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

My father passed when I was ten.

My uncle became my mentor in the outdoor world. He was a reader of Jack O'Connor and Zane Grey, and a genuine rifleman. As a kid I remember the Weatherby catalogs, modified falling block actions with after market barrels, TD Browning 22 rifles with fixed custom barrels and full size Redfield scopes mounted with 003" clearance.

He was a varminter, a reloader, shooting MOA 22-250, 6mm BR, custom 22 BR rifles but not into big game hunting. He was a uplander hunting rabbits and I was into birds. I wanted to hunt deer and so we began hunting big game on his best woodchuck pastures.

So my hunting and collecting can partially be attributed to my uncle's fanning the flame of interest but the fire was already inside thanks to my desire to spend as much time in the out of doors as possible. Unfortunately, my uncle is in declining health and our days afield are behind us.

My Dad was not a looney, guns were just a tool to him. He was a passionate hunter, though, and knew his game.

He thought the greatest woods rifle was a 94 Winchester, and he was not one to mod things much, nor did he worry about loading his own. He just went down to the store and bought one box of whatever they had.

He did believe in practice, so at the end of the season, he would fire that box off.

Same for the 20-gauge pump he hunted squirrels with.

Those were the only guns I recall him using.

Sort of - my dad was pretty much a shotgun and revolver guy, he used them as tools though, although he was a very good shot with practically any firearm he never did much with them besides hunt .

I am the oldest of 4 boys and he started us all of right - when each of us were 6-ish we got a BB gun, then for our 10th birthday we got a 22 rifle.

Being "gunny" almost seems to be a genetic thing though, I can remember at a very young age (pre-school) I was interested in firearms and to this day the interest has never waned. My next youngest brother is like I am - gunny from the start and has always had an interest in them, the next youngest is like my dad, he uses them but they are just tools. And my youngest brother has no interest whatever in them.

drover

Yes, matter of fact dad kept his gun cabinet in my bedroom and I knew absolutely not to touch them without his permission or guidance. He bought me a BB gun before I went to Kindergarten. We hunted rabbits every weekend except during deer season and shot bullfrogs with a 22 in the summer.

Oh yeah. Forgot about pouring through Dad's Gun Digest and Herter's catalog for hours when I was kid.

Dad served in the national guard where he qualified as marksman........he had a healthy admiration and respect for guns but did not own any.....bought me a 16 gauge single when I was 13. He arranged for me to hunt with his hunting friends but he did not hunt himself. He did have a thing for the Turkey shoot set ups and could rarely drive by one without stopping to participate.

My Dad was definitely a gun guy. He always had a "bunch" of guns when I was a kid. Now, looking back, it was only a handful really, but it seemed like a lot. He was mostly a rifleman, using them for hunting. He did have a M12 that he used for grouse and anything else he decided to go after. And a Colt Scout 22 revolver that he let us kids shoot when we were little and went camping.

But his rifles were his love. He had a Browning T-bolt that I thought was the most beautiful 22 I'd ever seen. The first rifle he bought himself, before he married my mom, was a pre-64 Winchester M88 in 308. Next was a pre-64 M70 in .264 Win Mag. He was a devoted Jack O'Connor disciple. However, even when he couldn't afford to buy rifles, he loved shooting and hunting. I remember him telling me about how his biggest desire in the Marine Corps was to qualify as Expert on the rifle range. He tried several times and could never get it done since he was so nervous. He finally figured to heck with it and didn't care any more if he qualified or not and then promptly qualified since he wasn't putting so much pressure on himself. He was pretty proud of that. He was a heck of a rifle shot, too. Hardly ever saw him miss. He was one of the few people in our little town that reloaded and he taught me and I was reloading by the time I was 10 years old. He and I would often talk about the new cartridges that came out and compare them to existing ones, talk ballistics. I would give him all of my old hunting and shooting magazines so he could read them after me and he would do likewise with me. We would debate which were the best bullets to use for different animals and compare reloading notes and results. We went hunting in Alaska several times together and went to Africa to hunt together once. He was my best friend.

My Dad is 81 years old now and had a stroke in February that has affected his brain. He will never hunt or shoot again, I'm afraid. But a few years ago he asked me if I wanted his beloved .264 M70 (he knows I'm a M70 nut). I told him yes, of course, but that I didn't want to take it from him, that he could still use it. He said he didn't think he would ever use it again and wanted me to have it to use. He took me down to his safe and got it out and handed it to me and as I was looking it over, he told me that I better get it out of the house and loaded into my truck right now before he changed his mind. I know he hated to see it go. On one of the last hunts that he went on, he got to see me use the .264 on an Antelope buck. I think that made him happy. That's how much of a gun guy he is/was.

Not really, I think making a living interfered with my wonderful Dad's gun dreams. But, all my children were raised by a gun guy and my wife has tolerated one for over 45 years!

My dad was an accountant and used to put hand lotion on his hands to keep them soft lol. Luckily we lived on the edge of town with two paddocks between us and a river full of brown and rainbow trout. My brother and I taught ourselves to fish, first with worms and grasshoppers under floats, then spinning with celtas and small rapalas and then fly fishing when I was 15.

Funnily enough, it was university that got me into hunting. I was doing a post grad degree (Environmental Science) on European carp and we had to head out west, in the middle of summer, to catch them. It was so hot we knocked off at 2:00pm and while out uni lecturer went back to snooze, my mate and I went walking down the river and saw pigs coming off the river to feed on the flats on dusk. So on the return home, I went and got my firearms licence, went down the police station and straight to the gun shop, all in about one hour and bought my first gun, a Ruger boat paddle in .243. The next trip out west, we shot our first pig each. And that was it.

My mum never liked guns and I always joked that at least I got something useful out of uni. I remember though that I'd only been hunting for about three months before I got interested in reloading. I remember being fascinated with cases, powders and different bullets while my mates just wanted to shoot stuff. They all sold their rifles within two years while I've been into it ever since. I was the only person at the rifle range with a chronograph and I was only 25.

But my dear old dad didn't really have much to do with our outdoor education. We taught ourselves.

No I wasn’t. My dad passed away when I was 10 years old. I remember that he hunted quail, but that was about all that he hunted. He did however buy a Marlin 39A Mountie just before he died, and that was passed on to me. That gun got me started shooting. My interest grew and was enhanced by my reading any gun magazine I could get my hands on. There were no deer in my part of the country when I was growing up, no wild turkeys, and no coyotes or ground hogs. I went on my first deer hunt when I was 21. That was 56 years ago, and old age is the only thing that has slowed me down since.

No. Pretty much developed a love for the outdoors on my own.

Everyone in my family has had firearms at some stage or other but they have all pretty much viewed them in the same way they viewed a shovel, just a tool for a job. The only one that has had an abiding interest is myself, and that has been mainly from the professional shooting and hunting.

I did make sure my brother has nice firearms but I can not say that he has more than a passing interest other than occasionally going for a shot.

My dad was a hunting, fishing and gun guy, big time! He was always working on someone's guns, and ended up starting a gun shop in town. There were lots of guns in the house and many on a rotating basis. A few that were not churned were his Shultz and Larson 7×61, a BDL 25-06, and his 700 classic 7x57. Dad was famous for loaning guns out to someone that needed one and after he died, we never found out who had the 7x61.

I grew up quail hunting and fishing with my dad. He loved to hunt quail and pheasants, and owned a few guns but was not a gun guy at all. He quit hunting years ago, but still likes to fish. I've been a gun nut for as long as I can remember. My two boys are opposite of each other. One is very interested in the details of every gun or bullet or fishing lure or whatever. The other just loves to hunt and doesn't care what he is using, it's just a tool to him.

I was born into a family of match shooters and hunters on my father's side and avid hunters but not rifle looneys on my mother's side. My uncles competed.
Dad was in the industry, cartridge investigations, R&D. ,Sales etc. he retired as Shooting Sports Development Manager for C.I.L., and was technical director for the Shooting Federation of Canada , at one time coached, maganged and shoot for our National Team as well as other "stuff"
I still shoot and hunt with many of the "familyl" rifles , and still compete occasionally with a few of them .
Yup , I come from a long line of gun looneys !LOL
My kid is also a gun looney and wild catter.
Cat

I was hatched and adopted by eagles. Actually my Dad had a 20 gauge M-11 Remington and I was given a BB rifle, Winchester single shot 22, Marlin bolt 20 ga. shotgun, Marlin 39A, then a custom Winchester Model 12 when I graduated. Be Well, RZ.

My dad was not a gun guy. His grandfather, who died when I was about six was a gun guy. He told me you shouldn't shoot rabbits with a .22 when they are sitting still. They might be sick. Shoot them in the head on the run! He could do it. I still have his Remington Model 12, and get it out at least once a year. Unfortunately, he had to sell almost all his guns during the great depression.

My Dad was an avid hunter and would've been quite the rifle loony had he not had a wife and 4 kids to feed, plus a mortgage and car payments- on a working stiff's salary. When everything was finally coming together for him, the kids were all gone, and interesting guns were finally coming his way, he had The Big One. Might be what has kept me from following in his footsteps....

My Dad and 2 of his brothers were big time rabbit hunters. Dad traded a Beagle pup in 1952(he was 18) for a H&R 12 ga single shot.
That was the only gun he ever owned. My oldest son now had it. My Uncle had a Sweet 16....I killed my first rabbit with that gun. As a kid, I picked up every hull and would walk around smelling it for weeks...better than Old Spice! My first gun was a 410 H&R single shot for Christmas at 11 yrs old(my grandson will get it), a Marlin model 60 at 18, Savage 311 12 sxs at 19 and a H&R 22lr/mag at 20. After the 3 kids were grow, the wife says I went loony crazy! Hunting with dad and my uncles got me started! A MS degree in Wildlife Biology from Clemson kept it going. Now I have 2 sons, 2 grandsons and 2 grand daughters and they seem to be following my path and the world cant stop it!

Yes. My father and grandfather. Both were Americans living in New Zealand. As such they were into more "American" rifles than the average Kiwi of the time, who shot everything with either a .303 or a .222. I account for my love of lever actions as a genetic inheritance. They liked the .30/30 and my father liked the little .44-40 and the .243. But my fathers main love was rimfires and rabbit shooting. He took me rabbit shooting when I was eight years old and that day mapped out the rest of my life.