Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What turned you on to guns?

Dad bought me one ever now and then growing up, had the basics...shotgun, rifle, 22. Found a job working for a rifle tuning/gun shop while finishing college. Learned a lot about reloading, etc. Got to see a lot of old stuff I've never seen before. Really got into the old classic blued/walnut 22s after that.

The Saturday Western movies back in the early-mid 50s.. I got my first BB gun at about 6, got a better one at 8 - and I was so good with that thing I could keep an empty BB container dancing across the driveway w/o missing a shot.. A LOT of sparrows went to their grave via that Daisy pump...

old70, Sorry about your dad. Mine also passed in 2003....my grandad went way back in '69, but not before he made a hell of an impression on me. Every deer season I make it a point to hunt at least one day with my dad's 336RC .35 Rem and my grandfather's 760 pump in 300 Sav. There's some special magic that happens when I manage to fill a tag with one of those two rifles. I know exactly what you felt last year. Peace.

I think it was probably the early westerns. I really enjoyed them.

Napolean Solo & Illya Kuryakin...

I like this. Guns are everywhere when your young. I had cap guns, my brothers and I played cowboys and Indians. Then bb guns with the 1 pump rule gun fights (I always used 3 pumps). You see your Dad with his rifle and know its a big deal when he shot a moose or caribou. It was a matter of time for us all. I remember being in my room with a 22lr bolt action at about 5yo looking out the window. Cycling the bolt repeatedly pretending to shoot bears, intruders, bigfoot, ect.

It was my parent's fault. And Gramps, and uncles. Family trees on both sides infested with shooting loonies.

Like most, my father. What keeps me interested is it's something you can never perfect, you can only chase it.

My dad was a gun guy, loved to hunt and fish. And, TV helped, Cisco Kid was a favorite. I grew up in Rochester NY, in the 19th ward, my whole neighborhood played guns all over the place. Garage roof ambushes, driveways, back yards. The girls played too, they wanted to ne nurses when we got "shot". Playin Army was pretty normal back then. After that I was a competition Skeet shooter, thanks to Dad, and upland bird hunter. Ducks and Geese came later as well as deer with a slug gun. Once I joined the Coast Guard and travelled the US, rifles took hold of me and it's been that way ever since. I sill cherish a shotgun but don't get to use them as much anymore. The real joy for me now is watching my kids shoot, camp, fish and hunt.

My Dad shot for the FDNY rifle and revolver team at 50' .22 indoor matches. Every now and then he would let me tag along, I was hooked from that point on.

Dad's side of the family were not gun people. His only gun was a single shot .22 for varmint control and an occasional squirrel dinner. His dad's only gun was a pitted, loose fitting 16 gauge single shot. But mom's family were avid hunters. I grew up as a gun nut without any guns until I was 10 and dad traded a pig for a Winchester model 37 .410. Through my teen years I worked on the farm to earn gun money and had an Ithaca 37 12 gauge and a Stevens .22 semi. My first varmint rifle was a Remington 788 in .22-250 that I used on groundhogs and crows. No huntable deer population in my youth, so I didn't have a deer caliber rifle until I was in my 30s. From there it has been a fun trip.

When I got to college, and started making friends from the south. Some years after graduation, a friend from TX invited me and another old friend down to hunt an 1100 acre family ranch in south TX near Crystal City. Also, to hunt another piece nearer Galveston for ducks in the massive swamps bordering Louisiana. Blew my Yankee brain straight out my ears and nose. First thing I did when I came home from that trip was buy my first guns - a Benelli SBE and a Browning 7 RM. To say the experience down there was “formative” would be the understatement of my life.

I grew up on a farm so Dad had a .22 and a couple of 12g shotguns. When I got old enough he got me a Daisy bb gun. Not long after, I got my first shotgun for my birthday - a 20g bolt action Mossberg with a variable choke. Next came a .22 Marlin Model 60 for Christmas. Most of our shooting was on black birds, sparrows and groundhogs. We didn't do a lot of target shooting as I recall I guess because we never had an excess of ammo laying around. Don't really know why. I just remember always loving the feel of carrying a gun around. We didn't have many deer around, but we would always go deer hunting usually on Thanksgiving morning. We never got one. Back then it was Bucks only and it was a rare sight to see one. Other times we would go rabbit and quail hunting. I just remember loving to go.

Bought my first handgun - cheap 22 revolver, when I was 13 or 14. Dad had to buy it as I was too young. He wasn't much for handgun, but I had a trap line and I convinced it was something that would be handy while I ran it. Never could hit squat with it, but that didn't matter. Loved carrying it on my side.

Can't think of any one thing that turned me on to guns. Just sort of grew up with them.

Cool post, I had shot two partridge before grade one at 5 years old leaning over a car door while Dad coached me. We had little competition matches to see who could shoot the smallest group(with 22 rim). An old Cooey single shot wich he had altered the trigger & stock. Couldn't take the 22 out with anyone, was ok alone until at 14 when I got a licence after finishing hunter ed course. Walk across the street in town to the pool hall & bought a Mosburg pump with a spare slug bbl. No rifling but it was he// on partridge. Before this of course was BB guns, pellet guns. Dad was always on the trap line come fall & we spent much time trapping, hunting, fishing. I can still remember trying to take his big steps up the line in snow. I still walk those steps now, if not as big or long as much as I can. When he past on I lost my father but also lost my best bush buddy ever. Miss ya Dad. Bill out. 🐾👣🇨🇦

Tennessee

That's me. My Grandpa was a great squirrel hunter, Dad didn't care much for guns, but was a good shot.

A police friend had beagles, would come to our farm and we'd hunt swamp rabbits. Dad would go with us, had a Stevens double 12. He later bought Win M-37 .410's for us and Grandpa. Another friend had a .222 M-722 and we'd go crow hunting.

I got into reloading, bought a K-38 for $82. Still have it. That was all during my High School days. I later bought a 40-XB in .244 and got after crows and when buzzards harassed new born calves, put the hurt on them. Dad liked that.

It just blossomed from there.

DF

Grandfather was a gunsmith and I practically lived in his shop!!

it helps if you don't grow up in a city and like to run through the woods

My dad. He had 2 6.5 mm Arisakas, a 1917 Enfield and two 22 LR rifles. We used to shoot at a range near Lake Kensington in MI regurly. After high school I didn’t shoot again until after the LA riots. There was copy cat rioting/gang activity in Orange County, and I realized how vulnerable we were (wife and daughter). So I bought a shotgun and pistol. One of my newly acquired shooting buddies encouraged me to go hunting with him and I have been hunting pretty much every year for deer or elk or quail. Sometimes for yotes or squirrels. I also enjoy some occasional long distance shooting these days.

My first shot with anything other than a BB gun or cap pistol happened during a family hunting/camping trip when I was 6-7 years old. I kept pestering my brother to let me shoot his H&R Topper.410 and he finally relented. He told me to shoot a tree that was about 20 yards away. Didn't tell me he loaded it with a slug. Dang, that gun was so heavy I had to squat down and rest my arms on my knees. Ka-Boom! And there I was on my butt in the wet mud, laffing like a perfect little maniac. Drilled that old pine dead center, much to his surprise. I will never recover from my love affair with shotguns.