Fondest Memory you have shooting

[J-Bar]

When my adult son, who had shown no interest in guns or shooting in his life, decided to play the cowboy action game with me for a year. He is an author and wanted to write a book about it. He won his category in the state black powder match after placing third in his category in two other annual matches earlier in the year. Watching him smile while looking at the plaques he won...the feeling cannot be described.

The memory of teaching and coaching him and spending time together on the range will be with me forever.

And having a book on the shelf to keep the memories fresh is icing on the cake!

 

[Rockrivr1]

The day I took my Dad to the range to zero in a scope on my new Serbu 50 BMG. After the zero was in at 200 yards my Dad wanted to take a crack at it. He's a seasoned shooter with many deer taken during hunting season. But for some reason he just couldn't get comfortable lining up the Serbu. So he finally gets a half way decent cheek weld and is about to shoot when I noticed that he had knocked up his hearing protection and that he had his non trigger hand in front of his mouth on the stock. Before I could say anything he pulls the trigger and the gun roars to life. Subsequently he punched himself in the mouth and became deaf in one ear all at the same time. He stood up with a bloody lip, no being able to hear a thing and smiled at me. Friggin awesome.

Though my mom was not to enthused when we got back home.... lol

 

[Red Wind]

Hunting deer with my wonderful brother in law, a WWII U.S.Army vet, in his native Guildford County, North Carolina, from 1952, all the way to 1967. So many great days and memorable moments, as I grew from a 10 year old child into a 25 year old Army veteran.

Sadly, he died quite young of cancer at age 53, but the memories I have of that fine man teaching me the basic skills of outdoor life, hunting and fishing, will continue for the rest of my life.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

When my daughter pulled the trigger on her first deer.

 

[CajunBass]

Mine came one spring day several years ago. During the winter, my wife had suffered a ruptured aneurysm in her brain. By the grace of God, she survived and gradually started to get back to normal, or as close to "normal" as she was likely to be.

One thing she had liked to do "before that day" as we refer to it, was go to the range together. I hadn't tried to push her to go, I figured she'd let me know when she was ready.

Sure enough, one day she asked if we could go shoot. We sure can.



Here she's shooting my Model 17 that day (she IS wearing plugs). Note, she wouldn't set her purse down. At the time, she was obsessive about such things.

That was a pretty good day.

Improvement has come slowly, but it does continue.

 

[frgood]

a few years ago, my sons and I went our first ever hunt trip. This will always remain one of the greatest moments of my life.

 

[lilguy]

The first time I went pheasant hunting with my best friend. Over 40 years ago, he's past away, can't be replaced, never tried. Thanks for asking about it.

 

[JC111]

When my father took me to the range for the first time in the summer of 1980. We took his Colt Combat Commander, S&W Model 65 and his Model 36 Chief's Special. The memory is still strong.

 

[gbran]

Most memorable? I guess the 1st time I had range time with an M14. I was a teenager and had shot guns for years, but no real hi powered rifles and certainly no full auto. Loved this gun, preferred it over the M16.

 

[Resist Evil]

There are two great shooting memories for me. The first is when, one time out with a church youth group hiking near a lake in California, a park ranger drove up to say, "Hi." I was 16 or 17 I guess and I was eyeballing his rifle in the rear window rack of his truck. He noticed me looking at it and I asked him what kind it was. He might have given me the name, but as for caliber, he said it was a .222. I told him I shot with a DeMolay "team" using .22 rifles, but I didn't know what a .222 was. He broke out the scoped rifle and showed me what the centerfire cartridge looked like.

He asked, "You want to shoot it?" Well, you know what that my answer was. So, he points out a Loon maybe 150 yds out sitting on the water. He said the scope was set so it was best to put the crosshairs dead on the bird. I was pretty nervous and my sighting habit put the center so the bird sat on the horizontal bar. I squeezed the trigger and hit just under the bird in a big splash of water. It was my first shot with a centerfire rifle. The ranger gave me a big smile as he took the rifle back from my sweaty hands. What a thrill.

The second is simply my memories of being free to roam in the hills behind Santa Barbara near a gun club off of San Marcos Pass with my Remington Nylon 66 picking off the occasional lizard, twigs, small stones I would stack up, and playing cards tacked to dead trees.

My family didn't like guns.

 

[MistWolf]

Recently, it was going to the range with my son and renting a full auto Tommygun. It was a blast!

 

[entropy]

Loons are protected birds. I highly doubt a park ranger would have you shoot at a loon, on the water.

 

[huntsman]

My favorite shots were not my shots but my Son's, each killed their first deer with one shot.

 

[JR24]

Probably my first rounds with the .410 my grandpa (now passed, RIP) gave me when I was old enough to hunt. That or later seeing the pride on his face when I bagged my first few squirrels.

 

[Resist Evil]

Loons are protected birds. I highly doubt a park ranger would have you shoot at a loon, on the water.

The park ranger called it a Loon. He may have been mistaken, but I am not in my recollection of his name for that bird. I had never seen one and barely recognized Loon as a bird's name or type. The bird was, indeed, sitting on the water. We were on a small ridge walking along a forest road. Trees sometimes obscured our view of the lake, but at that time of the day, the sun shone onto the water from the east. There it sat; on the glimmering water a little off from shore, framed by trees on either side of a small gap in them that provided our view.

Your doubting does not negate the reality of the event despite your opinion of its unlikelihood.

 

[cat_IT_guy]

On a range trip with the neighbor and his boys (my boys aren't old enough yet). The older boy about 16 and a bit full of himself, is trying out my SRH 44mag, shooting at a 2liter full of water I set on the 25yard berm. A full cylinder later the bottle is unscathed. Younger brother, about 11, is getting annoyed with older brother. Asks if he can try. I look at his dad for approval. Dad says give him a 44 special to shoot. Takes aim, boom, the bottle jumps and empties. With a big grin he looks right at older brother and says, "THAT is how you do it!". Poor big brother, but man his dad and I still laugh about that moment.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

[Traffer]

First Deer

I guess the fondest memory I have shooting is my first deer. i was 13 years old. My dad took my buddy and myself and stuck us on the other side of the land where he was hunting. We both had Mil surplus rifles. Mine was a Model 1917 Enfield 3006. It had that marvelous peep sight. I remember memorizing the ballistics for it for where I has it sighted in at. Buddy and I were on the bottom of a hill. On the top a fence row and the start of a woods. Other than that it was a big field. Saw deer come out along the fence on top of the hill. Buddy shot...miss. Buddy shot again...miss. I raise the ought 6 and set it on his shoulder to steady it. Bang. Buddy goes down holding his ears. (no hearing protection and his ear was like 3 inches from the chamber. After making sure buddy was not hurt, looked up on the top of the hill. Could I have hit it? Started walking up the hill (365 yards) deer was laying there. Hit in the spine 4 inches to the right from where I was aiming. Ended up selling the old model 1917 eddystone. Been seriously thinking about getting another one OR even rather have a P14 because of the less recoil.

 

[ridgerunner1965]

a few years ago we went to a full auto shoot.my 15 yr old son and my 17 yr old nephew.

you could rent guns and my mom gAVE us 200 buks to spend..she wanted the boys to experience this.

my son chose a 30 06 machine gun, dont remember what it was but you fired it with your thumb. he was used to 30 06 cuz it was what his deer rifle was.

my nephew was a bit recoil shy so fired a 9mm auto rifle.

i fired a full auto ak..

a good time was had by all.

 

[IH 1026]

Fondest shooting memories were from when I was a kid, and my dad would take my brother and I out to shoot bottles and cans. The trick was to make your targets last as long as possible.. to start at the top and work your way down to the bottom. Cans would go flying, and bottles would be turned to dust. My dad always used to be the better shot and would show off sometimes, but both my brother and I learned a great deal and always had fun no matter the weather or conditions.

 

[ADKWOODSMAN]

Went chuck hunting with my uncle and Dad. I was about 7 and the year was about 1952.

When I was 12 this same uncle had me shooting his High Standard .22 revolver Dad was also shooting that revolver.

Dad and I hunted together for about 40 years.

I started my 4 children when they reached 5 years old with a chipmunk .22.
We still shoot now and then as they all live a little ways away.

I was with my oldest son when he shot his first buck and duck. Also with my younger daughter when she got her first buck.

Great memories and many hunting buddies since.

In college I met a fellow student on the rifle team. We hunted many pasture poodles those two years.

 

[gspn]

Too many to choose from, but they all involve hunting with my son. He started going with me when he was 3. He killed his first deer at 7 or 8.

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But sadly, if you feed them they get bigger. Now he's growing up and it's all cars and guitars. He doesn't get out with me as much anymore, but the 13 years we had in the field served their purpose. We've got a great relationship. A few more years and he leaves for college. It was a great run.

IMG_1527 by s s, on Flickr

 

[aarondhgraham]

I remember shooting my first "high-power" rifle,,,

I remember shooting my first "high-power" rifle,,,
It was a Model 98 Mauser in 8mm,,,
Sporterized in an inlaid stock.

This was 1959 so I was 8 years old.

We were visiting a family friend (Old Joe) in Pennsylvania,,,
He was going deer hunting and wanted to check the zero on his scope.

We went out to some place he knew of,
Where there was a 100 yard target and a bench.

He fired three shots and declared the scope to be spot on,,,
Then he asked me if I would like to try a shot.

What a silly question.

I remember standing behind the bench with the gun on sandbags,,,
I lined the cross-hairs just like I had seen in the movies,,,
And planted one shot directly in the center X.

Joe gave me the empty and the target,,,
The paper target disintegrated many years ago,,,
But I still have that empty cartridge in a box of childhood treasures.

Several years later (12 years old),,,
My grandfather opened his gun cabinet for me.

When he said "pick one" there was no hesitation on my part,,,
I chose the K98 8mm Mauser his older brother brought back from WW-II.

I'm eternally grateful that my Pop wouldn't let me "sporterize" the stock.

At my age I have trouble remembering what I had for breakfast,,,
But I still have a vivid image of old Joe and that rifle.

Aarond

.

 

[bang_bang]

My fondest is probably 9 years ago, my grandfather went on one last hunt. We were about 400 yards apart and I couldn't reach him on our walkies, so I decided to go check on him. We were in a Christmas tree field, so I eventually was able to see him at around 100 yards while looking in between rows. He motioned that he saw some deer ahead, holding up 2 fingers then pointing slowly up hill. He immediately opened fire, shooting 3 rounds from his Sears & Roebuck 30-30 (that I own now). This HUGE (it looked big when I was scared), wounded buck came straight down the row between us, and I thought for sure he was either going to shoot or I was getting trampled. The buck turned and stood broadside at about 10 feet from me, with me shooting opposite of my grandfathers direction. He was a small 4-pointer, and he ended up with 2 30-30 rounds and a 300 Mag round all in the kill zone. I cleaned the deer, laughing with my grandfather. Shortly there after my grandmother passed and my grandfather has had a rough time staying physical, after all he's 82 years young. Just the other day my son shot his first deer, and my grandfather smiled as though it was my first all over again. I owe that man for my interests in firearms, hunting and fishing.