How did you get introduced to firearms?

Z

zbones6

New member
Hey guys, this might be a bit of a sentimental post, but i was just watching a youtube video for first time shooters, and the host said ''I hope you're not getting into shooting to be a tough guy." And that got me thinking about the fist experience i had with guns. I always idolized my uncle. He wasn't a rich man, but he was my favorite none the less. He had a really neat house, and as a little kid, the "secret passage" from his kitchen to his attic was the best. He always had hunting boats, hunting dogs, and a lot of shotguns. I figured, "If uncle Van likes guns, there must be something to it." And it was a love affair with guns from that. He gave me my first gun, and i went shooting with him for the first time. So, How did you guys first get introduced to firearms?
 
My Dad always was rooted deeply in firearms...I had a rifle in my hands from the time I was big enough to lug one around (think I was about 8) My first rifle of my very own was a M91 Nagant 7.62x54R that Dad go me for my 13th birthday (much to my mothers dismay:D) But My first time shooting was with Grand Pop with his old WWI German .22 trainer that his dad gave him.
 
When I was 8, my dad let me shoot his prize pre WWII Colt National Match and "war trophy" Luger... 13 years later, he gave me the Colt. My first rifle was a Winchester 52C at around age 10.
 
Entire Life

My first experience was at 8 years old it was a Daisy lever action BB gun I got for my birthday. Then at 10 I received a Marlin model 60 .22 and at 12 my dad gave me his Remington 700 .243 which was his first deer rifle still in 1971. Still looks brand new. My family has always deer hunted so I have been exposed to guns my entire life but it wasn't until my grandfather passed away that I really appreciated what I had growing up. I can remember every time my grandfather would buy a gun he would call me to his house to look at it and shoot it. I can proudly say I now own about half of his gun collection he had a the time he passed which I hope to pass down to my 4 year old when SHE gets older. She is already asking for her own gun like daddies. Yeah this thread is a little sentimental.
 
I wasn't introduced to firearms by anyone in particular. I come from a non-gun, non-hunting background and never fired a gun until 2 yrs ago. I started reading some hunting magazines my father in-law had at his house and I was intrigued. The more I read the more fascinated I became. I then went out and bought a bunch of hunting books by the North American Hunting Club and have been hooked ever since. I still haven't gone hunting yet but I do now own 2 rifles with plans to buy a few more to round out my small collection.
 
When I was seven or eight my father caught me with a toy cap gun. He took it and broke it in front of me and told me that guns weren't toys. A few days later we sat on the back porch with a remington .22 semi auto and he let me shoot it for the first time off the deck. A week or so later he gave me a silver/black bb gun and a milk carton of B.B's. I can't remember how many times I cut the grass and picked up rocks in the yard to "get my allowance" I was hooked... He let me shoot his .50 cal muzzleloader when I was 12 (with a much ligher load of powder that I now realize) I always thought it was weird as a kid that I never had toy guns, cap guns, or even water guns... When I was 15 he told me about his experiences in Vietnam and it started to make more sense. Firearms are a tool to do one thing, and that they should always be treated with respect and aren't a toy. To this day I still have that ole BB gun (even though it is inopperable) in the gun safe next to my modest collection. Whoever lives in that house now is probally still finding BBs and .22 casings even today.. I think I shot one of the two almost every Saturday after my morning cartoons. Every holiday the family usually goes shooting rifles at their new place. Dad always watches from the deck but enjoys "us kids" going out and having fun... he told me he did enough shooting in his day and hopes he never has to fire one again... man I love my pops...
 
Mine was hunting, Ive been hunting with my Dad since I was 6 and Ive been shooting a .243 at the age of 8. By the age of 16 I had bought 15 or so firearms and by 20 added another 10 or so and they just continue to multiply. I actually have a list of every firearm I want to buy and I think I have about 12 left on my list. 3 shotguns, 5 handguns, and 4 rifles I think and at some point after my list is filled I want to build my own custom
 
My grandfather figured out that if he sent me to the woods with his .22 rifle, I wouldn't be under his feet all the time. My instructions were, "Don't shoot a cow."

I didn't. Even at age seven I paid attention. :) That was in 1941.
 
My father taught rifle marksmanship at Fort Benning, GA before and during WWII, before being sent over to Europe in 1944. As a staff seargant he was wounded at the Battle of the Bulge, receiving the purple heart, and was discharged a second lieutenant in 1945.

He only owned one firearm during my lifetime, which was a Mossberg 16 ga. bolt action with a PolyChoke. When I was eight years old, my dad took my older brother and I down to a creek bed at my grandfather's farm in central Illinois to shoot the shotgun. My older brother fired it once, with a pained look on his face handed it back to my dad, and walked the 200 yards back to the farm house without saying a word. He never fired another firearm in his life, that I know of.

It was then my turn. I fired at an old discarded 5-gallon can of some sort, rocking back hard at the recoil, and couldn't get enough! "Dad, can I shoot it again?" Fifty years later, shooting, reloading and hunting have been a very special part of my life. Thanks, Dad, for all you taught me!
 
At about 6 years old my father checked a K-22 out from the P.D. and started teaching me combat hip shooting. Things just progressed from there.
 
My uncle thought me the fishing, but my grandad was a hunter.

So when I was about 12, he thought me to shoot 22 cal rifle.
Two years later I was taking his 8-57 (mauser / zastava) scoped carabine, and was shooting targets (plinking) in the woods, 12 gauage Berreta shotgun, and pistol.
Sometimes I would take the guns without asking, turned it back in the locker, cleaned after use, but he always turned a blind eye on it.

Probably, he was doing the same in his youth. So he was kind of approving.

Now in my mature years, I am in target shooting.
Although I woud like to hunt, I have spare to time to adjust for hunting season. So, target shooting at range, only. whenever possible.
 
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I went over to an adult friends house to watch True Grit. He let me hold his GSG-5 during the movie. That really sparked the interest.
 
Those are some great stories . Makes me kinda sad to say I don't really remember how I got in to guns . My immediate family was not in to guns . Some of my earliest memorys are going fishing and playing ball with my dad and brother but no guns . We were not a anti gun family , We all just never talked about them . It's funny cus we had a few LEO and Military members in the family . I do remember going to friends houses and they had bb guns or pellet guns . We would go up in the hills and shoot all day . I guess thats when I started getting in to guns .

When I was 13 or so a friend and I went quail hunting with his pellet gun . We/ he did get one and when we got back to his house and showed it to his dad . Before I could leave his dad made us clean it . He then cooked it and made us eat it . All the while telling us how if your going to hunt and kill an animal we better be ready to finish what you started . Hunting is nothing like fishing . There's no throughing back . I do feel the same way about fishing as well . If I keep them I must eat them . Anyways I remember that day well and I believe my buddys father tought me something very important that day .
 
My grandfather was a hunter and I was the first grandchild. Since my mother was an only child, I was like the son he never had. I was started on hunting and fishing at a very early age. ( still doing to today, thanks gramp)
 
Same as the OP. My Uncle taught me how to shoot when I was ten years old on his Seneca Green Nylon 66. He passed away in '06 and I just inherited that gun last year:)

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At about 4 years old, I remember my dad setting a rolled sleeping bag on the floor of the basement hallway for me to use as a rest for a Sheridan Blue Streak (which he still has) to shoot at a backstop placed on the steps. :)
 
My Dad took my brother and me out to the river in Paducah, Kentucky.

He had an old Ranger .22 pump rifle. He put a dime in a knot hole on a tree and backed me up a few feet and asked me to shoot it. After showing me how to work the action and engage the safety, he let me shoot it.

I hit the dime and the bullet only ripped a gash in the dime. I hit it on the edge. I still have the dime and I still have the rifle.

He introduced me to shotguns at a creek by throwing cans in the air and letting us boys shoot at them.

The only gun he bought me was a J. C. Higgins .410 single shot.

Neither of us have those guns today and my brother does not shoot.

Dad got me hooked for sure.

I still hear his voice every day. . .
 
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