Poll: Who else literally grew up with firearms?

[Ura-Ki]

I had a couple of flight simulators some years ago. One was "Jane's Fighters Anthology". And I had a demo of the "Microsoft Flight Simulator". I loved the Jane's. The other was too real. But I'm going to guess the "flying" isn't all that difficult if you knew how get the craft up and running and down the runway. Landing would be another thing for sure.

What say you @Ura-Ki ?

I crash with the best of them! Actually, flying isn't all that hard, it's just the whole 3 dimension thing you gotta figure out! It's the landings that are the real challenge, but once you master landing, it's not that big a deal, landing with Flare as I always say, as apposed to a Real Arrival, those don't always end well! As to the Flight Sims,as real as they seem, the one thing they absolutely suck at, and tech hasn't figured out yet, is depth perception, with out that sensation, it's a fun video game, nothing more!

 

[outdoorsman]

I started off at 8 years old with a stevens (I think) single shot rifle cutoff barrel 22lr made into a pistol with no rear sight. We were poor and I would get 2 shells to shoot for the day. I have shot firearms since about 5 years old with my older brothers. I grew up in the Santiam Canyon area of Oregon, always close to shooting and hunting. I had my FFL in the early 80's. Firearms consume the major part of my life still as I am retired. All my siblings and their children are heavily into firearms. It is a way of life for my family. I just reloaded a couple hundred rounds for my 7mag to target shoot with. I bought my retirement home based on having a close place to shoot.

 

[orygun]

As to the Flight Sims,as real as they seem, the one thing they absolutely suck at, and tech hasn't figured out yet, is depth perception, with out that sensation, it's a fun video game, nothing more!

I can drive, both on and off road, at considerable speed and I ride motorcycles very well, but put me on a game doing so and I suck! The "feeling" that comes from actually doing something plus that lack of depth perception kills me...
I can shoot very well on the games, though.

 

[DeanMk]

Here in UK it's a dangerous thing to be 'passionate' about shooting. The authorities tend to equate 'passion' with 'out-of-control-gun-crazy', so I just admit that guns and shooting hold a lot of interest for me, and leave it at that.

CALL THE COPPERS!
CRAZY LOON ON THE LOOSE!

...

 

[orygun]

I guess I should have asked many pages back, "Who said I grew up?"

 

[Bobbygun]

I was seven years old my dad gave me a Marlin 39 and a pocket full of shells the only catch " Whatever you shoot you have to eat ". I spent the day shooting at pine cones and rocks believe it or not I still have that rifle and still looks great !

Why would you want to eat pine cones and rocks? Personally, I would have tried to find a grouse, but to each their own.

 

[Mikej]

I guess I should have asked many pages back, "Who said I grew up?"

Depending on how old you are, those painful joints, gray hair and diminishing eyesight says you're grown up!

 

[orygun]

Depending on how old you are, those painful joints, gray hair and diminishing eyesight says you're grown up!

Who said I had hair?!? Fortunately I don't have the painful joints, either.

 

[Mikej]

Who said I had hair?!? Fortunately I don't have the painful joints, either.

Well, there is that.

 

[Mikej]

Who said I had hair?!? Fortunately I don't have the painful joints, either.

I don't have much myself? Like, my forehead is up even with my ears? Maybe if I shaved it clean the joints would be better?

 

[Esam85]

I grew up with them and I am raising my kids with them as well!

 

[Kf338]

I grew up with firearms that's all I know it's myFun !!!! this is where I wish that I I was married and had kids to share my experience and have fun with and the young guys and young girls and Being a dad. Life goes on guns are my hobby.

 

[kimbo]

I was born and raised in NYC. Firearms were this magical "evil" thing. Wasn't until 17, Infantry OSUT (boot camp) I was exposed to firearms, never looked back since.

 

[Gaucho Gringo]

I got my dad's Winchester 1906 in 1963 when I was 12 as he had received it when he was 12. I first shot it when I was 7. All my high school friends had 22's and we would go shooting up on Larch Mt. I would hate to think what would happen to a carload of teenager's today with guns(always had ours in the trunk) if they got stoped today. The first time we went to Larch Mt. we asked a county sheriff for directions and all he said was be careful.

 

[SurlyJohn]

Dad and Granddad were both military. When I turned 10, Dad bought me a Ruger 10/22 and told me I had to take a Hunter's safety course twice before I could shoot it. I took the classes, which back in the 80's were good classes that covered almost everything about gun safety. Had a Taurus 9mm and that Ruger in college, got my CHL after college and started collecting. Now I have granddad's and my father's collection as everyone else in my family is anti-gun, Multnomah county residents.

 

[salmon creek gary]

Grew up with 'em. I think I told bits of this story before (maybe on a different forum, or maybe here in this same thread). If it was here at NWFA, I hope you don't find much change in details; old memories do dim a bit on the small stuff.

I don't remember how old I was when I first learned to pick birdshot out of my food, but I was probably age 3 or 4 when I became aware that Dad kept a pump shotgun for hunting small game. He taught me never to touch that gun, but he also kept it so inaccessible that I never even knew where it was stashed. I wasn't much older when I noticed there were shells visible in the shotgun that Grandpa kept hanging over the door to the farmhouse washroom. Somehow, that didn't seem right to me so I told my uncle (who was just 5 years older than me) that someone had forgotten to unload that gun. His reply was "That gun's supposed to be loaded and don't you ever touch it!", so I learned that Dad's rule didn't only apply to Dad's shotgun. I was much older before it ever occurred to me exactly why Grandpa kept his shotgun loaded.

I was probably 5 years old when that same uncle taught me how to aim & shoot his Daisy Red Ryder for hunting sparrows around the barnyard. After hooking me on shooting that thing, he (way under-) paid me about 4 BBs each time I swamped out the dairy barn gutters for him. That was the year I learned not to steady my aim at a sparrow by resting the gun barrel on an electric fence wire.

My uncle and I hunted together in the woods for several years. He carried Grandpa's single shot 22 for squirrels and rabbits, and I carried that old Daisy in case we saw any sparrows. The best gift I got for my 11th birthday was a BB gun of my own. It was fall of that same year that Dad first allowed me to carry Grandpa's 22 rifle to go along with him rabbit hunting.
Just before I turned 12 years old, Dad agreed I could spend my life savings on an old single shot 20 gauge bolt action shotgun that'd been for sale many months at the hardware store. I think it was priced at $12 and probably worth half that. Anyway, Dad & I worked together for months to repair & refinish that 20 gauge so I could hunt rabbits & game birds with him that fall.

Age 16 and already a seasoned hunter, I carried Grandpa's 30-30 Marlin 336 for my first deer hunting trip; I didn't even see a hair that year. I saw deer the following several seasons, but never got a shot off because they saw me first. On my 21st birthday - carrying an Argentine Mauser that I'd brutally 'sporterized' - I got my first shot at a deer. Minutes later, I was learning how little I knew about field dressing a buck.

During the years that followed, I only hunted sporadically even though I've continuously owned firearms; my focus has shifted gradually away from hunting and toward home & self-defense. The second (and last) deer I ever bagged was with a borrowed rifle the year I turned 50. My brother loaned that rifle to me; fittingly, it was the same Marlin 336 that had belonged to Grandpa when I'd first carried it at age 16.

 

[Moonbuzzard]

Being born and raised in east Tennessee I'm pretty sure I was being taught to hold a gun around the same time I was a baby bottle lol. But that was many decades back. That can't be said for many anymore I don't think. I am fortunate enough to say I still have the first rifle I was taught on. While it's a rather insignificant bolt action 22 in the collector world that rifle will stay with me until death I guess. I could also point out every "hidden" gun we had in our house and at my grandparents. But I was warned what would happen if I ever touched one without permission. To me the consequences of doing so equaled being shot lol. Firearms respect as a child equals respect in general once you become an adult. Sadly today that concept is lost on many levels.

 

[ctcruiser]

Yup. I had an old .22 at 10 years old. A 30/30 at 11 for deer and the old man had all kinds of WWII pieces that usually came out after a few beers just to look over.

 

[rdb241]

Yup. I had an old .22 at 10 years old. A 30/30 at 11 for deer and the old man had all kinds of WWII pieces that usually came out after a few beers just to look over.

I remember my grandfather in Klamath Falls when I was 9. He gave me a box of .22lr and a rifle and told me to go down the ditch bank and shoot ground squirrels. This was in 1970, and was hunting deer and passed my hunter's safety course at 12. I carried my grandfather's Winchester model 64, 30/30.

 

[BrianCs]

I grew up with gun safety bring key. If you did something incorrect you were told what you did wrong and we'd try again tomorrow.

Hunters safety class was mandatory. Started with small calibers and worked up to larger ones. I wouldn't change a way I was taught to shoot. Respect ever firearm as if it was loaded. Sticks with me to this day.