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Did you grow up with firearms or get interested later in life?

  • Since I was a kid.

    Votes: 391 86.7%
  • Later in adulthood.

    Votes: 60 13.3%

  • Total voters
    451
Love that sweet smile! Thanks for passing it down!
Oh you haven't seen $#!+. MVIMG_20191009_135319.jpg 11223.jpeg 11227.jpeg
 
When my parents gave me my first BB gun.............. I wasn't strong enough to cock it. I had to shoot and run back in the house to have my mother cock it! I finally figured out how to lodge it against a tree and use two hands.

Same here! Don't remember how old I was though. Still have it. Actually, the very first gun I remember shooting was a Benjamin pistol in my grandfather's basement. We shot into the coal bin. I still have that as well in the original box with purchase receipt.
 
My first experience with a firearm was in Boy Scouts at 12. We were shooting .22s when the local sheriff informed our troop that shooting was just banned from that area. (In the middle of the California valley, with back stop, with no building around for 30 miles.) I only managed to get 3 rounds out of the savage .22 bolt action before I didn't pull a trigger again until I was 18.

When I was 18, I picked up a Ruger 10/22.
When I was 21, I picked up a Springfield XD Sub-Compact .40
 
Damn California regs!
California?! Haven't been able to shoot in Kitsap county (Washington) for years! (except at approved ranges...unless land hoarders encroach on the property and erect structures. Then the gun range must cease and desist, or at least spend years in court proving they were there first, possess all the proper paperwork and thus, should be allowed to continue operating :mad::rolleyes: ).
 
California?! Haven't been able to shoot in Kitsap county (Washington) for years! (except at approved ranges...unless land hoarders encroach on the property and erect structures. Then the gun range must cease and desist, or at least spend years in court proving they were there first, possess all the proper paperwork and thus, should be allowed to continue operating :mad::rolleyes: ).
Ha! Show me where that worked! Kitsap Pistol & Rifle Range is still dragging it through the courts. Doesn't do much good when the Gov and Courts are rigged against you!
 
BB gun at 5 or 6, Deer camp at 10, hunting at 12 , elk camp at 16, 1st elk kill at 17 In Mill Creek Watershed, was hunting ducks with dad when I was knee high to his hip boots , now I fish more, just not in Washington, lol
 
My Home Town PD had learn to shoot days at the range. They brought 22 rifles for young kids to shoot. They sold boxes of 22's at cost. It was an early introduction.
I doubt they do that anymore!
 
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I was born in 1953. Dad started my shooting training very early. Before dver firing a shot, he used certain training methods to get me into both open sights and scopes sith rifles. He was a bit of a perfectionist. He taught me the basics of handloading safely too. He bought me a Tradewinds/Husquavarna bolt action rifle in .243 caliber. By the time I was 14, I had come up with a fine hsndload for that Husky, and could shoot dime sized groups from a bench st 100 yards, if I did my part. He was proud as handloading has been a very handy life long skill. I have enjoyed experimenting with different handloads for my guns, and considered the search for accuracy as fun. Reloading came in handy when I got into 200 meter IHMSA and 100 meter NRA Hunter Pistol matches, and bowing pin matches. I shot these matches all over western Washington State. My home gun range was the Paul Bunyan Club near Puyallup.
Had to use a firearm in a home invasion one night on 11/1/1976, which was the evening of my 22nd birthday. I had bought a new Dan Wesxdon Model 15-6 revolver, and had shot it alot at various ranges near Seattle. A dunghead smashed his way into the house I was renting at the time just south of Seatac Airport, on 200th. He was not armed and was alone, and didn't attack, because I held him at gunpoint and had my sleeping roomate call the cops. They came and knew the guy by name as a local trouble maker. That was a life changing event though.
 
My dad had been an armorer in the Marine Corps between 1957 and 1959, and I guess his superiors thought enough of him that he was transferred to Quantico to be a gunnery instructor for USMC officer candidates and FBI trainees. He also accurized competition rifles and pistols for the USMC competitive shooting teams. My mom was raised by an open-minded mom of Quaker descent, so when I was very little I remember my mom trying my dad's M1911A1 and not liking it much. My dad also used to take us hunting jackrabbits in the desert with black powder rifles. He was a real gun safety nazi, teaching us safety rules before kindergarten. I shot my first rifle in first grade, a HUGE .22 bolt action, to my small eyes.

My parents separated in second grade, and I wouldn't shoot again until seventh grade, when my sister and I had a two week visit with my dad, and he thought it wrong that my pacifist mom hadn't taught us shooting. My little sister was a remarkably good shot. We went shooting with dad every summer until we graduated high school.

The lessons stuck. I've been a lifelong shooter since, teaching my kids to shoot with a little Henry single-shot .22 rifle and some fun little translucent pellet pistols. They've all graduated since, and two still like shooting. My oldest daughter is in the Navy, and she's thinking about getting her own pistol now. My boy wants to buy a Winchester '73. My middle daughter is a bit of a limousine liberal, but she'll come around as she realizes that feminist empowerment will require her to arm herself eventually.

Scott
 
My old man was born a rancher, was a green beret during Vietnam. He grew up around guns, did all his own gun smithing, taught me everything he knew. I grew up rural, thus I was into BB guns by 5, into black powder by 10, into antique cartridge firearms by my mid teens (early cartridge firearms are my true passion).

Firearms have always been a part of my life, couldn't imagine life without them.
 

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