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

Dad’s first gun was an old Winchester 37 Redletter in 12 gauge gifted to him by his father for his 12th birthday. This was in 1958.
Dad went on to become quite the outdoorsman fishing and hunting and even scuba diving for several years. He also enjoyed shooting and had an appreciation for a fine firearm.
Dad bought me my first gun in 1973 when I was but six months old. It was a Browning BL-22. My uncle followed suit six months later giving me a 12 gauge Winchester 37A with a 32 inch barrel. I still have both.
Dad had pretty well given up hunting by the time I came of age but he still liked to rabbit hunt and fish.
Pops liked nice guns acquiring several through the years. He took extremely good care of them and would clean them and polish on them as if they were worth millions.
Somewhere early on I was bitten and became a full blown loony at an early age. I would sit and stare at the guns in the gun cabinet as the light seemed to cause the walnut and blue to take on some type of seductive sheen.
Dad worked with a bunch of gun nuts and hunters in the tool room at GM. Several had their FFL’s. They were all the time sending Shotgun News home with Dad along with gunmakers catalogs which I pored over.
My Grandfather and Uncles had all given up hunting but they loved their guns and rare was the Sunday dinner when there wouldn’t be someone bringing a gun they had bought or traded for. When Dad’s older brother died, he had 176 guns.
All of the the neighbors had guns and traded them for firewood, hogs, cows, trucks and whatever else was needed. Guns were everywhere.
Having no television, if I wasn’t working or in school,I was hunting, fishing or reading about it.
When I hired on the Fire Department there were a lot of gun guys working there. They would pay me to clean their guns.
We had a big kitchen table and some evenings that table would be covered with guns. There would be retired guys there, off-duty guys and even some cops. I would hate to think how many guns that I saw bought, sold and swapped in that place. I thought I was in heaven and pretty well stayed broke, lol.
So, no, I never had a chance and wouldn’t have it any other way. More of a loony now than ever!
So yes, I guess you could say I was raised a gun guy!

Dad was a quail hunter. Model 12’s and 42’s were in the shotgun section. Rim fires we Model 61’s, 74’s and a 69. He only had one Model 70. I guess I was an abused child.

I fixed it for ya.


Jerry

J Trapper

That's about as good as it gets. Congrats

Jerry

A related note:

A close friend of mine 1 month younger than me -- died last Fri. He didn't hunt or shoot.....He told me he did enough killing in Nam.
I didn't ask for details. I'll miss him a LONG time.


Jerry

Thank you!

sorry for your loss

Thanks Mike

We never have too many friends

I and we hate to lose any.


Jerry

My Dad grew up in the co. mountains and was a very capable meat hunter. We went on family horseback elk and mule deer hunts every year we were in the states. My dad always had his WW2 19ll and a Garand in the house but we used family rifles when hunting. When we lived in Tehran, Iran my last 2 years of high school the NIOC guys my dad worked with were avid hunters and members of the ruling class. We went on lots of hunts in the Alborz and Zagros mountains for Ibex, sheep, deer and wild boar. Those wealthy Iranians had some exotic rifles and scopes and spectacular camps and horses. Gangs of coolies were always present to do the hard work except stalking and shooting.

We spent a lot more time fishing and skiing than we did hunting. My dad liked skiis and fly rods much more than he did guns.

My step father hunted moose and grouse but he was not a gun guy. He owned a Lee Enfield Jungle Carbine, a Model 12 and a Marlin 22lr semi. A box of 303 would last him years but it was him that got me into hunting.

Later, when I got married I needed a hobbie. Weekends with the boys wasn't going to happen any more. I got into guns on my own as a result.

My father liked to hunt and fish but was not really interested in guns as such. To him, they were just tools. Nevertheless, I grew up hunting, fishing, hiking and climbing and had lots of great experiences. I have both my parents to thank for that, because they liked the outdoors and provided opportunities for me.

Yes thank God. He always reloaded and taught me. We did a little of everything from fly fishing to bowhunting.

jwall, sorry to hear about your friend..

The only guns my dad was interested in... were the ones on his fighter.

I was raised by Jack O'Connor.




GR

Thanks WCH

Wasnt everybody?

my brother and myself were raised with guns ,my family were not gun collectors they kinda used guns just to either hunt with for food or get rid of critters not wanted around farms. most were Veterans of wars and they like to tell us about the war time battles a little. my one uncle has his name on the patent for plastic hull crimp he invented for Federal Cartridge that all companies in the world used to crimp their plastic hulls and paid Federal Cartridge to use this process. so as a teenager i seen these new plastic crimp hulls and the colors Uncle Stan picked colors for each gauge on plastic shotgun shells too for Federal Cartridge before the public ever seen these plastic hulls and shot a few too. Dang i was to busy as a kid to pay enough attention or understand all this neat stuff at my age of 12 -13 uncle Stan did for Federal Cartridge that was World wide used , but i did get real cheap purple 16 gauge shells to hunt with.

That’s not far off for me when it comes to CF rifles. True

Jerry

Nope. Dad had a bolt 22 and a Remington pump 270. No target practice. Became a gun nut on my own. Any deer that came running past Dad was in the freezer. End of story. Ed

My dad has guns and shot some - like once a year maybe - when I was a kid. HIs 2nd wife is afraid of guns, so now he rarely shoots but I take him when I can.

My granddad had guns but never shot as far as I know. I have an uncle who used to hunt but never took me.

I really started shooting with co-workers from my first job and hunting shortly after that.