When did you start shooting?

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I was blessed to have been born in the 50's in a state where hunting was a way of life. My grandfather loved to squirrel hunt and let me tag along. I had a bb gun around age 10 that I killed flies with out in the chicken yard. Thinned over 30 mice out of our corn crib. I was 11 or 12 when he got me a 410. By age 13 I was hunting on my own. We didn't have many deer or turkeys in our area so I had to stick to small game. My closest friend's dad would get us a case of 22 ammo twice a year. He would get us 5000 rounds in the spring and we would shoot 2 or 3 boxes apiece every day that we worked seining crawfish which was 2 or 3 times a week from April into September. Then we would need another case to get us through the winter. When you shoot 5000 rounds a year you get pretty good. We did that for 4 years. I bought a used Marlin bolt gun when I was 15 for $27 and put a Weaver 6X rimfire scope on it. Anything within 75 yards was in peril of it's life. That little 22 was awesome.
 
I've been thinking about this thread, trying to remember when I bumped up from the BB guns. I'm going with age 9. I can remember shooting a Winchester .22 pump, seems like it was in the spring of 1968.
 
As far as actually shooting on my own with a real firearm, the day I turned 21 and bought a truly awful Taurus Model 83 .38 Spl revolver. I bought it on the recommendation of a family friend who was a retired NYPD patrolman and was a guard in a casino at the time. I quickly learned he knew less about guns than I did, and I didn't know much at all. As far as shooting before I bought the Taurus, I had shot a .22 rifle a few times, a .38 S&W revolver six times, and a 1911 about 20 times. The 1911 was actually the first real gun I ever shot, period. When the Taurus went on it's first trip to FL for what I had hoped would be repairs, I bought an actual decent gun, a Dan Wesson 15-2. After the Taurus came back a second time with the same defective barrel I had sent it in for originally (Along with a ton of other issues, that were fixed), I sold it, and soon owned a second and then third DW 15-2. I've been shooting, sometimes badly, since 21, over 40 years ago. Guns have come and gone, but I have owned at least one 15-2 for almost all those 42 or so years.
 
I guess I started around 6 or 7 with an old bb gun. Progressed to an old Pioneer pellet gun around age 9. Dad let me take a 410 squirrel hunting the next year. Carried on with it until grandad in his infinite wisdom (Korean war vet) decided I needed to learn to shoot a rifle. Enter the 1903 Springfield. I was 12 when that old rifle broke my nose on the first shot. He made get up, wipe the blood off, and shoot it again. I learned two things that day: first, don't put your thumb between your nose and the bolt, and second, don't argue with old Sergeants! Unfortunately both the rifle and the old man are gone now.

Mac
 
I was always a bit shy about shooting my Dad's guns. I just wanted my own. So, I really didn't start shooting much until I was 14 years old (22 mostly). I loved it. I started hunting at Age 14 because that is the age my Dad wanted me to.... (9th grade). My hunting really didn't develop much until I bought my own guns and that happened by Age 16 from money made during the summer. Dad had a few guns, but nothing that excited me much. When we'd go out with 22's, Dad liked to shoot too. So having my own 22 was a good thing. My older brother bought a 22 the year after I got mine. Other brothers bought there own as well until we had quite a "club" shooting those rifles.
 
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