Young Shooters Vs. Enthusiasts

[ThePunisher'sArmory]

I find that I have a bunch of friends who own guns and like to "shoot". The only drawback is none of them are really passionate about it. They just like shooting paper cause its cool. Yet have no understanding of ballistics, How to install a scope, how to properly sight in a rifle, sometime dont even follow proper safety, or can talk gear with. I am constantly watching them as a mentor, if you wil, on how to stay safe and properly operate a firearm. I guess what im saying is that most of the people my age (30s) that ive got to shoot with are just that shooters and don't, share the same enthusiasm or knowhow as I do. Is this common to anyone else out there? It seems to me that some of the "young ones" out there just think shooting is "cool" and are not taught proper firearm handling.
Furthermore, when I was younger and just getting into shooting on my own, I was definitely glared at alot in gun shops. I was 28 but looked 18.. This does not help matters any either with young shooters. I see it happen alot. The "punk kid stereotype" as I like to call it. Well I guess ill leave it at that as a starter for my thread/conversation. Trust me I could go on for quite a few paragraphs on this matter as the "young ones" are our future of shooting!

 

[longdayjake]

If they stay into shooting eventually they will grow out of it. Either that or they will just stop shooting.

 

[owlhoot]

I know several people who love guns and own several but care nothing about shooting. I know a few people who are reloading/ballistics freaks. A busy day for them at the range might involve firing twenty rounds. I know some like you mention who enjoy shooting but know very little about what they are doing. I know a great many competitors who are passionate about their shooting game but have no interest in your shooting game. I know some who have CCW's and don't really have an interest in either guns or shooting. Ours is a big tent. There is room for everybody.

 

[WNC Seabee]

I know several people who love guns and own several but care nothing about shooting. I know a few people who are reloading/ballistics freaks. A busy day for them at the range might involve firing twenty rounds. I know some like you mention who enjoy shooting but know very little about what they are doing. I know a great many competitors who are passionate about their shooting game but have no interest in your shooting game. I know some who have CCW's and don't really have an interest in either guns or shooting. Ours is a big tent. There is room for everybody.

Very well put.

 

[DustyVermonter]

I would consider myself a young shooter, 21, I'd say that's young. I was 4x4 wheeling with my uncle and his friend and some other guy that my uncle's friend knew, well this guy pulls out a Ruger .40 and shot into absolutely nothing, seriously, just pulls a gun and starts shooting into complete darkness. Needless to say niether I or my uncle were too impressed, but the thing of it is, the guy that did it was in his early 40's. Its not just young shooters who are ignorant, it all depends on the level of intelligence and entusiasm one has for shooting sports. I know I take shooting very seriously and have absolutely no sense of humor when it comes to safety. I don't know a lot about ballistic tables, optics, reloading and what not, but that's what I love about the sport, being young and having so much more to learn, I'm really looking forward to it, and if I already knew everything about it now at my age, I could see myself getting bored with it eventually. I may not know as much as others, and nobody really taught me how to hunt and shoot, but I still consider myself an avid hunting/shooting enthusiast.

 

[LHRGunslinger]

I'm a young enthuasist. I'm 21 and I've spent almost my entire life trying to learn more about guns. Right now I know nothing about balistics but I'm gonna learn. I love shooting guns and talking about anything that is even REMOTELY gun related. (IE: Zombie apacolypse, total global meltdown, etc)

Do you know the look kids get when you take them to a candy shoppe the first time and their eyes just light up and they are going completely nuts drooling over everything in the shop? That's how I am in a gun store. Probably pisses people off but hey ya can't please everyone. I'm probably one of the weird ones though. I love each and every different kind of gun out there. I'm not intrested so much in becoming a sniping legend so much as I want to be able to hold my own with the best in EVERY category.

I'm not loosing intrest either. When I was about 10 or so I shot a BB gun in the Cub Scouts at Camp Heart (Now Camp Delmont) and something just clicked in my head and I knew I was going to be around guns for the rest of my life.

 

[AR27]

I'm 18 and love firearms and relate to everything your talking about. Unfortunately I dont have the money to do all the shooting I want. Got my first AR-15 when i was 16.
P.S Punishers Armory, I see you are from belville. One of my buddies has an uncle from belville that owns a huge gun club or something. Last name is McKnight, Rockford area.

 

[Manco]

For the vast majority of my life, I've been the opposite--hugely interested in and enthusiastic about firearms, but never shooting or even touching one until last year. I was finally allowed to have a BB gun when I was 11 years old, so I've been shooting something for a while, but my family (counting my whole extended family and subsequent generations) has always generally been against owning guns. Curiously, not a single one of them is truly anti-gun (they all believe in the right of self-defense and have never criticized a justified shooting), and several have served in the military, but only my dad owned any guns as a private citizen, and he never shot them or even let me handle them (and he quietly sold them some time before he passed on, so I don't have them now--I guess he didn't want me to). Kind of weird, huh? More than anything, the impression I get is that everybody I'm related to views guns in the home as a distraction and potential danger to children, rather than something they could ever envision having to use to defend themselves. I guess that's sort of anti-gun, but not really because they're OK with other civilians shooting bad guys. Perhaps it's my intense interest in firearms from a young age that scares some of my elders, but obviously liking guns isn't the same as having a desire to murder people!

Anyway, unfortunately circumstances have now made it necessary for me to arm myself and other members of my family. The obvious silver lining to this dark cloud is that I've finally, belatedly become the gun owner and shooter I was always destined to be, although I wish the circumstances were different. Maybe someday I'll be able to shoot purely for recreation, but for now every moment I can spend at a range is used to train to kill in self-defense. Not that there's anything wrong with that at all--it's just that nobody likes to be forced to do anything (especially under time pressure), even something they'd normally want to do anyway.

 

[kmcintosh78]

I gotta agree with the OP. I too, in my 30's, do see that most people in our age range really don't understand or want to understand firearms. They just want to shot a couple times a year.
I hate to say it, but most males in the 30's now days are more worried about the newest iPhone app, Affliction Tshirt or that their Faux hawk is just right.
Stay with it. I grew up around firearms and love them to this day. My kids will be taught, and my 3 yrd old daughter throws fits because she is not allowed to go shooting with daddy.

 

[G27RR]

I'm mid-thirties and I've seen people in this age group on both ends of the spectrum. I think the lack of interest is just a byproduct of fewer people growing up in rural areas and/or around guns, and the negative image the media gives to guns. I pesonally have already bought matching .22 rifles and M&P-15s for my two boys even though at 3 years and 3 months neither is old enough to use them yet. I will also pass down a 1911 to each of them when the time is right. They will be taught how to useand respect firearms, and hopefully that will lead to a lifelong interest in them.

As for gun shops, the two I frequent never acted differently because I was somewhat younger. Another well known store in the area got zero of my business after not asking even once out of the three times I went there if they could help me. I don't know if it's age or what, but I work in a business/business casual environment, so each time I stopped in I was pretty well dressed. It didn't seem to matter if they were busy or not.

Now, the other two shops know me, treated me well even when they didn't, and I've bought four 1911s, a couple of rifles and a couple of revolvers since I decided never to patronize the well known joint again.

It pays to get to know your gunstore employees ifyou can. They now give me occassional discounts if I think something is priced slightly high since they remember all the business I've thrown their way.

 

[KarenTOC]

You don't have to be passionate about a hobby to enjoy it. I see nothing wrong with or surprising about a person enjoying shooting but not being interested beyond putting holes in paper. If they know and apply the four rules, that's plenty. Basic maintenance would be good, but you can always pay someone to clean your gun for you

 

[Mikhail Weiss]

Is it common? I suspect so. Far more people will dabble in a great variety of things than will seriously pursue it. The word you're looking for is dilettante:*a person having a superficial interest in an art or a branch of knowledge:aka dabbler.

Among my circle of friends, one considers himself an aficionado, owns a couple of pistols, shoots rarely, even when invited to do so with full knowledge that I'd pick up the bill for his ammo and range time, and, sadly, lacks diligent safety consciousness or breadth of knowledge. I suppose he enjoys shooting, though it may be that he more enjoys merely owning guns and talking about them than shooting them.

Me, I'm a dabbler in visual arts. I like photography, but not enough to study it seriously -- more of a learner by trial and error. I also like drawing, and I've even studied it on and off for a few years, but I'm never going to be serious enough about it to move beyond a mere (and mediocre) sketcher.

I'd suggest you start shooting IDPA or something like that to find passionate shooters, but even around here, I've encountered many more who do it for occasional fun than as a serious pursuit. Doesn't much matter, though, as long as everyone remains safe and, indeed, has fun enjoying their American right...

 

[mack]

Agree with posts 3 and 10. And post number 11 - my wife has never cleaned her gun - but it is clean.

Life has it's priorities - firearms shooting and self-defense can be one of them - but there are others - marriage - wife - kids - dogs & pets - sometimes you have to choose - I still miss the wife and kids sometimes.

 

[Shadow 7D]

No problem as long as they are safe.

YOU Could introduce them to the other aspects of shooting, invite them to the range when a USPA or IDPA match is going on, or a Cowboy shoot, let them see the different parts, or invite them for coffee and take them to the Museum, most cities and many towns have museums that contain firearms of local or national interest.

People get into something one of 3 ways, born into it, seek it out, or introduced to them.

 

[bigalexe]

One thing I completely fail to understand is that people pay others to clean their guns.

To me, cleaning my guns is part of owning them and is in many cases done at a time when it's relaxing to do so.

I guess there are many people though that see the gun so much as a tool that it's just another they throw into the theoretical toolbox and then pull out when they want it. Then they wonder why it doesn't work! Mostly here I am talking about firearm hunters that aren't shooters, they only shoot to check the zero on their scope once a year.

 

[Rittmeister]

I'd compare it to myself in one regard - I'm a pretty good musician, but beyond "normal" maintenance I can't do repairs on my own instruments.

OR - my other expensive hobby is cars. I love to drive and build; I've done engine swaps, suspension, brake work, etc etc in my own garage - almost anything but paint. I really enjoy the work and the results. However, there are folks in the car community who are great/talented drivers, but who don't do any work beyond washing their car or maybe changing the oil. I don't hold it against them; as Owlhoot says, there's room for everyone.

With one exception - if the above firearms dabblers (or whatever sobriquet you prefer) aren't safe, I'll go home. There's no excuse for that.

 

[Brass Rain]

At 20, I'm still a youngster. I've been into guns since 14, becoming steadily more (what's a good word for healthily obsessed?) each year. Living in Louisiana, maybe half of people I know my age hunt, but I don't know even one other "gun enthusiast", which really sucks because I don't have anyone to talk guns with. I would consider myself both a shooter and an enthusiast, but currently I haven't had enough spare funds for the ammo to regularly practice. So I'm actually a fairly poor shot. I plan to change that soon, however.

 

[dougw47]

cleaning...

In ROTC, I spent 3 years working with SSGT Jimmy C.Blue, he introduced me to the Mossy T44 .22LR, the .45 Colt, M1 Garand, M14 and I got to play with/not 'shoot' the M16. On the indoor range...I probably burnt up 10,000 rounds.
No, I did not shoot the M1 or14 indoors. It's great to have friends with connections.

We had 350 M1's...every year before Battalion Inspection...he and I would break down and clean every one! I even did it as an officer my Senior year.

To me, if you love firearms...cleaning is a passion, not a chore. LOL

 

[Dookie]

My question is. Why does it matter? They are shooting and having fun. Why does it matter if they do not know, or do not car if they know the differences in bullet drop between bullet weights?

I got in to guns when I was 20 (ish) and I shot probably 2,000 rounds a week at nothing but pop cans and dirt banks. Then I started shooting shotguns and clay pigeons. After a few years I got in to centerfire and was really into ballistics and high accuracy shooting and I did not shoot nearly as much. Now, ten years later (those of you from Kentucky that means I am 30 (ish)) I am into shooting handguns and back to basics of shooting cans and dirt clods. Last night I just "wasted" 200 rounds of 40 S&W on a pop can.
Why, because I can.

I once made a short trip to loose a magazine of 45 at an evil gravel pit just cuz I felt like it. Sometimes it's just fun to shoot without a purpose.

 

[dmazur]

My wife likes to shoot. Pistol (.45ACP) at IDPA targets, rifle (.243Win) at 100 yds for group size or 200 yds to hear the gong ring.

She helps pack the gear back and forth from the benches, and enjoys getting out of the house.

However, she's not really interested in reloading or cleaning guns.

Similarly, she loves fly-fishing and manages to lose a fair number of flies to rocks, but I can't get her interested in tying flies.

I have noticed her making picnic lunches to take with us...so apparently there's more to the outing than just the gear.

 

[Mike OTDP]

Back to the OP...

You'll see this in all activities. Many people will dabble in something, become mildly proficient, and leave it at that. A few will have more interest...and a handful will devote themselves to acquiring true mastery.

You'll have to settle for keeping the dabblers safe - and work on mastery for yourself.

 

[JoeMal]

Agreeing with the OP, I don't know anyone that I'm 'close' with that knows 25% of what I know...some have a small interest, but can't engage in conversation or have the passion that I do. Sometimes that makes for trips to the range by yourself...but I'd rather do that than go with my adult friends and feel like the babysitter

 

[effengee]

I'm the gun nut...

I've been around guns since I was born and as 40 rapidly approaches, I can honestly say that I've forgotten more gun related info than most people will ever learn, simply because I'm always reading, watching, shooting, and dreaming about guns...

I'll never grow bored with them. EVER!

I'm teaching my children safe gun handling, and how to improve their marksmanship. We shoot alot and have even completed project guns together. See my post titled "the kids and the .22"
I'm always open to teaching a newbie how to put lead downrange, or what gun is what, and I actively invite people to go shooting with me.

I know a few people that own guns and don't even know what the maker's name is, or have owned one for like 20 years and never fired a single round through it. I also know a lot of people who are like me and have enough firepower to equip a small army and can name off darn near every gun used in every action flick since 1980...

Shoot safe, shoot often...

 

[dart67eb]

I have a ten yr old that will shoot a Mosin all day long.

 

[Shadow 7D]

Wonder if you brought out the loud gun, and started shooting it every time they opened their mouth, if they would get the idea?