how did it start for you?

Hmm...being in a family that didn't have firearms at all, except for my brother in laws, mine started with drawings, then making my own "guns" out of cardboard and scotch tape. Went through a lot of tape...
Later it was caps guns, Super Soakers, lever action bb guns, and on from there.

First real firearm was my Stevens/Springfield Model 65 bolt action 22. lr. Bought it from a gunshow for $50 bucks at the time.
 
Born into a hunting and shooting family. Don't remember when I got my first BB gun, and then a Benjamin pellet rifle, but Mom and Dad gave me a .22 rifle (which I was only allowed to use under their close supervision) for my 10th birthday - 66+ years ago, BTW.
 
Unlike .308, I didn't come from a "hunting family". But I played with the old cap guns with the rolls inside and red plastic "rubber band" guns that could fire 4+ times and looked like a 1911. We never had a BB or pellet gun but my Dad taught me to shoot the M1 he kept when he left the National Guard when I was 7. That started the "fire".
I married into a hunting family and learned quite a bit from two B-i-Ls and finally started in my late 20s and enjoyed getting out for the next 22 years. Lack of time 20 years ago and now, physical limitations and loss of hunt-able ground, have terminated my ability to hunt.
 
I had cap guns lots of bb and pellet rifles .But the first time I fired a 22 rifle and smelled the burnt powder I was hooked. I guess I was around 10 years old. I also come from a hunting family. I have been blessed hunting with my family and friends since a young boy.
 
Pretty similar to Bartojc:
Raised on wheat/cattle place in eastern Colo. There was always a 410 or Wards 22 sitting in a corner. Only issue was mother yelling "is that thing loaded?" Shot rabbits when I was big enough to shoulder the 22. Learned my basic animal anatomy there. We had the occasional deer, but not many. Now there's a herd of 10-20 that frequent the place. We figure they come up from the old Lowry bombing range that's about 4-5 miles south. I think it's been pretty much de-milled by now. I shot a nice 4 x 4 back about '04. Nephew mounted it for me.

First real rifle was Win M64A in '72, and Ruger 357 BH soon after that. Been going 'downhill' ever since. Started loading in '73. I still like shooting, and reloading is a hobby in its own right.

Enough reminiscing,
-West out
 
JTHunter said:
Lack of time 20 years ago and now, physical limitations and loss of hunt-able ground, have terminated my ability to hunt.
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Sorry. It's getting that way for us too - not the loss of hunt-able ground, but physical limitations are starting to limit my wife's and my abilities to hunt.
Heck, for that matter, my wife has a "Disabled Hunter Permit" (so she can legally shoot from a motor vehicle as long as it's not moving or on a public road) now, and I'm dealing with heart problems. So, I also might have to get a "Disabled Hunter Permit" myself before deer season opens this year. :(
 
I grew up in Omaha to a  very Liberal Mother. She didn't even allow me to have a BB gun.

When I turned 18 my father offered me a job in Houston Texas. Mom was against it and told me I couldn't go. I reminded her that I was 18 and I went.

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About a week after I got there I saw a Remington Nylon 66 in a Pawn Shop in Pearland Texas. I don't remember the specifics but when I found out I was old enough to buy it I did.

I ended up selling it in a pawn shop in Clearwater Florida.
 
.308 Norma said:
Ouch! Do you wish now that you hadn't done that? :(
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Sometimes but I would have lost it anyway. I joined the Army a few years later and got sent to Germany.

There's no way my mom would have allowed me to leave it with her and my dad died while I was in Germany and my uncle sold everything of my dad's he could sell. So I would have lost it then.
 
The Night Rider said:
Sometimes but I would have lost it anyway. I joined the Army a few years later and got sent to Germany.
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Sorry, that's too bad. I have a buddy that's almost as old as I am (76), and he's quite proud of the Nylon 66 he's had since his youth.
I never had a Nylon 66 myself. I still remember the advertisements for them in the magazines though - they showed someone with a Nylon 66 sitting on top of a whole pile of wooden blocks with holes in them. ;)
 
my entry to guns came as a kid connected to ww2. my mom’s older brother was killed while a p.o.w. her dad had died shortly after her birth from his ww1 injuries. she abhorred war and forbade us to watch any tv shows on war, especially “hogan’s heroes.” my dad had landed at easy red sector, omaha beach, about 0930 on 6/6/44. he never experienced much direct fighting after that morning though his vehicle was later blown up while driving through an unmarked, leftover, mine field. what he saw and experienced on d-day and for several days afterwards came out in a bad way after a few drinks. he enjoyed reading histories of the war but was no gun guy. he had a “bring-back” mauser rifle and browning pistol, but no ammo, and never tried to shoot them. he tried hunting with friends once and it physically sickened him.

one night at dinner, after a couple of drinks and a presumably rough day at work, he exploded at my brother and me for yakking about playing soldier with our buddies, “war isn’t a game.” “how would you like to try stuffing your guts back into your stomach?” but his words were actually way more colorful than to be expected from a university dean with a biology phd.

he decided then and there that we had to know the truth of firearms. over my mom’s objections he enrolled us in the university n.r.a. rifle club. we met in the basement of the rotc building. we shot 22lr bolt action rifles, first single shot, later with fully loaded mags. the instructors were other kids’ dads, faculty and staff, all ww2 or korean war veterans. the instruction was truly comprehensive and priceless, the best ever, way better than what i got in the boy scouts or even the army a few years later.

from that time 60 years ago i became a firm believer in an unfettered 2a, but my favorite firearms are several ruger single action revolvers and i have never owned ak/ar platforms. i am forever grateful to my dad and to the n.r.a.
 
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docwharden1881 said:
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.
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I grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin at the age of 12 I got a BB gun then at 14 I was allowed to use my dad’s Remington Nylon 22 I thought this is a breeze and asked dad if I could shoot his 12 gauge JC Higgins double barrel which he agreed to we go down to the gravel pit he hands it to me I ask him if I should pull one or both triggers so me thinking I am tuff pull both how I managed that I am not sure. My dad just stood there laughing as I got up off the ground I never shot a gun again until I was 39 when my father in law got me to go to a range with him and we all know how that goes now I can’t put them down.
 
Great question, thanks for asking! For me it began even before I was born. My father's pet name for my mother was "BB," he had a car he called "bullet," and a dog named "Buckshot." So, when they found out I would be coming along, they started calling me "Millimeter." Mother decided that little "Millimeter" needed to give my father a Father's Day present even though I hadn't been born yet. She looked through one of his "American Rifleman" magazines and found something she coud afford and hoped that he'd like. It turned out to be a antique Belgium Flobert rifle. It wasn't worth much and ammunition was unavailable so he made it into a floor lamp that proudly adorned the living room for the next 60 years. When I finally showed up, I slept in a crib under a four gun rack on the wall. My father was a WWII vet and worked for the VA, so some of my earliest memories were of listening to him talk with other veterans about their lives and experineces, illnesses and wounds that were a result of the war. By the time I was five years old I was emptying bed pans and delivering lunch trays at the VA Hospital. One of the most interesting vets, however, was the grandfather of one of my neighborhood playmates who had signed up for the Marines before WWI, served in the Army after WWI and then the Navy during WWII and Korea. He had also worked for Peters Cart. and was a great machinist who could make just about any part he needed or wanted. In addition, he was active in several groups such as the National Muzzeloading Rifle and Pistol Assoc. and the Ohio Gun Collectors' Assoc. Well, he had given my playmate an Arisaka, but it was supposed to remain on the wall at all times, but one day it jumped off of the wall and pretty soon, wouldn't you know it, it was in pieces. It was a great education, but when it came time to get it back together before the adults found out, it just wouldn't cooperate! That led to another type of educational experience! But I was determined to learn as much as I could and that's when I found out that there was an old gunsmith who had his shop in his barn and was only about 2 miles away, which was within bicycle distance. And to make it even better between my house and his shop there was a private game preserve whose owner allowed me free range of his property (but no hunting) and a boy scout camp with a great 22 range that they let me use so someone could keep an eye on the place even though I wasn't old enough to be a boy scout. By this time my father was paying me a penny a piece for every dandilion I dug up, which was just great because the local general store sold me .22 carts for a penny a piece. It was all great until my father began to notice that the dandilions were gradually disappearing from all of the neighbors' yards as well as ours. I was really blessed with a great childhood that was full of great firearms related experiences, but that's enough for now. Thanks again for asking.
 
I had a toy machine gun in my early youth. You pulled back a lever on the side and then it would rat a tat a tat as the lever moved forward. Later I had a Daisy BB gun. After that I had a couple 12 gauge shotguns, one I got from my grandfather and one I purchased without a background check (1970s). Then I really had no interest in guns for decades until all the "peaceful protests" of 2020 when I decided to get a handgun for home protection. Then I got another gun and things snowballed and now I have about 35 guns, mostly handguns.
 
Summers on the family ranch brought me to guns and guns to me. They were tools of the ranchers trade and my Grandfather taught me how to use them at age 8, starting with a Winchester 1890 .22 LR and a Stevens (I believe) single shot .410.

My Dad also started taking me shooting when I got back home from that trip, with his Marlin 39A and a Colt Huntsman.

Stay safe.
 
docwharden1881 said:
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.
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I had that, and the metal revolvers we played cowboys and indians with as kids, and also had plastic machine guns that made a "rat-a-tat-tat" noise....but that's all it was for me was kid games, as neither of or our families were into hunting or were military or cops, etc. It's only in the last few years or so, despite a military career, that I've been interested in owning any guns, because without trying to get too political or going off in some "new world order" tangent, I see a country that seems to be just begging for an excuse to come apart at the seams, and if it does, I prefer to be able to defend my home against violence/nut balls.
 
I l
.308 Norma said:
Sorry, that's too bad. I have a buddy that's almost as old as I am (76), and he's quite proud of the Nylon 66 he's had since his youth.
I never had a Nylon 66 myself. I still remember the advertisements for them in the magazines though - they showed someone with a Nylon 66 sitting on top of a whole pile of wooden blocks with holes in them. ;)
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I loved that rifle in the Sears catalog. My mom hated guns so that's as close as I ever got. She's 90 now and I still hear about it.
 
.308 Norma said:
Sorry, that's too bad. I have a buddy that's almost as old as I am (76), and he's quite proud of the Nylon 66 he's had since his youth.
I never had a Nylon 66 myself. I still remember the advertisements for them in the magazines though - they showed someone with a Nylon 66 sitting on top of a whole pile of wooden blocks with holes in them. ;)
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I ended up with a CZ 452 Scout. I'm happy with it.
 
Watching these guys. For the young people, the tv series Combat; my age was 7 or 8 iirc. Episodes on Youtube seem to be free.
We only had three tv channels in the 60's. "Social media" was going outside to play with neighbors. Nobody we knew hid inside..

Why did I lose or break my plastic full-scale Garand or perfect duplicate black metal Luger (maybe a cap gun) ? These days brandishing that toy, but Solid metal Luger could get you killed.

combat.jpg
 
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Ignition Override said:
Watching these guys. For the young people, the tv series Combat; age 7 or 8 iirc. Episodes on Youtube seem to be free.
We only had three tv channels in the 60's. "Social media" was going outside to play with neighbors. Nobody we knew hid inside..

Why did I lose or break my plastic full-scale Garand or perfect duplicate black metal Luger (maybe a cap gun) ? These days brandishing that toy Luger it could get you killed.

combat.jpg
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I don't remember where I read this but Sergeant Saunders camouflage helmet cover was in theory fashioned from a camouflage parachute.

I also read that Vic Morrow had absolutely no use for firearms. He carried them in scenes where he was required to and as soon as the Director said "Cut" he handed the gun to a stage hand. I don't know that he was necessarily anti-gun, he just didn't have any use for them
 
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