Who got you interested in shooting?

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Sniper X

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I was allways interested in shooting. From when I was about 6 or 7 I watched cowboy and indian TV shows, and movies and was really interested in shooting. Luckly, both my parrents were conservative and let me have my first gun, a Montgomery Wards .410 single shot shotgun, at the tender age of 8. I loved it. Bought my first gun with my own money, of course had my Mom sign for it, a Marlin Golden 39A at 10 years old. Got my first handgun a Colt Dimondback at 12 but had to sell the 39A to get it.


I didn't shoot much other than a few hunts and a bunch of plinking outtings till I was about 16. At that point I went shooting with a man named Res Bradley, an Ex Marine who was on the pistol team in the 40s.
He had a couple of 1911s and a K38. I shot all of them but it was him, and the 1911's that really got me into a life of shooting and guns.
 
Well, my grandfather taught me to shoot originally but I didn't really have an interest, per se. It was just something fun to do on the weekends...I was more interested in girls and playing outside. As I entered my adult years, it became a relaxation method; go out after a miserable day at work and punch holes in paper. Now, it's a combo of relaxation and security. Been married 5 years to a great woman and we're expecting our first in June (a boy...w00t!!!) and I would protect them both, to the death, as they are my world.
 
Rally Vincent. Seriously.

I was always interested in guns when I was a kid since I'm so mechanically oriented, but Rally kind of gave me a different view than what the MSM and teachers were preaching. It really shifted my views to the point that I eventually stumbled across the gun community online (1998 or so). It grew on me until I finally picked up a Ruger MKII almost two years ago (I'm perpetually broke). The rest is history. :D


Anyone that knows who Rally Vincent is, sweet. Everyone else, don't worry about it. :D
 
USMC, in a round about way...

Dad is a former Marine, had the Marksman badge, so as a small kid, looking at his medals, and his boot camp "yearbook" I was fascinated.

He took me along on a clay pigeon shoot when I was 4 or 5, and I remember asking a cousin to shoot at the skim ice in the road ditch.
"POP" went the .410, and sure enough, a little hole appared through the 2 inches of ice. I still remember seeing the plastic shot cup laying there.

Dad stepped up with his 12 and said -"Here, watch this"- His impact was a little farther out, more angle--
Kaboom - a hole big enough to pull a carp through.

I remember dad coming home with pheasants, gramps talking about so and so's english setter who in the 40's was the best dog he ever hunted over.

We always had guns around - locked up even in the 60's. Dad's little bro had a Mosssberg single shot .22 - he shot on the rifle team in high school - and all those NRA sharpshooter patches and medals made me drool.
I kept the barrel of that that rifle warm for a few years.

As I matured (10 - 12 yrs) My other cousin (brother of the .410 guy) shared pistols with me - .22, 38, 9mm, etc. This was about the time I got my own BB gun - Daisy 99 - Bought with my own snow shovel money under dad's supervision. I bought another daisy from a friend, with dad's approval, traded it off for a Crossman CO2 pistol (without dad's approval) and it's been downhill ever since.

PS I did keep my shotgun in my dorm room at college in the 1980's and no one thought anything of it. Guess I'm lucky it never snuck out and shot anyone.
 
My Father

And one of his WWll commanders. We shot a lot for a month or so somewhere near Fort Bragg NC until my father was shipped out to the Korean conflict. The rest of us moved back to the west coast and I didn't shoot again until he came home. That was around 1952 and I've been shooting something somewhere ever since.
 
I wish I knew :)

My parents have never had guns around; my dad was in the Army for a few years (Captain) before taking a government job, and though he did have to shoot guns (M1? M14?) and didn't *dislike* it, I get the feeling it was never exciting to him. Sure did a number on his high-frequency hearing, though! My mom? Water pistols make her nervous, but there's a don't-ask-much-don't-tell-much policy which allows me to keep my guns in the basement while living at school. (Strict no-gun policy in University housing.)

But *I* on the other hand have been fascinated by guns since as long as I can remember; I remember an early yard-sale purchase at the age of 4 or 5 was a 1976 Guns and Ammo special annual edition, with all kinds of great articles in it.

Maybe we can blame some Hollywood leftists for inspiring the gun-bug in people like me :)

timothy
 
Can't remember when guns and the interest in shooting weren't part of the culture.

I guess I would say Tex Ritter, the Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy, the Cisco Kid, Wild Bill Hickok series, tons of '30s and '40s westerns, Roy Rogers, '40s war movies.

Had cap guns of handgun, machine gun and rifle persuasion; graduated to a .22 cal rifle and endless issues of Guns and Ammo and such. Couldn't afford much so experience with .30'06 rifle, .38 spl and Ruger MKI were with firearms shared by friends and family at the range.
 
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Definitely the Lone Ranger, Matt Dillon, and Jim West (of "Wild Wild West"). Had a million cap guns of all different persuasions, Red Ryder BB gun at 8, 12 ga. at 11, and it just all snowballed from there!:cool: We were lucky enough to live out in the county amidst a big farm, so I learned a lot on my own and from reading all the firearms paraphernalia I could find.
 
My uncle and his M14. Took me out shooting (first time I had shot anything more than a pellet gun), started me off with a Henry .22lr survival rifle, then moved me right on up to his M14. It wasn't full auto, but I didn't care. My eyes were opened on that brisk day in October, 1999. I vowed one day I'd own one. Now I do (Springfield M1A), among other toys.
 
being old I remember when the general public did not demonize guns. all the good guys and cowboys shot bad guys with guns. So TV and my dad the cop is my answer
 
I wasn't lucky enough to have anyone take me to shoot. So, for me - it was watching Diehard and cop movies :p - When I turned 21, I bought my 1st handgun myself.
 
My Father as well.

Ruger Single Six and a Starling .22 at the age of 5 (not counting air guns at 4).
My first to own, Stevens SxS 20 at 10.
First handgun to own, Ruger P95 at 18 or so.

Dad had to buy both for me the SxS was birthday and chore money and the
P95 was straight out of my own paycheck.

I caught the bug and neither one of us are going to let go.
 
Well, my dad actually ran an armory for the CG for a while, but it was both him and Boy Scouts.

I got to fire 22 pistol & rifle, 20g, 12g, and a black powder .35 during my time in the Scouts.

Dad always has guns in the house, and not particularly secure, and even though all 4 kids had rough times in our teens it was never an issue. Even my nephews and nieces don't have a problem with them, they just know better.

But we still had toy guns and still ran around shooting each other - which is something my kids aren't going to do, and not because they can't buy the toys anymore, because I want kids who are more responsible than I was. I agree with the grabbers there - I personally think toy guns are a stupid idea. I'd rather have my kids play paintball.

I didn't get my own firearm until I was 27, a Marlin lever action .357. Two pistols since then, saving up for a third. I love taking them all to the range with my dad, to get some adult father-son time in.
 
I lived in the upper penninsula of Michigan as a boy and guns were all round. I remember going to deer camp where there would be a dozen + guns sitting in the rack and they always fascinated me.

I got my first BB gun at age 7 or so and my firist 20 gauge shotgun at age 9. I used to shoot a .22 Marlin, .300 Savage, and a .32 Winchester special with my grandparents (yep Grandma shot too).

I moved to Nashville, TN in my junior year of high school and found myself less interested in guns since I went from having 640 acres of family land to living right in the middle of the city. I bought my first home at age 23 and knew I wanted to live in the country, so I bought a home with a little land and started picking up shooting again.

Now I have a 100 yd. range in my own backyard and have several firearms that I enjoy shooting. Life is good!
 
I think that TV was my first introduction to firearms. As any kid I thought guns were cool forbidden toys. I still do :cool: However, my keen interest in firearms was brought along by a curiosity of "HOW THE HELL DO GUNS WORK?"
That is what turned me into a gun nut. I have always been very observant of how these metallic gimmics send a hunk of lead down range in such a fast accurate manner. To understand them I would attempt to take apart any firearm that would find it self in my posession for more that five minutes, and some times ended with less than satisfactory results when reassembling :evil:

When wathching guns on the screen (when I was a kid, mind you) I would actually take a close analitical look of how slides cycled on automatics and how revolvers would "revolve". How pump shotguns would be "pumped", well you get the picture. It marveled me.

The first time a shot a firearm was when my dad bought his first gun, a Winchester 1300 Defender in 12ga. I was 12 or 13. I remember that the first few times I fired the thing I would let the stock of the shotgun rest under my armpit and supported against the trunk of a tree behind me. In essence I would let the trunk of the tree take all of the recoil. I often wondered how I would manage to fire the sucker if the were no trees around :rolleyes: Of course I soon leared to fire the gun properly, and actually grew to like the stout recoil of it.
 
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