Tell us your story of how you became interested in Firearms

[CrazyIvan]

I just read a comment from SwedeSteve that the art/interest/hobby of firearms is slipping away.

So, I got an idea. Why not share how and why we each became interested in firearms/hunting/sport shooting, or what have you.

For me...

My dad was a gunsmith with his own shop, but I never knew him. He had a small line of custom hunting rifles.

My mother left him in PA before I was born and came back to her home state of CO. She was once an avid hunter, but when she left him, that all ceased. My family is a bunch of hunters and country folk, but I never really was shown or talked to about any of the firearm things. I knew my grandmother gave an uncle my grandfather's .38 Snub from the 40's when he (my grandfather died). Other than that, really nothing.

From this, you can see that I pretty much grew up without any influence of firearms, other than one of my uncles that lived in CA and collected firearms. I didn't see him but maybe once every 7 years though.

As a kid, I was always into playing cops & robbers with our plastic guns. Sometimes, I would form a stock out of a piece of wood, chisel it out, sand it down. Then, I'd add a long thin pipe and set it in place with pipe clamps. Sometimes I would drill a hole in the stock and put in a make-shift site. I was known to "Frankenstein" pieces from many different broken play guns together to make a working one. And, of course, war movies, shoot-em-up movies and video games were my favorite.

When I moved out of my moms house at the age of 23, I found myself living alone in an apartment. I don't know what came over me, but one day I just got a wild hair. I went out & bought a Bushmaster 24" Varminter rifle. It was just pretty much bland, for lack of a better term. It didn't have anything on it. So, I spent the next month or so buying goodies for it, and completed it off with a Harris Bipod, a new ergo grip and a Barska SWAT scope.

Ever since then, I have been into it with about as much effort as I can be. I am caching ammo and am up to 2 AR-15's, an MN M44, a Marlin 70P, an RIA 1911, a .380 FEG, and a .380 Kel-Tec.

Anyhow, I guess something was in my blood that led me to this. I don't know. I have taken safety classes, but it was never anything I didn't really know. I mean, yes, it is mostly common sense stuff. But, no one ever taught me those things before.

It wasn't long after my first purchase that I found this site...G&G. So, I kind of think of it as home, regardless of how my comments may come across at times.

So, what about you?

[Dragunov]

I have always been interested in them. Dad was(is) a Marine. Even as a little boy, I remember him teaching me firearm safety, allowing me to handle them and teaching me how to shoot. I've had a firearm since I was nine and had been shooting even before that. I don't ever remember a time in my life I haven't either had a firearm or had one avaliable.

I'm now passing the 2A torch to my kids.

[Big Tool]

I have just always loved guns.

When I was a kid I had my red ryder. Kept the tweety birds from sitting still too long.

I then graduated to a .22 and chased squirrels around our property. Some of my fondest memories. Just me, my lab, and my browning .22. I must have been all of 8 years old at the time, but I knew firearm saftey and it really taught me how to be responsible.


My mom, sister, wifey, all pick on me and my dad because we both go and just stand in our gun rooms from time to time just admiring our toys.

Kinda weird but we just love guns. Kinda like how a woman loves shoes or purses i guess.

[SwedeSteve]

I am Swede, DUH !! All of that side, were all poor farmers and depended on game to supplement the dinner table. Being a good shot garnered you some "rank" within the family. My Mom married a WWII Vet, that loved the woods and his guns. All 4 of us (including my little sister) were trained to shoot, hunt, fish and know our way in the woods. Growing older, and in High School, my brother wandered into that life. Sports, girls (UGH), and so on. I stayed in the woods. MY Mother used to let me disappear for days at a time. Later I got into High School, and surfing. But I always made time to ruck up, grab the rifle, and head out for 2-3 days. I did a felony stint in college !! Realized my Profs were idiots, and decided I needed to get out on my own. I tried to join the Army, but because I was only 16 when I graduated HS (long story), they wouldn't let me go to Viet Nam !!

I did join, finally in 1973, and talked my way out of a job as a linguist, so I could serve in a highly technical field called "The Infantry". Smartest thing I ever did !!

I married a girl with 3 kids, and took them to Basic Training. Them, and the daughter we had together are all upstanding young citizens. My youngest can outshoot me with my Ruger MK II !! So I am hiding until I am dead.

We ALL have stories to tell, and glories to claim. I have been personally responsible for bringing 6 kids into the shooting sports that are not my kids. Just their friends. I emplore many of you to do the same, if you want our sport to survive !!

[jimkim]

I was born to a poor family in GA in 1966. I was raised to admire the Founding Fathers, Confederate Generals, George Patton, and John Wayne. I am American by birth and Southern by the grace of God. Ooh-Rah!!!

[SwedeSteve]

But yet you turned out OK anyway jk, ROFL !!

[Gray Wolf]

My Dad is a Marine, a Korean War Vet with 3 battle stars on his discharge certificate. After his discharge, he never wanted any firearms in the house.
We lived in the city.
When I turned 18 I left home and went west. I met a guy who was to become my best friend for the next 38 years so far, and he taught me to shoot. We married girls from the same family!
Another friend sold me an old single shot .22 rifle.
I found out at the age of 19 that there were no social services for young men, and when I needed help, the police did not instantly appear at my side.
With a Rifle, I could feed myself and protect myself, and have been doing that ever since then.

[Capt'n Mil Coll]

Had my Daisy Pal bb gun at 4.

Went squirrel hunting first time with a Winchester single shot .22 when I was 8.
Went hunting later that year with a 12 gauge shotgun.

When I was in my 30's something bad happened to me and I sold all my shotguns I had at the time. I kept the .22.

I happened to go into Sportsmans Guide one day and they had this old 95 Chileno Mauser in 7x57 Mauser. It was $30. I bought it and liked the feel of that rifle. Tore it all apart and put it back together on my own. Polished that bolt until it springs open if cocked. And the action is as smooth as silk.

Went back there and bought a few more. Then went somewhere else and got more and more and more and....

Well if you see how many I have you get the drift.

I love the History of these firearms.
I like taking them apart and see how they function.
I like shooting them all the time.
I like the smell of oil and gunpowder.
I like the people I talk to at the range in other places and for the most part on here.

Thats the reason I got interested in firearms and collecting them.

[ArkansasHunter]

Guns were just a givin on both my Father and Mothers side of the family, sometimes one side would get together and go hunting.
And sometimes us chileans would get to come along and also get to shoot a gun !!!!!

When I was in the 4th grade my life changed forever due to a friend named Randy Cathy started bringing his Dad's past issue's of OutDoor Life Magazine's to school.

To a child as young as I was at the time, the storys in this magazine caused me to envishion myself someday hunting all across our nation and in outher parts of the World.

Though times have changed I still subscribe OutDoor Life but I like Field and Stream the most and I subscribe it to.

I learned about guns to and I had in my mind someday I'd own a Parker Hale boltaction in 30-06 and my shotgun was gonna be a Browning Hump Back A-5. 12ga. for squirrels and Ducks LOL...And my 22 was going to be the Remington SpeedMaster.

OutDoor Life Magazine sealed it for me, I was going to hunt and own lots of guns when I grew up.

Fortuinitly my Dad like to hunt and he would take us out but usually all we did was shoot our little single shot shotguns he had bought my brother and I and then we would go back home .

Cousin Frog to the rescue...Cousin Frog was the son of my Dads older brother who as a kid I admired greatly. He was quiet a bit older than my brother and I. And he lived to hunt and hunted everything you could legally hunt.

And he owned lots of guns to !

To this day I don't know why but Frog started takeing my brother and I squirrel hunting just about every saturday morning of squirrel season for years.
He also owned a couple of dogs we used when the leaves were off the tree's.

My brother quit hunting but I hung with it and one day Frog said your old enough to Deer hunt now.

All those years takeing me squirrel hunting I never knew he and a bunch of other people had a Deer Camp.

I became it's newest member and I've never mentioned here before because I forgot but my first rifle was a Montgomery Wards (WIN.model 70) 30-06 my Dad bought me but after Deer season he sold it and bought me a Marlin 30-30.

Anyway thats how it all started in my life and where you'll know I never got a Parker Hale rifle or a Browning A5 but I do have a Remton Speedmaster and a bunch other guns.

[Ten Man]

My father got my brother and me each a set of Mattel Shootin' Shell cowboy cap guns (that actually shot plastic bullets) for Christmas, when I was eight years old. We loved playing "shoot out" in the hallway of the house, just like High Noon in the Western movies.

He took us shooting .22s a year later. I have been a BIG pistol shooting fan ever since. I like to shoot rifles and shot guns, too, but handgun is my favorite.

The first gun I bought for myself was a S&W Model 629 Classic .44 Magnum in Stainless Steel. I was inspired by the movie Dirty Harry.

Ensure the survival of the Shooting Sports; take kids shooting!

[GlockMeister]

For me there's no great or riveting story behind my getting interested.

Simply, I was young, stayed down in southern Illinois for the summers (lots of fishing)and part or the winters with my cousins, and of course then in the winter we'd go hunting. At my age at the time 8,9, or 10, I had to start out with a BB gun. Then, as I got older, my family and I went down there less n less and I never got to graduate to a shotgun.

So, when I turned 18, I had a nitch just a itching to be filled. So at 18 I bought my first shotgun, a Mossberg model 500 12ga. 28" vent ribbed barrel with the select-a-choke (all I could get/have/own at that age in Illinois). Which I'd add I still have but converted it to a home defense shotgun...ATI-shot-force pistol grip and collapsible buttstock and 18 1/2" security barrel with bead front sight, cylinder bore choke.

Then, as I got older, and of course when I turned 21, I still wanted to shoot and get a handgun so I saved as well as also sold one old Lionel train, the Lackawanna (Sp), for $250 bucks I think it was and saved the rest to get my first handgun a stainless S&W model 66 Combat .357 magnum...$313.00 +tax. Which I'd add I still have...

So see, no really fascinating story here. Just my own want.

But now it's a full blown disease. lol And due to lack of funds and space, I have very few (but I'm always saving, trying to save to get another until or unless something happens causing me to use what little I was able to save or has saved. Like when those punk azz thugs slashed our tires... I had $500 saved at that point and had to use it to help pay for 6 tires. 2 that were slashed (one on each vehicle) then 3 more new ones for mine as they were very dry rotted in the tread even though they had lots of tread left. Then had to get another new on for the other vehicle so they'd wear evenly other wise they would have worn at different times. But, I digress. lol

[BaserRonin]

Red Blooded American Male. I doubt there was ever a time I was not interested in guns. Dad bought me my first .22 when I was 2 and I shot it a whole lot. It was pretty much a set deal for me. I might have been spoiled.

[thrillbilly]

I was born...LOL I've always been around guns, and always loved them. Almost all my toys were toy soldiers and toy guns. I had a massive hunting and gun magazine collection by the time I was 10 or so. I've also always loved hunting, and the two kinda go hand and glove...I'm not sure if I have guns because I hunt or if I hunt because I have guns!

[CalifgirlinOk]

My husband Seabee got me started shooting.While dating and after we got married we would go target shooting at the Sportmans Club (CA) alot.

[billy]

we had guns when i was little.
then my dad died and we moved a lot.
when i was in my early 40's i decided to buy a gun.
i ended up with a yugo sks.
then a s.a.1911a1
and it went from there.

[White Rook]

I grew up when Westerns were on every channel. I grew up watching War Movies and Combat and Rat Patrol. I have always had guns when I was younger from toys to BB guns. I grew up playing Army and Cowboys & Indians with my friends almost daily in the summer. I have hunted from a very early age. I don't think I have ever had a time in my life that I didn't have a gun. I spent 4 years in the Philippines where you can't own guns except air rifles. I had my dad send me a Crossman 2100 BB gun so I could hunt and shoot over there. I have taught all of my children how to safely handle and shoot firearms and I will teach my grandson when he gets a little older. He is almost 18 months old and I have a Dirty Harry type toy pistol still in the box in my closet and a toy pump shotgun in my safe waiting for him to get old enough to play with them.

I just bought a Red Ryder BB gun and sanded it all down and painted it Purple for my 11 year old daughter to shoot when we went to Kentucky for a Family Reunion. I think it's against the law not to have at least a BB gun when you visit someone in Kentucky...

[The_Patriot]

Originally Posted by CrazyIvan

I just read a comment from SwedeSteve that the art/interest/hobby of firearms is slipping away.

I don't know about you guys and what you're seeing, but our local range is PACKED all the time. There are more people getting into shooting than I've ever seen before. I work with three people that have bought a total of 8 guns in the past 6 months (in their 40s) and never had them before. And they shoot often now.

Some of that may be the whole caught-up-in-fear thing, but it still has the same effect of getting people to understand firearms and shooting better. It's still a positive effect and will get many people into the hobby who otherwise might not have.

As far as how I got into it? I spent a lot of time on a farm when I was growing up. There were shotguns and rifles leaning up in any number of corners in the house. It was just a natural extension of growing up for me, like eating ice cream or learning to throw a baseball.

Been with it every since. Teaching my son now, too.

The only thing I regret is not having a large chunk of land to allow my son to plink like I did. Going to the range and shooting paper targets isn't quite the same (not at all).

[LiveToShoot]

In my life...

...it's a debate on which came first: nipple, fishing pole or firearm?

Since I'm alive and healthy...

...it must have been the nipple.

Kidding aside...

...I was introduced to firearms at the earliest time by parents who were avid outdoors men/women.

As a child I remember earning one of my first firearms...

...by helping dad tar a roof.

Thereafter we headed to Gibson's for the grand event...

...and I walked out of the store beaming with another plinker.

It's all history from there...

[Cyrano]

Dad grew up on a farm and learned how to shoot out in the country, as farm kids do. He enlisted in the Army in World War II and saw a lot of combat; didn't talk about it, as most combat vets don't, except to others who have been there. He had a couple of guns around the house, but didn't make a point of it.

My mother's Uncle Bill was a captain in the Boston Fire Department. He and Aunt Trudy lived in one of those brownstones that's about 16 feet wide, four stories high and half a mile deep - you know the kind. Anyway, the basement was long enough that he could set up a 50 foot shooting range in it, and did.

We were over visiting once and he took Dad down to the basement to show him his latest acquisition, a bolt action .22. He and Dad tried it out, and I just stood behind watching them with big eyes.

"Can I try it?" I asked timidly.

Uncle Bill looked at Dad, who finally nodded okay. They set me up with the rifle on a rest made out of a bag of shot and by butt parked on a stool at the shooting bench. Dad explained basic gun safety, how to line up the sights and squeeze the trigger, and about taking a breath, letting half of it out, and then firing. I did all of that, and the .22 went BANG. I opened the action and set the rifle on the bench (it was as tall as I was), and we went to look at the target.

Bulls-eye, dead center.

I was hooked.

I have Asperger's Syndrome, though it wasn't diagnosed then. One thing about Asperger's is that those who suffer from it focus on a subject to the point of obsession. With me, it was guns, mostly military guns. And now that I'm in a position to indulge my obsession, I do. This annoys Her Imperial Majesty. But she can't be too annoyed when I point out to her that I'll spend less on one firearm than she'll drop in one day of weekend estate-saling; and we go to estate sales a lot more often than I buy a new gun!

[magicjeep]

My dad was a cop, retired now, and he always had guns in the house. When I was about 4 he sat me down with all his guns laid out on his bed and told me go ahead and do what you want with them. He than explained to me that they were not toys and if I wanted to touch them to just ask. Maybe thats when it started.

Also as any other red blooded American boy I played cops and robbers, cowboys and indians and "Army". Than my dad started taking me and my brother to the range a few times a year. We also had a summer house in the mountains were we shot our bb guns, cant do that in the city. I always had a thing for history, especially military history and read about guns.

Now my dad has passed the bug on to my son, 4 years old, by buying him a chipmunk a few months ago. In fact I think I may take him to the range today, since this thread brought the bug out again.