• This Forum is for adults 18 years of age or over. By continuing to use this Forum you are confirming that you are 18 or older. No content shall be viewed by any person under 18 in California.

How did you get introduced to firearms?

first firearm I ever shot was my Maternal Great-grandfather's Colt Bisley 32-20. I still have that pistol, and as I cock it slowly it says C-O-L-T. I learned to reload with a Lyman 310, still have it too. I am still mostly a Colt or S&W revolver fan, and yes a 1911 tricked out. Bob Munden tuned my SAA. He ranked up there with the best tuner and story teller. From my house I could be pulling in Elmer Keith's drive way in about four hours. I went up to Salmon one Friday, and Bill Jordan was there. He autographed his book for me. It was Heaven that three day weekend. I have always been addicted to fine grained walnut and rust blued steel.
 
Around 9 or 10 years of age I traded a used Joe DiMaggio ball glove for a Stevens single shot .22 ( you had to pull the firing pin back by hand ). I’d do odd jobs for neighbors to buy a box of ammo. I’d walk out to my sister’s house in the country and spend the day hunting chipmunks. Yes, I still own that .22.
 
1956 or 1957, my memory fails me (of course most of you readers were not even born then), a high school buddy asked me to come over. His father, a policeman, was at work and he, my buddy, had found a revolver, had taken it apart and could not get it together. I was a mechanical geek (still am) and he hoped I could reassemble it. Long story short, I did but we did not know if it was in working order. Jumped into a car and drove miles to Landcaster, CA. which at that time was a couple of gas stations and a burger joint that sold 5 burgers for a dollar.....that was a bun with a slab of meat and some mayonnaise. But I digress.

We went down a dirt road and found the gun shot well. My first time to shoot a firearm. Then the ranger showed up....but that is another story.

I had gone into the USAF in 1961. I never shot a rifle or handgun until 1966 when my father-in-law gave me a rifle and a 380 pistol. .....the sergeant at the firing range allowed me to shot it on my lunch break. I quickly (after one shot) learned never to overlap my thumbs behind the slide.
After that it was down the rabbit hole.
 
Last edited:
My family were hillbillies, so hunting and firearms were a part of growing up. One of my earliest memories is picking up my father's spent cases and smelling the burned powder, addictive, just as it is today.
 
I was never really introduced to them. NO one in my immediate family hunted. I had one uncle who had a winchester 77 .22 RF rifle but I never shot it just looked at it. When I was 16 I wanted a shotgun. My folks said fine but you need to take an NRA hunter safety course. I did, from a police officer named John PB Fortin of the Lewiston PD. Best thing I ever did. Thanks John and thanks NRA! I got the shotgun and have been an avid hunter and shooter since. It is just in my bones I guess.
 
My Dad was a shooter and a hunter; so was his Dad. Both Dad and Grandpa were reloaders as well. On my mother's side, my grandfather was also a hunter and had a 270 Gibbs he had gotten from Rocky Gibbs.
I grew up in northern Idaho, Wyoming, and in northern B.C. I spent all of my time outdoors. Got my BB gun at 7, a Crosman pellet gun at 8 (This was a read step up. I could kill a grouse with one shot instead of wearing him down with repeated hits from the BB gun). A Savage Model 24 was mine when I was 10. I was 14 when I got my own centerfire hunting rifle, a 303 British, and a Lee Loader for it. I shot my first big game (a pronghorn) that fall, with ammunition I had loaded myself. I travelled down to Idaho, from Calgary, Alberta, in 1965 (I was 15), on the Greyhound bus. The 303 was under the bus. In my suitcase was my Lee Loader, a pound of HiVel#2, some Sierra bullets, and a couple hundred primers. The US customs agent was intrigued with my loading and shooting gear.
Anyway, the shooting and hunting were a family tradition. I spent most of my time in the woods or on the prairie (depending on where we were living at the time). I'd like to do it all over again. WH
 
Hercules Hi Vel #2 was a great double base powder. It seems to have a reputation of being bore erosive due to the approx 15% nitro glycerin content. If you have old reloading manuals you can find data for it in the '06, 33 Winchester and on and on. If it was more erosive to a bore but shot lights out in a particular rifle who cares, if it wins matches!
 
Grew up with them.
The "unlockable " gun cabinet was in our bedroom (shared with older brother) and ammo in the bottom drawer.
Gramma gave me her daisy bb gun when I was 5 because the cop in her little town said the neighbors were getting upset she was shooting their dogs in her garden (she used firecrackers after that) , the cops just gave up. Those old Norwegians are stubborn..
 
I started following my dad quail hunting at age 5. Went to "fox hunts" with my mom's uncle. This was mostly southeast Kansas around 1960. Mostly hillbilly redneck spillover from the Ozarks. Wouldn't trade it for anything.
North east Kansas for me!
 
My dad hunted, had a pistol, a 22 rifle and a couple shotguns. My brother's and i all grew up shooting them and hunting quail with our dad. We always had at least one pointer for birds. Dad was a very good shot didn't really practice but i saw him do some amazing things with a gun. I got my first 22 when i was 10 yrs. old. Shot my first cf when i was 18, belonged to a friend, a Remington 700 bdl varmint special in 22-250 and i was hooked, bought me a new one in 1976 Been down the rabbit hole ever since. Shot the barrel out on it had a hv hart 14 twist chambered in a 22-250 by John King and he told me his club shot score matches one a month so me and my buddy started shooting those. He also got us hooked on benchrest by letting us shoot his guns in a nbrsa match if we would help run targets and stuff for the match. We were both totally hooked on this. I bought the gun he let me shoot ,a sleeved 700 chambered in a 6br,and have been competing ever since , this was in the 80s. Started shooting Ibs score in the late 90s because group matches had about died out in the se region, been shooting it ever since. Sorry for being so long, but a lot of good memories there. ;)
 
I never shot a firearm until 1966 in bootcamp, M14. I wasn't the only one in bootcamp that didn't know how to shoot. We had 22 non quals that did not qualify for a rifle badge out of 70 men. Their life was not to good the rest of bootcamp. We spent 2 weeks "snapping in"before we ever shot. Just learning how to hold the rifle and pull the trigger and what getting your dope meant. It was not hard if you concentrate no matter what else was going on around you. I should add that from 4th grade to 10th grade I was in a military school. Mount Lowe or Southwestern. So I was made a squad leader from day 1. That is why it was really not a big deal for me. The DI's would hassle us as we were shooting to try to get us to miss. The better we shot the more they got on us.
 
Last edited:
We lived on a farm in Massachusetts. One weekend, my dad's friend, an LEO, came over with a .22 rifle and let me take a few shots at some cans. I was hooked. That was over 70 years ago and I've made a lot of friends with a lot of different guns over the years. It was a great ride.
 
The other day I was thinking about how my interest in firearms began. My family had firearms but they didn’t reload or shoot competition, we used them around the ranch, more like a tool than anything. My grandpa was a product of the Great Depression, shooting hundreds of rounds for fun was against his nature, something I understood more later in life but didn’t really understand at the time.

When I would walk home from Junior high I would pass a shop called Cash and Carry. It wasn’t a Pawn shop but was more like a trading post. I use to stop in and talk to the owner, Eb Lewis. He was one of the most interesting guys I’ve ever met and for whatever reason we struck up a friendship that would last till he passed some 25 years later. I was enthralled with knives and be had quite a few, mostly used knives he would trade for. I would trade for a knife every 3-4 months and then trade it back for another knife, no dollars were exchanged, he was just being nice to me and cared enough to teach me to trade a little. I was too young to buy firearms but he had a good selection of used firearms. When it was just me and him and he didn’t have to wait on customers Eb would take the time to show me the more interesting rifles and pistols he had on any given day. He had an old Octagon Winchester lever 25-35, a model 71 deluxe in 348 W, an old Colt lightning in 38, several neat rimfires and on and on. Over the years quite a few firearms came and went and I would get to hear all about them and he would let me handle them under his supervision. I think that’s where my interest in guns and knives really began.

My Uncle hunted more than Grandpa and I spent many a day working with him on the ranch and cutting wood in his Ford F250, 1976 with a 390 long block. Uncle Frank was a frugle man but he had some neat rifles, a couple pre 64s in 243 and 270, a Sako vixen 222 and he had some basic stuff too, it was all interesting to me. I would listen to him tell me what he knew and then go hit the drug store and buy outdoor magazines and gun magazines, something I miss.

When I got my first paying job I bought a couple 22s and then finally got my hands on a new Ruger 10/22, I can still smell the smell of the oil on metal when I unboxed it back at home. I shot tens of thousands of rounds through that gun.

I try to remember all those guys, family and friends, who took the time to befriend me and mentor me in the hobby and other things too. My Dad was MIA from the age of 6 till we met later in life when I was a 36 and I think about all those community members who cared enough to take me with them shooting quail, to the trap range, big game hunting, small game, plinking….. I try and be the guy to help other people learn about firearms and hunting, anything outdoors. Young or old. I’m not sure I can pinpoint where my interest came from, I think it was more a group of men who were happy to spend some of their time with a young boy that had an interest in what they liked and enjoyed. It’s been a life ling hobby and a lot of fun.

A little long, my apologies.


What got you started, where did your interest come from?
we'd always shot the .22's since I was 6 anyways.
but one outing my dad handed me the Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 Mag when I was 10 yrs old.
I think he thought he was playing a joke on me to cure me from wanting to shoot his guns
instead, I was hooked ever since.
he wouldn't let me try out his beer though
 
Last edited:

Upgrades & Donations

This Forum's expenses are primarily paid by member contributions. You can upgrade your Forum membership in seconds. Gold and Silver members get unlimited FREE classifieds for one year. Gold members can upload custom avatars.


Click Upgrade Membership Button ABOVE to get Gold or Silver Status.

You can also donate any amount, large or small, with the button below. Include your Forum Name in the PayPal Notes field.


To DONATE by CHECK, or make a recurring donation, CLICK HERE to learn how.

Forum statistics

Threads
166,254
Messages
2,214,824
Members
79,495
Latest member
panam
Back
Top