Poll: At What Age Did You Take Interest In Firearms?

[eriknemily]

Just curious to find out at what age people became enthusiasts when it came to there guns. I didn't really grow up with guns But recently, thanks to my dear brother caliber bob, have become an unsatisfied addict (I'll never have enough) Anywho, I didn't get interested until about a year ago at age 26.

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[bt97006]

The marksmanship merit badge did it for me back in Boy Scouts. All it took was a trip to the range and i was hooked.

 

[Mutoman]

Shot my first pigeon when I was 6. My dad helped hold up the Browning automatic 12 gauge (I was 6, it was heavy), I aimed and pulled the trigger, got up dusted myself off and went to retrieve my bird. Was hooked.

 

[UncalledForGabe]

I think every kid was obsessed with Rambo in the 80's
Yeah, the merit badge did it for me too.

 

[Wenis]

Last November. And I'm 28.

 

[cameronhu]

My dad was a cop. I used to go around with him to gunshows and dealers he knew when I was really young. When I could read, I used to study the shotgun news so I could tell him what price guns were generally going for at the time. I might have been eight when I first started shooting regularly. 10 when I started collecting 22s. I remember turning 12 at a 3 day gunshow event a friend of my dad's was running. I shot a .45 in an adult competition there and took 3rd place. I honestly can't remember when I became interested. I think I was born this way

 

[roguebowhunter]

1st time i remember shootin i was about 5 and shot an old single shot 12ga... after i got off the ground i was pretty much hooked anyways lol ... that and duck huntin durin the same time period .... Don

 

[DALE]

In 1955, I was 10...my Grandpa gave me his Ben Franklin pellet rifle. He also gave me a lecture on responsibility. The rifle is long gone but the lesson has kept me on track my entire life. When my grandchild is 10, I'll be buying a pellet gun to continue the legacy.

 

[smithmax]

I got interested when my grandpa gave me a 10/22 for Christmas 12 years ago when I was 12. I didn't shoot much for the past few years, but I recently joined a range and have been going a few times a month.

We're expecting our first kid in November, and I plan on teaching him the values of safety as well as the joy of shooting. I'm probably going to give him that 10/22 I was given.

 

[dario541]

I have been interested in guns all my life. I was born during the 30's. In the 50's anybody could walk into a surplus store and buy ex-military firearms for low prices. In 1955 I bought an Enfield revolver in .38 S&W for $9.95. Surplus ammo was sold by the round. You picked out how many you wanted and put it in a paper bag. NO BACKGROUND CHECK! NO HASSLE! NO PAPERWORK! NO "INFRINGEMENT"! And NO CRIME! Ah, for the good old days! Big Brother - DON'T TREAD ON ME!

 

[eriknemily]

I had a feeling I would be one of the loners. I really wish I had gotten hooked on guns as a kid. I could have a much better collection and, probably more importantly, be a better marksman!

 

[tac]

I was just six years old when my dad put his M1911 Navy-issue Colt .45ACP in my hands, wrapped his around them, and helped me squeeze off the very first rounds I fired in my life. The target was a trash-can lid, and the backstop was the ocean, with the nearest landfall over ninety miles away.

Both my dad and the gun are now long gone, but I'll never forget what started me off on the great adventure of shooting. I'm now 63, and shoot at least four times a week on my local outdoor range, sometimes five times a week...

Never stopped shooting, even when in 1988 I had to get rid of my seven semi-auto centre-fire rifles and in 1998, when my collection of 118 handguns had to go.

All I have left now here in yUK are fifteen rifles and three handguns of the kind we are still allowed to have - two BP revolvers and a Ruger Super Redhawk .357Mag long-barrelled revolver.

tac

 

[chase]

Boy scouts did it for me. 22lr rifles, black powder 50 cal,and shotguns. Also my bigger brother would bring me out shooting and to the gun shows. Now Im hooked for life.

 

[TonsOfOregonBrass]

I was always interesting in gun, but i know when i got my first gun, 9 shot .22 revolver at 7 i was hooked. My dad and i kept that a secret from my brother and my mom for about 5 years. Then my brother and i both got mossberg 500 12ga's. we had to tell my mom it was a .22 so she wouldn't freak out.

I think it just being the little secret my dad and i both kept for so long and only him and i would go out to shoot it for so long is what hooked me. I still love going shooting with my dad. Every time it brings back memories of those days.

 

[Searcher451]

My grandfather was a collector of antique Remingtons and had one of the largest assemblies of firearms in the country at one time; his gun room was 1,500 square feet and full to capacity. I was brought up around guns as a result and always had an interest. I started collecting on my own when I was 12; my first gun was a Ruger Bearcat, which I still take to the range from time to time.

 

[LeverBob]

Isn't it just great knowing that we are still a nation of Riflemen...I think we are born to the work...all of us that love the gun.

I was always sneaking into Pa's "personal closet" to look at the guns. After he caught me for the tenth time he talked it over with Ma & set up a winder musket on a bench he made in the basement. Made a backstop of a 16" beam & commenced to begin my training with BB cap ammo. Dryfire first (seemed like a gazillion years). Then when I was starting to get the basics down, he started me on one shot only. Work on basics. Another shot. Work somemore...absolutely loved it. My little dream come true. I was 3 yrs. old...1953.

All my brothers & my sister were trained the same way. Ma didn't need it as she grew up in the south & learned to shoot & hunt when she was a 'youngin.

I still practice the same way...after all these yrs.

LeverBob

 

[GED]

When I was a kid my best friend’s dad owned a couple German pistols he had brought back from the war. I know one was definitely a PPK, the other(in retrospect)probably a P38.

Anyway, with my friend’s prodding he used to bring them out on occasion and let us lovingly fondle them. Somehow this left a deep impression on me-one of those childhood memories that just stuck.

Later-still a kid-I joined the Post(Fort Holabird, MD) junior rifle club or something and shot 22s at the indoor range Saturday mornings.

Guns for me growing up always seemed to involve history:

The pistols referred to above were taken off a surrendering Wehrmacht colonel-the bigger one from his holster the other he had in his brown leather greatcoat pocket. This guy surrendered with his secretary/female auxiliary/mistress who was also in uniform(it was apparently a tearful parting).

Weekends living in Maryland, Virginia we used to tour the battlefields-Manassas, Antietam, Gettysburg-so while my dad’s blow by blow account of the battle droned on in the background muskets, colt revolvers were being burned into my consciousness.

In those days there were still battlefield shops that sold freshly dug up minie balls(still got 'em) which I would take to class for “show and tell” along with some Confederate paper money but what I was most proud of was my repro Confederate kepi(even though I was born at West Point, NY-I suppose I was kind of a traitor or something).

 

[BryanO]

What good American child isn't into guns as a child?

 

[darkminstrel]

My uncle took me out when I was 6 to learn to hunt. Didn't give me any instructions on the rifle I was using, Marlin 30-06 I think it was. We stalked for 6 hours and I took down a young...too young...buck. Add ROTC to that and bad hollywood movies and you've got yourself a gun nut.

 

[pdxjohann]

<< an interest at 20 .... no guns or hunting in family history.... now I'm 151 with bad sight and cranky.... What They Say: don't mess with the old dude