i learned to shoot with my brothers 4x scoped .22 cal air rifle. i shot small birds, toy soldiers, small fruits swaying in the wind with it and rats( this was in another country). maybe 10 to 11 yrs old .
my first real centerfire shot with a pistol was much later. my father had an old BHP that was rusting away, as a kid i remember him tucking it next to the handbrake of the car during trips. Martial law was declared and it stayed inside the house after. My older brother had shown me how to field strip it. ( unsupervised- my father had no idea must have been 13 to 14 yrs old, how unsafe is that) by then we knew never to point any gun at anyone even if unloaded. I was the only one oiling that gun periodically. it was never loaded but there were loose rounds in the same drawer. around 20 yrs old i decided to shoot a round in our backyard. we had reinforced concrete fence walls so good backstop. i made sure no one was to go outside for the next few minutes. i had painted 3 white dots on the sight with typewriter correction fluid. must have been 12 to 15 yrds. i shot at a S26 milk formula can with a cup and saucer hold(hey that is what i saw on tv). i had dryfired that gun a lot of times by then with a pencil in the barrel. i hit it dead center in the middle of the logo(3×4 inch oval logo). next shot i thought i did poorly as it was off by about 5 inches. i stopped after 2 rds. i still am thrilled that my first real shot hit the "bullseye". that was around 1987. when my father passed that gun along with a shotgun was passed onto my brother.
when i visited in 2009, my bother showed me the gun, the white dots i had painted with the correction fluid was still there.
in spite of that, i actually did poorly with my first 9 mm handgun an xdm. it took probably more than a thousand rounds before i could shoot it where i could see where my shots were landing. after several hundred rounds experience with the xdm which i still coudnt shoot properly, i bought a cheap metroarms 1911. first time out i shredded the center of the target at 10 yds. i found the trigger on those older style guns better than the mushy long take up triggers of the striker fired guns.