Becoming a shooter . . . life style or choice?

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Prof Young

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How did you become a shooter?

I'm guessing that most hunters/shooter/gun lovers grew up with guns. Me not so much. I had bb guns as a kid, and my brother had a single shot 22, but we did not hunt on a regular basis nor shoot for recreation or competition. We did shoot our bb guns a lot. In fact grandpa made us a bb gun range in the basement. After leaving my early teens I didn't have guns or shoot.

Fast forward to when I was in my early fifties. I started fishing again. My buddy would take me cat fishing and I'd get bored waiting for the bite. Was at the hardware store one day and did an impulse buy on a bb gun pistol. Used it to plink with when cat fishing. Then bought a more powerful bb gun. Then squirrel hunted with the more powerful bb gun but was not successful. Then bought a 410. Then inherited a 20ga and a bolt action 22 . . .

Twenty some years later I have 16 guns in the safe, hunt large and small game, target shoot for fun and reload my brains out. Have applied for CC permit. If you count the guns I bought, used a while then sold, I've owned over 30 guns in the last 20 years.

Did you come to shooting or did shooting come to you?

Live well, be safe.
Prof Young
 
I was involved in Scouting, so I did riflery and archery at Summer Camps, and owned a pellet rifle and pistol at home, but never did much with it. I didn't get serious into firearms until after my father passed away, and inherited some of his pistols. I became enamored with their history and function, and the collection grew from there.

ETA: My first posts here on TFL were the beginnings of my researching one of those pistols, a Smith and Wesson Pre-model 31 Regulation Police.
 
Probably more was in me than anything, but I have to give the credit to my Mom. My Dad got sick when I was 3 and remained so through my childhood. He had one handgun, a pair of shotguns and three .22 rifles. I often asked him to teach me to shoot and his response was "you aren't ready yet" to which I would reply "when will that be?" And he would say "when you have outgrown running around the neighborhood with toy guns."

I couldn't give that up! ;) But every time I asked if we could check out his guns, we did, and I absolutely loved that.

Eventually, I outgrew that and took up air rifles and pistols in the basement. I was in my early teens when my Dad passed away and almost immediately after -- Mom drove me out to a friend of the family and he taught me to shoot. To say that I was "hooked" would be to sell it short.

Within a month, Mom dug up info on a Sportsman's club in the town next to ours. They roped her in to run the club's books and she did that to support my shooting.

By the start of 10th grade I was at this place squeezing triggers on 5 of every 7 day week. 4-position smallbore practice on Mon & matches once a month, skeet on Wed evening/Sun morning, free range days (handguns!) Friday after school and all day Saturday.
 
YMCA.

Was always interested in shooting but formally the following:

Summer camp .22 shooting and then the indoor range at our city's YMCA. .22 competition. Eventually CMP Remington 40X .22 rifle. Hooked ever since.

You know at one time there were shooting galleries (not TODAY'S shooting galleries but ones with rifles) and you could pay your money and show off your shooting skills. I think this was even before my time. Maybe 1950's. Only time I've seen this is at the 'state fair'.
 
Absolutely zero influence from all. Broke/worn-out many an air gun, at 14 got my first real gun, Remington 700 BDL bolt action 30-06. Dragged a parent to the store to get it, got stolen before I could shoot it. Would have scared me into the next city.
 
Shot as a hobby very young and through high school.

The army made it very inconvienient to enjoy shooting.
Picked it back up after getting out.
 
I grew up around guns and did hunt a little with my Father/Grandfather, but hunting was never a big part of our lives. I also shot at Scout Camp and other occasional activities, so I was always very comfortable around guns. When I got out of college a coworker at my first job took me to an indoor range to shoot his .44mag and I was hooked. I really enjoy going to the range and either taking my time to improve accuracy, working on tactical type issues or just shooting a lot of rounds for the fun of it. In some ways I see going to the range as a form of relaxation sort of like some folks see golf. For a few minutes I can concentrate in depth on one specific activity and put everything else out of my mind.
 
I'm guessing that most hunters/shooter/gun lovers grew up with guns.
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You have to parse the gun owners types. The expansion of gun ownership in recent times as been in the self-defense market. Research (ah-HA!) suggests the development of two gun cultures:

1. The Sports (shotgun sports) and hunting culture
2. The Self-defense culture

Of course there is some overlap in the Venn diagram. But we do see hunting types that attack the SD culture and SD folks who think hunting is blah.

Thus, I don't think growing up with Daddy's shot gun is relevant to the SD culture expanding as much as it has. Even if Daddy had a sporting shotgun, the SD gun decision was driven by SD needs.
 
Used to shoot rifles and pistols after college, but now I'm a shot gunner and it gets expensive (like my screen name)
 
Hunting and shooting was/is part of my family's lifestyle. Although I enjoy shooting pistols and rifles, chasing ducks in season, and clays on the sporting course, is my main focus these days.
 
I've loved guns as far back as I can remember, so I guess I came to guns. Watching movies and TV I fell in love with the Luger and other guns when I was 7 or so. I kept asking my father to take me shooting but he never did. When I was 10 I got his S&W 38 Special, took it out in the woods behind the house and shot up a bunch of tin cans. Fortunately no harm came to anyone (until my dad found out). My mother was antigun and my father wasn't much of a shooter so I never owned even a BB gun until I was an adult. Since then I've made up for lost time!

Interesting twist ... When my father died my mother sold all his guns but a couple years ago my sister was able to buy back that S&W revolver. We went out and shot it, 55 years since I first fired that gun. What a fun time!
 
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My mother was antigun and my father wasn't much of a shooter so I never owned even a BB gun until I was an adult. Since then I've made up for lost time!
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Sounds like my mother and father! Except, they sent me to a camp where I learned to shoot at the age of 9 and I was hooked. I relentlessly begged my parents to for a BB gun; they broke down and got me a Daisy springer pistol made to look like an old Colt SAA. That broke "the ice" and I was permitted to own several other BB pistols/rifle as a kid (bought with my own money).

So, for me - It was my own unique personality that drew me to guns as a hobby from an early age. I was not raised by parents who had guns.
 
My Grandfather, a WWI rifle and MG instructor, taught me to shoot and hunt when I was a small kid. I don't remember why, I just remember shooting his Stevens 22 bolt action. I do remember that he liked the aftermarket Marble open sights on it. He was a marvelous shot with rifle and shotgun. He said that he had to hunt for food during the depression, and he'd walk 20 miles a day with his shotgun and game bag. So I guess hunting and shooting was more of a lifestyle thing.

I have the 22 rifle (can't find a model number on it) and his old Model 12 Winchester, though I think he did most of his hunting back then with a Model 97.

After I had been shooting for a time, my Dad decided to get into deer hunting and became a lifelong Hunter. He got his best deer with a crossbow when he was over 80.
 
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