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The first time I ever shot, I was 3 (1966). Dad regularly took us shooting at the local gravel pit. I still have the Mossberg M42C-M and Model 62 Winchester that I grew up shooting.

My youngest got his very own Crickett at age 4.

Started with a Daisy BB gun when I was 7 or 8 in Michigan. We hunted sparrows and starlings although I can't say I hit many. My Dad taught me how to shoot with his .22. Then when I was 12, he gave me a single shot 20 guage shotgun, which I still have. I did some deer, rabbit and quail hunting until I got married at 22. Then I shot very, very little for the next 30 years. Katrina convinced me to get back into shooting and specifically into handguns.

I had BB and Pellet Guns when I was 6-8 back in the early 70's

Went Squirrel and Deer hunting with my Dad from 10-14 or 15

Had handguns for HD since my mid 20's and limited range time

Just got my CHL recently

I honestly don't remember when I started and what I was shooting at...

But I have been shooting as long as I "can" remember...

Guess I'll have to ask Dad...He'd know...

I started shooting Daisy BB guns when I was about 4, never looked back since then.

My daddy bought me my first BB gun and .22 and taught me to shoot. Shot a lot in the scouts too. Wasted many a West Texas jackrabbit, gopher, and crow with the .22.

Learned to shoot pistol and big rifles in the military. 1911s, M14s.

Took to shotgunning naturally.

Anygun

When I was a kid, it was Duck Hunt, on the Nintendo.

6yr old, Snooping around my grandparents house in Raymondville, TX, I found my father's old Daisy BB gun. Talked grandparents into helping me clean it up and buying BB's. First BB fired rolled out the barrel, but it got better.

Grandmother was a marksman, and used to competition shoot 22 in the 1940's. Made me shoot the BB's til 9yrs. old and then taught me to shoot her Matchmaster Competition 22 with 9lb. barrel. Now it is mine.

Grandparents were big farmers in the valley, and grandmother wore a revolver on her hip when a new group of hands were brought to the farm.

She didn't drink, smoke, cuss, or even think bad thoughts, but she could shoot!

It was around 69 with my dad & my new daisy BB gun, plinking cans around the burn pile!

I grew up out in the country in the 50s and 60s. In those days every kid had a gun of some kind. My father, a Greek LEGAL immigrant and NRA life member, was a big hunter and shooter so it was natural that it passed on to me. Started out with BB guns and scores of dead birds. Then on to .22 rifles and it's mushroomed from there. I was on a NRA Junior rifle team as a youth and competed in various shooting sports my whole life. I've passed this love on to both my son and daughter and now have the blessing of grandkids who have spent many hours at the range with Papa.

Great North Woods in a tiny town of Easton Mass. at around 67. I was 14/15 Had miles of woods, and swamps to hunt in. Took an NRA hunters safety course. and decimated the bird and squirrel population. With a Stevens 410 .22 over under. We ate good tough. Pheasant rabbit, squirrel and duck. Although We respected the safety rules. I must admit I didn't pay much attention to the seasons. Game warden gave some of us a pretty wide berth and didn't mess with us except to ask who was in the woods where. I guess they figured we wee feeding our family, and weren't shooting stuff most people cared about. Did some bounty hunting as a young kid Fox, Rat, and Badger. Its a whole difference place there now. The woods are infested with housing, liberals and tree huggers.


Went in the Army learned photography and never (well almost never) went hunting again.

I forget exactly how old I was, but my dad's father took me shooting for the first time with his old Remington 511 Scoremaster .22. Pap really impressed me, too, when he casually threw the rifle to his shoulder and hit targets offhand that I had missed with ten carefully aimed shots.

After that, I shot occasionally with him, and once with my uncle, who helped introduce me to big-bore revolvers. I think I was an early teen, and decided that .357 and .44 were a hoot! - but that I wanted to wait a few years before shooting them again! I now love big-bore magnums, and load my own ammo for them.

My true marksmanship training was in high school, under the tutelage of the school's JROTC instructor, in the air rifle team. I never was the best shot, and while I scored "expert" with the air rifle, I was one of the worse shots on the team. I remain "passably competent," but am no crack shot. I DO have an affinity with most firearms, where I can become passably competent with them in a short amount of time (except Glocks, which don't get along with me), but I've yet to achieve anything approaching true expert marksmanship with any firearm.

Must have been 5 or 6 when my dad taught me to shoot in the back yard, with a Daisy BB gun. He drilled safety into me and expected that BB gun to be treated just like a rifle or shotgun. (Smart man).

My mom is the one that taught me how to hit what I aimed at. She could do things with a .22 rifle and iron sights that most men would not attempt with a scoped rifle. :)

By 8 I was hunting jackrabbits and varmints on my uncles ranch...never looked back from there.

As a teenager, several of us hunted coyotes and raccoons for the pelts in the winter; varmints the rest of the year. My dad used to say we were a lot less likely to get in trouble with a gun, out in the middle of a pasture, than we were with a car running up and down the roads.

For 34 years in the finest gun club the world has ever seen, the United States Marine Corps ... and since.