What were your first experiences handling a gun?

[Pneumattic]

I recently found out that my high school had a 25 yard range in the basement that was used by the Air Cadets. Never knew it was there. Anyhow, I worked part time at a sporting goods store in the late 60’s and bought my first pellet rifle from there. I still have and use it periodically. It’s an el gamo 68. I was formally trained in firearms safety and marksmanship when I joined the Police Dept in the mid 70’s. Since I had some powder burners, I didn’t really pay much attention to the air gun sports until a couple of years ago and I have since embraced it. I really enjoy 10M shooting pistol and want to purchase a 10M rifle. I’m happy and very lucky to be supported by my wife and son-in-law who also like the air gun shooting sports.

 

[AirNGasman]

I got kind of a late start because my parents wouldn't allow me to handle guns until I was a year old. That's me and my big brother... in 1954-

I've owned over a thousand projectile launchers of all manner since.

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[delooper]

On the family farm in the 80's. It was tradition for our grandfather to hand us a 22 rifle and a box of shells. The expectation was we'd walk around the field and kill off gophers all afternoon.

 

[coastal drifter]

I believe my first experience was at a county fair, one of those bee bee machine guns you had to shoot out the red star. then a friend whose father was a big game hunter had a couple bee bee guns we would shoot in his basement. He gave me one and I took it home. After my older brother put the neighbors window out shooting at a bird on a wire my father took it never to be seen again. I'd say I'm mostly self-taught and have owned many fire arms, air guns and bows since then.

 

[airgunner53]

15 years old with a Crosman 2100, unsupervised teens shooting random objects with friends. They couldn't hit the broadside of a barn. I was hooked and realized I could actually shoot. Handled my first and many other firearms in the marine corps to include bigger things that went boom.

 

[Ricklin]

Funny, (not really) how some people think that giving a 100 pound pre-teen a 12 gauge shotgun and laughing when it knocks them on their ass is a good way to introduce a youngster to firearms.

A number of my friends went through that "ritual" and a couple of them were totally (permanently) put off powder-burners. Most of the guys who stayed with powder-burners had a bad flinch that took years to get over.


I was lucky when I was introduced to shotguns. Ear-muffs and low-base skeet shells were used. My friend explained how to stand, hold the gun, demonstrated how the recoil would move me and was ready to support me during the first shots. It was an exhilarating POSITIVE experience.

Hope that people keep that in mind when handing a heavy recoil gun to an excited young person for their first experience with a real gun.

Cheers!

Uh ya, I was younger than that, thus I knew better than to do that to my son. Still get a flinch after 3-4 boxes of trap practice.

 

[BoCo]

My dad let me shoot his .22 Remington nylon 66 - I must have been 6 or 7. He taught me how to shoot safely and accurately and I've been at it ever since.

 

[beerthief]

I was just about 9 and my father handed me a model 25 bb gun and said " you buy your own bb's and don't shoot any windows or you loose the gun " 1954

 

[Ricklin]

I remember returning to Michigan on a family trip and finding my old BB gun under the back porch. I was prolly 14. Same place grandpa threw it when I was a wee one. Apparently I misbehaved with it! Sure do wish he had thrown it in the back of a closet instead, original Daisy Red Ryder, more importantly my first gun and it was my dad's before that. The years under the porch made it barely recognizable, grandpa used salt on the porch.

 

[Firewalker]

I first shot a bb gun when I was too young to remember the event. I got a model 25 then a 760 and wore them out.

I got my shooters training patch (orange) from NRA youth training and carried my Marlin bolt .22lr in a sock to elementary school in the 6th grade for squirrel hunting after school.

I have had all of my kids shoot at 4 years old, the single shot .22 I learned on.

They all understood the consequences of discharging a firearm.

Half have guns, half don't. I'll have single shot trays in my Notos for the kids/grandkids this weekend for our fall fest.

Prizes for hit targets and good safety discipline.