I read with interest JALLEN's thread A Good Father Prepares His Sons For War. I enjoyed tac's reply regarding when his father asked him howja like to shoot a REAL gun, like I used to?
Took me back to how my old man introduced me to guns & shooting as a kid. How about you? Father, brother, uncle, grandfather, doesn't matter, what was your learning experience shooting for the first time?

Many of you know my father was a cop. Patrolman, retired as a detective. Robbery, homicide, arson/bomb squad. He LOVED to shoot. A LOT of guns around the house. At 8 or 9 he taught me & my brother how to safely handle his department issued revolver, his shotguns, rifles, and handguns. No 9MM back then. Not yet. Around when I was 11 or 12 he took me to the police range. I'm standing there with these BIG ear muffs over my head, surrounded by all these huge cops talking to my father, smiling down at me. I shot a 38 revolver. And. I. Was. Hooked. Didn't want to stop. Arms got tired after about a half hour. Best quote of the day, and I still remember it even now from my old man. "That's enough, lets go before some fucking Lt shows up. Your mama wants some BBQ."

I love that story!

I grew up in a family that did not use guns, so I was not introduced to them until later in life. Actually the first time I really got into them was when my wife and I went shooting for Valentine's day one year. We were both hooked and have been shooting ever since. I have grown to appreciate the fact that this was something we did together as a couple, and something that she enjoys just as much as me.

I was about 9ish I think. Went to one of my dad's friend's undeveloped land. Killed me my first cans that day. I can close my eyes right now and imagine that day nearly 30years ago and asking if I could shoot a tree and being elated when answered yes.

quote:

Originally posted by Cliff:
I read with interest JALLEN's thread A Good Father Prepares His Sons For War. I enjoyed tac's reply regarding when his father asked him howja like to shoot a REAL gun, like I used to?
Took me back to how my old man introduced me to guns & shooting as a kid. How about you? Father, brother, uncle, grandfather, doesn't matter, what was your learning experience shooting for the first time?

Many of you know my father was a cop. Patrolman, retired as a detective. Robbery, homicide, arson/bomb squad. He LOVED to shoot. A LOT of guns around the house. At 8 or 9 he taught me & my brother how to safely handle his department issued revolver, his shotguns, rifles, and handguns. No 9MM back then. Not yet. Around when I was 11 or 12 he took me to the police range. I'm standing there with these BIG ear muffs over my head, surrounded by all these huge cops talking to my father, smiling down at me. I shot a 38 revolver. And. I. Was. Hooked. Didn't want to stop. Arms got tired after about a half hour. Best quote of the day, and I still remember it even now from my old man. "That's enough, lets go before some fucking Lt shows up. Your mama wants some BBQ."

That's a great story.

Grew up in the south near an Army base. Guns / shooting was a common hobby.

Dad used to take us regularly as his work schedule allowed - probably 4-6 times per year starting around age 10 or so.

Then I joined the Army and got to shoot even bigger guns.

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I grew up out in the country and guns were always around. My first was a single shot 22 derringer and after the first time I never stopped pestering my dad to go shoot. Once I was big enough to handle a rifle it was some tube fed pump action 22 he had as a kid. We’d just head out into the woods and find targets of opportunity. My dad could shoot the wings off a gnat at 25 yards. Calibers grew as I did but I enjoyed those 22s more than anything.

My Dad had a Winchester.03 Automatic. Ammunition in .22 Winchester Automatic caliber kept getting more scarce over the years. Eventually there was no ammunition to be found. The firing pin wore through the top of the bolt. At one time I thought about buying a Winchester Model 63 which was produced in .22 long rifle caliber.

I joined ROTC in Junior High School and continued through High School. We participated in Postal matches. I joined the New Mexico National Guard at the age of 17 and had a blast firing a Quad .50.

Hurricane Katrina.

I wasn't there, but that's when I realized I can't choose the time and place when the government will fail me.

(Edit to add: I just realized my reply wasn't really in the fun spirit of the thread.)

Dad had (and still has) an old Remington 552 Speedmaster that I learned to shoot with. I remember shooting it when the stock was too long and I had to put it under my arm to see through the scope.
He was never into pistols much, but my grandpa had a 1911 that he let me shoot from time to time when we were out in the hills messing around. I know that was before I turned 10.

First time I fired a gun I was maybe 12 or so. I seem to remember a .22 single shot rifle. The American Legion had a youth program. Indoor range where I grew up in Mount Vernon NY.

Then, a few years later, on my uncle's farm, he paid a bounty of 25 cents per woodchuck. I used his .22 bolt action rifle.

Never touched a firearm again until Navy boot camp.

Once out of the Navy, I did not have anything to do with guns for about 50 years, when I saw a 9mm P250 compact in a red CPO box in a gun store. That was the real start. Now there are a few sigs, and maybe a few revolvers, in the family.

Some great stories! I was about 8 or so, my Dad had a friend with some land in Ixonia, not too far from us. My Dad let me shoot his 12 gauge pump. Knocked me on my ass, but the itch was there. Hunting a few hears later, off to the military, then my first Sig, and here we are. There is no better life

I have had an air rifle/bb gun as long as I can remember,

I recall, vaguely, being around a group of people at my grandparents out in Halifax, and they were shooting a shotgun of some sort,
no idea how old I was, but too small to shoot that,


also recall we were clearing some wood from a piece of land my parents had, big lot on a dirt road, (no other houses built yet)
Dad pulled out his Colt Commando (shorty M16) and I got to put a few rounds thru it (with someone standing behind me)
I was maybe 9 or so,

my first 'real gun' was a Mini 14, I was 13ish,

as far as being around them, we always had a house full, Dad was doing gunshows on weekends when I was a little tot,,,, and my brother and I were the load bearers when it came to loading and unloading when he got home

We had a .22 bolt action rifle that my dad kept in a closet in my parents bedroom.
Since we lived in a rural area we just went out to a safe area and he showed me the basics and then let me practice. I was probably 10-12.
After we went back to the house he always removed the bolt and hid it. Of course I knew exactly where it was.
He was a WW2 veteran and had no further interest in owning any guns. He didn't hunt except to knock of a few groundhogs that would eat in his vegetable garden. This was way before many people carried. I shot one at summer camp a few years later.

No real idea of the age, but quite young, probably before double digits.

Dad was big into trap and skeet and bought a manual trap. We lived on a farm so when we got the urge, we'd set the trap up in the yard, fling the birds out over a field and blast away. Eventually, he bought a Winchester Model 12 Featherweight 20 gauge that was "mine". I could shoot all I could stand, as long as I reloaded all the empties on his Mec 600JR. (He provided components, I just ran the loader).

Dad also had an ancient Remington .22 single shot. Put a round in the chamber, close the bolt, cock it by pulling a knob on the back of the bolt. Fire. Rinse. Repeat. By the time I was in early double-digits, I was allowed to take that out and plink or blast away at pigeons whenever I could scrape together the 75¢ or so for a box of ammo.

Later, in my teens, Dad got into rifles. Bought a couple of Springfield 03A3's from the Civilian Marksmanship Program for some ridiculously low price and "sporterized" them. Spent many a Sunday afternoon shooting for groups. We had a 100 yard range into the back of a ditch bank on a small, oddly-shaped field that wasn't much use for anything else.

In those days (1960's) owning a handgun in Michigan was a giant pain in the ass, but Dad persevered and got a S&W Model 28 "Hiway Patrolman". After I got used to shooting it, he took great glee in loading up 5 .38spl and 1 .357, spinning the cylinder and handing it to me to help me conquer "flinch". Not as bad as it might sound, I knew full well what he was doing and why.

Good times.

Wow some great stories.

I grew up in a family where everyone served during one conflict or the other.

My Paternal Grandfather was in the Army attached to a scout unit and fought through the Pacific Islands.

Great Uncles fought in Korea as tankers

My father did a couple of tours in Vietnam attached to Mech units.

So everyone on my fathers side was familiar with guns and were hunters.

I remember being at Fishers Camp Ground in Wheelersburg OH. My dad brought out this old Winchester Semi auto .22 that he bought when he was in his teens. We shot that rifle all day. Then I shot a bolt gun but I cannot remember if it was a 30/06 (Remington 700 BDL) or Marlin .22 Magnum.

It was a great day, and a great time.
I think I was about 7 or 8 years old.

I few years later I got an H+R youth model single shot 20 gauge. Of all the handguns, shotguns, tactical shotguns etc.. That is still one of my favorites, if not the favorite.

I did not shoot a handgun till many years later.

My father never cleaned that Marlin .22 and I just wiped it down a little so in about 50 years that rifle has never been cleaned and has never missed a beat.

As many have stated, I can see that gorgeous morning as I type this. (Or it is sleep deprivation where I have not been bed after being up 28hours).

I can't remember the first time I shot a gun or went deep sea fishing. I must have been 6 years old. I learned to shoot with a Remington Nylon 66. My dad had a friend with the Fresno PD. We used to go up to his property in the foothills and shoot at an iron pig that was 50 yards away hanging between two trees. Once in a while he'd break out a bolt action 50 BMG (don't know what kind it was, I was just a kid and it was the early 80's).

My dad was a big camper and hunter so I used to go wander the Sierra Nevadas with my Nylon 66 and a box of ammo shooting whatever critters I could see. How I never got lost in the woods is beyond me.

He loved sporting clays so we used to frequent the local club and shoot clays there as well. He gave me a 20ga for my 10th birthday.

His business/fishing/hunting partner had property in Tollhouse (foothills outside of Fresno) and we used to go to his place and shoot clays all day.

Unfortunately, when I was deer hunting age he broke his leg and by the time he recovered (he never fully recoverd) I was in the Marines and we never had a chance to deer hunt. He had a nice Winchester 94 that we used to shoot as well as the Remington 742.

As I got older I became the gun guy and took it to a whole new level.

Since I was about 6 when I first learned to shoot, I decided that my daugher and my son would learn to shoot when they were 6. My daughter is now in the Marines and I taught her to shoot with the a chopped Ruger 10/22, a red dot sight and a silencer. As she got older i transitioned her to AR's.

My son is almost 8 now and kills the silhouettes at the local gun club. He can drop them like nobody's business. He learned to shoot with the same chopped 10/22 that I taught my daughter on.

Tony.

Lived in the city, but spent each summer in the country with g-dad. Started out with BB gun shooting paper plates and pie pans. When I could knock an empty 12 gauge shell off the fence post, I graduated to the .22 single shot. Eventually the .22 semi-auto. Also got to play around with a .410 single shot some. Inherited some long-guns when g-dad died. Eventually started into handguns with a colt .22 target. Sold that for a ruger 9mm. Sold that for a Sig. Then added some kel-tec and SP101 to that...
Blackpowder and .243 got added in there somewhere...and a mossburg turkey gun.

I was 11 my uncle bought me a single shot 22 Mossberg from the 30s. He taught me to shoot pretty much everything under the sun but taught me properly. I probably spent my first year of shooting on my belly. He built the foundation of fundamentals that made me the shooter I am today.

Good stories!

I well remember my first rifle. I was 8 years old and my old man took me hunting. He sat me on a stump with a single shot .22 Winchester. Told me to keep my eyes open while he went and beat the bushes with his model 94. It was the most exciting morning of my life.

Funny thing, by the time I was 12, I had ordered a Springfield 03-A3 from a catalogue and hunted everyday of deer season. I seldom hunted with the old man as he was too damn noisy in the woods and, in my opinion, never really took it seriously.

I have no idea what ever became of that little .22.

I grew up on a farm in the Midwest. Dad had a .410 bolt action and a Stevens .22 pump. He loved to eat rabbit and squirrels and taught me to hunt meat at a very young age. Shooting and hunting became lifelong pursuits. I still have that J.C. Higgins .410

I was about 11. Scout Summer Camp and Marlin .22s, shot the best group of my life.