What age were you?

What a great video. Hard to tell who is having more fun.

Not sure what age I started shooting. Honestly I can't remember a time when I wasn't shooting something. Squirt guns, cap guns, pointed sticks.... My first "Hunt" was shooting flies with toothpicks out of of a daisy. We would cut a pear off the tree in half and the flies would swarm it. Next was shooting any birds we could find in the woods with a Crossman Pumpmaster. Definitely had no regard for stewardship of the species or the rifle at that age. Both are things I intend to impress on my grandkids as they learn. My high school graduation present was going to the Beeman showroom in Santa Rosa CA, and picking out an HW77 lefty carbine. I've loved airguns since that day.
 
I started out with a daisy at 4. Was shooting at the birds on the power/telephone wires out behind our house untill I didn't close the cocking lever and it smashed my finger when I pulled the trigger. Was about 10 years until I got my next airgun. I saved up for a Sheridan.20 cal. I shot so many birds out my bedroom window we didn't have any around for what seemed 3 years.
 
I started doing pest control at the family farm probably around age 8 or 9. By age 10 my grandfather gave me my own gun, a pump-action FN .22, made just before WWII. My grandfather brought it back from Europe, after the war.

I didn't get into air guns until much later, in adult life, when I needed to do some quiet pest control.
 
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I can’t help not to get excited with dad. That was funny and fun to watch. The way they stalked up on it, I was ready to see a larger and more crafty animal even though the post told us it was a rabbit. When ole Bugs appears in the center of the frame, I cracked up.

I can’t recall what age I started with a Crosman 760 (maybe somewhere between 8-10), but it was backyard plinking at soda cans filled with water, that turned into shooting birds. Then I graduated to a CO2 bb pistol, then a CO2 pellet revolver, and a springer.

I don’t recall the age I started hunting. I was in elementary school because I still have photos of myself when I was young with some of our hounds. Maybe around 3rd-4th grade. The majority of my hunting experience is with a variety of hounds. We mainly hunted raccoon at night, but also hunted North American big cats, bear, and hogs on occasion.
 
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Don’t remember my age when I was first taken hunting, 10-12? We were visiting my uncle and cousin, and they took my dad and me hunting rabbits. I was stood atop a stump, given a .410 to hold and directed by my year-younger cousin not to move. Everyone else went off to follow the dogs. Cold, boring. It sucked. Same scenario a couple of subsequent years. Found no joy in it.

Had a Daisy BB gun as a kid, don’t recall the model. Didn’t think highly of it then nor now upon reflection. The only good to come from my rabbit hunting experience was that I found an abandoned .22 rim fire single-shot rifle leaning against a tree, the barrel full of water, my first ‘real’ gun. Cleaned it up and put a lot of rounds through it plinking. That was back in the day when a kid could walk into the hardware store on his own and buy a box of .22s no questions asked.

My dad did not hunt otherwise. I didn’t hunt again until in my late 20’s when I went with coworkers. Hunted steadily after for the next 25 years or so, waterfowl, pheasants, deer. Came to love the outdoors experiences, the taking was always secondary. Also shot trap and skeet in our company-sponsored league. Life changed and the hunting/shooting stopped.

Picked up a real airgun last fall to shoot targets for something to do when life changed again. Still don’t hunt, home bound for now so not an option. Retired and moved a few years ago, live in the woods and on a lake so being outdoors is covered.
 
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I got my first pellet gun for my 7th birthday; it was a beautiful Sheridan Blue Streak. The gun was almost too hard to pump for me and the bolt was difficult to pull back. At the same time my Dad bought himself a Silver Streak.

Before that the family had various Daisy BB guns, but the Blue Streak was all mine. I think my Dad introduced me to Co2 pistols before that, but I can't remember too clearly.

Anyway, looking back, my Dad was kinda crazy about hunting/shooting.
However, he was very strict about how to use them properly, if you violated a basic principle - watch out o_O .
 
My father started teaching me to shoot when I was 8. First gun I fired was a Colt Police Positive revolver in .22lr. He was federal law enforcement and the first rifle I learned on was his issue Colt M16A2. When I was 10, and had demonstrated that I was safe and responsible with firearms, I was allowed to buy my first air rifle, which was a Crosman 760. Mowed a lot of lawns and had a decent paper route. Took me most of the summer to save up the $40 for it.

Before his career in law enforcement, Dad was a Marine. Strict but fair, and one of the best shots I've ever known. My first hunt was for partridge when I was 12. Used a single shot .410, and I was successful. Good times. My 760 actually earned me some money. A small local airfield payed me 25 cents per bird to keep pigeons out of the hangar.

I started teaching my daughter to shoot at the same age. Her first gun was a Red Ryder, second gun was a Crosman 392 .22 pump. My son-in-law and her are both into the shooting sports with both airguns and firearms.
 
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Not sure what age I started at. It was probably 7 or 8. A little Daisy Red Ryder. You know, one of those beginner rifles you can watch the BB fly out the barrel? Anyway, there was a rabbit in the yard. Bout 10yds or so; just sittin there. Shot him right in the head and he went to floppin' round on the ground. Since it wasn't enought to kill him I walked up an stomped his widdle head. :eek::p Dead wabbit. First kill ever. Mom cooked him that night and man was he delicious. Anyway, that's what got me started.
 
For my birthday when I was 9 dad gave me a Sheridan Silver Streak (20 cal)
He said at the time "I want you to have a real gun not just a BB gun."

It was the only birthday party I ever had that I got to invite friends to.
Dad made a target so we could shoot in the hallway of the basement (length of the house).
That day everyone was shooting in the basement and all my buddy’s were talking about the "real gun".

I never got to run around the neighborhood toting the gun like the other guys did with their BB guns but in college that gun put rabbit in the pot.
(Used to shoot them out of my dorm room on weekends when i didn’t have a meal plan.)

I still take cottontails at least once a year with it.