how did it start for you?

[docwharden1881]

when i was a little kid i had those toy plastic guns that shot plastic bullets. when i got older it was metal cap guns. older still as a teen bb/pellet gun/rifle. my granddad used to take me out to the country and shoot his old .22 pistol. it kind of went from there.

 

[Choctaw]

Pretty much the same. Went from toy guns to hunting with pellet guns when I was in grade school. My dad and I hunted quite a bit together and did a lot of shooting. By the time I was in high school I was deer, hog and bird hunting without supervision.

 

[badkarmamib]

Mom didn't want me to play with toy guns, so I wasn't allowed to buy them. So, I made them. Blocks of wood, a saw, staple gun, and electrical tape were my best friends. I started hunting with my Dad the year I turned 12, but I was 15 before I got my first BB gun. The whole "forbidden fruit" thing meant that if I couldn't have them, I studied them. I have always appreciated the mechanical function and the artistry that goes with firearms, and constantly studied to learn as much as I could about the history and function of firearms.

 

[Kyle911]

I only started buying and shooting guns last year and frankly, as lame as it is, I bought my first for political reasons. It was back when the BLM riots were going on and violent crime was really starting to rise and I felt my rights were starting to get threatened. So, I bought out of self preservation. If I needed to defend my life...I'd have it. If gun control became the law of the land....I already had what I needed. After that it just became a collecting hobby and an interest in going to the range every now and then. I didn't grow up with guns but we were not anti-gun either. We were a military family.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Reading about WW II.

 

[lightman]

Grandpa started us off shooting cans, bottles and Rats with a 22 at the local dump when we were little kids. Then we graduated to shooting thrown bottles and cans with a 20 gauge shotgun.
I started my boys off the same way except there were no local dumps. The dumps were replaced by an abandoned gravel pit and the cans and bottles were replaced with either clay targets or aluminum cans which we picked up afterwards.

When I was a young teenager me and a buddy would go with his Dad who was a self employed pest control man when he would service grain bins. He would pump some type of powder down into rat hole and pretty soon you would have rats running everywhere! We would sit on the tailgate of the truck and shoot them with our 357's and 44's with shot capsules! Fun Fun!

My boys used to have those toy pistols that shot the little plastic disc. Matter of fact, I had one too! We used to have shootouts in the house. Hunt and stalk, kind of like hide-in-seek except more fun!

 

[Frulk]

Same as OP’s experience minus the grandpa involvement.

 

[TarDevil]

I did a similar thread in 2018:
How I Became Interested in Firearms

Airplanes. Really.
I don't fly anymore but in an earlier life aviation consumed me. Had a company plane and during time off I stole seats in all kinds of homebuilts, military stuff and ragwings.

I had shot occasionally with friends and knew the bare basics but bullet type, velocities, expansion, etc was all greek. Then one day my gun enthusiast friend, who also flew, switched my light bulb... bullets (especially expanding ones) were like airplanes. They had a minimum and maximum speed of effectiveness, and other such aerodynamic similarities. Piqued my interest enough to start studying rifle cartridges and bullet design. That led to an interest in rifling, then powders. All my interest in cartridges and bullets eventually led to an interest in which guns matched well with those projectiles. I acquired my first rifle, a Ruger 77 chambered in .257 Roberts. So on and so on.

So similarities to airplanes got me started.

 

[Artg56]

Cap guns to pellet rifle to pellet pistol to hunting rifle to shotgun. Didn’t get any pistols till I was in my twenties and took up target shooting. Also my father never allowed me access to my guns unless we were together, it was a rite of passage when I got the combination to the safe.

 

[Jim Watson]

Apart from the usual toys and air guns of my generation, it was the pediatrician's recommendation.
Little Jim was not real spry or well coordinated in the conventional ball games, so Dr Clyde suggested my folks get me into shooting where a careful eye and steady hand would pay off.

 

[Electrod47]

At age 19 Uncle Sam handed me a M-14 and a .45 1911.....he gave me many more toys to play with later.

 

[valnar]

Toy/cap guns as a kid. Watching action movies. Thought it would be a fun activity. I was a city boy so no hunting nor experience with guns.

I bought my first SIG P229 in the 1990's and it's only grown from there. My hobby may have cost me my marriage but looking back that was a good thing. It's not just the government that impedes your freedom.

Places like this forum opened my eyes and you guys are a bad influence. It's made me want more, but I've learned more.

 

[ontarget]

Apart from the usual toys and air guns of my generation, it was the pediatrician's recommendation.
Little Jim was not real spry or well coordinated in the conventional ball games, so Dr Clyde suggested my folks get me into shooting where a careful eye and steady hand would pay off.

We could use more people like that in those positions of influence today.
Ahhh, the good ole days.

 

[22250Rem]

Started in the mid 1950's with a single action army clone. Which was actually a cap gun that took roll caps, and was made of some type of pot metal with sort of a chrome finish on it. I sometimes think of it when I have my stainless Ruger Blackhawk in hand. From about the 6th to 8th grades in late spring when the weather got warm it wasn't unusual to carry a squirt gun to school in your bookbag ( before backpacks became popular). That was my "self defense" gun for walking home from school on a warm spring day when other kids with spring fever all began carrying squirt guns. In those years I wore out several squirt guns in battle and learned to save my money so I could get a replacement when needed. It was also when I learned about that term known as "pointability" in regard to handguns. My favorite squirt gun choice became a copy of a German Luger because it just seemed easier to hit your target just where you wanted to when making a quick snap shot. Wore out a couple of those before high school and sort of forgot about it until many years later when I inherited a WW2 bring back Luger from a relative. Then I got to realize my childhood dream of ownership of a real Luger, and found a Luger copy squirt gun online for a decent price to get this group photo. . Some kids never grow up, they just get better toys.

 

[Bartojc]

I grew up a farm kid in a country setting. Firearms were as common as a fishing rod/reel or a tool box full of tools in the shop. Everyone had them for a purpose. My dad was not a hunter but had a .22, a 30-30, and a couple shotguns all for various varmints that were unwanted. He did hunt on occasion, mostly small game. I of course wa interested as most boys in the country. I spent years with 3 firearms to use for what "needed done". I had a shotgun, a rifle (30-06), and a .22 LR. I have hunted deer since I was 20. It wasn't until I bought my first handgun about 15 years ago that I started the slippery hobbiest slope. One pistol lead to reloading, which lead to more pistols, which lead to rifles just so I could reload for them or because I could. Now I most enjoy shooting, and reloading as a hobby.

-Jeff

 

[Legionnaire]

Toy guns as a kid, but we lived in a metro area and my family wasn't into guns. I had opportunity to shoot a bolt action .22 a couple of times at a friend's farm, but nothing regular.

I tried out for the rifle team in college and did well. That sort of whet the appetite, but again, I didn't do anything with it after graduation.

I really got started when I married the daughter of an outdoorsman. He got me into hunting, and he advised my wife who bought me my first personally-owned firearm: a Mossberg 500 combo in 12 gauge that has taken lots of game over the years. Don't think I'll ever part with that one.

I got into handgunning because I lived in a shotgun-only area of NY state, where handguns were permitted. So I started with a Thompson Contender. It was such a hassle getting my pistol permit that I decided to add a few and be done with it. Added a Ruger Super Redhawk .44 magnum and a S&W 4013. Then a friend at church introduced me to Mas Ayoob's Lethal Force Institute. The "be done with it" part was a short chapter of ancient history.

I started hunting PA regularly where rifles were permitted which got me into rifles. And influenced by my early rifle competition, I quickly embraced the notion that "only accurate rifles are interesting." My interest in long(ish) range shooting was a logical progression.

I bought my first AR (a pre-ban Colt HBAR) during the Clinton ban, more as a political statement than out of interest. It mostly sat in the safe. My interest in ARs is actually the most recent development with the advent of such cartridges as the 6.5 Grendel and 6mm ARC.

Somewhere along the line I started reloading ...

 

[AlexanderA]

I guess it started when my so-called "best friend" in first grade, out of the blue, hauled off and punched me in the nose, as hard as he could. Then, when he saw me crying and bleeding, he tossed a nickel at my feet, "for my pain." When my parents called his parents, they stated that they preferred their son to be a bully rather than to be bullied. So I discovered then and there that I better learn to defend myself, and to trust no one. The interest in guns logically followed from that.

Later, when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade, I salvaged a broken M1 Garand stock out of the trash behind the ROTC building on the University of Kansas campus (where my dad taught). That was my "toy" gun for a while afterwards.

 

[Bazoo]

I had some toy guns, but nothing that stands out, what really got me started was a bb gun for Christmas at about age 13. I packed it everywhere on the farm. We set out of the evenings and all took turns shooting at tin cans. Once in a while, my mom's boyfriend would break out a Ruger Single Six. That did it for me.

 

[Show Me]

Mom is still anti gun at 90. Started with 870 from Walmart Ted Williams model 100 from inlaws because the late 80's rash of farm house robberies. Now too much and every one has a story.

 

[wayneinFL]

I was always interested in guns. But except for bb guns, I never did anything with guns when I was a kid. I worked the sporting goods counter at Kmart and had planned to buy a 10/22 or Marlin 60 when I turned 18. But by then I was married and my wife didn't like guns.

My first gun was a Glock when I was 30. I was working in some dangerous areas and bought a gun after realizing I was the only one unarmed.

Funny thing- when I took a course the instructor told me not to obsess over what gun I bought, because I was going to buy more. I told him he was nuts. I think my exact words were "Do you realize what a gun costs?"

I very quickly got into reloading, then bought a 22, a smaller carry gun, hunting guns, IPSC guns, guns just because I didn't have them, etc.

 

[kje54]

how did it start for you?​

In the beginning my mom and dad met and fell in love..........

 

[Meeks36]

Started with toy guns. Then bb guns. Pellet rifles. Then That faithful day my paw paw took me in the woods handed me a brazilian single shot 12ga. Almost knocked me back. Been hooked ever since.

 

[Pudge]

From before I was of school age, I wanted to hunt and shoot. Cowboy shows on TV, cap guns, squirt guns, sighting in the .30-06 with dad, bb guns. I was loaned a 20ga sxs to hunt deer with. I got a Savage 24 for small game, and then, lots of lawns mowed later, a .308.

I've branched out since then, and acquired some tactical stuff. It's all fun and good, but still a Fudd at heart. An AR and a P365 can do things a single-action Ruger and a bolt action Remington can't. But there are things that blued steel and walnut do for me that black plastic and metal just don't.

 

[Bronco72]

Watching Cisco Kid, Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers and others. fascinated by their hardware I had toy guns! Hunted with my dad for years.Then got to bring along a BB gun, then a pellet gun. Had a Winchester 94 when I was 16. Started reloading reloading when I was 17

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

First real gun I handled was the M-1 Carbine my old man brought back from WWII. Never fired it, it disappeared in the divorce. Had various cap guns, some I "made" out of wood. Recall having a Hubley (?) Trooper cap gun, a semiautomatic, when I got my first revolver it was-a Colt Trooper. First fired a real gun-a 22-at Boy Scout Camp.