The Firing Line Forums

Go Back   The Firing Line Forums > The Hide > The Art of the Rifle: Bolt, Lever, and Pump Action

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old December 6, 2012, 03:34 PM   #51
hooligan1
Senior Member
 
Join Date: July 18, 2010
Location: Independence Missouri
Posts: 4,582
Ruger Bearcat, I was 6 or 7, kept that empty hull for two weeks, bet I showed every kid in my elementary school.
__________________
Keep your Axe sharp and your powder dry.
hooligan1 is offline  
Old December 7, 2012, 12:08 AM   #52
sgms
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 30, 2010
Location: Arizona or Ohio depending
Posts: 1,021
Born in to it. Family of hunters and gun collectors all with military service ranging from 4 to 35 years all but one combat types. The one non combat was involved with small arms development at Frankford Arsenal.
sgms is offline  
Old December 7, 2012, 01:05 AM   #53
Chowder
Senior Member
 
Join Date: July 3, 2012
Location: San Antonio, TX
Posts: 449
I got into firearms at basic training. Never fired a gun before and really had no interest in it as a hobby. The first time I pulled the trigger on that M16A2 I was hooked. The first weekend after i got to my duty station I bought my first gun, an older Taurus .38. The gun was ugly and didn't shoot very well but I wish I still had it.
Chowder is offline  
Old December 7, 2012, 10:56 AM   #54
Tucker 1371
Senior Member
 
Join Date: December 29, 2008
Location: East TN
Posts: 2,649
My dad was never much of a gun person, when he left active duty as an officer in the Navy in '93 we moved back from San Diego to GA. I was 4 and my grandpaw let me watch him shoot his Glock 20 and PGO 500 in the back yard. I was hooked after that. Big Daddy got me my first gun, a .22 chipmunk that my kids will have some day, when I was 7 and we started practicing in the back yard.
__________________
Sgt. of Marines, 5th Award Expert Rifle, 237/250
Expert Pistol, 382/400. D Co, 4th CEB, Engineers UP!!
If you start a thread, be active in it. Don't leave us hanging.
OEF 2011 Sangin, Afg. Molon Labe
Tucker 1371 is offline  
Old December 7, 2012, 11:35 AM   #55
coldbeer
Junior member
 
Join Date: February 21, 2012
Location: Woodhaven MI
Posts: 477
My dad, when I was 12 he gave me an old beatup 22 and I've been a rifle guy ever since. I like handguns too just not nearly as much as rifles. My dad passed away recently, but he taught me some valuable lessons about life and firearms that I'm passing on to my children and someday they'll pass them on to their children.

Last edited by coldbeer; December 7, 2012 at 11:41 AM.
coldbeer is offline  
Old December 7, 2012, 11:52 AM   #56
SPEMack618
Senior Member
 
Join Date: June 21, 2010
Location: Central Georgia
Posts: 1,863
My Grandpa bought me a pony when I turn four and my uncle gave me his old cap guns to go along with it.

Th next year at Christmas, Pops gave me a Red Ryder BB gun and I had shot through the one little turkey baster thing of BBs he gave me too by that afternoon.

Subsquently lost said BB gun for a month after taking a pot shot at one of my sister's barbies. Wasn't sure if it was for shooting at the barbie or doing so inside the house.

When my Grandpa died the next year, he left me his Remington Sportsman 58. Pops broke it down, re-did the wood on it, had it re-blued, reassembled it, cleaned it, and put it in the safe.

When I turned ten, I got a 10/22 for Christmas and while shooting it the backyard, Pops went inside and brought out Grandpa's gun and lt m shoot som clays with it. Already hooked because of my Red Ryder, but now I was hooked for life.
__________________
NRA Life Member
Read my blog!
"The answer to any caliber debate is going to be .38 Super, 10mm, .357 Sig or .41 Magnum!"
SPEMack618 is offline  
Old December 7, 2012, 12:00 PM   #57
Ambishot
Senior Member
 
Join Date: April 29, 2011
Location: US
Posts: 274
My father, uncle, and grand fathers were all hunters. So naturally I grew up around the sight of deer hanging in the garage and the adults talking about hunting stories and new guns. I was age 12 when I first went shooting with my dad, 13 when I first went hunting, and 14 when I took my first deer. The first firearm I was introduced to was a springfield model 15. I think I went through a whole brick of .22 that day.

Besides hunting, I was/and am a huge history buff and likewise gun nut, I suppose. Though I'm not too old, my interest in shooting has only developed and complexed as age set in.
Ambishot is offline  
Old December 7, 2012, 12:35 PM   #58
Dr Big Bird PhD
Senior Member
 
Join Date: October 26, 2012
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 779
The first gun I ever shot was a 22 bolt action (don't remember) at church camp. Once a week for the term we would go down to the range and shoot.

I shot my first shotgun when I was 13 or 14 and first .30-06 when I was 16. First pistol same year, and first semi-auto rifle this past year.
__________________
I told the new me,
"Meet me at the bus station and hold a sign that reads: 'Today is the first day of the rest of your life.'"
But the old me met me with a sign that read: "Welcome back."
Who you are is not a function of where you are. -Off Minor
Dr Big Bird PhD is offline  
Old December 8, 2012, 04:05 AM   #59
okiewita40
Senior Member
 
Join Date: June 11, 2007
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 409
I think I got started about age 5 by my Grandad. From the time I was 3 or 4 I followed him running trap lines. Then he helped me hold the old Glenfield 60 .22 that he carried and let me shoot the coyote that was in the trap at the time. After that we always went to the river and he let me shoot just about every can, bottle and twig I could find.

Then at age 10 when I got my hunter safety card He gave me a savage bolt action 20ga. Had that 20ga for 6 or 7 years until the top od the barrel split and it got disposed of.

I have no idea how many times my grandad and I went rabbit and squirrel hunting but I loved being in the woods with him. And also running trap lines for coyote, mink, muskrat and beaver.

My grandad passed in 1994. To this day I can't look at a marlin 60 and not remember my grandad. And just being arond guns brings back a lot of great memories.
__________________
What on god's green earth do you think your doing?
okiewita40 is offline  
Old December 8, 2012, 09:21 PM   #60
SnakeIndagrass
Junior Member
 
Join Date: November 7, 2007
Posts: 7
My dad who was a fighter pilot for the National Guards, sold vulcan guns as his main paying gig; he didn't own a firearm, but purchased for me a Marlin .22 LR when I was 10 y/o and had passed a hunter's safety course. We would go to the town dump to shoot rats (as his father did for him). Doesn't sound very sentimental, but as he was killed in an aircraft accident a year later, it remains a cherished memory to me....
SnakeIndagrass is offline  
Old December 8, 2012, 11:17 PM   #61
OldSoul
Member
 
Join Date: March 29, 2012
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 53
I know this is how we were introduced to firearms but I wanted to share this my 4 year old daughter was able to hit a target 7 yards away with my old Daisy BB gun. I had her shoulder it, find the target, turn off the safety, then squeeze off the shot. All I did was hold the end of the barrel to stabilize it. To say the least I am one proud daddy. I hope she remembers this as positively as I will.
OldSoul is offline  
Old December 9, 2012, 09:17 AM   #62
Picher
Senior Member
 
Join Date: December 14, 2004
Location: Maine
Posts: 3,694
What? They put safeties on Daisys? LOL My three were pre-safety.
Picher is offline  
Old December 10, 2012, 01:04 PM   #63
OJ
Senior Member
 
Join Date: December 25, 1998
Location: COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, USA
Posts: 1,570
I grew up in the cattle ranching Sandhills in Nebraska in the 1930s and there was a concerted effort to wipe out coyotes completely. Never happened, of course, but the reduction of coyotes for those years gave me a great increase in rabbits and prairie dogs to shoot with the 22 single shot I got for my 6th birthday - got a well used Winchester 94 in 32 special the next year since I thought coyotes should be given at least a humane one shot kill - and a 22 wasn't up to that -



My dog helped me but somehow wasn't in this shot.

I was an adult before I got a BB gun - Daisy Red Ryder
__________________
OJ -
SEMPER FI -
DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY
NRA ENDOWMENT LIFE MEMBER
OJ is offline  
Old December 11, 2012, 01:46 PM   #64
damienph
Senior Member
 
Join Date: September 6, 2011
Location: Kansas
Posts: 319
I was lucky to grow up in a house full of guns. My Dad gave me my first rifle, a Remington 514, when I was seven years old. He was in the USAF and we moved around alot but when I was nine, he got me involved in competive indoor match shooting, in 1963. It was the Chanute (AFB) Junior Rifle Club, we shot 50' indoor match with heavy barreled, bolt action, 22LR target rifles. I don't remember for sure but I believe that they were all Remingtons (owned by the Air Force and supplied to the club).

I've been addicted to guns, shooting, hunting, and handloading ever since.

My brother is also a shooter, as well as my son, nephews and 4 out of 5 brothers in law. Number 5 is a rabid anti-gun/hunting guy. What she sees in him?....
damienph is offline  
Old December 11, 2012, 05:34 PM   #65
OJ
Senior Member
 
Join Date: December 25, 1998
Location: COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, USA
Posts: 1,570
I forgot to mention, in high school Junior ROTC, I signed up because they furnishied us 22 rifles and ammo to shoot - free of charge -
__________________
OJ -
SEMPER FI -
DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY
NRA ENDOWMENT LIFE MEMBER
OJ is offline  
Old December 11, 2012, 07:05 PM   #66
dgludwig
Senior Member
 
Join Date: February 12, 2005
Location: North central Ohio
Posts: 7,486
An interesting question for me because I have no idea how I ever got interested in firearms. Nobody in my immediate family shoots or hunts nor gives a hoot about guns. Yet, at a very early age (guessing around age ten or so), I became very interested in firearms (all kinds; from air guns, to black powder to AR-15s) and, at age seventy, have never looked back. It's just in my blood I guess (there have been times when I've wondered if I might be an adopted child...).
__________________
ONLY AN ARMED PEOPLE CAN BE TRULY FREE ; ONLY AN UNARMED PEOPLE CAN EVER BE ENSLAVED
...Aristotle
NRA Benefactor Life Member
dgludwig is offline  
Old December 11, 2012, 07:47 PM   #67
mr.t7024
Senior Member
 
Join Date: January 6, 2012
Location: Ma, near a brook
Posts: 229
How did you get introduced to firearms?

They were always in the house,began shooting when I was 8 years old.Cliff
mr.t7024 is offline  
Old December 12, 2012, 06:20 PM   #68
SPEMack618
Senior Member
 
Join Date: June 21, 2010
Location: Central Georgia
Posts: 1,863
Quote:
Originally Posted by OJ
I forgot to mention, in high school Junior ROTC, I signed up because they furnishied us 22 rifles and ammo to shoot - free of charge -
Same here. We had quite the rifle team. I elected to wear a rifle team letter pin on my school jacket in lieu of baseball or football.

Heck, we had to shoot for score once a semster as a test grade in NJROTC.

Easiest A I've ever made.
__________________
NRA Life Member
Read my blog!
"The answer to any caliber debate is going to be .38 Super, 10mm, .357 Sig or .41 Magnum!"
SPEMack618 is offline  
Old December 15, 2012, 08:34 PM   #69
cole k
Senior Member
 
Join Date: January 31, 2008
Location: east of the Big Muddy
Posts: 248
How did you get introduced to firearms?

I was not introduced to firearms!!! I was born into a culture of firearms!!!
cole k is offline  
Old December 15, 2012, 09:36 PM   #70
mr.t7024
Senior Member
 
Join Date: January 6, 2012
Location: Ma, near a brook
Posts: 229
I forgot to mention my Uncle Grover Barbarick introduced me to, Pheasant shooting in 1969 Cliff
mr.t7024 is offline  
Old December 17, 2012, 07:28 PM   #71
moisanfan11
Member
 
Join Date: December 1, 2012
Location: flagstaff, az
Posts: 58
My grandpa got me into guns and taught me to shoot
moisanfan11 is offline  
Old December 17, 2012, 08:20 PM   #72
Nasty
Senior Member
 
Join Date: February 18, 2008
Posts: 323
Rabbits...around age 10.
__________________
Above is based on the opinion of a 20 year Small Arms Marksmanship and Training Unit USAF instructor with more than 30 years in competitive shooting sports. Your mileage may vary.
Nasty is offline  
Old March 10, 2013, 03:18 AM   #73
justplainpossum
Senior Member
 
Join Date: February 24, 2013
Location: duh, Texas! : )
Posts: 222
I was raised in a home back east, without guns.

When I was 28 I ran away from a scary boyfriend (if you're reading this, K, how's jail?) I moved to a small town in Wyoming. One day I called the sheriff and asked him if he would be able to get to me in time if I needed to be rescued. He thought about it for a couple of seconds, and then replied "well, we could get to you in time to notify your parents."

I went down to the sheriff's office the next day, and took my first gun lesson.
justplainpossum is offline  
Old March 10, 2013, 11:10 AM   #74
Daekar
Senior Member
 
Join Date: March 28, 2011
Posts: 458
I grew up in a gun-free house, because my Mom had an intense dislike for them, having found her mother's body after she committed suicide with a pistol. I wasn't even allowed toy guns for a long time. My first gun, therefore, was made of Construx (like Legos but better) and of my own design. This is indicative of the fascination they always held for me. Still, my first real gun didn't come until I was in college... my younger brother talked me into going in a local gun shop, and I was tickled to find some interesting old rifles that were not expensive. Among them were Mausers, an m59/66 SKS, Mosins, and an SVT-40. I grabbed the neatest looking old rifle of the bunch that didn't cost a fortune... the SKS. I didn't know ANYTHING about it, and had to ask some pretty dumb questions. I walked out with a few boxes of Golden Tiger ammo, leaving behind a shop clerk who I'm sure though he would read about how I accidentally blew myself up a few days later. The milsurp world had opened to me, and being fanned by my love of history, that flame still hasn't gone out. While I have other sporting-style firearms now, I still have that (modified now) SKS, along with an M91/44 and K98k.

Better still, my interest spread to my family! My Dad has a safe of Mosins, a Persian Mauser, a K31, and a handful of modern rifles and pistols. It took a number of years, but my Mom even got in on it, purchasing a "Mare's Leg" in 22 LR this past fall! Guns have done nothing but good for me, I'm very glad my brother talked me into going in that gun shop.
__________________
"... I cannot but conclude the bulk of your [politicians] to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth." ~ Jonathon Swift
Daekar is offline  
Old March 10, 2013, 11:45 AM   #75
David13
Senior Member
 
Join Date: November 2, 2012
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 243
My father was anti gun and tried to stop my uncle and grandfather from teaching me about guns, and how to shoot. But it didn't work. I think my mother stepped in and sided with them, or with allowing me to make my own decision.
My uncle had a Colt .38 and my grandfather a bolt action .22. So that was where I started 50 some years ago. I was young, but I don't remember my age.
I had forgot all about the bb gun til I read this thread.
dc
David13 is offline  
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 01:46 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
This site and contents, including all posts, Copyright © 1998-2021 S.W.A.T. Magazine
Copyright Complaints: Please direct DMCA Takedown Notices to the registered agent: thefiringline.com
Page generated in 0.12640 seconds with 10 queries