You Learned To Shoot Because...

[sm]

I just buried another really close friend. Lot of funerals for me it seems of late. So its cold, wet and the rain is coming down pretty good, I'm standing there watching the casket being covered up with dirt.

"Why did you learn to shoot?"

I turn around and there is an old mutual friend of my buddy we just laid to rest. Startled I reply " I was raised that way". My buddy served in Korea, avid shooter , taught many to shoot, loved to fish, but more important he was one as a kid that helped me to learn to shoot, in particular the 1911. I recall being raised with certain values about self reliance, responsible for myself. We didn't have 911, we did keep guns handy and learned to use them. I was raised this way.

I remember being asked by my now deceased friend "Why do you want to learn to shoot ?" I probably mumbled whatever kids mumbled, or repeated what parents had said. Being a kid I most likely gave lip service because I didn't understand the depth and serious nature of it all. I just remember the Constituiton, Second Amendment, reponsible self reliant part. People were concerned about missles being aimed at us. I recall the Vets with limbs missing and in wheelchairs.

Learning to shoot is what a kid was taught. Learning to shoot is what we did.

Mutual Friend had been there in Korea and served in the Army Reserves with our friend laid to rest, had been there whilst as a kid I'd shot a Gov't 45.

Well six of us go out to some private property. We have a old Gov't 45 and we are going to shoot in honor of our friend laid to rest. I haven't seen this gun in almost 40 years. We take our turn firing rds as was requested we do In Rememberance. Why I learned to shoot is re-enforced.

You learned to shoot because...

 

[Dionysusigma]

... it started out as a day of fun in a friend's grandparent's field. We were blasting apart clays with a 30-30, a BB gun, and of course, shotguns. But it left me with more than just a memory of a friend's birthday.

I'm an Industrial/ Metal/ Goth fan, 19 years old, from Washington D. C. and work at a tobacco store. That's what most people I meet know me as. But like with any person, that's only the tip of the iceberg...

What many don't know is that I can prep, saddle, and ride a horse with the best of them; I've played piano since I was 4 years old;I have decent computer skills (enough to fix anything I've messed up on my computer); I can cook well; I know advanced math, physics, and chemistry rather well; I've written a movie and have another in the works; I can make any type of espresso drink known to man; and so on...

Why did I learn to shoot? Because. Because you never know when you're going to have to know how. And it's better to know and not need it to do it than to need to do it and not know how. That's why.

Plus it's so much fun

 

[hillbilly]

Because my mother taught me how to when I was about 8 years old.

Because she had learned to shoot at about the same age, and like to shoot nickles off the tops of fence posts with a BB gun.

hillbilly

 

[treeprof]

... it's a family tradition, borne out of a hunting tradition. Began w/BB and pellet guns and moved on from there. I migrated mostly into sport shooting and SD-related shooting, while my dad and brother still primarily shoot for the sake of hunting. My brother's oldest son has shot recreationally with me, and hunts w/his dad.

 

[rammy]

I learned because that was what we had to. I can not think of any other thing. We lived in the back woods ( my dad is a farmer) and we were just expected to learn to shot so we could protect livestock and get deer meat. I can remember that we would walk back to the burn pile ( when you live in the country you always had a burn pile in a clear spot of your land because you dont have a pickup service and the dropoff centers are too far away) to shot anything that might be there. (bottels, mice, etc). what found memories

 

[P95Carry]

My first intro to shooting was competition ... smallbore rifle. Watched it the once and just had to try ... so was taught the basics and that was the start of a lot of years of shooting of various types.

Culminating these days .. in my more ''twilight'' years in enjoying the sorta collection I could once only have dreamed of ..... and relishing every damn minute of it!

 

[Jick42]

I believe when i got my first pellet gun was when the addiction started. I would set up my army men along the tree limbs in the trees, and shoot them, acting out in my head if i missed, that was it for me. Sounds silly, but i think thats where it all began for me, and my concern with great accuracy. Ever since, i have just always been around and shot guns.

 

[Doug444]

May seem silly, but I think it was a combination of cowboy movies/shows and Johnny Quest. As a kid I watched those a lot, and it always seemed that the good guys needed guns to be safe and save others. My dad was a hunter, but died before he could do much teaching about real guns (I was only 10), and my mom wouldn't let me have a pellet gun until the neighbor boy (he was 5 years older) taught me the rudiments of "gun safety". Took Hunter Safety at 14 (New York law) and I wanted to be safe and ethical so I practiced when I could. I guess to sum it all up, it just seemed like the right thing to do.

 

[sm]

P95Carry has a sig line that is similar to what this old friend said back so many years ago.

I am NOT, a ''gun nut'' ..... I am a firearms owning, responsible and law abiding person, who chooses to enjoy a sport, and has also decided that my protection will be - MY - responsibility. No one else will or can do it for me.

Not meaning to embarass you Chris...but various ways of saying the same thing Is why I learned to shoot...

Thanks for letting me use it, and the replies so far I appreciate. I'm not surprised thus far.

Kinda sorta figured the lurkers and new people might be interested as well--even tho' we have discussed in the past, in various threads, well never know whom might need to see it for the first time.

 

[P95Carry]

No probs sm .. if anything I am honored you should choose to quote it..... certainly no ''embarrassment''!

I don't mind the ''gun nut'' label between friends in the shooting fraternity but do have a prob with the way the anti's use it . and thus the felt need for that part of the statement .. the rest? Well .. self explanatory!

 

[Black Snowman]

My Dad taught me to shoot in the loft of my Grandfathers barn with a S&W Airweight .22LR so I'd know. So I'd know how to be safe around the guns we had and to prepare me for hunting later.

Only went hunting once but I learned my lessons about responsability and safety and learned to enjoy shooting too. My good friend Kamicosmos brought me back into shooting after nearly being brainwashed in High School by the media and teachers.

 

[Dave Markowitz]

RON in PA (Dad) gave me a Daisy Model 99 BB gun on May 27, 1976 -- my 8th birthday. I was interested in shooting before that day because that's what Dad did, but my OBSESSION with guns dates to then.

I still have that Daisy, too.

 

[tetleyb]

because I joined the Marine Corps

 

[Mr Kablammo]

Because I apostized from a religion that kills apostates.

 

[a9mmfan]

Because I was told, If I wanted to eat, go kill something to eat, and to always remember to not kill anything that I did not want to eat!

 

[semf]

When I was very young maybe 8 or 9, while on a family visit to my father's parents farm in Ala., I was watching my father and his brothers and in-laws shoot when their kids started shooting with them I was allowed to shoot for the first time, being ecited I screwed every thing up, dropped the cylinder of the old H&R in the dirt, couldnt hit anything, and in general embarrassed myself and my father in front of all my farm raised cousins . The yelling and laughing didn't help much and I was dismissed rather quickly.
That same night my uncle sent my cousin in to get me so I could shoot a 410. My cousin came in, handed me the gun and told me to come outside, knowing nothing about guns I was thumbing the hammer trying to figure it out as we walked outside apparently my finger was on the trigger(how many rules is that) as we step out the door the gun went off almost taking out the phone lines. More yelling, laughing and embarrssment, and disappointed looks from Dad.
The next day everybody went to town. I didn't feel like tagging along for obvious reasons so I stayed home. An hour after they all left my grandfather came in and said for me to come out to the field he was going to show me how to do something. For the next 3 hours he patiently taught me how to shoot and have fun with it and explained to me that the only thing I did wrong the day before was to shoot with idiots and I should avoid that in the future.
This granfather was a mean, drunken, racist, that by all accounts did not likeanybody and couldn't stand children. I've heard many stories about him, None of them kind, and have a picture of him with Al Capone ( I even have the Wormser hat he was wearing in the photo). Thankfully my only memory is of a grandfather helping a humiliated boy regain some dignity.
I think of him alot when I shoot and especially when I teach my sons.
He taught me the basics and started an interest that will probably last my lifetime He also taught me to never shoot with idiots, the others taught me to hate "range gods"

 

[Standing Wolf]

I learned to shoot because it's so very hard to shoot well.

 

[goalie]

I learned to shoot because the Marine Corps thought it would be necessary to learn before I got to graduate from boot camp. I really, really wanted to get home for some leave.

 

[10-Ring]

I've been shooting since I was old enough to buy a handgun. I didn't learn to shoot properly until a few years after that. I hooked up w/ a bunch of guys that played shooting games for money & I got tired of always owing money at the end of the night

 

[Powderman]

Ever done something that just kinda imprints itself on your consciousness? I mean, something that, as soon as you do it for the first time, you know you were born to do?

That's me, with firearms.

By all rights, I should almost NEVER have come into contact with guns. My mother was a staunch Democrat, and my father didn't mention much. I grew up in the geographical center of the City of Chicago. As a teenager, my mother arranged for me to join the Operation PUSH choir

Yes, it was THAT far to the left.

But, I got ahead of myself. One night, off the porch of our old apartment building, my father let me wrap my hands around the stocks of a .32 Hand Ejector, and then let me pull the trigger. At the flash, and the crack of the revolver, I was hooked. For life.

Next, I procured from somewhere (don't quite remember how) an old Manual of Arms. This manual had the inner workings of the Garand, M1 Carbine, the BAR, cal. 30 machinegun, and the 1911A1. I found another manual too, with the M79 and some experimental rifle called the XM177E1.


Little did I know how that manual was going to shape my life. I excelled in ROTC because I studied D & C from that manual. I yearned, I hoped, and the pictures in that manual--and the love for firearms that I developed--led me to join the Army in 1977.

Why do I shoot? Because I like to. Because it is my right. Because I can!

 

[rayjay]

I learned to shoot at an early age because my father was an avid shooter and hunter as was his father before him. My father thankfully passed that tradition to me and my older brother. My brother and I were so competitive when it came to hunting and shooting that one would not rest until he could "top" the other one. It was NOT healthy by no means.......but it was FUN!! Who could shoot the biggest deer, who's Elk weighed more, who could shoot coyotes from the furtherest distance. Which I still hold the record for, sorry brother, 525 yds(give or take) with a Win. .270 w/ a Bausch & Lomb 6-14x target scope. To this day we still argue and tease each other about hunting and shooting.
So why did I learn to shoot? To make my brother look foolish of course!

Hey Bro

 

[Alexey931]

I learned to shoot by accident. In the Soviet Union the shooting sport existed only in the ISSF style and in the professional mode, with the sole purpose of bringing home Olympic medals. So they picked up a reasonable number of teenagers basically in the streets (I happened to be one of them), and coached them on a professional footing from the very beginning. The system worked beautifully, as far as Olympic medals were concerned. The only embarrasement, should the shooting sport get scrapped from the Olympic schedule, there is going to be no shooting sport in Russia any more . The Olympic style shooting seems to be a dry and academic thing, but it is still addictive. It deals with bedrock skills like stability, trigger control, self control and self insight. Far cry from hunting or self defense, but still a cutie.

 

[ACP230]

My grandfather on my mom's side stayed with us quite often when I was a kid. I used to sit on the couch and watch TV Westerns with him for hours.
Without that, I might not have become a shooter as soon as I did. Because of grandpa and those shows I fired my first shot at the age of six, got an air rifle at 12, and more guns as soon as I could.

My dad hunted deer and I remember watching him sight-in his deer rifle once, but I think grandpa was really more of an influence.

 

[Smoke]

It was just the natural thing to do.

I grew up on my family ranch with a GrandDad and Dad that were pretty avid bird hunters. (GrandDad especially) Guns were always around and used when needed.

It was just part of growing up that you learned how to shoot.

Smoke.

 

[Ed]

Because I grew up in the south, and thats what boys learned to do. BB guns at 6. Pellet gun at 8, 16 guage at 9..... My Dad grew up on a farm hunting and my Mom didn't. So he had guns and taught my brother and I to shoot. Every summer when we went to my Grandparents house in Ky, we would shoot in their backyard. My mom never saw use for pistols or toy machine guns, so we were denied those as much as she could, which wasn't a lot. So I had kinda a strange situation, a Dad saying guns were ok and a Mom saying they weren't. I think this is the perfect combination for a Gun-Happy adult I think its kinda funny now that I am 29 so not really old, and we lived in a neighborhood, but I still walked down the street at 12 years old with a shotgun to hunt in the woods behind the neighborhood and the only thing people would say is "have any luck?" Times change fast.