"How Did You Become a Gun Enthusiast"

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MtnMike1

New member
I've only been part of gun forums for a couple of weeks now so this is still fairly new to me. During that time it's become clear many people here own or have owned many guns and have a wealth of information about many brands. This got me thinking, "how do people get started collecting guns?" I know it's a hobby and I'm not in anyway putting it down. I'm trying to understand the motivation as I feel it drawing me in too plus we are into our 2nd day of snow and I'm bored.

So, how did you get started and what do you enjoy most about being a gun enthusiast? How do you decide what pieces to add to your collection?
 
I basically grew up around guns as my Father, Grandfather and Uncles all had military, law enforcement, hunting and recreational shooting backgrounds. I really never even thought anything unusual about shooting and still find myself surprised when I hear people acting like it’s some strange activity.

While I do realize firearms have a variety of purposes I personally find myself attracted to them from a technical/mechanical/artistic standpoint. I enjoy mechanical watches, fountain pens, knives, etc. and feel firearms fit into this same area of interest for me.
 
Maybe Genetics play a role. As a kid, I had to be a Cowboy and loved to strap on my cap gun. My cousin was Roy Rogers, and I was Gene Autry. Opps, that gives away how old I am.
That love lay dormant until nearing retirement. Looking for something to keep me busy, getting into shooting/buying handguns and reloading was a no brainer for me.
My only regret is that I didn't start earlier in life.
SN
 
I was born.
I had my first Thompson sub machine gun when I was 8.
Same gun that Vic Morro carried on Combat and it went from there.
I’ve been told my grandfather was the same with guns that I am.
 
As a kid, I had to be a Cowboy and loved to strap on my cap gun
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Well, someone had to be an Indian, and since I am one, I usually played the role (with pride). Actually, though, I grew up in a family of hunters/fishermen/woodsmen so we had firearms and I got some decent training from about the age of five. By the time I was eight, I had my first .22 rifle, and the collection grew slowly after that.

First handgun came along at 15 or so, and I have been hooked on handguns ever since. Early on it was mostly revolvers, and now is almost all semiautos.

Others in my family like guns all right, but one of my nephews and I have the affliction and never get enough. I am getting much more selective now, as I have most of what I want at this point, but every now and then something catches my eye.
 
I grew up with guns but mostly just used them for hunting. I joined the military and started getting cranky when they refused to give me an assignment that allowed me to carry a gun, I guess i felt that it wasn't really military service unless you got a gun... so I started looking at forums and started looking at the AR15 related threads and of course everyone recommended 25 pound colt sooper long range phaser rifles. after taking all that great advice I called my brother and told him I was going to give him $2400 to buy me some Colt monstrosity and he just giggled and told me to give it to him on my next leave. well I went home and he told me to shoot his AR15 that he just bought and sure enough... I loved his light little M4-gery. instead he took me to a store and helped me pick out a stripped lower and I proceeded to order build kits and parts over the next several months and shipped them to his house where he assembled them as they came in. $1000 dollars later I came out with a lightweight carbine that oozes my personality and which I would pit against the gun I originally wanted any day of the week.

ever since I've just been adding more and more guns to the collection.
 
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I didn't grow up with guns. My family still doesn't own a firearm. But living in Alaska you become familiar with them through friends and neighbors. As a child, I watched horror movies and thought "if they had a gun, they wouldn't have to run from that murderer". I might have been a weird kid, but I always saw, for whatever reason, that firearms equalized the playing field. I always felt that was an important factor that others overlooked.

Maybe it is genetic too. My grandfather, who died before I was born was a fighter pilot who was shot down in Vietnam. Apparently, my love of firearms is just like his. Had he lived long enough to move off base, he might have actually owned guns that I could have inherited.
 
My dad was a gun guy, more of an accumulator than a collector, but he had a diverse collection of guns that I was trained at a young age to field strip and clean.
The differences in seemingly similar guns (Beretta 1934, Colt 1903, Savage 1907) was fascinating, even if I wasn't really mechanically inclined.
We received a steady stream of American Rifleman, Guns & Ammo and Shooting Times, so I was keeping up on what was new, and what was collectible, from an early age.
Skip forward about twenty years, and my middling athletic abilities had declined to the extent that I needed a hobby, passtime, something to get me out of the house, and rediscovered guns and shooting.
I shot a few bowling pin matches, learned how to use a roommate's Lee turret press, and before long I was shooting USPSA matches every weekend, handloading all my ammo, and doing as much of my own gunsmithing as possible.
I've had a concealed carry license for over twenty years, so I'm also interested in self-defense. I'd never really taken it too seriously, but I've carried almost every day since 9/11. For all I knew, attacks were going to be ongoing, and no way to know when or where.
I've maintained that "no way to know" mind-set, every since.
I'll be shooting an IDPA match on Saturday, going into the studio to "shoot" some episodes of my podcast, and be enthusiastic about it.
 
I basically grew up around guns as my Father, Grandfather and Uncles all had military, law enforcement, hunting and recreational shooting backgrounds. I really never even thought anything unusual about shooting and still find myself surprised when I hear people acting like it’s some strange activity.

While I do realize firearms have a variety of purposes I personally find myself attracted to them from a technical/mechanical/artistic standpoint. I enjoy mechanical watches, fountain pens, knives, etc. and feel firearms fit into this same area of interest for me.
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What he said!
To add to the science, as well as the mechanics I also like handloading, or "reloading" much of my ammunition.
In addition I enjoy the actual use of firearms, and the challange of hitting targets.
Some non-shooters, and some who could be called anti-shooters may think It is a great challange, and fine recreational sport to roll an 8 1/2" diameter ball 60 feet to hit an exact spot in a 3' wide arrray of wooden pins. But not see the challange of hitting a one inch dot at 100 yards with a 1/4" projectile!
 
I grew up in a rural area where hunting was one of the main pastimes for a lot of the folks. My dad didn't know or care much about guns, but I my older brother, cousins, uncles, and a lot of close neighbors did and I learned a lot from them. I watched a lot of westerns and war movies and TV shows (Combat, Rat Patrol, Gunsmoke, Rifleman, etc., etc.). These folks were not so much interested in football and other team sports although we did play them in school. Many of the men in my family served in the military and/or LE, but discussions were never on firearms related to those fields. I carried a M16 sometimes when I was in the military, but didn't really like it. Maybe this is why I am not really big on military type firearms. I do have a 1911 though. Probably TV and movies, westerns, war, spy, and cop shows, have the biggest influence on me. I really enjoy handguns of all types.
 
Interesting similarities to myself. I also grew up loving westerns and war movies; actually watched all the ones KMAX mentioned. I hunted with my Dad and Granddad as a kid. I had a BB gun early, then 410, 12 Ga and a 22 pistol and rifle. After I got married and started working I somehow got away from guns and hunting. Now I seem to be interested in handguns again. Maybe it's because I'm retires with more time and need a new hobby.
 
I actually didn't grow up with guns. I had a BB gun and I loved that thing, but I don't think that counts. I shot a .410 shotgun a couple of times when I was about 10 years old but was it. I never really cared much for them. I grew up in Illinois so didn't even have the exposure to others carrying guns (except gang bangers - I grew up in pretty bad neighborhood).

I moved out to AZ and while I still wasn't really interested in guns, I was aware that they were much more common out here. When I was about 25, I was on my way home from work on my motorcycle and was the victim/near-victim of a road rage incident with some guy in a lifted diesel pickup truck blowing black soot all over the place. He tried to chase me down and waved his pistol at one point. I managed to get away but after I got home I was determined to get a gun to protect myself.... even if I had to get one illegally (I had no idea how easy it was to buy a gun and such at the time - as in I thought buying a gun from a private buyer was illegal... lol :rolleyes: )

I got home and reached out to a friend who I knew had a couple of guns and asked him what I needed to do. He had a couple of guns but wasn't super into the hobby so he referred me to one of his other friends who was... well... like us! :D He met up with me for dinner and gave me a copy of the Arizona Gun Laws book, explained to me about how to go about buying a gun either from a store or through the local BackPage site. He also pushed me to take the CCW class. I found a "like new in box" Glock 23 on BackPage and met the guy in the parking lot at Wal-Mart. It was completely unfired. Still had the factory anti-seize gunk in it. $500 cash and it was mine. I was so nervous at the time! I really had no idea what I was doing.

I got home and started watching youtube videos about the gun. Learned how to break it down and reassemble... and quickly got hooked. Within the first month I had bought 2 others. I spent a long time buying/selling/trading voraciously trying to get a feel for all of the different kinds of guns out there. I would have to really sit down and tally it up, but I have easily owned well over 50 guns. I would guess the number is closer to 100. I'm a member on quite a few forums but am by far the most active on this forum. Since the beginning, I really enjoyed how polite everyone on here stays and how helpful they are to newbies. For this reason, I love to give back when I can and help out other newbies - you have been the most recent and we have exchanged quite a few PM's as well as commenting here on your threads.
 
Well, I guess I'm a gun enthusiast due to the perfect blend of personality and circumstance. I'm a curious person by nature, and I love knowing how stuff works. History has always been my favorite subject. My grandpa is in the IN trapshooting hall of fame, so I was around his guns, and he taught me how to shoot.

My dad always had guns as well, and despite my mother carelessly having an ND in my presence as a kid, I ended up being really interested in all things gun.

I collect milsurp, I look up how stuff works, I'm not too poor to collect stuff that I just want (maybe my priorities are just backwards), and I love shooting.

I suppose all of these factors apply to why I'm pretty in to gun stuff. A supportive wife doesn't hurt either. :D
 
I honestly have no idea how I got into guns, really. None of my friends are that into guns, plus my parents are both very liberal and very anti-gun. Made it a bit awkward sometimes and frustrating that they didn't like me having my guns in their house but hey, to each their own right?
 
My great uncle in Riverside CA visited us in Detroit MI when I was 10 years old (1962) and told me had had a single shot .22 Remington 510 that he would give to me. Finally got it in 1964 and had to have the firing pin and extractor replaced courtesy of Numrich Arms and my Dad. All that stuff was done via USPS prior to the GCA 1968.

During that time period (early to late 60's) my Dad acquired a Model 39 Marlin (1928 manufacture: no HS bolt or "H"S/N), 2 Fox Sterlingworth SxS shotguns (12 ga. with ejectors and 20 ga. with extractors), a Mossberg 151m .22 semi-auto, and a Czech .32 auto pistol.

It was a great time to live.
 
I don't know why the gun bug bit me. My family was not into guns or hunting, other than the occasional raccoon and squirrel hunts my Father and Grandfather would take me along on. I guess it started with my first BB gun, then a Benjamin .22 cal pellet gun, then a single shot 22. That was the extent of the guns I owned until I was 25 years old. Then I bought my first pistol, a 22 revolver, and it just took off from there.
 
Guess my story's like most here.
Grew up with having guns in the house. Grandpa would take me hunting. Mom & dad carried guns for protection. When I got old enough (according to grandpa, mom & dad) I was given a single shot Marlin 22LR. Years later, I was given a single shot H&R 410. Used them all for critters & varmints.
Joined the Army & learned to use several firearms, from the 1911 to an M60 MG.
Got out of the army, bought my first handgun (a 1911 would you believe?)
Since then, I've bought, sold, traded & collected near a hundred firearms.
I guess half my DNA is gunpowder & primers. I love the smell of gunsmoke.
 
My parents are pretty liberal and my dad was from working class Fall River, MA and my mother from Japan (no hope for a gun there). My grandfathers fought in the wars on opposing sides and this always fascinated, so that kicks in the WWII history interest. My American grandfather had a little .22 (I only remember seeing it once as a child, and it was a very small stainless or chrome gun, probably a cheap Jennings now that I think about it) but that always intensely piqued my interest. I never shot until I was around 10 or 12 years old and some family friends let me rip one round out of a .410 and it was, as I remember, an amazing experience. Throughout my teens, a very good friend's dad had a bunch of guns that we minimally handled when his parents weren't around, but never shot. Throughout high school and college years I always thought guns were fascinating, but felt that they were unattainable by me coming from a very anti gun Chicago suburb from a fairly anti gun family.

Fast forward to my early twenties. I had been thinking about owning a gun a lot more. It eventually got to a point where it was all I could think about and I even investigated the option of purchasing an illegal gun through certain channels I was acquainted with at the time. I was young and dumb then. It seemed very costly, and also a little scary, so I started doing research. Turns out, after jumping through a few hoops and about a year and a half of intense research later, I purchased my first pistol. My life changed that day and I bought another one about a month later.

These days I wouldn't say that I have a lot of guns, but I have more than I need. I own an AR and love it (considering building another one within the next year) but am pretty much only into older old steel and wood guns. I have a few milsurps and due to my intense interest in history, that number is only going to grow. I also just recently got into handloading. What I'm realizing now is that there's really no profound reason why I got into guns, I just did because it seems like such a rewarding hobby not just to me, but to ANYONE. I only wish I had more time to shoot!!!
 
Mine's kind of a long story, but I'll try to keep it brief. I grew up on a tobacco farm in NC. We were in a pretty rural area, so it was almost just expected that every family had a shotgun at least. My dad wasn't much of a gun person. He bought a pistol after our house was broken into one time (this may have been before I was born, if not I was real young), but I don't know that he ever even shot it more than one range session putting half a box of rounds down range. I have that very pistol now, a H&R 733 snub nose. My father also had my grandfather's shotgun handed down (which was handed down from his father before, I believe). Dad never took me shooting or taught me how, but I was given a BB gun and learned to shoot off of that when I was very young (BB guns absolutely count... that's where I learned sight alignment and sight picture).

Though my father didn't hunt, my cousins and friends did. My friend's fathers took them hunting, and I started tagging along at 13 and 14. This is when I got my first gun (Mossberg 835). My brother also gave me his old Marlin model 60, as well (he's not a gun guy and realized he would never use it when he moved out). Having enjoyed that model 60 quite a bit, I would buy a brick of ammo for it at least a couple of times a month with my meager 4.25 an hour wage when I was 15. I started hunting rather seriously when I was 18, 19, and 20. I could shoot better than most of my friends by this time. I purchased my first high-powered rifle at 19 (Savage 110 that has been reworked twice now... now a .5moa shooter). I joined the Marine Corps when I was 22, and missed company high shooter in boot camp by a couple of points. Narrowly missing company high shooter was a recurring theme for me throughout the USMC, BTW. I was infantry during OIF/OEF, so we trained hard and deployed, trained hard and deployed again. I took several CQB and gunfighting courses. I had never was much on a pistol until this. I should also mention that I was in STA platoon for a little while, so technically I was a scout sniper. I did not go through the school, nor did I receive the MOS designation, because I didn't really care for laying on the side of a mountain in -10 degree weather for days at a time in Afghanistan. Doing mobile raids, kicking in doors, and going back to the FOB to sleep in a heated hooch was much more comfortable:D.

I purchased a couple of pistols while I was in the Marine Corps, and I shot them religiously. Part of it was to train to be as good as possible at my chosen occupation. Most of it was just because I had fun. Since then, I have taken an interest in light gunsmithing (metal refinishing, rifle accurizing, light repairs, etc.). Though I'm decent with a pistol or CQB rifle, my heart is in 500+ yard shots with whatever rifle build I've recently finished. I hunt, but I'm not an avid trophy hunter. More of a "harvest a few does for meat" kind of guy, along with hopefully putting my kids onto some nice game, these days. Anyway... that's my story and where I'm at. I've got AR's, Savage rifles, Shotguns, milsurps, pistols (really into revolvers these days)... and I reload now. I was introduced to shooting and guns at an early age, but I wouldn't classify myself as an enthusiast until my mid-20's. Anywho, that's my story.
 
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