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Daisy BB gun at age 9 or 10. Probably learned from Dad on his old single shot .22 during the same period. My introduction to the Big Time was at age 12 when my Uncle Ralph instructed me on shooting a .243.

We were a rifle shooting family. Dad had one shotgun that wasn't used much because we hunted deer, not birds. Dad had one handgun (a High Standard .22) that lived its life in his sock drawer.

7 years old

My uncle forced my dads hand one day about taking me to the range with the adults. First gun I had was given to me that day - a Walther PPk in .380 (I called it the James Bond gun for years). I then handed it down to the next brother in line when I joined the USN. He then passed it along to our next brother and is now on the final leg of brothers.... I want it back .

I started out 7-8 with Daisy BB gun, then Crossman pump BB gun. We shot Dad's .22 single shot bolt with the button to cock it probably about the same time. 11-12 we started pheasant hunting with Dad (I grew up in rural Iowa). After I turned 18 and my next younger brother turned 16, Dad didn't have enough shotguns for everyone so we started buying our own.

Dad never was and still isn't into handguns. Because Dad was a farmer, he could get out and hunt after the crops were harvested in the fall. He also trapped red fox, mink, muskrat and racoon in the winter for extra. The only time I ever saw Dad with a handgun was when he borrowed a .22 revolver from my uncle to dispatch a skunk that was in a fox trap.

I probably shot my first handgun, a .32 revolver, in my middle 20's. I didn't get my own handgun until a couple of years ago, just shortly before I got my CHL, in the fall of 2008.