Author Topic: Question for the posse: How many of you grew up with guns? (Read 1185 times)

Cheyenne Ranger · « **on:** February 27, 2003, 06:32:23 AM »

Just a quick and totally unscientific poll on how many of us grew up around guns. What kinds and how often you got to shoot them

107ch · « **Reply #1 on:** February 27, 2003, 06:44:59 AM »

My Dad collected guns. I was shooting a 410 single shot at 5 and hunting at 7. By the time I was 10 it was my "job" to keep the 50 or so guns we had oiled up so they didn't rust. My Dad was a competitive skeet shooter so we would go to range quite a bit.He also did all of his own reloading and taught that to my brother and me. In fact the first deer that I shot at age 13 was with ammo that I had loaded myself. I wish more kids today were brought up with guns as part of their lives and less of the video game mentality. As we all know hunting and fishing gives one a deep appreciation for nature and the outdoors.
Dennis

DB Leath · « **Reply #2 on:** February 27, 2003, 06:48:40 AM »

I didnt technically grow up with them. I can remember shootin a Ruger Mark 1 at around 6 or so. My great grandfather was a gunsmith so I did grow up with them around. We moved to a farm when I was 9 so thats when I started shooting more. I got my grandpas 61 Winchester then and thats what I shot the most... I still have it.
DB

Greybeard · « **Reply #3 on:** February 27, 2003, 07:08:49 AM »

Well dad was neither a shooter nor a hunter so during his entire lifetime I think he owned a total of only 2 shotguns, one of which I now have, one .22 short rimfire rifle which I gave you my brother and he sold, and two handguns a .22LR and a .38 Special both of which I have now.

I didn't get my first gun of my own until I was five years old when I got a Daisy bb gun. I've had guns and been shooting regularly ever since.

GB

Cheyenne Ranger · « **Reply #4 on:** February 27, 2003, 07:39:11 AM »

Dad grew up in Pennsylvania and he and his brothers did a lot of hunting. While Dad had the "required" 1911 for home defense it was my uncle that let us shoot his 30-30. Got the family's .22 rifle and bought my own Ruger Mark I for $39.95.
When I got to my teens Dad started reloading pistol, rifle and shotgun. I got to help and then take over. About this time Dad got into casting, too.
From there is was to the good old U.S. Army and once a civilian again kept my fingers in shooting right up until the present.

Pecos Clyde · « **Reply #5 on:** February 27, 2003, 08:04:58 AM »

Heyya

I don't know why I had such a keen an interest in firearms at an early age. My father only had a slight or mild interest in guns or hunting. I received a New Haven Arms single shot .410 bolt action shotgun for my 10th birthday. I think my dad got it for filling up his gas tank at an Erickson gas station when we lived in Minnesota. (Yes, they used to promote their sales like that.....my things have changed).

I then received a JC Higgins pump 12 ga for my 12th birthday. We lived way out in the country, with the woods out the back door and the lake out the front door. I hunted pheasant and ducks and rabbits. From about my eleventh birthday on, I ran a trap line for muskrats and mink. Many many muskrat pelts were sold for $1.25. Only ever trapped one mink...got $35.00 for the pelt. While I was doing the trapping, my dad got me an Iver Johnson trailsman 66, .22 cal eight shot double action revolver. It was much more handy to carry that along with a bunch of traps and chains etc.

Since those early beginings I have always owned, shot, carried professionally, and used firearms to great enjoyment. And now, the creme de la creme....Cowboy Action Shooting. The hits just keep on coming!!

Black Jaque Janaviac · « **Reply #6 on:** February 27, 2003, 08:42:39 AM »

My dad hunted, just never went gonzo over it. But I had 5 older brothers who loved hunting. Guns were in the house as long as I can remember.

Dad didn't allow airguns though. Evidently my brothers did not use them responsibly and ever since then the only guns he allowed were powerful enough that they/we wouldn't be attempted to shoot 'em in town.

I grew up right on the fringe of when westerns were fading and video games were rising up. As a consequence many of my friends were somewhat urbanites though I was more interested in playing in the woods.

We would go out with .22's on occasion. We would raid the local recycling center an get one last use out of glass bottles before they were smelted. Even as teenagers we were conscious of the mess glass made. We tried setting the bottles on boards over boxes so the box would collect most of the debris. Wish someone had shown us the pop-can full of water trick. Easier to clean up and much more interesting. Heck, even clay pigeons would have been a reasonable alternative.

I think if we had better targets we would have had more interest in shooting. But we lacked mentors (by then my brothers were out of the house).

I really started shooting regularly when I got into buckskinning and muzzle loading. At the time, my range only allowed ML's so my centerfires collected dust. Sold 'em before they rusted out from underneath me.

Now my family is taking precidence. Smokeless shooting is a little more practical. I can reload at home without leaving my wife by herself with the kids. Then when I'm at the range, I can get a whole lot more shooting in before my conscience starts telling me to go home.

T. Two Dogs · « **Reply #7 on:** February 27, 2003, 12:23:20 PM »

We always had guns in the house. My cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents always had them - generally by the front door. We lived in an rather isolated part of Wisconsin and "things" could happen. I could always touch the guns, all I had to do was go and ask Mom or Dad, and they would help me (clearing it and then holding it - a Winchester 38-55 is still heavy for a 6 yr old). When I was finished fondling it, they would reload, put it back, and my curiosity was satisfied. My kids were raised the same way - two Army Capts and A Marine Corporal. Seems to work for us. My grandkids are in a little tighter situation, but basically, if they want to explore, just ask Dad and he will help you. When I was told I didn't need help, I was 12 - I was 13 feet tall and proud as a peacock! I had arrived into manhood. I remember that moment and the first kiss from a gal not related to me like it happened this morning. WOW! What a rush - didn't need any drugs or liquor - I was buzzy, flying high (getting a kiss from the wife still does that to me) :-)

Capt Hamp Cox · « **Reply #8 on:** February 27, 2003, 12:31:23 PM »

My dad was neither a shooter nor a hunter. Fortunately for me, my maternal grandfather, who was a rancher, was both. He (to the displeasure of my grandmother and mother) let me shoot his M62 Win. pump .22 when I was four. This was during "The Big One" (WW II), and my dad was overseas, so my "Grandpa" took me under his wing. "He taught me gun safety, marksmanship, basic gun maintenance, and how to hunt. I think I was about six when I got my Daisy Red Ryder BB gun. I got my own .22 (a single shot Winchester) at age 7 or 8, and bagged my first deer at age 11 with a borrowed Savage 99 in .300 Savage. Got my first shotgun (16 ga Remington Sportsman auto) about a year later. Have owned lots of firearms since then. Just wish I had had the sense to hang on to some I let get away from me. I raised both of my kids (a boy and a girl) around guns, and both are proficient with rifle and handgun (both are Army veterans and son is an Austin, TX police officer).

ButlerFord45 · « **Reply #9 on:** February 27, 2003, 01:16:37 PM »

I'm another whose dad was neither hunter nor shooter. The only gun in the house for years was a J.C.Higgens bolt action 20 guage. He wasn't anti-gun or hunting, it just wasn't his cup of tea. So, my learning to shoot came from Gene, Hoppy, and Roy. Got my first powder propeled lead slinger when I was around 10, a Mossgerg semi-auto 22. My first gunsmithing experience was with that mossberg. It had a 2 piece bolt held together with a rod about 4" long and 1/4" diameter. A "head" on one end and a hole drilled on the other for a pin. The rod wore out at the pin. I determined that with a bit of grinding and drilling, I could make one from a 60d nail. I was proud of my self and my enginuity!!! Of course Pride being one of the seven, things didn't go quite as I planned. To try out my handy work, I took it squirrel hunting. After a bit of woods traipsing, I chased one up a hollow tree. I was not going to be out done by a squirrel!!! I stuck that fine piece of handiwork up the tree and pulled the trigger!! Burrrrrrrrrrradpt!!!!!!!! Scared the hell out of me!!!! 'Specially when pieces of squirrel started falling! I pulled the gun out of the mess and checked the mag tube...EMPTY!!! All fifteen had gone up that tree!! HOT DANG I HAD MYSELF A FULL AUTO 22!!!! I couldn't wait!! I immediatly forgot about hunting! Filled that tube again and sure enough when I pulled the trigger we were off and running again! This was just too good to be true!!! I loaded her up again!! Sure enough all 15. I only had five bullets left, so I loaded them into the tube for one more little blast before taking my prize home. Well that final five blew the end cap out of the breach, I lost the firing pin and one part of the bolt. Never did find the firing pin. I decided then that maybe I should leave the gunsmithing to the pros. The good Lord does look after fools, cause if I hadn't been "John Wayneing" and shooting from the hip, I'd be "One Eyed Jack" instead of Butler Ford!

williamlayton · « **Reply #10 on:** February 27, 2003, 01:18:22 PM »

dad was not a factor-died wwII, granfather died 1 yr after my father. i was raised by two grandmothers and a working mother (she never remarried)--and about 2000 aunts.
but i was always around guns-everybody had guns-every glove compartment in every car had a gun, every house had a gun. my mother let me have a bb gun when i was pottytrained i think--she was not afraid of guns although she didn't have one.
a friends father talked to her before christmas the year i was 10 or 11 and suggested i needed one. she bought me a 410, single shot and the friends father taught me how to use it one day. she insisted i keep it loaded in the house.
by the time we all were 15 we were hunting birds alone, although we hunted with the adults also- seems they had to work and we could hunt after school if we had the money for bullets.
bought a 22 automatic whwn i was 16 or so. we burned thousands of bricks thru that thing--i'm tellig ya when we drove up to the trinity river things started hidenin.
never been without one and had one in the car with me for the better part of 40 years, but its always been on my own. i have two children and they grew up around a house full of guns, and learned they were all loaded, but never to this day have they shown any interest in them. so who can figure ? bad genes from their mother i say--dang them hardshell methodist .

Shootin' Carts Jimmy · « **Reply #11 on:** February 28, 2003, 04:12:35 AM »

I grew up around guns. I got my first bb gun when I was 13 and a Marlin/Glenfield 60 .22 semiauto rifle when I was 15. Was huntin' squirrels and plinking about every weekend when we went to our country place. Got a 20ga. hand me down from my brother when I was about 18.

Quit chooting for many years - got interested in girls.

Started up again about 10 years ago with a lever action 30.06 and deer hunting. Got into CAS two years ago and picked up a bunch of new CAS guns and my first pistols - a Berreta 8040 and a Taurus PT101.

I take my kids shooting with me as often as possible so they know how to use them and develop a love for shooting sports.

williamlayton · « **Reply #12 on:** February 28, 2003, 06:00:47 AM »

let's see if i got this right butler--a nail and a mosssberg--ok where can i find the mossberg

:roll:

ButlerFord45 · « **Reply #13 on:** February 28, 2003, 07:28:21 AM »

Oh William, ya should have been there, It was Heaven for a few seconds!!

I found out a few years later, that I had made it too short, and it didn't allow the back half of the bolt to reengage the sear when ya fired it. Must have been the "perfect" lenght because it seemed to work ok when you cocked it by hand.

HWooldridge · « **Reply #14 on:** February 28, 2003, 10:01:50 AM »

I was given a .22 Marlin when I was 6 and was hunting solo by age 9 (times were different 40 years ago). My granpa put a small Marble gold bead on the front and a plain barrel sight on the back. I shot countless squirrels, rabbits and quail in the head with this rifle. I have the same basic setup on an old bolt action Springfield .22 that belonged to my dad and it will do the same tricks if my eyes cooperate. I was taught to put just the top of the bead in the rear sight and put the target on top of that picture. Nobody used scopes. Dad, granpa and my uncles put food on the table with a rifle so they wouldn't tolerate anyone that couldn't shoot game and raised hell if it was anything but a head shot on small animals. One of my great-uncles was an excellent marksman and used a 38-55 single shot to hunt deer and turkey. I saw him kill a turkey about 200 yds away with it and he regularly killed deer the same way - seldom using more than one shot. To them, a rifle was a tool used like an axe or a hammer - with skill and no wasted effort. Much of this way of thinking is now gone...

River runner · « **Reply #15 on:** March 02, 2003, 03:29:50 PM »

My Dad, my uncles, and my grandpa;s were all hunters and trappers. Istarted out with a BB gun when I was about 5, started hunting at about 10 with a bolt action .410, and got an Iver Johnson Champion 20 ga. that I still have at age 11. At age 12 got a Winchester model 94, that belonged to my granddad, made in 1909 in 30WCF. Wish I still had that gun, but that's a long story. My Dad was a regular at the local Sportsmaen's club, so when we weren't hunting or fishing, we were at the club shooting trap or whatever.

RR

Cuts Crooked · « **Reply #16 on:** March 03, 2003, 01:39:27 AM »

I grew up with guns, but in an odd way.

I was an orphan and was always being moved around, from the orphange to a foster home, back to the orphange, then to another foster home, then back to the orphange....well you get the picture I'm sure. I was a little monster and most folks couldn't tolorate me fer long.

Anyway, back in those days the local Catholic Church ran the orphange, on contract for the state. On one of my early sojourns at the orphange the Priest , Father Laugherty, took me with him on a quail hunt. We walked part way across town to the bus stop and took the city bus to the edge of town where we got off and walked into the countryside to hunt. Laugherty carried that little 28 gauge of his all the way, uncased with the action broke open and his pockets bulging with shells.......no one thought a thing about it! Didn't take me long to figger out my part of the deal, I was the "dog" and fetched downed birds outta the brush! :eek: But I loved it! And that little SxS 28 was a thing of beauty in my eyes! After that first hunt, whenever I was sent back to the orphange we went hunting together. When I was 10 I was returned from a foster home but Father Laugherty had died. I was disconsolate until one of the Nuns came to my room and gave me a long cardboard box and told me that Laugherty had left it to me. Inside was a Noble bolt action single shot .22 and two boxes of ammo, one of .22 long rifle and one of .22 shot shells. From then on I was a confirmed shooter & hunter. I would walk to the bus station rifle in hand, and board the bus, with the bolt in my pocket, and ride to the edge of town, get off and walk into the fields and timbers and terrorize the local squirel and quail population. When I would be sent to another foster home, that rifle went with me. Once a social worker took me to foster home where she was told that I could not have the rifle because they didn't believe in having guns. She took me straight back to the orphanage until another foster family could be found!

It was a different time and a different world back then.....I wish it hadn't changed so much! <sigh> Perhaps someday life can be that way again.

A62Rambler · « **Reply #17 on:** March 04, 2003, 03:38:00 PM »

I sure feel lucky. My father was a minister and taught me to shoot a BB gun when I was 8 or so. Shortly after that my great uncle left my father a marlin bolt 22 and a 16 guage single barrel(hard times had led to my father selling his guns). Accurate rifle shooting is a family tradition and it was passed on to me(well, when I try hard anyway). By age 13 or 14 I had saved up and bought a 20 gauge pump. I guess that's growing up around guns. I feel lucky that my father passed the love of shooting and of hunting on to me(he preferred archery hunting). The last thing my father wanted to do when he got cancer was to go out shooting with me. I will always remember that day, it was his way of saying good bye to me. I don't think non shooters would understand why that would be the last activity we did together but those of us who shoot can understand!

Snakebite · « **Reply #18 on:** March 04, 2003, 07:33:01 PM »

I have been shooting since I was 5-6 yr old. I started out on a small farm, and then move into a small farming town. Shooting was on the schedule most of the time. When I wasn't shooting my 22, I was shooting my Red Ryder. Hunting was an every weekend thing, and often an after school thing depending what was in season. Usually deer, phesant, quail, dove, squirel. I have lived in the mountains for some time now, and can sit on the back porch and shoot. After dark the hogs come in...but it's illegal to shoot them at night.... :wink: The family has a 1600 acre cattle ranch in the high Sierra's that allows for shooting the Big guns at any range desired. It has deer, bear, a few hogs, and mountain lion which are protected except when they are killing the cattle.........Life is good!

Snakebite

Jose Grande · « **Reply #19 on:** March 04, 2003, 08:33:21 PM »

My dad was big into Quail hunting. I was tagging along as soon as I could walk. I got a .410 single at 5. I got a .22 auto (Springfield) at 6.
I still live within 100 yds of where I grew up. I still love guns & get one ever chance I get.
I've shot single actions the last 25 or 30 years & CAS just gave me an excuse to get some more. So yeah I grew up with'em & got so many I ain't shot some of them in several years.

But never fear I'll get around to that before long. :-)

Pigeonroost Slim · « **Reply #20 on:** March 05, 2003, 03:03:25 AM »

I was child #4 in my family. Dad was a great pistol shot and reknown local wing and live bird shot. Mostly natural talent, but also one of those fellows that served in the Navy and got to shoot quite a bit at Uncle Sugar's expense. But he was a bit cautious about his kids and guns. By the time I came along he had sold all his pistols to keep the kids out of them. He did, however have fine shot guns. His favorite was a high grade Browning Superposed 20ga that he carried in our very rough grouse country.

My first gun contact was a job, at about age 8; the cleaning of the guns after the hunt. On about the third episode of that job I dropped the little Superposed as I was placing it back into the rack and its highly figured presentation grade stock shattered like glass! Dad, a bear of a man with a temper to match, was downstairs having coffee. He heard the thump and by the look on my face as I appeared to report, he knew this was not good news. I thought he would KILL me. He said he "knew it would happen, that's life".

He had his buddy, "Little Dummy" (Dad was "Big Dummy") glue the stock and when cured he said to me; "Here, clean this up and put it in the rack, if yer gonna drop it, do it now before I get it restocked!" After the season he sent to Rheinhart/Fajen and got their most fancy grade of stock put on it, which it wears to this day over 40 years later; but plenty of battle scars on the wood and metal. Guns, even high grades, were made to be shot and enjoyed. I shoot the H377 out of them! That Browning is a prized possession of mine and my son's.

Lone Yankee · « **Reply #21 on:** March 31, 2003, 12:00:14 AM »

I got my first rifle at 6 years old. I was not allowed to shoot it by myself but it was kept in my closet. The ammo was kept in Dad's closet and woe be the boy that ever went in there. My rifle was a Stevens 053 bolt action single shot in .22 WRF.

I shoot from 2-3 times each week and reload the rest of the time.

Lone

Lone Yankee · « **Reply #22 on:** August 06, 2003, 08:22:57 PM »

My Pap started me with a BA single shot Stevens in .22WRF. I was 6 years old. When I was 13 he got me an 1894 .30-30 Eastern Carbine. At 14 I boought my own Mossberg 16 ga BA shotgun. Been shooting ever since,

lone

Dakota Confederate · « **Reply #23 on:** August 07, 2003, 02:39:00 AM »

Grew up without guns??? Isn't that something like child neglect or something? Nope, out here I think most everybody grew up with guns. Myself, I was shooting my dad's old Winchester 69A when I was 6 or so and had my own Ruger 10/22 a few years later. Man, growing up without guns...what a deprived childhood.

long colt lawrence · « **Reply #24 on:** August 07, 2003, 06:24:54 AM »

Always had'em. My dad got me my own real rifle when I was eight (mom protested, but he won that one.) It was single shot 22 savage and we had to cut the stock. I've still got it and one day my son will. Before I could drive, I'd walk to the end of the street to the woods and get squirrels and once I had my liscence me and buddy would be ground hog hunting in the summer and deer hunting in the winter. Man, those were the days. I don't hunt too much anymore but I shoot paper and I'm real happy to have found CAS!