How Did You Get Introduced to Firearms?

[Ala Dan]

I guess I would probably fall into the

military, scouting, profession category

After completing the 5th grade, dad bought me a Winchester single-shot,
bolt action model 67A; but I did'nt count that cuz I never really warmed up too it. "Uncle Sam" introduced me to the M-14, and I was hooked; and have
been ever since~!

 

[tubeshooter]

Birth of my daughter, made me want to be able to provide protection for her. Bought my first gun, a handgun. The rest is history. I'm much more of a rifle shooter now, mostly .22LR.

 

[SunRunner]

I grew with guns around the house. I was taught to respect all firearms as far back as I can remember.

My Dad told me he acquired his first real gun, a Hopkins and Allen .22 revolver when he was 12 years old. He traded his neighbor his ice skates for it. When I was in 8th grade I built a leather holster for it in shop. Yep, they let me take the gun to school and build the holster. Through the years between my dad and I we wore this one out but I still have it.

I actually was given my first gun, a Daisy Red Ryder Carbine when I was about 6 years old. My Dad had bought this one for himself right after he came back from WW II but wound up giving it to me in about 1957. I can remember it was all I could do to cock it. Had to put the stock on the floor against my foot and pull for all I was worth. My Dad made me a bullet trap of wood that collected the BBs so I could reuse them. Times were tough. Every once in while I managed to snipe a bird out the bedroom window or in the woods. This activity was highly frowned upon by my Aunt that lived right next-door because she fed them. I still have this gun and it’s among some of my most cherished possessions.

In my early teens I worked part time at an auction sale. I bought a very old H&R .410 single shot which was my first gun purchase. Gave $13.00 for it. At 50 cents an hour that was a lot of floor sweeping. Took this one on many hunting trips with my Dad. Still have this one.

At around the age of 14 I fired the first gun that had any serious recoil. It was a 1948 - 12 gauge JC Higgins bolt-action shotgun. I remember the noise and recoil giving me a whole new respect for all guns. The one my Dad had was later broken beyond repair. I actually found one these at first of this year just hanging on the wall at the gun range we typically shoot. Needless to say I bought it on the spot.

Interestingly enough my Dad also started my youngest son with a BB gun when he was 10-11 years old. My son spent the summer with my folks and Dad took him out into the Arizona desert snake hunting. He really enjoyed himself but then showed no further interest in guns until now. Now in his 30s he just bought his first pistol, a 9mm Browning High Power, and is going to the range with his mom and me on a weekly basis. Yep, his mom shoots too.

I’m still looking to replace another one of my firsts that was stolen in Colorado. I was a 1957-58 Marlin 336 SC. 35rem. It was the rifle I captured my first deer with. If anybody has any suggestions on finding one that hasn’t been butchered I’d like to hear from them. Most I’ve found have been modified for either peep sights or a scope.

With many years of personal a history of owning and being around guns there have many others. Numerous hunting trips, days out just plinking, playing with wildcat loads and reloading. Then there were dry spells where the guns just sat stored away waiting to be caressed again.

 

[hexidismal]

Although both of my parents were in the army, dad was special forces and mom was medi, I still didn't grow up around guns at all. In fact when I first started showing interest in firearms, I was generally discouraged in the matter. I never let it get to me though. I was however encouraged into various martial arts from the age of 5, and firearms seemed to me a natural step in what I was learning there. I knew one day I'd be old enough to pursue my interest on my own, and so I did.

 

[Autolite]

I was an Air Cadet and 12 years old back in 1973. They taught us to shoot converted Lee Enfield training rifles in .22. I was a terrible shot but I did learn what "cross eye dominant" was all about ...

 

[Redneck with a 40]

Its simple for me, my father introduced me to shooting when I was 8 years old. He bought me an Ithaca single shot 22 rifle and thats what I learned on, I still own it to this day. Through my teen years I got shoot my dad's 9mm pistols, 38 special revolvers, and even a 357 magnum. Being young and inexperienced, the 357 mag was a handful. When I was 21, I got my dad to buy a Taurus 669 357 magnum as a birthday present, that was the beginning of my true passion for shooting. Since then I have aquired a SA-XD40, a Taurus Mil-Pro 40, a Ruger 22/45, and a Taurus Tracker 357. Now I go shooting every weekend, weather permitting. Within the last year, I've gotten into reloading, 2800 rounds of 40 S&W so far. Reloading is a fun activity and it saves me 50% over factory ammo. So, thanks to my dad, I've come full tilt into the shooting hobby, developed a passion for it, put a few more guns on my wish list, and I'm proud of it. I've also recently aquired my Colorado CCW pemit.

By the way, I'm gonna teach my brother's son how to shoot on the Ithaca single shot 22, he's 8 now, so its time.

Here's a pic of the Ithaca 22 I learned to shoot on.

 

[sfhogman]

It had to do with a Crosman CO2 gun my Dad brought home for us to plink with. I thought it was the coolest, most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. All that blue steel and walnut. He was the one who taught me to enjoy guns and shooting.

My brother has it now- there's much wear on its thin bluing, and the stock is made of some mystery wood...

Dad died two years ago, at 90. I'm 59. I wish I could have another 1960 summer evening with him and that gun.

Jeff

 

[F4GIB]

I was a civil rights worker ("outside agitator") in the rural South. People in bedsheets wanted to kill me. I decided they wouldn't.

 

[SigNY]

My dad was a LEO before I was born and thats what got him started into firearms. Unfortunatly when I was born he sold most of his stuff with the exception of 1 pistol and 1 shotgun. I had BB guns growing up and a few times got to shoot my dad's Colt Python. But after I graduated college and actually had some money of my own, so I started my own collection of firearms and I havent looked back. It also makes you want to be active in the fight for our 2A freedoms. Now me and my Dad go shooting alot and he has renewed his interest in it. So thats my story.

SigNY

 

[Stevie-Ray]

My first shot from a real gun was out of a Mossberg semiauto .22 rifle that belonged to my brother-in-law. I was hooked. He was just my sister's boyfriend, then. He also, a few years later, handed me his pistol, a Ruger RST-4 for my first handgun experience. My first handgun purchase, 10 years later, was an RST-6. My dad lit the fire in me by showing me his Colt .32. The brother-in-law definitely fanned the flames, and we always had a blast when we went shooting. I still miss him.

 

[thebaldguy]

As a youngster decades ago, I worked my way through the stages of firearms with family and friends; air rifles, rimfires, and my personal favorite, the .410 shotgun. I loved shooting empty soda cans with that shotgun!

Even brought the shot peppered cans to school for show and tell. What would happen to a kid today if he did that?

 

[Kali Endgame]

My first time firing a weapon was in Boot Camp. I grew up in a conservative environment were guns were the trade tools of trained professionals-Military, LEO's and the like. After I was discharged, I never had a need for guns.

A few months after I got out, my Dad gave me a Ruger M77 that he had purchased nearly twenty years earlier, but had never fired. My boss was a rabid pro 2A guy and got me to reverse my thinking. I am still learning and increasing my collection.

It wasn't until after I was discharged that I learned Firearms ownership wasn't about need, but a right, and a right I had to exercise.

 

[mattw]

My dad got me into guns, but he got into guns because of the years he spent in the military. No one else on my dad's side of the family is real big into guns like he is.

 

[snow]

gun introduction

My grandfather introduced me to guns. The first time I held one was when my grandfather took me rabbit hunting and let me use a double barelled 12 gauge. I am not sure of brand and model. But the experience of going out with him and my uncles was one that i will never forget.

 

[Tiger beetle]

When I was in high school, my boyfriend and I shot some guns and my family had guns, but I grew up believing they were just for hunting and related things.
My husband was the one who got me into CCW and 2A, and I got a gun for personal protection because I felt it necessary, being female in a high-crime city. I have since begun to like guns period and am very passionate about my 2A rights. My husband got into guns because of individual interest and a desire to exercise his rights.

 

[Atticus]

I crawled up to the gun cabinet, dropped my binky, and stared open mouthed at the beautiful things inside. Put me down for choice number one.

 

[Lamb of Gun]

I was never really into guns. I never really cared about them or gave them any thought until I started working with some gun guys who would talk about shooting all the time. My boss took me out "skeet shooting" and by "skeet shooting" I mean throwing broken pieces of skeet out into the range and shooting them from about 20 feet away. Still, he had a coach gun and an 870 and it was a blast. I couldn't stop thinking about guns and shooting and here I am today trying to wait for the right deal to come along so I can get a k98, put a synthetic stock on it, give it a scope and lay waste to tennis balls.

 

[skeeter1]

My dad and my granddad were shooters, hunters, and military veterans. Dad started me shooting a .22 when I was 4, and I'm still shooting 50 years later.

 

[Working Man]

Thanks dad.

One of the first things my dad did when we moved from New York to Texas
was buy a hand gun (I was 3). At 4 he started me with a pellet gun, then a
.22 at around 5 and just kept going from there.

 

[Mousegun]

Born & raised in N.Y.C & N.J.

And with that background, I was and still am a very peaceful person because if your not peaceful you could find yourself biting off more than you can chew.

But sometimes I get a kick out of shakin' people up a bit and I figured if I got into firearms, I could shake up a lot of people all at once ( remember N.Y.& N.J.) so I joined the local gun club and purchased some nice firearms.

The cool part is that my wife took up shooting also so we wound up doubling shakin' the sheeple.

I found I got more of a kick out of competitive shooting than I did getting people shook and we quickly grew out of that idea but never stopped enjoying our firearms and the comradery we found in the shooting community.

 

[shaggycat]

My dad grew up on a farm and shot the obligatory squirrels every now and then. He inherited a few and, to make a long story short, I decided I liked them.

 

[CajunBass]

I got into guns because of fishing. (Warning this is long and boring.)

When I was a kid there was a creek behind our house. At some point in my life I discovered there were fish in that creek. I knew my Grandfather and my Uncles fished. COOL. I want to try that. I told my mother and she helped me start fishing by making me a fishing pole out of a stick, some string, and a bent pin. Man I was in heaven. Even caught a few bluegills.

I was old enough to read, and my Grandfather had this big stack of Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, and Sports Afield magazines. I started reading everything I could find about fishing. I knew all about trolling for salmon. Too bad there weren't any salmon in that creek. (I did graduate to better tackle, too.)

Anyway, to make the story longer, I read those magazines until they were falling apart, then read them some more. Then during the winter, when it was too cold to fish, and I was bored out of my mind I started to read the hunting stories. It was something to do.

Ummm This stuff is interesting. Oh Wait. "PaPa" (my grandfather) hunts too. I wonder if he'd take me? Sure, he'd be glad to take me next year when I was a little older. I told my mother I wanted a gun for Christmas.

"Well, I don't know about that. We'll see what Santa says."

Santa said it was ok. That Christmas, there was a Ithaca M-66 "Supersingle" 20 ga under the Christmas tree. My instructions were "Don't shoot yourself or anybody else."

Luckly, Jack O'Conner, H.G. Tapley, Byron Dalrymple, (sp?), and a host of other great writers had already taught me a lot about safety, so it was off to the woods to "hunt." Yea, kids did that in those days. I used to save ever empty shell I fired, and would hold them to my nose, and breathe in that delightful aroma of burned powder.

It was sort of "downhill" from there.

 

[shadowpdf]

Self-introduced

My father couldn't safely handle a gun when he was in the army. He certainly did not have one in the home. When I was a cub scout we shot .22 rifles but after that, curiously, I never got near a gun again while living at home. Years later on my own I decided to get a gun and go to a range. I got a cowboy rifle and then quickly expanded to hand guns. Once I got my first hand gun things took off from there. All of my dubious skill with guns was self-taught, by watching and listening to others, and of course trial-and-error. I'm not the greatest shot, but I love it. Now I'm being one of those dads that many of you had. My son will be able to answer this question by writing "My dad had many guns and taught me how to shoot ..."

 

[battlehatch]

Both my grandfathers were avid outdoorsmen. I'd say more so on my mother's side. Unfortunately, my mom's dad passed when I was only 8 and I was just getting to know him well. Firearms and fishing poles are second nature to me. I'm not saying I am master of either, but I am proficent in both. It's funny, because it's actually my mother that really sparked my interest in firearms. She's an avid shooter and a pretty good one to boot.

 

[Neo-Luddite]

The old fella that lived across the alley from my Grandparents was, although a bit younger, one of my Grandpa's cronies. They used to sit on old recliners in the unused stall of the garage if it was too hot or it rained. I'd sneak over there when my Grandma wasn't looking and he'd let me shoot his pellet gun in his garden. I was six. My Grandmother did not aprove.

The last time I saw him just before he passed away a dozen years ago he asked me the question he always asked..'you done any shooting?'.