Always into guns, or a late bloomer like me?

[WendyZXZ]

I was born into it from both sides of the family both on Mom and Dad's sides and never slowed down. One of the things my husband got a kick out of when we met was that I did already come with a very fine collection of my own to match his when we married.

 

[gunzo]

I've never quite figured out why, but as far back as I can remember I've been fascinated with them.
I knew, from a young age that someday I'd be a gun owner & shooter.

 

[dannyd]

I can't ever remember not being around guns; grandpa keep shotgun behind his front door.

Still have my first rifle Savage 120A and my second Winchester 270 pump; my sister said I started being trained at 6 but I can remember.

Standard Hillbilly issue; pocket knife, rifle and work boots.

 

[turd]

More stories........ I had BB gun of course, not sure anymore what exactly it was, but it was a Daisy lever. My brother (5 years younger) had one that you could pump up for more power. We used to travel 50 miles to go to church, and then visited cousins in NW Iowa in the afternoon. Once my brother shot uncle's bull in the balls with his BB gun. Whoooohoooo did he jump. The next weekend uncle asked my brother if he wanted to get shot in the balls. 👀 We pretty much behaved after that.

So many stories.... Grandpa took us duck hunting one Saturday, I was 13, brother (then 8) brought his BB gun. I shot a hen mallard... my first duck! It landed in a pasture and hit a rock, opening the breast which of course was so dried out when we got home that it was inedible. Bummer. 😒 Could go on and on..... BB gun wars in the shelterbelts near our subdivision, etc., etc.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

One picture is worth at least 3 -10 words. I got a 20 GA. single shot Iver Johnson when I was 9.

I bought the Red Ryder from the profits from Lemonade Stand.

 

[HW11]

I was six when I got my first 22. When I was 12 I saved my money that summer from working in tobacco and I got daddy to get me a Remington 1100 shotgun. At 14 I gave him money to get me a Marlin 22 mag. And so it went. I guess I could have had much worse habits than guns and pocket knives.

 

[Goldstar225]

I grew up in a hunting family. Dad only had four guns, 22 rifle, shotgun, .30-06, and a handgun. He was a darn fine shot with each of them. I started shooting firearms at about six years old and got my first gun, a Stevens 20 gauge when I was nine.

 

[Fox Mike]

I don't remember ever not having a gun. My first was a "Crackshot". There was always a loaded bolt action .22 by our back door. Lots of skunks in the area.

 

[KIR]

I was born into it from both sides of the family both on Mom and Dad's sides and never slowed down. One of the things my husband got a kick out of when we met was that I did already come with a very fine collection of my own to match his when we married.

Did you have matching safes as well?

 

[gunman42782]

I have loved guns for as long as I can remember. Even before I had one I would read about them in Field and Stream, and the school library actually had the American Rifleman and other gun magazines I would check out. Dad got me my first gun, a H & R .410 when I was 10 or 11.

 

[jmol50]

As a kid I had a BB gun to plink around with in the backyard. Bought my first firearm, a 22 rifle, when I turned 35. Bought my second firearm not too long after, a Ruger No 1.

 

[BisleyBuff]

Always into guns. As a kid we would stop at the 5 and dime after church and I could get 2 magazines, one was always about guns. For my 6th grade graduation present, I got a Daisy bb gun that looked and worked like a win 94.

At around 12-15 yrs old, mom enrolled me in and every Saturday drove me to Roslyn Rifle and Revolver range youth group, an indoor range in a concrete bunker type building on Long Island where we shot Winchester 52's. I held onto my brick of T22 like it was gold! My love of hunting started there reading the magazines on the coffee table and listening to the older teenage shooters talk about their annual squirrel hunting trip to the Catskills! I eventually moved up here.

Been collecting and shooting ever since.

 

[dstegjas]

I was lucky growing up. We had guns in the house as early as I can remember. On my moms side of the family all my uncles and some of my aunts hunted. She had 9 brothers and sisters. So we hunted a lot growing up. My mom and dad both hunted too. So I guess there is no surprise that I did too. They bought me my first 22 rifle when I was a freshman in high school. It was the 22 cal. Ithaca model 49. Looking back that little rifle is probably what got me into collecting lever action rifles. The next year, they bought me a Ruger single six in 22 and 22 magnum. Dad bought his Ruger Super Blackhawk in 44 magnum at the same time. I still have all three of them in the safe.

I hope the generations after us can enjoy having these same memories. Only time will tell.

 

[Mike J]

When I was a kid the only gun my dad had was a Winchester pump chambered for .22 short. The only time I remember Dad hunting was every year at Thanksgiving he, my grandfather, and my uncles would go squirrel hunting Thanksgiving morning. They quit before I was big enough to try to tag along. Grandad had an old J.C. Higgins bolt action shotgun. I know he hunted a lot to fill the pot when he was young but he was older by the time I came along. I had one uncle that was interested in guns but I wasn't allowed to hang out with him when he was shooting. I did get a Daisy Red Ryder when I was 9.

When my parents divorced I was 16. Dad gave me the Winchester pump. Later on my sister's boyfriend sold me a Marlin 336. We went out & shot some. I had issues with alcohol. I drank up both those guns.

After I stopped drinking I bought a centerfire rifle, a .22 & a shotgun. Then I wound up buying a couple of handguns. I didn't get serious about handguns until later on when I got married at 39. We were at Walmart with our girls that were small & their little boy cousin. I started thinking about what I would do if something were to happen. I wouldn't be able to use avoidance as a tactic as I always did when I was single. I decided to get a carry license & learn to shoot a pistol properly. It reignited my interest in firearms. I came to this forum because I had a P-series pistol & was trying to learn how to use it properly.

 

[Joe Chartreuse]

Sort of a late bloomer, in a way. I have had a gun or two for target shooting since I was old enough- but no great passion for them I think my first was a Ruger Mark 1. Jammed like crazy. I ended up selling back to the dealer. I was always a hand-to-hand guy and trained for that most of my life, along with the weaponry that is included in some styles. Then, around 6 or 7 years ago violent crime began to rise everywhere, including in what was before my peaceful suburban community. I saw more need for better defenses and became more involved with guns, but was still confident in my other abilities. Then came 2019-2020. I caught Long Covid. Took a year of my life ( and I almost died a couple of times). I survived, but out the other side having aged several years in that one. I still had the knowledge, but the tools had suffered. I became a lot more serious about weaponry.
I have been slowly but surely gaining back what I had with hard work, but these days the protection of firearms is almost a must. I can still throw ( knives, shuriken, hatchets), am trained to fight with any type of stick or cane, and am trained with edged weapons- but none of that works at even 10 yards. Hence, my newfound passion.

 

[irishjack]

My first firearm was a Mossberg 320 KA single shot .22 rifle that I got for Christmas 1962 when I was 12 years old. A friend had gotten a single shot .22 a few months before for his birthday and the friend's dad took us shooting cans at a local gravel pit. After that fun experience I asked my parents if I could have one for Christmas and they came through.

 

[gramps]

The first gun I shot was a friend of my mother’s Colt1911 in .45 ACP at age 8. I bought my own BB gun at age 12 through the Sears catalog. At age 17 I bought a .22 S, Long, LR Remington single shot rifle with a peep sight. I was hooked, and I have enjoyed the ride ever since.
gramps

 

[harley08]

One of my adult kids asked me what was my first gun and when did I buy it, and it made me think about how guns entered my life. I grew up in New York City where guns were not a part of my families life, even though my Dad would go on a hunting trip with friends a couple of times a year, some of which I went as well. But my early exposure to guns was firing a 22 caliber single shot rifle on the farm of friends of my parents, an enjoyable but rare event. About the time I got married, at age 23, I bought my first gun on a whim. It was an Enfield .303 carbine, WWII surplus, for $20. About 2 years later I fired it for the first time, thought nothing about it, and ended up selling to someone at work for $35 and thinking what a good deal I had made.

It wasn't until my young bride was about to make a long road trip to pick up a friend and bring her to stay with us for Thanksgiving while the friend's husband was on temporary duty in Thailand, that I had my first real thought about needing something for self protection. I bought a "Baby Brownie", a 25 acp pistol but she refused to take it with her on that trip. I never fired that pistol even once, ending up trading it for a 380 acp that I also never fired. When that pistol was stolen in a home burglary I decided I needed to own a handgun and actually get comfortable using it again in case a break in ever occurred when we were in the house. The morning after the burglary I bought a S&W Model 19 which I still own. At that point I was 43 years old and it was probably the first time in my life I even thought about the 2nd Amendment and my right to keep and bear arms.

That was 36 years ago and guns have become a much more important aspect of my life and remain so today. I've been accused by family of being a "one issue voter" and to some degree that is true. I could not support a candidate who is not supportive of my right to be armed regardless of his/her positions on other matters. I would prefer to not vote at all if faced with a choice of only between two gun haters. I own several guns and enjoy my membership and participation in a local pistol club. I carry everyday and everywhere. I am an NRA Life Member. But unlike some here that grew up with guns and always lived the gun culture, this passion and commitment came to me later in life. It may sound odd, but my other passion, motorcycling, also came to me later in life, i.e., around age 40. I guess I am just a late bloomer.

Guns n Harleys

One of my adult kids asked me what was my first gun and when did I buy it, and it made me think about how guns entered my life. I grew up in New York City where guns were not a part of my families life, even though my Dad would go on a hunting trip with friends a couple of times a year, some of which I went as well. But my early exposure to guns was firing a 22 caliber single shot rifle on the farm of friends of my parents, an enjoyable but rare event. About the time I got married, at age 23, I bought my first gun on a whim. It was an Enfield .303 carbine, WWII surplus, for $20. About 2 years later I fired it for the first time, thought nothing about it, and ended up selling to someone at work for $35 and thinking what a good deal I had made.

It wasn't until my young bride was about to make a long road trip to pick up a friend and bring her to stay with us for Thanksgiving while the friend's husband was on temporary duty in Thailand, that I had my first real thought about needing something for self protection. I bought a "Baby Brownie", a 25 acp pistol but she refused to take it with her on that trip. I never fired that pistol even once, ending up trading it for a 380 acp that I also never fired. When that pistol was stolen in a home burglary I decided I needed to own a handgun and actually get comfortable using it again in case a break in ever occurred when we were in the house. The morning after the burglary I bought a S&W Model 19 which I still own. At that point I was 43 years old and it was probably the first time in my life I even thought about the 2nd Amendment and my right to keep and bear arms.

That was 36 years ago and guns have become a much more important aspect of my life and remain so today. I've been accused by family of being a "one issue voter" and to some degree that is true. I could not support a candidate who is not supportive of my right to be armed regardless of his/her positions on other matters. I would prefer to not vote at all if faced with a choice of only between two gun haters. I own several guns and enjoy my membership and participation in a local pistol club. I carry everyday and everywhere. I am an NRA Life Member. But unlike some here that grew up with guns and always lived the gun culture, this passion and commitment came to me later in life. It may sound odd, but my other passion, motorcycling, also came to me later in life, i.e., around age 40. I guess I am just a late bloomer.

Guns n Harleys I collect guns, I owned a lot of Harleys and still have one now!

 

[Watchman]

Dad bought my brothers and I a new Winchester 131 bolt action rifle each for Christmas 1968. I was 6 at the time.
Of course, he wouldn't let us fire them, because we were "too young". But, we knew where they were, down in the basement in dad's gun rack. By the time I was 8, I couldn't stand the torture anymore, and snuck downstairs to the forbidden end, where I liberated my rifle and located some .22 ammo.

There were several cherry rounds in the basement that dad was drying out slowly with wax over the ends to make gun and knife grips with later. I loaded the rifle, aimed at one piece from about 2 feet away, and pulled the trigger.
The sharp crack of the rifle was deafening in that basement, leaving my ears ringing, but I realized that there was also a telltale odor of gunpowder! I hadn't thought about that... and it lingered in that still basement air. I knew dad would smell it, he had the nose of a bloodhound! So, I admitted my guilt as soon a he got home from work. I expected a spanking, maybe even with the belt, but it didn't happen.

Dad realized that he had been wrong to tempt us, and not teach us. So he decided to take us out to my uncle's place to teach us to shoot, and handle the guns safely. We did this three or four times, and then went through a hunter's safety course. But, we were still forbidden to touch the guns without supervision. So I begged for a bb gun.

That request was flatly denied. They said I would shoot birds and squirrels. Of course they were right. That's the point! But my buddy had an old Crossman pump single shot, so we went into the woods with it regularly and took turns shooting at birds and squirrels. Then, one of the older neighborhood kids got a job at a hardware store, and I knew I could talk him into selling be a bb gun if I bribed him. I spent my lawnmowing money on a brand new Benjamin pump rifle in .177. I hid it in the woodshed behind the house. It remained there until I moved out at 18.

In the meanwhile, I had been hunting many times with my dad and uncles, and dad had bought me a Ruger model 77 in 7mm magnum in 1976. (14 at the time). Then, I talked him into letting me buy a Mk 1 target 6 7/8" in 1977.
By this time I was backpacking with my friends quite a bit up in the Cascades, and I think dad felt better knowing I was going armed. By the time I was 16 (1978) I started shooting NRA junior smallbore matches, and won the league in 1980. I aged out of the junior program, and was recruited by the gun club to come shoot military high power matches. They loaned me a nice Springfield Armory Garand, and sold me bandoliers of milsurp 30-06 for two dollars. That left 20 extra rounds for practice! Simultaneously I began shooting smallbore metallic silhouette
matches, but soon I left all that behind to pursue women and a career.

I still own all those guns, except for the Garand. But I have it's clone. And a few more too.

 

[57springer]

I too come from a "gun " family . I was shooting at age 8 as I remember. My first gun was a marlin model 56 22. cal which I bought with yard mowing money for $15 . I shot countless boxes of 22s from that rifle . Later on it began to have problems ejecting fired rounds . I took it to a local shop and the owner told me he could get it fixed for me . Being an impatient teen, I foolishly traded it on a Rem . model 582 , which I still have . One of the few guns I ever got rid of and regret. I have been trying to find a nice one in the last several years. They are hard to find and big money now !