Tell us your stories of learning to shoot/ first times shooting!

Lesliet · Mar 28, 2020

I'd love to hear people's tales of first times, and how you learned to shoot!

I think my first and best teacher was the grizzled old marine Sargeant that ran the range when I went to Boy Scout camp at lake Arrowhead. The only merit badges I ever got were safety ( required before you could get any others) and "Rifle and Shotgun". So, this Rangemaster taught us safety in the manner you'd expect from a boot camp drill sargeant, which I think we all duly took on board. Some general words on sight picture and breathing, and trigger control, and then we set to with bolt action single shot .22lr rifles with irons. Probably 50' out to the targets. I spent every day for as long as the range was open shooting. I think on the third day, I put four shots in the same hole, and the 5th just touching, and he told me I wasn't allowed to spend any more money on ammo; I was now a coach. Then the Girl Scout troop came over to shoot, and I didn't really mind so much not being allowed to shoot any more.

dcfranzen · Mar 28, 2020

I first learned to shoot at the age of twelve when I found my dad's Remington Model 41 .22short single shot bolt action rifle in a trunk stored in the attic. A year earlier, I had received a gun safety talk at a YMCA camp when we got stuck indoors during afternoon thunderstorms. I only shot a dozen or so rounds, two or three at a time, before the rifle and ammo disappeared and put a halt to my shooting skills-building for five years.

Then, in 1964, along came Uncle Sam's Army boot camp drill sergeant who revisited the safety rules and acquainted me with the M-14. I can still visualize him repeating, "This is your rifle (holding an M-14 up in his right hand) and this is your gun (grabbing his package with his left hand). This is for shooting (raising the rifle again) and this is for fun (GRIN)." Message received Staff Sergeant!

Four years and 3 months later, it was the department's Range Master and safety officers who familiarized me and my fellow trainees on the proper handling and shooting of our .38 Special duty weapon. We had to buy our own revolver and mine was a Smith & Wesson Model 15-3 four-inch. A couple of sight adjustments and I was punching black and I loved it.

Today, it is mostly Smith & Wesson Gen3 semi-automatics in 9mm and .40S&W sending bullets downrange and I still enjoy shooting.

No_Regerts · Mar 28, 2020

Since I was old enough to understand, I knew Dad had guns. I would watch him wipe them down and he teach me about gun safety and handling. My interest in guns and shooting was cultivated during that time. I'd get to follow dad out to the woods looking for firewood and sometimes he would shoot a few rounds at a can.

I was probably 7 or 8 when my dad took me out to the back yard with a C02 powered BB pistol and set up a couple soda cans and a paper target. We would sit at the picnic table and he'd watch me as I shot at the cans. I had to spend an hour every day reading or practicing my penmanship. We kept doing that for the rest of the summer.

I got a Crossman air rifle for Christmas that year and I spent lots of time with that rifle. At first, under the supervision of my Dad. He taught me fundamentals of shooting a rifle. Then, he'd let me venture out on my own, probably spying on me. I would set up cans all over the place and see how far I could still hit them.

My first time shooting a firearm was when I was 9. One day we stopped at a pull-out on a dirt road and he set up a paper target. He took out his 22 from behind the seat and set it up on the hood of the truck. I remember how cool it was to shoot a real rifle. I got a single shot 22 for Christmas that year and I still have it.

Xrperry · Mar 28, 2020

I think I was 10- 12 years old. Dad was out shooting his old marlin 336 32 Winchester special. I bugged him to shoot it until he let me.yep you guessed it, scope cut on my eyebrow..I didn't say a thing except. Thanks dad. I wished he would have been shooting his old Steven's 22!

HA556 · Mar 28, 2020

I grew up with guns and hunting. My dad was a no good for nothing but, one thing he did believe in and taught me was firearms and their care and safety! I do remember one particular incident though. I was 11yrs old and my dad brought out his brand new 12ga. shotgun. Handed it over to me to shoot, didn't instruct me on proper shoulder placement and said go for it. Well, I did and found myself flat on my backside!

He walked over, looked down at me and said, if you'd have dropped my new shotgun, I'd have run up one side, down the other and danced on your kidney! And I'm quoting him!

Spitpatch · Mar 28, 2020

My Dad didn't give me my first gun.

His best friend did. Mike O'Brion was a cowboy in his eighties (in 1961).

Mike gave me his Daisy BB gun when I turned 5. It was the first BB gun I ever saw or shot. It was where I gravitated at Mike's house, and he taught me to shoot it before I ever thought I would own it.

Winchester M67A Boys rifle, spankin' new from dad on Birthday Six. (Maybe Mike put him under pressure.)

94's and Krags from there out (till I figured stuff out -- and paid for it -- independently).