaded diaper at the time.

 

[searcher451]

I used a Ruger Bearcat; I was with my grandfather and was about 12 or so. I still own the Bearcat and still take it to the range from time to time. It was a terrific pistol then and remains so today, many decades later.

 

[menacingsquirrel]

I don't remember the exact first time, but I know it was when I was 5 with a Mossberg 22 at the Tucson Rod and Gun Club, which is sadly no more.

 

[W.E.G.]

I will never forget the lever of my uncle's Red Ryder slamming on my fingers.

I think I was 8.

Obviously, I was traumatized, and will not go near guns now.

 

[GRIZ22]

The first centerfire weapon I fired was a M14 at fort Dix in 1967.

 

[rbernie]

I clearly recall my first shooting experience - 22LR at the Goshen scout camp. I was HOOKED.

 

[Old Shooter]

Yes and no.

My father and one of his WWII buddies took me to the local gravel pit and they were shooting some sort of handgun. To keep me occupied they gave me a .22 revolver (S&W? later I knew the guy we went with and he was big into S&W). They pointed me away from them and told me to shoot at the rocks, when I emptied the revolver they would come over and reload it for me, then bang away at the rocks again.

Knowing where we lived at that time I couldn't have been more than 4 years old. I remember the event but nothing about going there or whatever we may have done afterwards.

Now, 60 years later, I still enjoy shooting and don't remember much either

 

[Hodaka]

How about "trying out" 1st gun?

1968, around Thanksgiving. I was 8. Vietnam was hot, my youngest uncle was just sent off to that place. Up until then we wouldn't be considered poor, but we had little extra money after paydays. A big purchase like a gun would have been out of the question. But with Vietnam and my parents new jobs we were doing better than ever financially, Dad had a great job working huge amounts of overtime for a military contractor, Mom was doing the same at her job at the AF base, but because they worked so much and swing shifts I ended up almost living full-time with my grandmother. We all lived on our family farm. Guns were always around. Tools for dispatching some animal trying to kill chickens, the ocassional rattler in the yard, and putting rabbits in the pan.

I guess I'd been begging for my own gun. At that point I'd only trailed the grown boys/men on rabbit hunts and JUST KNEW I was big enough for my own gun. Dad had a rare day off and took me to town to the Otasco store. I guess he'd already checked out the hardware store and Western Auto. We went in and I had no clue what was up. Dad went straight to the gun rack and started pulling down shotguns for me to try out. First was a break action single 20 ga. the a 410, then a nice Stevens bolt action .410. I remember him pausing over the price tags and then sending me off to check out other things. Obviously he had the clerk stick back one of the guns for Santa for me. Christmas morning I found the Stevens .410 and a box or 2 of shells under the tree.

I don't remember shooting it my first time.....but I do remember the first "real" hunt I took it on. It was the following year and Dad always had a Thanksgiving Rabbit Hunt on our farm and we had run of several neighbooring farms. "Big Daddy", one of his co-workers bought a huge pack of beagles and we ran the dogs until we had to tote them back to their truck boxes. I busted more than my share of the furry beasts. Of course "Big Daddy" probably always positioned me where I'd have the best chance on a run to take the rabbit. I was on top of the world. That little gun went miles with me until I graduated to an 870 12 guage. It took more than one double on a covey rise, quite good shooting if I say so myself with a full choke and bolt action .410. Don't think I could do that now with an auto but then, I lived with that gun.

Now I have a son of my own and its been a joy taking him out shooting. We probably go to our local range at least once a month. He's tuning into a pretty good shooter, good thing, he wants a career in the military serving our country.