Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Were you raised by a gun guy?

My dad wasn’t a hunter or shooter, our relationship was never very good for other reasons. My grandpa was an avid deer hunter and shooter but not a big collector. My Uncle had an FFL was a big collector and was into duck and deer hunting, and shot on several club leagues. My grandpa and uncle were both big influences. I spent a lot of time up north on my grandparents land learning to hunt and shoot and going to gun shows and gun stores on weekends with my Uncle.

Yep. I was "helping" in the reloading room as soon as I was strong enough to "two-thumb" primers into cases with a Lee Auto Prime. By college I'd completed my lifetime penance on a Lee Load All shot-shell loader as well. Dad bought and sold quite a bit. By Jr.High I was answering phone calls when he was traveling and had an ad going in Shotgun News or The Gun List.

Very few of the guns that came and went were "collectors", just hunting guns that he'd get a "deal" on, shoot for a while then sell or trade for something else that caught his interest. Shotguns, rifles, and rimfires. Never very many handguns. A few rimfire High Standards and a couple of Colt Pythons that he hunted with and that was about it.

I can recall deer and pheasant hunting being very tough due to low numbers when he 1st started bringing me along. Then about the time I started carrying a gun the CRP program got rolling and pretty soon we had deer and pheasants galore

My dad had a wall of guns, but only fired a few of them during my life. The only new one he bought was one for me when I was 12. Later I inherited all the pieces from two branches of the family. That is when my looniness began. I've been a mess ever since!

Anytime one of my younger guys expresses interest, I take them to the cabin for a days hunt.

My Dad wasn't a hunter, he didn't own any guns either. Lucky for me my Uncle Hank was a deer hunter. He wasn't a collector by any stretch. In the 62 years I knew him all he ever had was my grandfathers Winchester 1894 30-30 and a sporterized 30-40 Krag. When I was 18 I was headed in the wrong direction. Drinking and drugs and getting in trouble. The rest of the world thought I need my arse kicked but Uncle Hank decided to take me deer hunting at the club he belonged to. That changed my life for the better. He introduced me to his camp buddies, some of whom were serious gun guys. My folks saw that Uncle Hank had lit a fire under me and a year later they bought me my first gun, a Marlin 336 in 30-30. I started going to gun shows and buying more guns on my own and soon realized that those "old" guys were pretty cool to hang out with. Uncle Hank passed away last year and he left me his Winchester 1894 NRA Commemorative 30-30 that was presented to him when he moved on from teaching Agriculture to be the Principal at the local tech school. I put a peep sight on it and took it out on opening day last year.

No. Not even close. He bird hunted a little as a kid, but that was it. Did not hunt or shoot past about 14.

My maternal grandfather was for sure, but was too old and unhealthy by the time I came around for me to learn anything from him.

Every word of this describes my dad. He had a Mdl 70 30-06 with a Weaver K2.5 and a Remington Mdl 31 FW 12 gauge with a Cutts. That was always enough; why get any more guns???

He eventually became more of a Gunguy and got a 20 ga IC/Mod Superposed and was bitten by the combination gun bug...drillings. He never got himself a drilling, but I did gardening for an eye doctor friend one summer at age 13, and my pay was a Sauer/Charles Daly 12/12/30-30 sidelock.

My father was not a rifle loony in the sense that I am--in fact he thought I was loony from about the time I turned 12, and started reading a lot about rifles!

But he was a little bit of a gun nut, and hunter. He grew up on a homestead in central Montana during the Great Depression of the 1930s, and everybody in the family hunted for meat. He shot a bunch of small game, and one deer (they were scarce back then).

His father (who was not really a hunter) committed suicide in the mid-30s, but luckily his mother was an avid hunter and great shot, and he learned to shoot very well. But his enthusiasm for hunting wasn't as great as hers (apparently I got her part of the genetics). After working for Boeing during WWII (he was diabetic so couldn't be in the military), he became an English professor.

But he did have a small collection of firearms, including a .22 rimfire Colt Frontier Scout he purchased with the proceeds of the first (of a few) articles he sold on Western history to what were then called "pulp" magazines. He got paid $50, and had always wanted a Colt single-action, so we went down to the Powder Horn in downtown Bozeman, and he bought the Scout. (For those old-time Bozemanites, George Dieruf Sr. did the deal.) I was just tall enough to see over the counter.

Anyway, he did buy an occasional gun, usually just to plink with, but also bought a Western Field (Marlin 336) .30-30 carbine when I started big game hunting, largely so he could go along with me. And he killed a mule deer doe with it, running, at around 50 yards--on opening day of my first season

He died when I was a month shy of my 17th birthday, and while I suspect he may have liked my ending up being a professional writer (many English professors yearn to be full-time writers), he might have been a little puzzled at how much gun writing I do--but might have argued about some of what I write!

Very interesting reading.. Like many my dad hunted a bit, but not much.. My grandfather was the hunter.. He got me started when I was like 5... He was a small game hunter, deer and bear.. But not a gun guy.. He apparently at one time bought and sold quite a few guns, but by the time I came along he had a Fox 12 ga. and a model 54 .30-06 and a .45 auto.. Cousins on my dad's side were great hunters.... My dad wasn't really pleased with all the time I spent hunting, but didn't really complain a lot.. I had some neighbors that were shooters and collectors.. I hung out with them as often as I could.. One of them was an old Camp Perry shooter.. Buy the time I was 15, I bought a used reloading outfit and was enjoying shooting.. Till I was about 45 I tried to keep my collection to about 20 long guns and pistols.. Finally said the hell with it when an older pal said, never sell only buy..

I started buying guns when I was 11 with my own money I made mowing and farm work. 1st gun I bought was a M55 winchester semi auto single shot 22 cost me 10 dollars. Guy at the hardware store knew my dad but asked me if it was ok with my folks and I said yes he said ok. They wrapped it in brown paper and it went home with me on my bike. When I was 14 I bought my first handgun a Ruger single six in 22 mag the guy who sold it to me said he'd take it back if dad didn't like it. Dad was more worried that I'd get a piece of junk than a good gun..I was probably the 1st 14 year old to go to the sheriff's office and put in for a ccp. Back then was no age restriction and it was up to the sheriff or the Sec of State. The codified law said they didn't have to issue one but it was up to them. Had 1 ever since. One day the sheriff asked me if I had ever used birdshot in the ss and I told him yup next thing I know he had me shooting pigeons off the courthouse window sills with it and later on off the upper ledge with graphite gallery shorts in my mossberg 22 rifle. No body needed to tell me if I screwed up even once I was done. My dad would take my older brother and I pheasant hunting. When I turned 17 we both put in for deer licenses and we both shot bucks for the first time. He owned a few guns but they weren't his life they were mine.
I taught him in his 70's how to reload center fire ammo.
He passed away last fall at 96 and 4 months, ww2 vet, dad, husband of 70 years, friend to many and a solid citizen.one of the greatest generation. Mb

I was sitting here trying to figure out how I became a loony. I remember an older kid on the School bus who loved to tell me about his grandfather's 250-3000 and 9.3x62 Mauser. I didn't know what either of those were but they sounded great. I asked my Dad and he had never heard of them. That kid on the bus may have had a hand in giving me the fever.

Dad is 89 and still doing some deer hunting. In younger years, we hunted rabbits, pheasants, grouse and deer. But he's not the guy that turned me into a loony, that was an older relative (distant cousin) that taught me to reload. He was an avid chuck hunter so we shot quite a few of them too. Dad lit the flame but Cal fanned it big time.

Dale

Nope, very avid hunter and fisherman. Guns were simply tools.

My dad did not hunt or own/shoot guns. I did have a Daisy BB gun, but I shot my first real gun and hunted with my stepdad (Deer and Rabbit) when I was 12. Didn't go off the deep end collecting until I was 28, been on a terror ever since 30+ years. Took my dad to his first gun show and to a range to shoot two years ago when he was 80. At that show he bought a 20 ga shotgun for home defense. One of my daughters deer hunts with me every year.

My father was almost totally uninterested in guns, perhaps as a reaction to his father who was a great gun nut but totally uninterested in his children. That grandfather farmed his three sons off to a "grandma" (distant relative, I think) in the Black Hills for the duration of the Great Depression, and my dad's experience with guns was killing a lot of dinners with "Grandma Grimes'" .22 Special--he equated hunting and guns with poverty.

That Grandfather was a soldier and federal cop all his life, did love guns, and owned some classics. Fought the Spanish, the Filipinos, and the Moros, then chased "that rascal Villa" around northern Mexico, and then fought with the 89th Div in France. He carried a Colt New Service DA .44 after he became an officer and gent and had to turn in his Krag, then drank the jammamatic Cool Aid in Mexico in 1916 and never was without a 1911 Colt after that. I ultimately got the New Service.

My maternal grandfather was a mining engineer and "mechanic" who practiced his profession and trade all over the world, prospecting for "fossil water" aquifers, which he then "brought in" for the government that employed him on contract. Did a lot of work for "Old Man Diez" in Mexico, and greatly admired that "controversial" guy. Always carried an S&W .44 Russian.DA breaktop revolver wherever he went.

I grew up in northern California when it was very rural and agricultural and we were surrounded by ranchers and farmers who were WWII vets. Pretty much everyone I admired was a shooter and hunter.

When we bought our ranch in 1948, the first visitor, even before we had a house, was the "nextdoor neighbor" who lived about a mile away, Old Man Duerson, rode up to the back gate, pulled off his hat, introduced himself to my Mom in a very welcoming and courtly fashion and gave her his ranch phone number in case we ever needed help. He had a .45 1911 on his belt and a Win 94 in his saddle scabbard.

I was hooked for life.

My grandfather used his 30-30 in the Alaskan Gold rush to shoot a mountain goat and sell it to the tavern.

My father was chief engineer and patent hold on many guns, but the best known was from the M55, M107, and M110 mobile artillery's.
My father was a pheasant man.

I bought a Daisy model 25 pump BB gun at age 10.
At age 70, I chambered and headspaced a 1903 Turkish Mauser to 260 Remington, last night.
I have become a deer man.

Dad was an avid hunter, but kind of a "one gun guy" - one deer rifle (Win. model 94 in.32 spec.) for his yearly trips to New Brunswick, Canada, and one shotgun for everything else (Rem. 11-48 12 gauge). Gave me a single shot .22 when I was 5, and taught me lessons about firearm safety and sportsmanship that I abide by almost 60 years later.

I would say my dad was right on the edge of being a gun guy but didnt quite catch the bug. He was a very avid hunter and sportsman. He grew up hunting from a very young age and hunted with friends until we moved to Wyoming. He used the same rifle to hunt big game pretty much his entire life even though he had a few other guns. He was a subscriber to Shotgun News back when it was a good publication for sales, bargains and access to items small towns didnt have. I think at his high point he had about 30+ guns. Some were collectors, some were for fun etc. He did reload but kept it pretty utilitarian. I would say he was more of a gun guy than most people but not a full blown looney.

The son of a son of a son of a looney. My great grandfather had a tremendous collection of turn of the century rifles most of which were stolen. My grandfather served with distinction in WW2 and while being an amazing shot never hunted big game after the war. My father was a hunter before coming to Alaska but he pushed us to take the first shots. He was disabled in several auto accidents. He taught me to not sell unless you can double your money. My brother in law ended up with most of his guns while I ended up with his trophies. It was a fair deal. I have two guns that are tied to him. One of my greatest regrets is not doing a couple of moose hunts with him. Life is too short.

To add to my earlier post, while he wasn't a loony he did write this: SMLE

So I suppose you could call him a gun guy, even if he wasn't a loony.