What was your first marksmanship badge of honor? .....

[emb]

My second was .22 NRA postal matches in 1968 at the college ROTC range. My very first ever was the toilet. Got an attaboy on that one.

 

[Reloadron]

We were one of the pilot platoons with the M16. I laughed when I heard the "boing" of the buffer spring in the stock. Never saw another one my entire enlistment. Cherry Point had M14's which I loved, so I learned the rifle fast. Got to shoot annual on the base rifle team and the Eastern Division matches.

Been there and done that. Cherry Point is where my life was good till 71 when Iwa Kuni came along. Then in 72 I ended up as part of Task Force Delta which introduced me to Nam. That was the first M16 I ever saw or held. Cherry point in 71 I was a sergeant before I went WESPAC. After the M14 the Matty Matel was nice to shoot.

Ron

 

[Thomasss]

In high school, I got my name in the sports section of a major city paper for shooting 42/50, class D.

 

[bannockburn]

tark

In October of 67' I shot Expert Rifleman with an M-14 during BCT at Ft. Bliss , Texas.

Sometime in 1944 my Dad shot "Sharpshooter" just missing out on an "Expert" badge by a few points.

He was also at Ft. Bliss when he did this.

 

[Mike OTDP]

2nd place, Flintlock pistol, 1979 MD State NMLRA Championships.

 

[tark]

Starlings and sparrows are both exempt from the law.

Neither of the two are native, both invasive enough to have spread across the continent in just a few decades.

And Neither one is a songbird.

 

[marksman13]

At about ten, my Father was relatively impressed, but I received a thorough tongue and shoe lashing at and about my back and head from my Mother.

It seems she fell upon a grisly sight of about twenty five Chickadees and Yellow Finches laying on the ground under the Mountain Ash. All with one massive hole of about fifty caliber, and sporting an increased weight of one muzzle loader ball of a jar I had found down stairs in my Dad's hunting accoutrements.

She finished informing me how wrong it was and relieved me of my Barrett slingshot with wrist brace. Dad just asked, “Did you miss any?”

“Two.”

He just smiled and pat my head.

“Go throw them in the weeds…”

Not exactly a medal, but I was smiling tossing them over. He didn’t even make me take the balls out.

I may have done it once more, but the neighbor’s Dalmatian came all the way around the pond, ran up and ate the bird! I thought I better stop to avoid poisoning the dog.

Mine was similar, but with a pellet rifle and I was camped out on my grandma’s backyard bird feeder. Grandpa thought it was pretty funny. He had told me I could only shoot black birds and blue jays. Well, they all looked kinda dark and a blue bird is easily confused with a blue jay when you are eight years old and getting trigger time on your first pellet rifle. I bet I killed forty birds in a couple hours. Grandma tore my tail up, then mom tore my tail up. Dad and grandpa just kinda watched and then they bought me a pair of binoculars and a scope for better target ID.

 

[bangswitch]

For me it was the shiner my brother gave me after I bullseye'd the back of his throat with a spit-wad shot from the .32 caliber pizza-hut straw and wrapper wad in Salina, Ks. After that I was hooked on shooting of every kind. Yes I picked up bottle and aluminum can anything yards, trash piles to pay for 22lr to shoot.

In that vein, I suppose my 1st badge of honor was the butt-whoopin' I got for shooting my sister in the hand with a BB gun when I was 8 years old. Didn't see the BB gun for about a year afterwards. To be fair, it wasn't a BB I shot her with, but a hard berry off a bush at the corner of the house. I didn't have BB's, but these little berries were the same size, more or less and I could single-load them down the barrel of my Daisy. It still raised a blister on her hand, though, about 1/10th the size of the one my Dad raised on the cheek of my arse.

My 1st true badge was my Boy Scout Marksmanship merit badge when I was 10. It was also my very first merit badge. Years later I made Distinguished Expert shooting PPC on my prison pistol team, followed about 9 years after that when I qualified Expert Marksman with the M9 and M16 in the USAF. Now, 36 years after that, I'm doing good if I can hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle.

 

[black mamba]

At age 11 back in the mid '60s at school camp we shot hand-thrown clay targets with a single shot 22 and crimped shot loads. I went 5 for 5.
Of course I had already been hunting with a shotgun for three years at that point, so understood lead pretty well.

 

[mavracer]

When I took hunter's safety, they let us shoot 5 rounds of 22 from a bolt action single shot. 4 shooters at a time each with an instructor close at hand, when my instructor looked at my target with 4 clover leafed in the x and 1 about 1/2" away proclaimed "this isn't your first time shooting"

 

[230RN]

I did a lot of competitive cellulose nitrate decomposition in the mid eighties, but my crowning achievement was not medalworthy.

I shot a 1000 yard match with an army-armorer accurized Garand I borrowed from the Coors gun club.

When it was all over and the scoring certified I looked at the results posted on the range shack. There I was, right in the middle of the list of very serious and accomplished shooters. I had even placed four or five rounds right in the 10" V-ring at 1000 yards with my own .30-06 handloads. (I think the "V" instead of the modern "X-ring" was a hangover from WWII, for "Victory," but I never checked that out.)

No medal, no fanfare, no back-pats, no handshakes, but I silently felt very damned good being smack in the middle of such a group of high-end competitors.

Yay, me!

Terry, 230RN

 

[Armorer 101]

Odd how memories get brought back, 1950-51 my six cousins came over with their BB guns, a mean as a snake, farm bunch. Probably have no idea what I am talking about. So cousin Charles gave me his Daisy Red Rider BB gun to shoot. I was five at the time. After a bit the cousins decided to play "guns" with BB guns. I got stuck guarding the foot bridge across the creek. Charles, on the other side, started across the bridge towards me and raised his rifle to shoot me. I shot him right dead between the eyes at 20 feet, BB had to be removed from the saddle of his nose with tweezers.
From then on, I never got invited to any BB gun wars. Not a medal, it was even better, I got many shooting medals over the years, none was as good as being excluded from the 13 cousin, knock down drag out fights, in Pahokee, FL. Ever see the movie Gator, they describe in the movie playing Pahokee for the state football championship, and got near killed by 11 players that played both sides of the ball, that Pahokee championship team was my cousins. Grew up in a rough family.

 

[Armored farmer]

Since my youth, my game has been trapshooting.
I had won some sub-junior and junior trophies, but there wasn't much competition. Not too many kids shooting in those days. My competition was my dad and his friends. I broke my first 100x100 when I was fifteen. I still consider that my first real accomplishment. It doesn't matter how old you are.....if you shoot a perfect score....that's pretty good.

I'm the goofy looking kid on the left.
100x100

 

[bassjam]

Mine was getting my Red Ryder taken away.

I was about 10. My younger siblings were at the edge of the yard playing with my cans I used for targets and stacking them up. I was hiding in the woods and when they'd stack up the cans and turn around I'd knock them over with my bb gun. After about the 3rd time my sister realized what was going on and told my little brother "Go tell mom bassJAM is shooting at us". I wasn't trying to hit anyone, but I knew from prior experience that whatever my sister said was gospel truth in the eyes of my parents so I didn't have anything to lose at that point. As my little brother made a beeline for the house I took aim at his feet. By sheer luck (or not) I hit him in the ankle and watched him tumble. 30-some years later I still have that vivid memory etched in my brain of watching him roll head over heels in the grass at full tilt!

I didn't get my bb gun back for a year. I thought it was a bit of an over-reaction at the time, this was around when my cousin had got a scar on his forhead from having "wars" with the neighbor kids with air-rifles, and I wasn't aiming anywhere near their faces.

 

[Hugger-4641]

I was about 6 or 7 when I figured out you could sling an empty 12ga case from the end of a stick with pretty good accuracy. My cousins (all older than me btw) and I all got arse whoopings for scattering my grandads supply of 12ga cases after one of my cousins went crying into the house because of the knot on his head.

 

[Spats McGee]

I don't have any formal badges to my name, and can't really think of any from my childhood at the moment. I was just out plinking, or dove hunting. Nothing to write home about. However, about 5 years ago, I took a buddy of mine out to the farm for some shooting. He wanted to get a CC pistol, but couldn't seem to pick a suitable one. So I took out a S&W Shield, a 1911 (gov't model), an LCR, a G27, and an XDS. And maybe a couple of others. Some I owned, some I borrowed. Anyway, we set up some oranges on a ridge about 25-30 yards away. We'd been shooting for a couple of hours when we finally got around to shooting the 1911. Purely by happenstance, we had set up exactly 7 oranges. I grabbed the 1911 and a 7-round mag, and proceeded to splat those oranges, one right after the other, 7 hits out of 7 shots!

 

[Legionnaire]

I shot NRA Smallbore Rifle in college. During a match in 1978-79 I tied our team's individual record (277 IIRC) just as our team captain reset it (283). We set a new team record that evening (can't remember the aggregate) that stood until the team was disbanded years later.

 

[crstrode]

What was your first marksmanship badge of honor?​

That tweety bird shot from a telephone wire with my trusty Daisy Golden 800 BB gun.

 

[drk1]

"First marksmanship badge of honor...?" Still proudly wear the two scare lines across the web of my hand between thumb and index finger made by the slide of a Colt 1911. But I did hit the empty can that they told me to shoot. I don't think that's too bad for a seven year old even if I was gripping it a little high!

 

[5whiskey]

I guess my very first that I actually remember was hitting 3 doves with 3 rounds in a pump shotgun (my state limits to 3 rounds for all bird hunting) in a span of a few seconds. Found all 3. The second (and much more significant) was hitting a fox at a full lateral run at about 80 yards with a Marlin model 60 with iron sights. That wasnt spray and pray either, it was one shot. Heard the "thump" (a very loud one, it was a gut shot), the fox rolled, then got up and sprinted into the woods. Found him about 40 yards in (no blood trail so got lucky). It was panting its last breaths. I stopped using .22 and used .223 after that, as it took me a solid 20 minutes to find the thing and I felt terrible it suffered that long. I was ~18 at the time. To this day I'm proud of it, but I also admit there was a smidgen of luck to that.

3rd was I was tied for company 2nd high shooter at Parris Island during range week. I almost clean sweeped the 200 yard line, including standing, other than I dropped 2 rounds total in the 4 ring. I was set to be company high hands down. Then we moved to the 300 and the kneeling position got me there. I only hit bullseye once, dropped 1 into the 4 ring, then 3 into the 3 ring. I also dropped another point at 300 rapid fire prone and a couple of points at the 500. My score was 238. High score was 242 (he was beside me and did a clean sweep after the 200 yard line other than 1 point 300 yards kneeling).

 

[entropy]

Since my youth, my game has been trapshooting.
I had won some sub-junior and junior trophies, but there wasn't much competition. Not too many kids shooting in those days. My competition was my dad and his friends. I broke my first 100x100 when I was fifteen. I still consider that my first real accomplishment. It doesn't matter how old you are.....if you shoot a perfect score....that's pretty good.View attachment 1199970

I'm the goofy looking kid on the left.
100x100

Got my 100x100 at the MN State shoot in '82, but I had some success at Archery before that, 2nd in a big tournament at 16.
In Basic, I only got Sharpshooter, but qualified Expert with the M16A1 later, and with everything else I shot, except the .38s, none of them were in good enough shape. Shot a perfect 40/40 with the M9.

 

[armoredman]

In Boot Camp in the mid 80s we were only allowed to fire five rounds from a Colt ACE, and all at the same target which nobody checked. While on the ship, Gunner decided to let us try to qualify, those of us Gunner's Mates who liked to shoot, and drew a few M14s and some targets at Mare Island. I shot Sharpshooter...BUT, Gunner had used the wrong targets, so it didn't count and I never got another chance.
MANY years later in the Academy, during Firearms Week, the Class Sgt did the eye dominance test, and I found out to my surprise I am right handed, left eye dominant. So he told me I would shoot left handed. I said no, and I will score highest in the class. Mind you, the job I had right before this was a range safety officer, clerk and salesman in a gunshop/indoor range.
On qualification day, it snowed. In Tucson. Seriously. What was worse is I couldn't afford a Dept jacket, so I had a civilian jacket...which I was not allowed to wear on the firing line. So I, a born and raised desert rat, qualified in shirt sleeves in the snow. Possible score was 250 - I shot a 247 with the Glock 19. And I don't even LIKE Glocks. And yes, I was highest in the class, academics and firearms. Since then, for over 22 years I have qualified Expert or Distinguished Expert, but that first one, that was the best.