Who Taught You How To Shoot?
- Thread starter SGW Gunsmith
- Start date
JaoeyP
Silver $$ Contributor
It wasn't any one person. My step-dad got mea BB gun when I was 9 and a single shot 20 gauge when I was 12. Taught me how to correctly shoulder it and aim. I started deer hunting at 14. When I was 20 I took a pistol class at the university I went to and ended up competing on their pistol team a few years, learning a lot. I got more into rifle and have taken various rifle classes since. Friends/fellow competitors have taught me a lot. It's really hard to say who taught me since I'm still learning.
ronsatspokane
Gold $$ Contributor
My father taught my brother and I how to shoot with a Stevens single shot over and under 22/410 when we were about 8 and 9 respectively. We'd take the spent 22 casings, sit them on a log and shoot them off.
A couple of years later when I was 13 a friend of my fathers named Bill Havercroft was running the NRA small bore competitions. He got us started down that path. I didn't find out until years later that Bill's dad had died when he was in high school and Bill lived with my fathers family for a few years. It was common back then to spread the kids around to other family's when the bread earner died. My father is no longer around but Bill is. He can hardly walk but he still gets around. Although I didn't stick with it, he's trained several Olympians over the years and there is a annual match named after him.
Fast forward some 45 years and I had not shot much in the proceeding 40 years when a young immigrant friend of mine and his wife told me that they wanted to learn to shoot. I put together a training class with a safety emphasis and got them shooting a variety of different guns starting with that very Stevens single shot I learned to shoot with. About 6 months later he said he was going to start shooting F Class. He's a smart kid and he went all in. Started by studying the ballistic equations used in the common ballistic calculators, got himself a Savage FTR rifle and started doing quite well. I've been playing catch up every since. He's been to nationals a couple of times and worlds when it was held in Canada a couple of years back. That kid is no longer a kid but I've learned more from him about precision shooting than I've learned since I started. So I guess that means that I'm still being taught. Some of you may know this kid. He's the Accurate Shooter site administrator.
A couple of years later when I was 13 a friend of my fathers named Bill Havercroft was running the NRA small bore competitions. He got us started down that path. I didn't find out until years later that Bill's dad had died when he was in high school and Bill lived with my fathers family for a few years. It was common back then to spread the kids around to other family's when the bread earner died. My father is no longer around but Bill is. He can hardly walk but he still gets around. Although I didn't stick with it, he's trained several Olympians over the years and there is a annual match named after him.
Fast forward some 45 years and I had not shot much in the proceeding 40 years when a young immigrant friend of mine and his wife told me that they wanted to learn to shoot. I put together a training class with a safety emphasis and got them shooting a variety of different guns starting with that very Stevens single shot I learned to shoot with. About 6 months later he said he was going to start shooting F Class. He's a smart kid and he went all in. Started by studying the ballistic equations used in the common ballistic calculators, got himself a Savage FTR rifle and started doing quite well. I've been playing catch up every since. He's been to nationals a couple of times and worlds when it was held in Canada a couple of years back. That kid is no longer a kid but I've learned more from him about precision shooting than I've learned since I started. So I guess that means that I'm still being taught. Some of you may know this kid. He's the Accurate Shooter site administrator.
My Dad taught me, he grew up shooting then did 3 tours in Vietnam, so by the time I came a long he was well known with family and friends to be a crack shot with just about anything you could shoot. On my 8th birthday he bought me a Crossman pellet rifle and taught me gun safety and basic shooting principles, once I had gun safety and my fundamentals down pat he would take me up to a piece of land he bought in the country and we would spend most of the day blasting away those .22 rounds. I sure miss those days!
praveen
Administrator
Growing up in India there was of course zero exposure to guns or shooting. I think the only type of target anything I had done as a kid was shoot some makeshift arrows with rubber bands.
In 2013, at the height of panic about certain guns about to be banned, I asked Ron (ronsatspokane) to teach me. I still remember the day he showed me the various guns and how to safely handle them along with all the other safe habits around them. Ron’s house in Spokane is about 300 miles from where I live and I took to shooting like fish to water and made about 2 trips every month to his house that year. Looking back, I don’t think I would’ve done any shooting if not for Ron.
In 2013, at the height of panic about certain guns about to be banned, I asked Ron (ronsatspokane) to teach me. I still remember the day he showed me the various guns and how to safely handle them along with all the other safe habits around them. Ron’s house in Spokane is about 300 miles from where I live and I took to shooting like fish to water and made about 2 trips every month to his house that year. Looking back, I don’t think I would’ve done any shooting if not for Ron.
Self Taught. My desire to Hit Groundhogs Farther and Farther away is what drove me to Accuracy. George Kelblys Range and those who shot at the range got me There. My Dad taught me how to Hunt and Train Hunting Dogs...
My father. I was probably 6 years old when we started with a 22.
Me too....Still learning.
ronsatspokane
Gold $$ Contributor
Everyone blames me for your shooting habit. Like I corrupted a young innocent immigrant. In today's parlance, among our more left leaning friends, you are a victim of... who knows what. None of them believe that you are the one who drug me back into it and subsequently down this rabbit hole of long range shooting. They could not comprehend the reality that I'm actually the victim here.
Or at least my wallet has been victimized in recent years. And I've enjoyed every minute of it. I'll enjoy it more if I can get this 308 tube gun shooting half as well as the 6 BRA. May have to call on you for assistance.
I learned it all by myself. Does it show?
JJ Loh and Speedy!!
Having not grown up in this country I was a little bit of a late starter . Got my gun safety from a local range first time I shot. Solid guys that gave me what I needed, no fluff or range commando stuff. Actual technique is a combination of self taught, reading precision rifle forums and blogs with a bit of youtube thrown in for good measure. Still learning though, especially the wind. Especially the wind!
I guess it depends on the type of shooting. Field shooting was all my dad. I started with a BB gun like most and he made a deal that if I could hit a coffee can (small one) 1000 times with less than 10 misses, I could have a deer rifle. I completed that challenge and that ended up costing him a lot of money hauling me around shooting competitions. Competition wise it started with Mr. Kirbow and Mr. Brinton on the county 4H BB Gun team. Mr. Brinton introduced me to Mrs. Hall who was my coach throughout high school. Dad's carting me around the country paid off and in college Ron Wigger and Rick Johnson were my coaches. Lots of other small pieces of advice with large impacts were given throughout the years.
We're never done learning the wind.
FNSafari
Gold $$ Contributor
Me and some skeet shooters. I got my first firearm, an Ithaca 37 12 ga. with a PolyChoke when in high school. I had to take an NRA hunter safety course per my folks first, wise idea. NOONE else in the family did any shooting or hunting, just me. I sort of struggled over the next 6 years with the shotgun, until I graduated college and got a job in a chem lab. I met a manager who belonged to a local skeet club and started shooting there. With the help of many of the local shooters my success at skeet and bird hunting improved significantly. I shot a lot of competitive skeet until I took up rifle shooting, IBS registered score matches. I got advice on equipment and technique from many but one still has to follow the advice and shoot, shedding some advice and following some, making the best fit your style.
Over the years though, I have found most other shooters gladly willing to share advice and counsel. We are a small community and its in its best interest to do so.
Over the years though, I have found most other shooters gladly willing to share advice and counsel. We are a small community and its in its best interest to do so.
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