What gun started it for you?

[Toddmack]

I still have my 67A that my Dad bought for me 65+ years ago. I think I was 3 years old. I was in my teens the first time I shot it without my Dad there coaching me.

I still have my 67A that my Dad bought for me 65+ years ago. I think I was 3 years old. I was in my teens the first time I shot it without my Dad there coaching me.

I taught my son and middle daughter to shoot on a 67A that I remember shooting when i could barely pull the firing pin back. My dad didn't know what had happened to that gun due to his and my mom's divorce 30 some years ago, but he was ecstatic when I found and told him about shooting it with his grandkids.

 

[Chocdawg]

A Marlin Glenfield, and a H&R Top Break 9 shot revolver. In 1972 @ 10yrs old that H&R made me feel like Inspector Harry Callahan and no frog or rabbit was safe.

 

[jnyfeler]

A post '68 Winchester Model 70 Target. My dad introduced me to High Power across the course and long range shooting at age 13, and I was hooked from the word go. Besides the actual shooting, I love talking ballistics, hand loading, shooting technique, wind reading and great performances. It's the best sport in the world, with all the other shooting disciplines a close second .

Jeff

 

[centershot]

Remington 521-T. Shot it when I was 12 and shot it through high school on a rifle team we had. Took it on the city bus and kept it in my locker!

 

[mike a]

Remington 788 in 222. My first centerfire. It was a great rifle for a young man hunting ground squirrels and jack rabbits. Smoked some coyotes too. Had a 6X Scope Chief with a flip up post. Around 50 years ago life was simple. Cheers Mike.

 

[jonbearman]

It started fro me with a daisy bb gun and moved on from there. I ended up on the Crossman factory team but had to quit due to my Dad not wanting to spend gas money on going 12 miles back and forth. My first real gun was a Marlin model 60 and that sealed the deal.I still have it today some 50 years later.

 

[FuzzT]

My father moved us to Alaska in 1963 so he could hunt. He always wanted me to treat any gun with respect so no small bores in his house. At age 10 he cut a 30-06 Springfield down to fit me and I killed a moose with it that fall. At age 12 he got me a 350 Remington mag. Now that dang thing kicked!

 

[WSnyder]

1929 Marlin 410 Lever Action shotgun . Family hand me down I started quail hunting with at the age of 10. There were a couple of 22’s I used prior but the Marlin is the one that stuck in my memory. I used it for many years and shot my first and then many more quail with it.

 

[Doug Casner]

First shotgun 870 rem. 20 guage first rifle mod. 70 270. Doug

 

[GLO123]

I grew up shooting shotguns when hunting pheasant, ducks and geese. I also shot a lot of .22 at squirrels and targets. The gun we never had was a pistol. As soon as I was on my own I bought a Colt 45ACP Government. Still have it and shoots great.

 

[YEW PLUCKER]

It was a Remington Model 41 Targetmaster. It doesn't shoot strait anymore, but I still have it.

 

[Infrequent Shooter]

Not that I don't enjoy a long, heated, political debate or the finer points of a Ford vs Chevy type discussion, but it seems like a lot of people on this site are long-term and committed shooters regardless of the discipline we have chosen or that maybe chose us. Be it rifle, pistol, shotgun competition or just recreation. So just wondering how others got started?

I came from a family that did not own firearms, but for some reason I really, really wanted and needed one. Maybe too much exposure to the ample gunplay on The Rifleman, Bonanza, Have Gun - Will Travel, Combat! and others in the 1950s and 60s.Who knows? But, anyway around my 12th birthday I convinced my widowed grandmother and she reluctantly agreed. This was 1967 and she lived in downtown Birmingham, AL. So believe it or not we walked down to the S&H Green Stamp showroom (although not 100% certain, it might have been a Top Value or some other stamp place) and she redeemed enough books of stamps to get me a .22 rifle.

It was a Marlin Model 99 M1 Carbine. I would buy ammo from the nearby Sears & Roebuck store and then ride a bus with rifle in hand out to Ketona Lake near Tarrant City. It's hard to imagine anything like that happening now without numerous law enforcement agencies, SWAT Teams, and Child Protective Services getting involved.

My friend in high school had a remington 510 or 514,, I think that is what it was. It was a single shot. we would walk around with one box of Mohawk Longs or LR and mess around. At camp we had super heavy remington 22s. I don't think my camp organization had any winchesters. I will cypher on it a bit, and try to remember if the camp had any winchesters.

 

[skeeljc]

I started with my dad's Springfield 84C, .22LR bolt action, and soon graduated to a Remington 722 in .222 Remington. That was 60 years ago. I still shoot a .222 today.

 

[Infrequent Shooter]

My friend in high school had a remington 510 or 514,, I think that is what it was. It was a single shot. we would walk around with one box of Mohawk Longs or LR and mess around. At camp we had super heavy remington 22s. I don't think my camp organization had any winchesters. I will cypher on it a bit, and try to remember if the camp had any winchesters.

I had a pretty fancy wrist rocket like one of the posters here. It was made of aluminum I guess. Before that I had a Whamo sling shot made of wood. it would shoot arrows but not very well. that was a dangerous SOB.