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

Raised to hunt and fish by my Dad. He started reloading shotshells because we shot trap. In about 1974 he started reloading .38 special and .243 Winchester. I can’t say he was a “Gun guy” because he wasn’t as interested in calibers and ballistics as My brother and I were. He definitely steered us in the right direction.

Ron

My very first shotgun was an Ithaca 49 in .410.
Christmas 1968, when I was eleven. Through the years that followed, more kids were introduced to the shooting sports with that Ithaca single shot.

Dad hated guns, they were a necessary evil that allowed him to hunt. We had a 22 for small game and a Marlin 30-30 for deer, and they were hidden most of the year, fired only to zero and at appropriate game. We had a bit put back by my desire to shoot and know about guns. I wound up hunting to shoot guns, and then shooting, reloading, etc took over. Come to think of it, I did a lot of things he didn’t agree with, but he still accepted me for who I am. I miss him, and still try to hunt with his old Marlin every year on the anniversary of his death, he died carrying the Marlin while hunting.

Old70

My dad was too busy with work to hunt or shoot. That is ironic since I have heard stories of how good a shot he was as a youth. By the time I was born he only had one firearm- a single shot Remington .22 with a ring in the barrel. He used it for varmints and predators around the farm. His dad only owned one firearm- a 16 gauge long tom single shot shotgun that had a pitted barrel and a loose breech. He liked his squirrel and dumplings and would send me to the woods behind the barn to kill his breakfast while he milked and fed the livestock.

Different story on mom's side of the family. My grandfather was always trading shotguns and .22 rifles. He never had more than one or two at a time, but the inventory changed often. My uncles were gun nuts and helped me to become a gun nut myself. One uncle introduced me to varmint hunting and another started me deer hunting.

Dad traded a pig for my first shotgun- a Winchester 37 in .410.

My dad had a single shot 16 ga shotgun. My cousin is the one that got me into guns.

Dan oz,
Thanks for posting that. Back in college I tried to write poems about guns and manhood, but few understood them. What a legacy!
Best,

Nope. Though everyone in my family was a gun owner, I totally did this on my own 😁
GreggH

No. My grandfather was accidentally shot in the stomach by his uncle when he was 18, in 1910. It took them several hours to get him to Staunton to the hospital and he had the bullet in his guts the rest of his life (61 more years!). Dad's older brothers hunted squirrels some, my dad not much. I had a bb gun and a friends father taught me to shoot a shotgun and .22. I started hunting deer a little bit in my late 20s, but until 3 years ago I had only one C.F. rifle, one .22 and 2 pistols. At 50 I bought my first pre-64 Model 70, and I've turned into something of a gun nut. I now have 4 Model 70s, a Winchester 69, an Ithaca 37 and a Stevens 87a, along with a Colt Commander. I started mounting my own scopes a couple of years ago. I appreciate all the help guys on here have given me, I'm always willing to listen and learn.

I'm also of the Jack O'Connor school. There was an April, 1965 copy of Outdoor Life laying around school when I was 12 or 13. The Ram and The Silver Bullet was the story that sparked an interest in hunting in me and I've been an O'Connor fan ever since.

Nope. My dad didn't hunt or fish. Neither did anybody else in the family. He did let my brother and I hunt and would take us to a hunting club he joined so we could deer hunt. He had cut his wrist really bad when a window that was stuck broke. He didn't have any feeling in his hand and I think he was afraid he couldn't control the trigger properly. He did a lot to ensure my brother and I had about all the hunting and fishing we needed by getting some friends to take us.

The vast majority of us weren't raised by gun loonies. I think gun loonies used to be a lot rarer than today

Thanks mate. He could be hard to get along with, but I think that poem says a lot about what it means to have a rifle and know how to use it.

Mom and dad both grew up on small farms during the depression.
Mom in W Va and dad in Ohio.
As kids they hunted for food for the family.

They went pheasant hunting on their honeymoon in Findlay, Ohio.
Used to be famous for pheasant hunting.

Mom gave dad a 1957 Sweet 16 as a wedding present and ironically he gave her a 57 Light 20.

Then a few years later dad got into the fast draw craze of the 1960s and started collecting and shooting Colt SAAs.
Mom shot with him too. They had a range and timer set up in the basement where they would practice every evening.

I was born in Dec of 62. Christmas I was 12 days old.
Under the tree was another A5 Light 20 with my name on it though I wasn't big enough to shoot it until I was 9 years old.

Dad started taking me rabbit hunting with him and my uncle when I was about 2-3 years old.

Started me on a Red Rider BB gun in the back yard at age 4 and I quickly became very frustrated.
He'd blow up balloons and tell me to shoot them, I couldn't hit squat.
One afternoon mom came home from work and said " go grab your BB gun, I wanna try something."
She blew up a balloon and told me to shoot it, of course I missed.
She said" This time, put the rifle on your right shoulder rather than your left."
Low and behold I broke it, and the next 5 .
Dad was left handed and assumed I was as well, boy was he ever wrong.

Dad was an avid wing shooter and started me on a single shot bolt action 410 that had been his first shotgun at age of 5.
Took me dove and duck hunting at age 7.
We started shooting clays w a group of his friends and by age 8 he had me reloading shotgun shells.

At 9 he introduced me to handguns, and by 12 I was reloading handgun ammo on my own on a Rock Chucker that I am still loading rifle ammo on to this day.

Dad never deer hunted a lot until I got into high school and that was only because I got the bug.
He only owned 3 centerfire rifles in his life, a 740 Remington in 280, a Model 81 in 300 Savage and a Browning A Bolt in 30-06.
He shot that 740 for over 50 years until part of the action bars wore out and the rifle wouldn't cycle reliably.

The only 22s dad had were both Brownings
A Grade III Belgian Auto and a Grade 2 BL22.

So yeah I was raised by a gun guy.
When dad passed in 2000 he had 67 Colts and Browning's one or two Remington's and a couple of Mdl12s in the safe.

I still have them all.

As far as the rifle looney part ?

I am self taught.

HTD

Man, THAT is a resume !!

Jerry

Nope, but Dad knew several who were. My first rifle that I could use and have (for about 6 months) was a Winchester 52 sporter. About cried when I had to give it back to dad's friend after I got my Boy Scout badge. Had the loan of a old Marlin octagon barrel in 45-70 from a good neighbor, dang that thing was heavy... With a hooked style metal butt plate kicked as well. Did get a deer with it however. Same neighbor took me duck hunting for the first time. Borrowed 16 gauge SXS, two triggers. I had Choppers on (no finger gloves) of course I fired both barrels, dang near went over the side of the boat. Black and blue shoulder as well. Did get a duck however.

+1

Yes and no. He is one of the best shots, rifle and pistol, I’ve ever met, but not a “gun guy”. He taught me and my brother gun safety and marksmanship, but guns were tools to him. He had a 12 gauge shotgun and that was it. We bought guns, .22s, shotguns, pistols, and center fire rifles. He could shoot them all better than we could. He would hunt quail, but that was it. After Korea and Vietnam, he didn’t have much of an appetite for shooting things. I do remember one now humorous interchange; Dad “What chambering will your rifle be?” 21 yo me “.30-06; it has plenty of power for deer.” Dad: “Why not a .223?” Me: “.223 isn’t powerful enough for deer!” Dad: *shrug* “.223 seemed to work pretty well in Vietnam.”

My old man was a definite "Gun Guy" . Ex Marine, owned a DCM M1 Garand, belonged to a Gun Club with ranges out to a 1000 yards. Must have rubbed off on me, when I worked at a Ski Area doing Avalanche Control I shot a 75 mm Recoiless Rifle as well as using hand thrown explosive charges. Fun Times.

The whole time I was growing up my Dad went deer hunting once. I was younger so I did not get to go. He was working with a guy when I was about 7 or 8 that would hunt foxes. So he got a 243. That was something he could use for fox or deer. When I was in Jr. High my older brother got in to coon hunting. He would go with him and sometimes I would go. When I was in in my mid 20's my other older brother got into hunting. It sounded fun so I borrowed my Dad's 243 and went antelope hunting with my brother. The next year I brought my own gun and started hunting with my brother. My dad started going out with us. He was never the gun guy that I am.

I know people like that. Would rather have stuff than use stuff. A lot of people seem that they would rather tell you about what they have then take the time to go use it. It’s not just with guns either.

Hell yes, Dad, Uncles, Gramps' even Grannies packin pistols, guns everywhere, it was a wonderful upbringing, i was on my belly at 6 years old shooting heavy barreled 6MM Rems with big springs on their scopes, paper Pennzoil cans had no chance at all, fall at the deer camps was so special they let school out for a week and actually called it 'deer season' break, times, they've surely changed, and NOT for the better!