Who was your biggest influence in the firearms/shooting world?

My Grandfather and my Dad. My Grandfather gave me the first few guns that I owned. Going shooting was an every Sunday afternoon thing. Plus I grew up reading the famous gun writers like Elmer Keith, Bill Jordan, John Wooters and others. I also watched shows on TV like Combat, Rat Patrol, Gunsmoke and Bonanza. I met both James Arness and Bill Jordan at the Tulsa Gun Show on different years and have a signed copy of Bill Jordan's book "No Second Place Winner". I also have a set of Herret's grips designed by Bill Jordan. Good Times.................
 
Since no one either on my Dad's side or my Mom's side ever talked about guns, let alone own one, (as far as I know), I would say that the most influential input I had with firearms and shooting was by reading the various gun writers of the time. Favorites were Elmer Keith, Jeff Cooper, Chuck Taylor, Massad Ayoob, Skeeter Skelton, Bill Jordan, George Nonte, and J.B. Wood are just a few of the many authors who piqued my interests in guns, shooting, reloading, and hunting.
 
My grandfather and uncle on my mother's side were the shooters. Back in the 50s growing up NYC (Brooklyn NY) they took me hunting at age 8 (1958) in upstate NY. My uncle's friend Charlie had a family cabin upstate. Every day over a long Thanksgiving weekend after morning hunting I was given a Remington 510 .22 rifle and a box of ammunition and taught how to shoot. All good things must come to an end but before we left Charlie gave me that old rifle. Hard to believe my love of the shooting sports spawned 65 years ago.

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Still have that first .22 rifle, it's on the top with a few old .22 rifles which came later. One grandson at age 8 now loves shooting his BB gun. He always ask his mom when his grandpa Blain is going to give him a real rifle. :) Maybe this summer as his parents are fine with it. The older grandkids are busy with college and while they have access to their parents guns are just too busy with school. Anyway it began for me 65 years ago under the tutelage of my grandfather and uncle.

Ron
 
Friend from college had a father who was an FFL and gynecologist with lots of full-auto fun. He was a collector and shooter of gold Colt single action revolvers. Met Bob Mundsen through him. I'd say those 2 are to blame for my obsession/horde.
 
I wish I could say it was my dad or my grandfather, but not really (at least not directly). My father and mother are strong antis when it comes to guns. Dad grew up in rural western PA, in a family where some days, if they didn't get anything when they went hunting, they didn't eat meat. Between that (guns were practical and not recreational) and becoming extremely liberal after college, and he hates guns.

Growing up, my grandfather had a wooden locking gun rack bolted to his wall that I'd often eye when we went to visit:
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(Not his, but very much like this)

One day when I was 5 or 6 he showed me (and let me handle) a .22 rifle and a .22/20ga over/under and one of my parents (I can't remember if it was my mother or father) totally chewed him out for it. From then on, I could look, but he never let me touch them, let alone taking me out shooting as I got older.

I was interested in guns from high school on. The first time I shot was basic training. Initially, I couldn't even successfully zero my M16, but one of the Drill Sergeants on the range (not from my company) took some time and 1 on 1 taught me how to shoot. That was an important step, and I quickly got pretty good (in the days leading to qualification I would be right on the line between Sharpshooter and Expert when practicing, unfortunately, when we qualified I shot Sharpshooter, just barely missed Expert). Almost a decade later, a friend bought a handgun, and several of us started joining him at the range (I sometimes shot his gun, and often rented a revolver). My next influence was Chuck Taylor, I read his paperback The Gun Digest Book of Combat Handgunnery (4th Edition) so much I wore it out and had to buy a second.
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Since then, I've participated in a number of training classes. I watch YouTube videos of a number of trainers and experts. Probably the one I give the most weight would be Mas Ayoob, and of course any online tips from Jerry Miculek's articles and videos, but at this point, I'm not sure how much "influence" I'd say any of them have on me. I pay attention to what they have to say and use what I can, but I don't necessarily weigh any one more heavily than the others.
 
I always loved to shoot the 10/22 and my uncle had the 10/22 SS version with the "boat paddle" stock. I have compared my SS 10/22 to his with The SS metal trigger/guard, etc.... the 10/22's from 20 years ago are not the same, but they are still pretty damn good for a sub $300 .22lr rifle. I just wish Ruger never discontinued the Boat paddle stocks, they were awesome. I have a wooden blank stock that needs to be finished and would love to trade someone for a synthetic stock.... Ruger was onto something with those synthetic stocks on the M77 and 10/22's with the Zytel synthetic. Not sure why they discontinued em, we're they not super popular?
 
chaim said:
I wish I could say it was my dad or my grandfather, but not really (at least not directly). My father and mother are strong antis when it comes to guns. Dad grew up in rural western PA, in a family where some days, if they didn't get anything when they went hunting, they didn't eat meat. Between that (guns were practical and not recreational) and becoming extremely liberal after college, and he hates guns.

Growing up, my grandfather had a wooden locking gun rack bolted to his wall that I'd often eye when we went to visit:
View attachment 1157615
(Not his, but very much like this)

One day when I was 5 or 6 he showed me (and let me handle) a .22 rifle and a .22/20ga over/under and one of my parents (I can't remember if it was my mother or father) totally chewed him out for it. From then on, I could look, but he never let me touch them, let alone taking me out shooting as I got older.

I was interested in guns from high school on. The first time I shot was basic training. Initially, I couldn't even successfully zero my M16, but one of the Drill Sergeants on the range (not from my company) took some time and 1 on 1 taught me how to shoot. That was an important step, and I quickly got pretty good (in the days leading to qualification I would be right on the line between Sharpshooter and Expert when practicing, unfortunately, when we qualified I shot Sharpshooter, just barely missed Expert). Almost a decade later, a friend bought a handgun, and several of us started joining him at the range (I sometimes shot his gun, and often rented a revolver). My next influence was Chuck Taylor, I read his paperback The Gun Digest Book of Combat Handgunnery (4th Edition) so much I wore it out and had to buy a second.
View attachment 1157616


Since then, I've participated in a number of training classes. I watch YouTube videos of a number of trainers and experts. Probably the one I give the most weight would be Mas Ayoob, and of course any online tips from Jerry Miculek's articles and videos, but at this point, I'm not sure how much "influence" I'd say any of them have on me. I pay attention to what they have to say and use what I can, but I don't necessarily weigh any one more heavily than the others.
Click to expand...
I wonder how hard it would be to track down that edition of Combat HandGunnery, perhaps ebay would turn up a copy. I love flipping through old magazines. I used to have a dozen or so stacks 3 or 4 feet high but my wife "helped" me consolidate all of my gun mags into about 2 or 3 shoe boxes. Sad because I had about a literal ton of them.

I know you can find everything online and some of those tactics might be a lil dated but some things never change. I too enjoy listening to Mas Ayoob on the YT channel for Wilson Combat, Bill Wilson, Mas and Ken Hackathorm are pretty regular fuxtures on that channel. Mas is legend in my eyes and I like Jerry Muculek videos as well. But even for me, growing up I didn't have a PC or Laptop, let alone a phone that had internet and I got countless hours of enjoyment reading Guns, Combat HandGunnery, American Rifleman, Shotgun News, etc..... Mas and Clint are of my favorite gun guys and I would say they influenced me, especially mindset, among many others since print magazines fell out of favor. Rob Pincus as well
 
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My dad was an avid hunter and introduced me to the basics. After a long hiatus from recfreational shooting, Masaad Ayoob and, later, Paul Hafrrell picked up where my dad left off.
 
Definitely my BIL. His experience and knowledge was wide. He even co-owned an LGS. No one else in my family hunted or owned handguns. The first handgun experience was firing a .38 SPL revolver as a police explorer at the PD range. My only other experience was when my Dad took me to a turkey shoot firing a shotgun.
 
My dad during the Watts riots. Only time I ever saw he him with a gun. He was a WW2 vet. I was 7 or 8 and we went to protect his best friend he grew up with in Colorado. I was petrified.
 
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My first experience was with my dad and uncle when I was maybe 8 years old, fired a High Standard .22. My dad had to cock it for me. Other than TV shows and movies I really didn't get much hands on exposure until I was 15 or 16, a friend had a 30-30 lever gun and a 12 gauge and from there I was hooked. The thing is I always had friends who's firearms I could shoot so I never owned one until I was in my 20s, since then my collection has increased and shrank from time to time. Right now it's the largest it's ever been.
 
.308 Norma said:
Davy Crockett Gun Shop, 1734 Monte Vista Dr, Pocatello, ID, Guns & Gunsmiths - MapQuest
Davy Crockett passed away 5 or 6 years ago, but he was the guy that built my .338 Win Mag (on a pre-64 Win 70 action) back in the '90s. From what I understand, his wife did most of the stock work. To a lot of people's dismay (including mine) Davy Crockett Gun Shop has permanently closed - just like too many other great gun shops I used to frequent. :(
Click to expand...
Hadn't heard of that one. I was talking about the one that died in 1836, at the Alamo. I'm being serious in a way. If I had to point to just one major influence as a child that was the genesis of my interest in firearms, outdoors, hunting, fighting etc, it would be Fess Parker's portrayal of Davy Crockett. Obviously there have been many more major influences since then, but if I had to put my finger on it, that's where it started.
 
My Dad and his brothers would get together for two or three days every Thanksgiving for rabbit hunting behind a pack of beagles and when my brother and I were old enough we got to hunt with them. We'd end up skinning out and field dressing anywhere from 20 to 30 rabbit every day and at night we'd have some of the best fried rabbit you could eat. I'll never forget those memories.
 
bearcreek said:
Hadn't heard of that one.
Click to expand...
Yeah, from what I've heard, Davy Crockett (the gunsmith in Pocatello, Idaho) actually was related to the Davy Crockett that died at the Alamo. I know for sure, Davy Crockett (the gunsmith in Pocatello) was a well-respected gun builder - especially when it came to muzzle loading rifles. Like I said though, I heard his wife did a lot of the stock work. It seems like he had a brother too (Alvin, I think) that he worked with. :)
 
When I was in college I would stop by the library pretty often looking for something interesting to read. Not much of what they had there interested me, but there were some periodicals such as Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, Guns & Ammo, and a few others, along with some great books on reloading, hunting and shooting. I don't recall the name of the author nor the name of the book, but I read a book on precision rifle shooting that has probably had the most impact of anything in my life on my shooting habits and capabilities, and even my choices and preferences in rifles. I'd been shooting for close to 15 years by then, and I was a pretty decent shot, but reading the book helped me understand a lot more about how to shoot well, and most important, more precisely and consistently. Even with my thousands of rounds of experience, my groups immediately tightened up to perhaps one-third of what they were prior to me reading that book and gaining an understanding of some of the common shooting mistakes, proper technique, and some of the keys to consistent shooting. As with anything else, knowing exactly what you need to do and why, is very helpful in learning to do it well.

I also had a similar experience with welding. I was largely a self-taught welder, picking up a few tips from some professionals and accomplished amateurs that I knew. I was pretty decent, got the job done for my projects and repairs, etc. But then a friend of mine who went to vocational school to learn to be a professional welder loaned me a text book on arc welding. I read that (and also discussed a lot of what I read with the friend) and almost overnight became quite good at it. Later I picked up my own book on TIG welding and learned that. Just like with shooting, knowing exactly what you are trying to do is a big help.
 
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My next door neighbor who is a Korean War veteran and is one of the most honorable, tough, tightest grouping shooters at age 93 that I've ever met.
He shoots a Ruger Mark II with a heavy government labeled barrel one handed and still can put together groups of less than one inch in diameter at 25 yards.
He has a scrapbook from the Korean War. In just about every picture, everyone in his unit looks dirty and miserable, but not him. He has a big smile on his face. They don't make too many humans out of the material he is made out of anymore. Love the man.
 
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