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1898 .30-40 Krag...as a 70 pound 12 year old I feared it greatly, convinced it was a giant (and kid) killer comparing to the .600 Nitro. I was a pretty fair marksman with it, if you take into account, that every time I jerked the trigger, my teeth were clenched and my eyes firmly shut. My Father visibly swelled with pride when one time I hit a paper plate at an astonishing 75 yards.

I started with a 30-06, had a 458 Win and a 470 NE for a while just because.

Now my big gun is a 308.

I started with a Rem 788 in 243 Winchester and Federal red box 100gr.

I was small for my age, and at 11, in a tank top, no hearing protection. It dang near ruined me.

To this day it is still one of the worst recoil memories I have, along with a 700 classic 35 Whelen and CZ hogback 416 Rigby.

I bought a Century Arms partially sporterized M93 7x 57 finished sporterizing it and learned to load amm0 for it
Shot my 1st deer with 140 gr NPT's that I loaded mb

I started on centerfire rifles with a Remington 700 ADL in 30-06. I had a Marlin 22 bolt action, H&R crack barrel 12 gauge and a Dan Wesson 357 mag revolver for a while before the 30-06.

My first centerfire rifle was a pushfeed 70 in 280, my second when I was a kid was a pushfeed 70 in 458 WM. I lived in AK and shot almost everything with it.

300 win mag in a very light weatherby vanguard at 11yo. Only the strong survive. We were taught not to waste ammo and bring home meat.

I started with a 20GA side by side shotgun shooting FN Brenneke slugs with which I killed my first wild boars and red deer at the age of fourteen.

It was the gun I had been shooting small game with, and my Father would not allow me to graduate to a rifle until I was sixteen.

Then I would use whatever was available at home, with my two elder brothers being avid hunters as well. Most of the time it was a 300 Win Mag SAKO with Dominion ammunition loaded with150gr bullets wearing a white plastic tip.

Ahh... what times!

I started shooting trap with a Rem 870 tb or tc when I was 11, using mild loads. Deer rifle was a Rem 600 in 6mm. I remember the 6mm kicking worse.

I started like most kids I knew with a 22 and grandpa's break open 12 ga. I was quite a bit older before I realized that there were levels of recoil in between those two.

An 1894 30-30 made in 1917

I started hunting with my Dad really young. I didn't carry a gun for a couple of years, a lot of the time my Dad was carrying me....this was following beagles on rabbits on our place and local farms during rabbit season and when deer hunting (no dogs) on scheduled WMA hunts. Later I got to carry a single shot 16 ga for rabbits and with slugs for deer....at that age I always had to sit with Dad. Recoil was kinda tough with the 16 ga but I didn't really mind it. It was the noise that I hated as we never wore ear protection.

After a couple of years of that he let me start carrying a Ruger 44 auto with a 2.5x fixed power scope in see through rings. Same thing, recoil didn't bother me, noise did.

Dad got me a TC Cherokee kit in 45 that we put together and finished so I could go on the primitive weapons/muzzle loader hunts the WMA's had. This was the only time does could be killed so it was a big deal to me and the first deer I killed was with that rifle. Lightweight with a metal butt plate. Recoil was solid but not to harsh. I still have it and hunt with it occasionally.....I hate to shoot it now and as I got older I hated shooting it because it hits my right cheek bone HARD because of the stock design. It didn't do that when I was a kid....I'd have definitely remembered it. I liked shooting it when young because it didn't seem as loud as the 44.

Later my parents got me a 700 30-06. "One rifle to last your life". I still have it and it's still very accurate, though it sits in a McMillan Edge rather than the original wood ADL and has a Nightforce rather than the original Bushnell. Recoil didn't seem bad to me even when I was young.....again, the noise sure did.

On all of these I might have noticed the recoil more if I had hearing protection on.....as it was, recoil was always an after though, noise always bothered me more.

30 40 kraig,30-30 winchester,then 30-06 ,12 gauge too

I started out with a Remington M 600 .243 Win with (IIRC) a 6x Weaver.

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When my Uncle Bill, came back from WW2 1946, he brought me a falling block single shot .22 I was 6 years old, and he taught me to be safe, and trigger press, and we shot tin cans down by the creek, sitting, standing,prone, kneeling, when I was 8 Years old Uncle Bill married my Aunt Jeannie, and moved from Meeker, Colo. to Sterling , Colo. I didn't have anyone to shoot with, I started bitching to my Grandfather who was a great hunter and shot, that I didn't have anyone to shoot with, I will always remember he went to our gun rack and got my .22 and gave it to me, and he said
" if you shoot your self don't come crying to me" Killed my first Mule Deer and my first Cow Elk, that fall with Granddad's model 94 30-30, don't remember any recoil or muzzle blast. That was in 1948, still hunting and shooting, and will until i die. Rio7

I started hunting with a Remington 742 in 30-06 and a Remington 1100 12 GA.

The Rem 1100 was a TB Trap, and I acquired several barrels so that I could shoot trap and skeet, and also hunt deer with a slug barrel. I hunted turkey with the trap barrel.
For squirrel, I had my grandfather's Winchester 1897 12 GA.

I was an adult before I thought about hunting. I had a bunch of knowledgeable buddies that helped me. One was the gun editor of Gundog Magazine. Another owned a gun store and ammo factory.

I started with a Winchester 94 30-30 and one of my next guns was a Marlin 444. I still have the 444 but sold the 30-30 way way back.

Started with an old l.c.smith 12ga double barrel at maybe 12 years old. Went to a sporterized brittish smle when 18 years old. They both recoiled about the same to me.

I started with a H & R topper in 30-30. Use to think it kicked so much but got my first deer with it from about 50 yards. I felt like I could have shot anything with it. Great memories indeed.

I killed my first deer with a W-W Foster-style slug from a Winchester Model 37 .410 single shot. It was a little fork-horn blacktail that I shot out of our hayloft when it came in (right on schedule!) to eat windfall apples in our home orchard. Range was about 20 yards. One shot; I had "Kentucky windage" sighted the slugs in on a 25 yard pistol target that I found in my grandfather's shooting kit. "Wasted" a whole 5-round box figuring out where to put the bead to make the slug hit where I thought it should go. Beginner's luck all around....

On the dubious strength of that achievement, my grandfather gave me his "coyote" rifle, a Win '92 .25-20, and I used that for 3 more little blacktails over the next few years. It worked when the range was short and the deer small and you could afford to wait for the near-perfect shot. I usually could wait, and the only time I didn't, it was a serious mess.... Shortly after that my brother went off to West Point and left me the custodian of his Savage 99.