WoodTek
Member
12 years old when I received a Western Auto Revelation 330A bolt action .410. Still have it.
How old were you when you first fired a firearm?
- Thread starter orpington
- Start date
Howland937
Member
Daisy BB gun as soon as I had the strength to cock it. I was 6 by the time I could use both arms and a leg to do it.
Marlin model 80 .22 when I was 7
Savage 24 (.410 barrel) when I was 9
H&R 9 shot .22 revolver when I was 13
S&W M&P .38 spl when I was 14
S&W .357Mag later when I was 14.
Remington 788 .22-250 when I was 15
Ruger P95 was the first semi-auto pistol, bought when I was 22.
Marlin model 80 .22 when I was 7
Savage 24 (.410 barrel) when I was 9
H&R 9 shot .22 revolver when I was 13
S&W M&P .38 spl when I was 14
S&W .357Mag later when I was 14.
Remington 788 .22-250 when I was 15
Ruger P95 was the first semi-auto pistol, bought when I was 22.
Armybrat
Member
Age 10, my dad’s .22/410 over/under with plastic stock (like the one below) 70 years ago.
stonebuster
Member
Nineteen years old at Christmas 1969 dad gave me a new Ithaca Model 37 Featherlight 12 gauge pump shotgun. Still have it at 74 yrs old.
hemiram
Member
First handgun I ever shot was a 1911 that belonged to my mom's cousin who came to visit in 1964, I was 8. It was a sad looking gun, a "clanker". We shot it a few times in our back yard. The next one was an old .38 S&W revolver that our family friend's dad had thought he had hidden "really well", but his kids found it, and we shot it, of course, it was about '66, so I was 10. We shot their dad's Nylon 66 too. They found his porn collection too. He had run for city council several times on the Anti-Porn issue without success, so we found that hilarious. Next was at 14, we shot my friend's just passed away grandfather's .32 revolver a few times, and put it back into the trunk it was found in. The next day, his little brother would find it and fire a round off, punching out a chunk of basement wall and getting him an endless lecture. I didn't shoot another gun until my 21st birthday, when I bought my truly awful Taurus 83.
Arkansas Paul
Member
I was 7.
It was an old break action H&R .410
It was an old break action H&R .410
Legionnaire
Contributing Member
I should add, I don't recall shooting a handgun until my late-20s: my FIL's Dan Wesson .357.
Bob Willman
Member
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2018
- Messages
- 184
Probably 8 - 10 years old in the late 1940s. Stevens Crackshot single shot .22. Still have the rifle in the safe. In my mid teens we shot over 100 sparrows one night with the same rifle. There were so many in the trees along the driveway that we could line up and get 2 with one shot. The farm cats ate well that night.
NRA Benefactor
NRA Benefactor
49willys
Member
my dad got me a chipmunk .22 when I was 7
230RN
SEND A DICTIONARY TO A CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE !
Bonus points if you know what it was. Also can break down as to rimfire, centrefire, handgun, longarm, etc.
13 years old, Marlin Golden 39A. .22LR
13 or 14 years old, Ithaca side by side 16ga
14 years old, Winchester 1894 carbine in .32 Special. Might have fired a Winchester 1892 in .25-20 previous to that.
Handgun, both centrefire and rimfire, age 14 during hunter safety classes.
I’m extremely embarrassed with my late start in life, as in other threads, I noted many of you have been firing firearms and experimenting with incendiary devices since about kindergarten.
I’ll forgive y’all if I’m forever banished from this forum because of it.. My late start has a reason. My father was a LEO and we were not allowed to play with toy guns as kids as my father reasoned correctly there’s no place for toy guns and “when it’s time” I could have a real firearm. And, one Christmas, there was a Marlin Golden 39A, which I still have. Bought used and with condition, the same thing I do today (I’ve never bought a brand new firearm).
About ten years old, 1949, 1950 or so. My older brother Bill and I went to Coney Island amusement park and he and I shot the standard shooting gallery rifle on a "leash" with .22 gallery ammo (splattered on impact). Target ducks moving across target area. He showed me how to see where the bullets were hitting and aim "off" to hit the duck and other things. He told me the sights were deliberately off to avoid having to give out prizes. Might have been my first lesson in commercial chicanery.
You've heard of "Kentucky Windage?" Well, this was "Coney Island Windage," which included both Kentucky Windage and Kentucky Elevationage.
Don't know where he learned this, but he walked off with a prize of some kind, and I walked off with the memorable experience of having knocked down a few ducks.
Kodachrome memories.
Typical:
Terry, 230RN
Image credit in URL
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Same here. He used rat shot and I remember going around flipping things to uncover pack rats and mice.
Then my brother let me shoot his Glenfield 22. I can't remember what model it was.
1KPerDay
Member
About 9 years old. Browning BL-22 and Challenger. I was horribly terrified of loud noises since I was at a parade as a baby and they fired the cannon off right in front of us. I couldn’t stand balloons popping at parties, thunder, fireworks, etc. My dad forced me to try these guns and I was scared but I didn’t want to disappoint him. It wasn’t bad. In fact…. I kinda liked it….
230RN
SEND A DICTIONARY TO A CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE !
Kinda interesting turnaround because I've always noticed with vids of guys fooling around with Tannerite or other stuff to dismantle cars or cut down trees or bust dishwashers or just setting stuff off out in the open, everybody laughs like hell.
So there must be something inherently funny or likeable about high powered chemistry --such as occurs with respect to firearms going off.
Illustration of laughter. Be patient. The guy missed the first shot. Small sample of the hilarity when the stuff goes off.
1/2 Pound Tannerite Explosion
youtu.be
Skip to 1:00 if impatient.
Terry "Yee-Haw," 230RN
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hawg
Member
I'm not sure. Dad bought a Browning SA for me when I was 3. I remember shooting it when I was about 5 but I was about 7 before I could shoulder it and reach the trigger. I got my first squirrel with it when I was 9.
whisler
Member
About 12 y.o and it was my stepfathers 12 gauge. Since I was a tall skinny kid with no idea what to expect, it almost knocked me down. The next year I got a single shot 22 for Christmas.
Riomouse911
Contributing Member
In 1975 I was about 8 when my Dad took me shooting with his .22 LR 1966-vintage Marlin 39A Golden Mountie, a gun I now possess. (I added the peep sight and sling later.)
About the same year, I fired my Grandfathers Winchester 1890 .22 LR on the family ranch. I do not have this gun, but I do have a tribute to that rifle in my Rossi 62A.
My first centerfire that I shot was a single shot .410, I believe it was a Stevens. This picture is me just before firing it for the first time:
And one of me waiting around the corner of the garage hoping a Mourning Dove landed by the millet that spilled from the birdfeeder. (No luck that year.)
The first handguns were fired around 1976. One was a .22 LR Colt Huntsman that my Dad still has, and a Colt New Frontier .22 LR my Grandfather had in the gun cabinet. That Colt SA is allegedly possessed by my sister, but I haven’t seen it in decades so I’m not 100% sure on that.
Stay safe.
About the same year, I fired my Grandfathers Winchester 1890 .22 LR on the family ranch. I do not have this gun, but I do have a tribute to that rifle in my Rossi 62A.
My first centerfire that I shot was a single shot .410, I believe it was a Stevens. This picture is me just before firing it for the first time:
And one of me waiting around the corner of the garage hoping a Mourning Dove landed by the millet that spilled from the birdfeeder. (No luck that year.)
The first handguns were fired around 1976. One was a .22 LR Colt Huntsman that my Dad still has, and a Colt New Frontier .22 LR my Grandfather had in the gun cabinet. That Colt SA is allegedly possessed by my sister, but I haven’t seen it in decades so I’m not 100% sure on that.
Stay safe.
Nicky Santoro
Member
I was about 12 or so at a boardwalk shooting gallery. Next time was at 22 in basic.
Crossman pellet gun at 8
Colt 1903 at 9
Colt 1903 at 9
ADKWOODSMAN
Member
10 A old pump Winchester .22 WRF that we inherited from my grandfather which In still have some 69 years later. First handgun 14 it was a High Standard .22 that was my uncles. I have that one also.
Varminterror
Member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2016
- Messages
- 17,320
Nah, we have more school sanctioned competitive shooting teams than any time in history, and more publicity for competitive youth shooters than ever before.
Gaston Glock
Member
I think I was around 10 years old. My grandpa took me camping on the east side of Mt. Hood, where the forested hills start to flatten out into rocky high desert. This was a dispersed camping spot that he'd been going to since the 1970s. He brought with him an old single shot .22 that was purchased by his grandpa sometime during the Depression era. We got at pop cans and water bottles that we'd brought with us. Its a memory I cherish greatly. I've tried hard to find the exact camping spot (because it was actually a really nice spot) but I believe its lost to time. I spent a good chunk of time tracing dirt roads on Google Maps and I think I've tracked down where it could be. After winter I intend to drive out that way and see if I can find it.
I can't say for sure, too young to remember! Growed up in a coal mining camp in SE Ky, and guns was a common sight in neighborhood, especially when squirrel season rolled around, and coon hunting a big thing! People poor, some very poor, but many would put more money into a good coon hound before anything else. Lot of them packed an old High Standard or Colt Woodsman 22 pistol that was long in family. We lived in last house in the hollow, big mountains tapered into our yard. But I'd be willing to bet my first shot was via my oldest brother, aprox 1965-66, me being 6-7 years old, can't prove it but I'm sure I'm close. Dad's or brothers taught us young cause if they didn't, we'd be out shooting someone else's. I remember plainly trasping slowly behind my dad squirrel hunting. Me packing an old Iver Johnson 410 SG Singleshot, dad one his 12ga Winchester's usually an auto, or Mod 12 or his favorite at time a Mod 1400. When came my time to shoot, he set me in good spot, handed me his 12ga. I can still see plainly that first squirrel shot & kill! But I was roaming woods on my lonesome with the 410, for sure by time I was 9-10.
Dad had an old Willy's Jeep, and my oldest brother took me often, a shotgun, and miles of old mining roads, squirrels and grouse our game always. He may have let me fire my first shot? But by time we was 11-12, most us kids where hunting together or on our lonesome, and all where wise n trained to be as safe as adults, just way life! Or on riverbank fishing, and parents knew we was fine! Never a bad incident! If so it's a fist fight, but we'd be back together in few hours! My oldest brother bought a new Belgium Browning A5 Sweet 16 in 66 soon as he graduatedHS, he'd been working in grocery store for years already. He joined Marine Corp not long afterwards, was killed in Vietnam in Nov 67. My next brother still has his Sweet 16! But before that, if he wasn't working, he's usually in the mountains, or in the jeep, me often in tow! Good days!
Dad had an old Willy's Jeep, and my oldest brother took me often, a shotgun, and miles of old mining roads, squirrels and grouse our game always. He may have let me fire my first shot? But by time we was 11-12, most us kids where hunting together or on our lonesome, and all where wise n trained to be as safe as adults, just way life! Or on riverbank fishing, and parents knew we was fine! Never a bad incident! If so it's a fist fight, but we'd be back together in few hours! My oldest brother bought a new Belgium Browning A5 Sweet 16 in 66 soon as he graduatedHS, he'd been working in grocery store for years already. He joined Marine Corp not long afterwards, was killed in Vietnam in Nov 67. My next brother still has his Sweet 16! But before that, if he wasn't working, he's usually in the mountains, or in the jeep, me often in tow! Good days!
dagger dog
Member
6 yrs. at a carnival gallery with a leashed 22 pump probably shooting bb caps, coached by my father whispering instructions in my left ear and he helped hold up the fore end as I was too small to bear the weight, can still smell the burning powder as I ponder that moment of the past of 71 years ago.
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