How Did you Get Into Shooting?

[ArkansasHunter]

It wasn't really shooting that got me interested but hunting. I went with my Dad and Uncle hunting when I was 4 or 5 years old and a year 0r 2 later I shot a gun that busted my nose some way.
Then when I was around 6 or 7 my Dad gave me a 410 singleshot shotgun plus several BB guns. I sware I use to could throw a 12ga empty shell in the air and consistantly hit it with a Winchester 22 I use to have.

[stitchclimber]

I shot my first gun at age five, a .22lr pistol. at a bowling pin. By age 9 I was shooting my grandma's 20 gauge at tin cans. About the time I was old enough to deer hunt I got my first bolt action .22 and permission to use my grandpa's 30-30. Bought my first deer rifle at age 11. I shot my dad's guns till I graduated high school. Now that I'm out on my own I've been collecting and getting my friends in to it.

[ruger22com]

YMCA summer camp when I was 8....was there for 6 weeks and part of the fun was a .22 rifle course.

[Full MeTal Jack]

Age 6 or 7 visting Aunt Mennie in Western Missouri all the older cousins where shooting a British rifle. I asked to shoot it too. (little big man) Aimed at can on post. Pulled trigger. Wound up looking at the sky. Cousins all laughing.
First thing I said was, "Did I hit it?"
Own 5 Brits and a host of other rifles, mostly military rifles including 5 M1 Garands.

[genwinters]

i grew up watching old army movies, like longest day and sands of iwo jima. guns have always interested me. i shot bb guns from time to time, then i went skeet shooting with the guys from my church. i have been hooked ever since

[toolman]

On my 10th B-Day, my mom and dad called me outside and handed me a Marlin 39A. My mom is actually the one who taught me to shoot it. Here's a pic of a shotgun shell box that my 7 yr. old grandson shot with it a couple of weeks ago. FWIW, he's pretty small for his age and weighs 47 lbs. The gun with scope, weighs almost 8 lbs. He shot this sitting on his knees resting the gun over my range bag in a 15-20+ mph crosswind. I'm pretty dang proud of him. He had 19 rds in the gun and all 19 are accounted for on the box. Some cant be seen because as the box turned, he kept shooting at it, so it's been hit on 4 sides.
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...s/DCFC0261.jpg

[Zen900]

An old high school chum showed me his revolver collection a few years ago and I bought a new one because I was impressed with the fine weapons he owned. He and I went shooting once but he never would go again. Most shooters don't shoot. I'll ask somebody once or twice to go shooting and give up if they won't get off their can and go.

[billy]

quote:now i am dreaming of bolt pistols and cowboy guns.
update i got the cowboy guns!
bolt pistol here i come!

Originally Posted by Zen900

An old high school chum showed me his revolver collection a few years ago and I bought a new one because I was impressed with the fine weapons he owned. He and I went shooting once but he never would go again. Most shooters don't shoot. I'll ask somebody once or twice to go shooting and give up if they won't get off their can and go.

too bad you dont live around here ZEN.
i shoot a lot.

these days it's 2 or 3 handguns and 1 or 2 rifles each time

[Zen900]

Originally Posted by billy

quote:now i am dreaming of bolt pistols and cowboy guns.
update i got the cowboy guns!
bolt pistol here i come!
too bad you dont live around here ZEN.
i shoot a lot.
these days it's 2 or 3 handguns and 1 or 2 rifles each time

Billy I have found that I take about the same amount to the range. If I take more than that I find that I feel like I have alot of work to do. Checking zeros and loads and extraction and, and, and.....well you get the pic.

[Full MeTal Jack]

#2 reason: Parents gave me a toy 1903 Springfield rifle, the one with the spring-loaded gold painted bullet in the bolt. You old farts remember that one?
#3: From war and cowboy movies and the Combat Series.
#4: Dad took me shooting at age 9 and blasted a bunch of cans with his Winchester Model 1894 .22 short pump action. Alias a gallery gun.
#5: Got Garanditis back in 1965 at age 10 when going to buy .22 short bullets at local sports store I saw a barrel of M1 Garands. Price was affordable I thought. $89.00. At least a weeks wage for my Dad.

[Agent006]

As a kid growing up, I wasn't really around guns much. My parents had a few but they'd end up selling them to buy something else that they needed more. I was a quiet, nerdy sort of guy who went through phases with all sort of different interests I'd get into. I was into police stuff, then Star Trek, Star Wars, submarines... and in late middle school I got my first taste of Goldeneye 007 on the Nintendo 64, which was still pretty new back then. Playing as James Bond, I was shooting all sorts of guns in that game and it got me curious as to how guns actually worked and what they were like. So, I did a bunch of reading and by high school, I was a teenage gun guru.

In respect to my idol, my first gun was a Walther PPK/S which my father bought for me when I was 16 although the first gun I would ever fire was actually a Japanese Type-99 Arisaka from WW2. It's pretty random, I know, but my father acquired it when my grandfather passed away. He'd went off to Hiroshima once the war was over and brought the rifle back with an old samurai sword and some other things. Firing off a powerful service rifle like that was exhilarating for me, even though I only fired a few shots that day. Later it would be with the punishing 12 gauge Winchester Model 37 and the list just went on from there as I would fire guns that my friends would bring along for me to try out.

I started going to gun shows whenever they came around, which is where my dad got me the Walther and a year later, my Egyptian AK. The 9mm Tokarev in my avatar picture was bought from a friend of his at work. I only had those same five guns up until around a couple years ago when I bought my Enfield and started building up my collection to where it is now, at 17 firearms. Now I seem to be one of the youngest yet knowledgeable gun collectors in my area, although I rarely get a chance to shoot. Still, I never turn down the opportunity to talk to others who are in the gun hobby whenever I meet them around here or at a gun show. I'm always full of questions to those who's experience surpasses my own, and full of answers for those who are interested in learning. I especially find it important to get more younger people interested in supporting their 2nd Amendment rights and giving the shooting sports a try. I'm proud that I've been able to teach my girlfriend and my sister how to shoot. And to think, it's all started thanks to a classic video game and a British spy named James Bond...

[29er savoy]

i grew up in a no firearms home not even a bb gun, i did shoot a .22 in ROTC in my ill fated college attempt. i joined the marines in 66 and my first real rifle was a M-14, in basic, and the M-1, BAR, .30cal, .50cal, M-60 and M-16, in advanced infantry training. after i was discharged i bougnt a bolt action ,22mag. i joined a local gun club and use the range a lot. i taught my sons to shoot, the youngest is working on his nra small bore course.

[Durandal]

my own story is kinda long winded, I'll try to give you the "important parts" version.
When I was little, we lived out in the sticks. my father owned a marlin somethin or other (was too young to remember) and a colt single action. he'd take me and my brother out and we'd shoot both. sadly he comes from an era where real men didnt wear ear plugs, so while shooting it was fun, it was agony to the ear drums. my grandpa has taught hunters ed courses for as long as I can remember. So the exposure was there from a young age. then we moved to the city, dad only broke his guns out to go hunting our neighbors in oregon sorta frowned on the whole guns thing) so the only chance I had to shoot was at scout camp. .22 bolt action. was too young at the time to remember what kind, but I was pretty good with it. they had our targets lined up in front of us hung up on clothes pins. the kid next to me kept hitting my target so i couldnt tell what kind of grouping i was getting, so I got mad and shot the clothes pins. evidently that was pretty good marksmanship for a ten year old kid. but again, back in the city theres nowhere to shoot. about six years later we moved out of town and even had a target in the pasture. My uncle brought out his 9 mm. I couldnt tell you the make and model, all I can say is he either didnt clean it properly or it wasnt a glock because I had it cocked and locked and ready to rock. pulled the safety off and squeezed the trigger, I heard a *poing* and nothing happened. I pointed it safely down range, took my finger out of the trigger guard and said "it's jammed" a second later it went off on its own. didnt touch a gun for four years after that.. was kinda scared of em. then I moved to pocatello. went shooting with a buddy of mine who knows how to take care of his guns. and had a blast all over again. (sorry it was so long but my experience was somewhat involved.) and now I have a plinker and somewhere to go, I'm hooked.

[redhed]

My late mom taught me to shoot when I was in my teens using her old Mossburg 410 shotgun.

Many years later, after my mom passed away, my future hubby reintroduced me to shooting and taught me the fine art of shooting both handguns and rifles. We are lucky to live rural and can shoot regularly on our own property, and that old Mossburg is still in the family.

[missharpshooter]

As most of you know I come from a LE family, so I got my first rifle when I was about 6 years old. I have a large collection of hand guns and shotguns. Past champion, skeet trap and sporting clays shooter. Guns and shooting is not a hobby with me it is a way of life for me....I also have my CCW and carry several different guns. Mostly my .380 Beretta...very compact. Good shooting...Lady Di

[DWARREN123]

Started hunting with 20 ga shotgun, went Army for 22 years and found firearms fun to shoot. Retired, got a civillian job and got back into hunting a little but like shooting for fun. Got my HCP her in Tennessee and enjoy rifle, pistol, revolver and shotgun.

[billy]

Originally Posted by Zen900

Billy I have found that I take about the same amount to the range. If I take more than that I find that I feel like I have alot of work to do. Checking zeros and loads and extraction and, and, and.....well you get the pic.

and CLEANING all those guns!
i try to clean them while there but......
it's cold
im tired
i don wanna