What did you father or father figures teach you to shoot?

TNT

New member
Before Uncle Sam I had my dad he was a avid collector to begin with During my years before service my dad prepared me for service by shooting. So I thought I would ask what did your fathers or father figures teach you to shoot. Some of dads items were collected after my time in service as well
.22 rifle and pistol
.375 H&H
M1 Garand
Tanker Garand
BAR (class III)
1921 28 overstamp Thompson submachine gun (class III)
M1 cabine
M2 Carbine
MAC 11 (Class III)
Browning High Power
1911
Mac 90
12 gauge
16 gauge
10 gauge
410
.38
.357 mag
.44 mag
.44 cap and ball type
1903 springfield
Luger
There is more but I have forgotten them over the years
 
let me get this straight

So, you have been groomed since childhood to be in the service? That does not bother you at all? I mean no disrespect, but, I was Groomed to be a truck driver, so now I will not go near the things. I just cant feel like I am being my own man if I am exactly the man my Father wanted. I am also not big on daddy worship,he was cool and all, and he is a very good and honest man but he is still just a man. I find it heard to hang with other gun enthusiast because you all look upon your fathers like they where Gods perfect creatures and I think that is unhealthy.
 
Gee, and it seemed like such an innocuous question :confused:.

My parents took a hike out of my life when I was still too young to remember.

When I was eight years old my Aunt took me out with her Winchester 62a and taught me the fundamentals of safety and shooting then said, "go shoot some stuff; don't kill anything you don't want to eat unless it's a rattlesnake or something eating our chickens".

I sharpened my skills shooting cicadas out of the trees in the back yard (and I realize they didn't fit either of the allowed categories, but their racket annoyed the h*** out of my Aunt :rolleyes:).

My experience hasn't left me with any particular bad feeling about dads, and I've tried to be a good one myself.

Best,

Will
 
I too had issues with my father and got over it !!!

So, you have been groomed since childhood to be in the service? That does not bother you at all?
Well, it really hasn't bothered me although there has been that influence. All of my male relatives we in various branches of the service. When I got out of high schools, most of my close buddies went in the service. Not wanting to setttle for pumping gas, I went in the Navy, mostly to further my education.
I find it heard to hang with other gun enthusiast because you all look upon your fathers like they where Gods perfect creatures and I think that is unhealthy.
That's a personal call and as for some of us, doesn't hold water. My Father was a 27 yr. carrier Navy man but for the most part, a self serving individual. I chose not to make it my carrier, mostly because I felt itwas time to grow up.... .. ;)
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Back on point about "shooting" father figures :); I do not come from a gun or hunting family, so there was no influence there. My influence came from the "Wild Bunch" I threw in as well as a high school science teacher and an old gunner that had the most beautiful collection of Colts and Winchester.

Be Safe !!!
 
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My dad couldn't hit a barn from the inside, which was fortunate for me, but that's another story. It was my older brother that taught me to shoot a bolt action Revelation 22. I mostly taught myself because I would quite often grab the 22 rifle and head out to the pasture when Dad came home, just to get out of the house. That was one good thing about living on a farm.
 
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My dad didn't actually teach me anything about guns. The first time I shot a gun was a few years ago when a friend talked me into shooting his 1911. Since then I've grown an interest in shooting and have developed most of my knowledge on my own by reading or by hands on experience with one of my guns.
 
First I was taught to shoot a bb gun to a point I could hit shotgun shells in the primer from a safe distance.... Not to sure how safe that actually was, but I never got hurt. Then moved up to a 22 hitting dimes, matchsticks, old hotwheels cars and other ridiculously small targets. I could not do that any more. When I joined the army, putting shot groups in one hole was real easy till the drill sgt refused to count but one hit per target. Don't think I could do hat anymore either.
 
putting shot groups in one hole was real easy till the drill sgt refused to count but one hit per target.

Everybody knows nobody in the Army can shoot that well!:eek::D
 
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Tin cans, squirrels, rabbits, quail, groundhogs and a little bit about turkeys and black bears. The same stuff almost every boy I knew learned about.

There weren't any deer to speak of in the '50s and '60s, even after the state paid to import some to restock around the state. My grandparents had 1500 apple trees back in the mountains and never saw a deer.

And we learned to hunt crows, although they weren't nearly as much of a problem as the feral dogs.

John
 
My Dad taught me when we were at my grandparent's rural home.

We used:

His father's Sears single shot bolt .22. ( open sighted "cherry bird gun")

Then my mother's father's scoped semi-auto Mossberg .22. (also a "cherry bird gun")

Then his S&W .38 Special personally owned aircrew survival pistol. Using tracers issued for proficiency shooting :-)))

One year I was allowed to put a single round thru Grandad's Model 99 300 Savage.

I have both .22s and the Model 99 but some dirt-bag in Seattle stole the pistol. (Has lots of fancy engraving on the blued frame done in Japan with initials RCM on the trigger guard.) I still have a box of those tracers too :-)
 
My father taught me basics with a Ruger 22/45 and a Beretta 92FS When I was around 12. When I got older he brought out his Springfield Trophy Match.

When he first showed me his guns. He said he wouldn't take me shooting until I could safely unload it on my own. He said that the first thing I was going to learn was safe handling and unloading. After that he took me to shoot and taught me loading and firing.

That was pretty much it. I cherish all the memories with my dad gun related and not.

The funny part now is. My knowledge of firearms has long passed his. I am borderline obsessed with guns.

Its a strange feeling when your father calls you and asks you advice and questions about something that he actually first taught you...

-DBLAction454
 
I have no siblings but I had an older cousin that spent a lot of time with me when we were young. My parents had a cabin in the Sequoia mountains and we spent many summers fishing, riding our horses, camping in the high country and stalking animals & each other in the forest trying to make no noise when we walked.

He taught me safety and how to shoot a BB gun first. Then, I learned how to shoot a Remington model 510 in .22. Later, a Savage 99 in .30-.30.

Cuz had great strength and stamina. His skillls at stealth were superlative and he just knew somehow to be in the right place at the right time. I never saw or heard of him being "shutout" or "skunked".

My father and grandfather were around too and I learned much from them also but Cuz was my "go-to" guy. My grandfather and dad have been gone many years. Unfortunately, we lost Cuz just this year and he will be missed.

Daddy worship, no. Cousin worship................maybe?
 
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Gee, and it seemed like such an innocuous question

Well, that is the world we live in someone always seems to chime in with a bunch of psychobabble. :confused:

As for the OP my Father and Grandfather taught me to shoot utilizing the basics.

.22 rifle and handgun
12 and 20 gauge shotgun
.35 Marlin lever action
 
My father and grandfather taught me to shoot back in the '60s with a bolt action Remington .22 and a bolt action, single shot Springfield. I was about 5 years old.
 
My dad taught me on his pile of S&W revolvers which were very nice and good shooters. Taught me to cast and reload. I'm prolly a disappointment to him now because I didn't become a S&W freak and went the underdog Ruger route.

He also told me I was a Democrat but when I began thinking for myself it didn't pan out that way. Sorry Daddy.:D

I would like to have that 6" K-38 again though.
 
My Dad wasn't a big hunter or anything, but he taught me basic firearms safety and basic hunting/woods safety. I think he made a real effort at it since he grew up with limited fatherly input/presence. I don't know of him showing any interest in firearms since i lost most of my interest in father-son hunting and target shooting, though he still has his Ithica 20 guage.

Started with a bolt-action .22 at age six (mostly short HP's), then a .410 H&R break action shotgun, then a Marlin Model 60 .22LR, then an AMT .22LR Lightning target pistol (all still in my safe). I figured out Granny's .38 snubby for myself :rolleyes: .
 
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