First introduction was as a seven year old with a BB rifle at a Chicago Boys Club located on the North side Cermack Rd, between just West of Rockwell around 1960.

At 10, the first actual firearm I fired was at a carnival.
Three shots of .22 short for 25 cents.
Spent quite a few quarters at that booth.

First firearms I owned were a Series-180 Mini-14 and a (1967) Colt 1911.
Both of them were in excellent used condition (appearance-wise) and were purchased for $225 (total) in 1975.

My first introduction to "guns" was actually a BB gun (Crossman M-1) which my dad taught me the basics of proper gun safety. Then at 13 he bought me a 12 ga shotgun and we started skeet and trap shooting with his friends

We would shoot at a local range every Thursday night after dinner. I look back at that as some of my all time best memories, I was "one of the guys" with my dad and his friends. During breaks from shooting we would spilt a 8 oz glass bottle of coke and a candy bar. Those are cherished memories.

Don't remember not having firearms around the house. I grew up on a farm so they were always around. Got my first BB gun when I was 6 or 7. Went through 3 or 4 of before my Dad gave me a Browning Belgium made .22 automatic. I could buy a box of shells for 50 cents at the time. A young boy in the '50's was in heaven. Still have the rifle. Still shoots like it did back then.

What a great thread topic! My dad was a sharp shooter in the army way back. He started me with a BB gun when I was 6. We'd set up and shoot paper targets in the back yard. On my 7th birthday we went to our cabin in Bear Lake, Ca. He took me out to the woods and I fired a 22lr bolt action. He pretended I shot better than he did. That was it. I was hooked for life. Been shooting ever since.

With each of my boys I watched to see when they showed interest. It was usually around 7 yrs old. Jr df #3 started interest at 4. I waited until he was 5 to take him out with an old 10/22. They all enjoy shooting, but #3 became an early enthusiast. He introduced his wife to be (2 weeks from now) to firearms right after they were engaged. Bought her an inexpensive AK47. She is hooked. She liked one of my 1911s so much, she bought her own.

All of my shooting buddies are grown and moving on in life. But I will always have our memories of laughter and excitement. The money spent on guns, ammo and lost wagers was well worth the bonding we had. perhaps, if we are blessed enough, this tradition will run though our family tree, parent to child, indefinitely.

Thanks, Cliff for inspiring these thoughts.

I got my first gun, a single shot 410, when I was about six. I used it on many squirrel hunts in my youth.

My dad owned guns, but he was not a gun nut like I am. We had guns in closets, and on wall mount gun racks, but I never bothered them because I was taught from an early age to respect them. We took them down for hunting.

Our family used to vacation in the same place my father wouild to go whitetail hunting. One day, when my brother and I were in our very early teens, my father grabbed the old tube-fed, pump-action .22 cal. hex-barrelled rifle that had once belonged to my great aunt on my mother's side, took us to a likely spot aside the trail down to the lake behind the cabins, set some cans up on a fallen log and taught us to shoot.

I can see the scene in my mind to this very day I can also recall my father's praise at my apparently innate ability with that old rifle

I have the rifle. It was not properly cared-for before it came into my possession. Perhaps some day I'll find somebody to restore it.

Born and lived in Edison, NJ until I was twelve. My Uncle Tommy was on the PD there, got on when I was 7 or eight. I was absolutely mesmerized by his duty revolver. He carried a Colt Official Police in .38 Special. His off duty was a little J framed, 3" .32 S&W.

He took me to a sandpit one day and we shot both of them. I shot the little .32 quite a bit.

He taught me never to point them anywhere but downrange once loaded, etc. Then when cleaning them that day my Dad restated all the rules. I remember that day very well. Even sixty years later. Took a pocket full of .32 and .38 empties to school and shared them with my buddies. But later on one of the Nun's took most of them as we were playing with them on our desks. LOL. Imagine THAT today!

Shortly there after I got my first BB gun. Then when I was ten my Winchester 67-A , "Boys" rifle. A single shot twenty two, that I still have.

Few years back I bought a M-31 S&W 3" , .32 revolver a close copy of the one I first shot. May be a year or two newer than my Uncles, but close enough.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Our family used to vacation in the same place my father wouild to go whitetail hunting. One day, when my brother and I were in our very early teens, my father grabbed the old tube-fed, pump-action .22 cal. hex-barrelled rifle that had once belonged to my great aunt on my mother's side, took us to a likely spot aside the trail down to the lake behind the cabins, set some cans up on a fallen log and taught us to shoot.

I can see the scene in my mind to this very day I can also recall my father's praise at my apparently innate ability with that old rifle

I have the rifle. It was not properly cared-for before it came into my possession. Perhaps some day I'll find somebody to restore it.

I would like to see it. My dad still has the 22 rifle I shot. Wish I had a picture of it to post....

Jesus and hunting are our family traditions. I was in the dove field with dad by the time I was about 4. I had a daisy bb gun by that time and I was the retriever amd administrator of the coup de grace on wounded birds. I may have shot a 22 before, but the first "real gun" I shot was my Dad's 16 ga Remington 1100 when I was 5. It kicked hard and it hurt but when they showed me the cup I was shooting at was riddled with 7 1/2's, I perked right up. I got my first "real gun" at 13, a 12 ga Remington 1187.

I have branched out a bit and have some defensive weapons but guns and hunting go hand in hand with me and most of my guns and pretty much all the guns I like are hunting weapons.

Got a Mossberg 22 rifle for Christmas when I was about 9 weighed a ton (or so it seemed) only about 7.5 lbs. Then about the next summer I bought a 410 shotgun with money I earned helping do carpenter work.

We didn’t have any school shootings either. We were taught from the cradle up about gun safety and proper use.

Forgot to mention I still have the 410 and I think I paid all of $40.00 for it brand new.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: SIG 229R,

I was 12 years old. Went out to my Uncle's house, and since I was the oldest, I got to start out with his "soft" handloads in his .44 Mag revolver. Yeah, it kicked like an f'n mule, and I loved it. Shot his 30.06 bolt gun, and his 30-30 lever gun later in the day. I didn't buy my first firearm until I turned 21, but I loved it from that very first time.

Explorer Scouting .22RF rifles. First center fire rifle and pistol fired Parris Island Summer of 1964 M14 and 1911A1.

After Viet-Nam didn't participate in shooting activities for an extended period close to a decade before joining a Bullseye league.

I'm lucky enough to have started so young that I have no recollection of it. It's just something I've always done.

I was over at my grandparents' house. They had a infestation of birds in their trees for some reason. BlackCats and shotgun were the remedy. I think it was a 410 shotgun that he had and was using to harass the birds. My granddad and dad let me shoot it. I was probably 5 or so.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Skull Leader,

Great stories!!!

I got my first gun at about age 5 or 6. A daisy lever action BB gun. Left it at home when I went in the army at age 17. Dad gave me a Win. single shot 22 when I was about 10. We lived on the edge of town with LOTS of wheat fields around us, which made for some great bird hunting. I must have taken more than 100 doves and not a few pheasants with that .22. At about 14 I had saved enough money to buy a single shot Winchester 12 ga, which also provided a lot of meat for the table. Wish I had them today, but,

My brother ended up with my guns when I was in the army, and they disappeared from there.

I have my Father in law's 8mm hunting rifle which he had "upgraded" by a German gunsmith after he returned from POW camp and used it as his hunting rifle. He was a forester in the land of Hessen and each one of them had to have a rifle.

I spent a LOT of great hours out hunting with him, with all the hundreds of years of traditions.

I miss him more than I can say and not only for the hunting. Damn, screen acting up again.

When I was a little kid my parents built a motel and marina on the NC Outer Banks.

Didn’t take long for many of our guests to be from Fort Bragg, Camp Lejeune, Cherry Point, MCAS New River, Seymour Johnson AF Base, and others. Back then you could shoot on the Outer Banks and military maneuvers were held there as well. We also had FBI agents and policemen from the Raleigh area, Charlotte and other NC cities coming down regularly.

All of those LEO, Agents, Soldiers, Special Forces, Green Beret, Airmen, Sailors all would bring down some of the most classic and unique firearms. With me at 10 years old these folks were kind enough to let me sit and watch as they admired and disassembled 1911s, M1 Carbines, M1 Garands, Colt Pythons, S&W revolvers, you name it- with my dad. (He was Gator Navy veteran). They shared shooting techniques, cleaning procedures and firearm lore that it takes a lifetime of exposure to learn. We would go over to Cape Lookout to our dock and cabins and they would set up targets and practice. The majority of these folks were expert pistol and rifle shooters. I picked up advice that I still use-

My first real firearm was a Remington Improved Model 6 22 and I was thrilled to have my own gun.
(My Dad earned it by selling seeds back when he was a kid). One of the Fort Bragg Captains helped me fix the stock which had become loose and my accuracy really improved. As I grew up these individuals proved to be great mentors and gave good advice.

Over the years I feel even stronger that kids should be exposed to firearms at a younger age to properly learn safety and handling. (In those years it was also taught in schools by NRA Instructors and LEO experts).
While in one sense it is never too late to learn- but a lot of kids miss the fun of progressing from BB/pellet gun up through rifles, shotguns and pistols. When I was in the Navy the Marine shooting teams at Pearl Harbor even let us shoot with them occasionally- (On subs you carry weapons on watches but don’t get to shoot as much as other military fields).

Later in life when I was a scoutmaster I ran into more of these folks who also did great jobs teaching my own kids new shooting techniques and safety procedures at various camps around the US.

Thanks to all of those folks who mentor, help and educate- it is appreciated.

My Dad was certainly no macho-man, but he was a patriotic American and pilot in WWII.
He took me out to shoot a .30 caliber carbine with him when I was only about 7 or 8.

Later, he bought me a Remington Nylon 66 .22 semi-auto for rabbit hunting for sport. He also had a concealed weapons permit and carried a .38 pistol when CCW permits were VERY unusual and long before widely talked about. He was close friends with our County Sheriff in Idaho.

The rules of safe firearm handling were always just "common sense" in our household and among all my acquaintances.

I grew up in Michigan's UP. We had 130 acres of wooded land and I new every inch of it. Dad gave me a bolt action 22 at age 8 and a Model 94 Winchester 30/30 at age 12. 61 and 57 years later I still have both guns.
Rod

I was 7 when my parents would send me to a day camp where the guy that ran it would teach us kids how to start a fire, build a shelter and that sort of thing. One day he brought a .22 bolt rifle and he introduced us to shooting tin cans. That was one of the best days of my young life. That was in 1954, hence the 54 in jimbo54.

Jim

9 years old, with my brother's (and would later become my) Boy Scout troop. Once a year, we would have a day at the range, first shooting .22s for score and the merit badge, then the second half of the day would be plinking at whatever we could find to shoot at with rifles, shotguns, and a few pistols that the scoutmaster had.