Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Was your Father a Shooter/Reloader

I’m of the school an apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.

My Dad was both an excellent rifle shot as he was a hunter. Back in the 1950-60’s you almost had to reload your own ammunition to get the level of precision that he required.

He taught me how to shoot and reload, passed on the reloading books for all the little details like correct powder burn rate & bullet weights

I think he was slightly disappointed I chose the .270 Winchester as my my primary hunting caliber over his 30-06 Springfield. He said I was corrupted by that O’Conner fellow…..😂

How about you?

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My father was always a hunter and still is. He is also an exceptional shot and has been reloading since the late 60’s early 70’s.

Dad was a very good shot, although he only owned one gun, a ,22 LR single shot. He didn't have time to hunt. I got my desire to hunt, shoot and reload from my Mom's brothers.

Neither, learned on my own.

My dad told of hunting pheasants & jackrabbits when he was a boy but never owned a gun that I knew of when I was growing up. He worked part time as a security guard when I was very young and remember a revolver on top of an upright piano, an issued weapon, not his own I imagine.
I was crazy about hunting and guns as far back as I can remember, family friends would give me Outdoor Life and Sports Afield magazines that I read over and over. I wish I still had those old classic issues.
Learned how to shoot and hunt from friends and classmates. I remember skipping school during study hall to shoot gophers on those glorious first days of spring.
I had to buy my own guns and my dad and I never hunted or target shot together.

i learned mostly on my own to reload but i have shot a lot since i was 10 years old ,my father mostly was just a deer hunted. my uncles all hunted a lot . got ammo cheap because uncles and friends worked at Federal Cartridge so i got lots of free ammo and lots of seconds too.

Father was a shooter, but not a hunter after the war. Never reloaded .

Neither but he was a good dad. He knew I got bitten by the fishing and hunting bug hard. Always got me a subscription to outdoor life. I'd walk out into the country knocking on farmer's doors asking permission to hunt (this was before I could drive), then when seasons would open, I would either walk out to my hunting spots or he would drop me off before my hunts and pick me up after I was done for the day. Pretty much a lifetime of DIY

My father was not a shooter but did enjoy rabbit and squirrel hunting. Deer were really not available when he was young and, actually, were pretty rare until the ‘70s and ‘80s. I’m not sure where I got the shooting bug as none of my relatives were into guns and shooting but as far back as I can remember, I was always interested in guns.

My dad wasnt much of a hunter, had a few guns,but didnt shoot much.
He was the one that got me into guns ,shooting ,and hunting at the age of around 10 . Bought me a Shooters Bible ,and started buying gun magazines for me.
He did do some bird hunting, mostly quail and pheasant. I went with him a couple times after quail, before I was old enough to hunt . He was a really crappy shot ! He said he couldnt shoot a deer, but he loved venison, and was excited whenever I got one .

My Father only hunted pheasant on Sherman Island in NorCal and stopped when I was born. He used an Ithaca M37.

My dad was a PO, so he did pistol and shotgun recertification once a year at the police range. We would save up mayonnaise jars and take them out to sink them in Uncle Ed and Aunt Myrt's pond once we got a grocery bag full. I wouldn't want to ever wade in that pond. We used an old .38 he brought back from Japan. He gave the pistol to a boat captain in Murrell's Inlet to shoot sharks.

This thread reminds me how fortunate I was, Dad took us hunting for whatever was in season, we took 3 week vacations every other year, usually to NW Wyoming, the Beartooth Wilderness area. I probably caught more fish by the time I was 12 than most folks in their lifetime. Game processor? Pfft, we cut & wrapped everything we brought home.

Pops was reloading long before it was popular, he loaded for a bunch of friends on his Herters equipment (not a fan of 'em but it worked for him).

At 70 Dad & Mom bought a house in northern Wyo, he tore it down and built a 3K SF house on the Tongue River, back then there were lots of P-dogs, I gave him a heavy barrelled .222 Rem and I got it from his collection. The throat has some serious erosion, I call that a win, he loved that gun enough to wear out the barrel.

Dad was a killer of deer and elk. But he was no marksman, nor was he a reloader. His Rem 760 in 30-06 was fed a steady diet of W-W 150 sp for deer and W-W 180 Silvertips for elk. He would have fit well with any crowd of Pennsylvania machine gunners. But he kept the freezer full.

I branched into an entirely new direction with demands for precision, tuning my rifles, and building my own ammo.

My dad was a great shooter and hunter. He carried a Husqvarna 1640 in 30.06 for deer and elk, he reloaded for a short time in the sixties but never taught me how. He was also an avid pheasant hunter and carried an old A5. I've still got both of those guns.

My dad Like'd to dove hunt, pheasant and deer hunt; all on opening weekend. He didn't much care for hunting if it wasn't opening weekend. He didn't shoot much either.

My dad was a reloader and competitive shooter. His dad was a reloader and competitive shooter. My mother, her father, and her grandfather were all hunters, out of necessity. I recall going with Mom, when I was about 8 years old, as she shot grouse (Northern BC, 1957). GD

My earliest memories would involve policing up AA target hulls after a round of trap with Dad. Later we'd reload them, with me handing him components and whatnot. This would have been '74-'75, age about five for me. I've his reloading gear now, as he's perfectly happy to shoot the reloads I'm quite content to provide for him.

Dad never did get over the fact that I carried a Ruger #1 elk hunting.

Nor did he go for my buddy's damned fast 270 or worse my Ruger tang safety 25-06. Never mind that it would easily break each of a dozen eggs at 100 yds. The bullets were so damned fast, they just penciled through with no time to expand.

Same
but did learn from good friends

Hank