How did you get first interested in shooting?

Best times i had when young was going to grandparent's house. He got a bb gun when we were real young and got to shoot it in his basement. When we turned twelve we got shotguns and he took us small game hunting. Grandma was a real cook, and we ate everything that got shot. All birds were plucked, and the bones got picked.

Grandpa had a bar in his basement, and he made us shirley temples to act like the grown ups. Eventually when older (maybe 10?), he started putting a little whiskey in there to "settle" us on the ride home.
 
My dad had me out shooting at about 2 years old. He’d hold the gun (usually a Sterling .22 pistol at that age) and I’d empty the magazine just as fast as I could. Worked up through 9mm, .357, 44 mag, .223, .270, ‘06 and .375 H&H by about 8 years old, and started my own accumulating as soon as I was of legal age.

Dad, grandpa, and one of my uncles were always into hunting and target shooting, and we were always taking trips to grandpas pasture to target shoot, out to Utah’s west desert after bunnies, or chasing elk and deer in south east Idaho.

Started “helping” dad and grandpa reload when I was 5-6, started on my own on dads equipment in my mid teens, then moved on to my own equipment and components.

On my moms side, well, they mostly despise firearms, so they really haven’t had much influence on it. My mother’s dad used to have a rifle and shotgun, but put them away in the 70’s after a close call on a deer hunt and grandma freaks out. The shotgun is in my brothers hands now, after sitting in a closet disassembled for close to 30 years. Nobody knows about the rifle, one of his sons borrowed it, and lost it, has no clue where it went, hasn’t been seen in 25 years or more.

Have 4 of my own kids now, who love to “help” dad reload and go shooting. And the older 3 (youngest is only 3) have already started claiming some of dads guns.

My wife grew up with hunters and enjoys going out as well, when she’s not on Pintrest finding new items for her honey-do list.
 
I grew up on 7 acres in rural Iowa and got my first rifle, a Glenfield bolt .22, when I was 13 or 14 for a Christmas present. My dad wasn't about to let us have bb guns, probably thought we wouldn't be serious about not using them on each other, but he never said. Money was tight too so probably another factor. I shot dozens and dozens of boxes of Remington 22lr through that gun.

From there I started buying other guns and started hunting on my own.

Dad had a few guns but did not hunt. He only ever shot when he was teaching me and my brothers or if a stray dog or 'yote was getting into the hog pens. Maybe took an occassional woodchuck out that was burrowing under the concrete slabs under the out buildings. My brothers and I shoot and have a pretty good variety of shooters and dust collectors. Our sister, OTOH, is a nun and won't even pick up a gun to move it. We're working on that though.:D
 
Father was a basement FFL and trap shooter. Pretty much grew up at gun clubs and on the trap fields.

He didn't hunt. Saw too much blood in the Pacific. I hunted with a friend and his father.
 
I must have been born with it. I can't remember not wanting to shoot. Anything, Birds, deer, rabbits, squirrels, Skeet, Trap, 5 Stand, Sporting Clays, IDPA, Bullseye, .22 steel and paper, tin cans, clays and then the chips with 22 and any pistol. I'll be 74 in May and I no longer hunt much, mainly doves. Still shoot a lot tho.
 
My best friend’s dad was a retired army small arms instructor. As I remember it, he loved to find all kinds of excuses to get out of doing household chores on weekends and his biggest excuse was taking my friend and I to the local police range to teach us how to shoot. This went on for years while I was growing up. He also had quite a handgun collection and I was fed with a multi caliber diet at every lesson. I think I was about 9 years old when I got hooked on one of his 1911s. Something about it mesmerized me and I’ve been hooked since.
 
I had a Crossman 10 pump bbgun as a kid. I used to set up cans all over the yard and "snipe" them. When I was old enough, my brother started to mentor me for hunting and shooting. He got me my 1st real gun, a single shot 20 gauge that I still have. I hunted for a few years during which time my dad passed down a couple family rifles to me. In my late teens I got in some trouble and the guns were tucked away for safe keeping til I grew up a little. They pretty much stayed tucked away until a few years ago when I won a CMP M1 Garand from a $5 raffle ticket. That rifle is so cool! It triggered me and back into guns I went. Right about the same time, my oldest son came into hunting age and expressed some interest. I'm not a hardcore Hunter. I like to shoot more than kill, but I saw the opportunity to pass the heritage of hunting and the interest in shooting on to my kids. The rifles that were passed on to me will be passed on to them as well as all the pieces I have, and will add to "the family arsenal". I've been working on 22's. I'd like to have 1rifle and 1 handgun in 22lr for each of my 3 kids. I still need at least 1 more rifle and 1 more handgun(not that I'll stop there:))
 
My dad and uncle took me shooting and to competitions plenty of times but I only got interested after turning 30 and have absolutely no idea why. It just happened.


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Guns were pretty much ubiquitous when I was growing up. In town most every den or living room at all my friends' houses had a gun cabinet so asking how I got interested in guns is kinda like asking how I got interested in tying my shoes or riding a bike or driving a car or thinking about girls or ...

... but she really was the prettiest girl I had ever seen and I was amazed she said she'd go on a date with me. I made sure I was on time to pick her up and brought a gift for her mom and understood that she was getting ready and would be right down and of course I'd wait in the den...

... where her dad was cleaning his guns. And he had some really neat guns. There was a Walther PPK in the bunch still to be cleaned so I asked politely if I could help. "You know what you're doing?", her dad asked. I assured him that if I didn't I'd sure ask for help and he said I could go ahead.

I had the PPK apart in just a couple strokes and was elbow deep in Hoppes and patches when she arrived at the foot of the stairs.

"Are we going?"

"Just a sec, let me finish with this pistol."

Her dad smiled.

She didn't.

Date was a total bust.

She stopped taking my calls.

Her dad kept inviting me over for dinner. The dinners were long and her mom kept looking at the daughter, dad and I talked, girl said nothing.

We went shooting several times and he had a duck blind so come season ...
 
Easy answer for me,,,
I grew up in the early 1950's,,,
All 2 or 3 TV channels featured cowboys or pioneers.

But it was really Davy Crockett,,,
I had the full kit of his gear,,,
Rifle, knife, and pistol.

I got it for my 3rd Christmas,,,
And Old Betsy was a real live firearm.

You lifted the frizzen and placed one cap under it,,,
Then you rammed a cork ball down the barrel.

The lock had a "touch hole" so when hammer hit the frizzen,,,
The cap went off it shot the cork ball across the room,,,
It had a range of about my living room width.

My older sisters butt was my favorite target.

Not a very powerful firearm,,,
But true explosive powered none the less.

I've always been enthralled by projectile weapons.

Aarond

.

Aarond
 
Had a Daisy BB gun when I was a kid, got a 20ga Ithica 66 for my 10th BD, and shot .22s in boy scouts. Don't think I ever fired a hand gun until I shot a 1911 while I was in tanker training in 1975.
 
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