When did your shooting interests start, got proof?

Post by **Hobie** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 7:10 am

I think I'm 4 or 5...

TedH · Post by **TedH** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 7:13 am

My Mother has a similar picture of me at probably about the same age, 4-5. I'm wearing a St. Louis Cardinals jersy, ball cap and white pants, with my cowboy boots and two sixguns in my belt.

I'll see if I can dig it up next time we get over to the folks place.

Post by **AmBraCol** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 7:23 am

Somewhere I've got a picture of the elder son - in a diaper and my boots with a Rossi derringer in one hand and a hunting knife in the boot top. Have NO idea where it is, though. My mom's got a pic of me in hats, none that I can recall with guns of any sort. My first "real" gun was a cap gun I picked up in Canada (of all places) back when I was four or five. First BB gun - 8 years old. First cartridge gun - Rossi derringer at about 12. First centerfire - Remington 760 Gamemaster and unknown brand 12 gauge at 19 (bought 'em both same day from a widow lady along with a 22) But the proof's in my memory and word, no pics.

JimT · Post by **JimT** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 7:46 am

I was 3. The gun is my Dad's original Model 1858 Remington .44. He had a string tied on the barrel and fastened to the ceiling.

WCF3030 · Post by **WCF3030** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 7:54 am

"Do you have proof?"
not of me but my kids will.

I can't remember not having something that propelled and object.

C. Cash · Post by **C. Cash** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 8:14 am

I am the one in diapers and boots(holding levergun

). Not too long after...say 5-6, I got an Ithaca 49 single shot 22(lever operated Martini). Arrrgh....can't get the picture the right size. I'll keep trying.

ccw9mm · Post by **ccw9mm** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 8:34 am

No pics, but ... I was introduced by cousins at age 10. They grabbed the double-barrel 10ga shotgun and we went out to the draw to "plink" at large Folger's coffee cans. I hit my target. I know I did, 'cause the last thing I saw between my feet as they flipped back up over my head was the Folger's can spinning off over the rise. Proof? I think I've still got the scar where my skin pinched against my shoulder. Will that do?

kimwcook · Post by **kimwcook** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 9:07 am

I'll go looking. I know I've got some. Gonna have to scan'em. I was like 4-5 yoa.

If my parents hadn't thrown away the TV set I shot with my 22 H&R revolver I'd have proof at 9 yoa.

Old Ironsights · Post by **Old Ironsights** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 9:18 am

No proof. Didn't even really think about firearms until my family moved to Wyoming in the 70s.

I did buy a BB pistol at age 13 or so. It got confiscated and replaced with a Compound Bow.

Got "officially" into shooting as a Frosh in HS.

OJ · Post by OJ » Wed Oct 10, 2007 10:34 am

While I can't compete with all those fetching photos, I can show results from my interest in shooting with the typical .22 single shot bolt action rifle I got for my 6th birthday in 1932.

Here I am with my "trophy" rabbits in the very rural western Nebraska sandhills in about 1934. Note the building on the right - it was our personal electric plant - 32 volts that ran light bulbs only - but a giant step up from kerosene lamps.

With our very cold winters, I distinctly remember what a joy it was when we first got indoor plumbing.

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 11:00 am

I've been interested in guns as far back as my memory can go.
The earliest picture I have is this one taken in 1957 when I was five:

I'm holding my moms S&W Chief .38 and wearing her uniform hat. The shirt has a picture of an Indian Chief on it.
This was taken in Farmington, NM were mom worked as a Meter Maid for the Farmington PD. She had to carry the Chief in her regulation shoulder bag.
I think the only time she fired it was to qualify.
Dad took the picture.

One day I'll have me one of them little S&W Chiefs.

Joe

Post by **Old Savage** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 11:05 am

No proof but all the cowboy shows on the TV I am sure.

jengel · Post by **jengel** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 11:40 am

I first started my love for shooting when I was about 5, shooting 22 rifles. When I was in high school, I reloaded .45 acp, 12ga, .223, .270, 30-30. I would work up loads, tell the parents I was test firing a round, step outside and shoot into an old stump. I was checking for pressures. We lived in the middle of nowhere, got to shoot a lot. There were no sparrows around for a few years, they stayed away from the house. I really learned how to hunt back then.

gamekeeper · Post by **gamekeeper** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 11:47 am

I don't have a photo but I still have the gun my dad gave when I was four. it's a single shot BB levergun.
He got it from his brother who bought it in the USA during the first world war. It was made in Plymouth. Mich. but I can't read the maker's name or Model.

Post by **Ysabel Kid** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 11:58 am

Watching "Lone Ranger" episodes when I was about 2! There are a bunch of pictures of me running around in pajamas, with a fancy gunbelt, and a cowboy hat on (now only my wife gets to see me in that get-up!

)

In fact, when I watch the old reel-to-reel home movies (now converted to video tape - I guess I'll have to figure out a way to burn them onto a DVD), it seems like I was always getting a toy gun for Christmas or my birthday. And to think my Mom is suprised about my hobby!

First BB gun was a Daisy "Red Ryder" at 5. The obsession went into overdrive then!!!

And, I've started my son out the same way (here he is at 7

)!

Post by **Hobie** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 12:07 pm

I half expected some good natured joshing, but I see many of you have photos, too. I'm still looking for more and may have found a photo of me in my wolf-skin "diapers" sent to Mom and Dad by John Merrick from Alaska. They had the "diapers" but I haven't found them yet. I'm also looking for photos of Dad in his loincloth. I've only heard of those and have yet to find them.

cas · Post by **cas** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 6:52 pm

You can just barely see me with my ear muffs on. Dad's got his H&R pistol in his back pocket and my older sister has his Stevens single shot .22

Post by **Chuck 100 yd** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 7:46 pm

I hunted with my dad and uncles ata young age. This is a pic of my dad in 1955, I was 9 and loved to go with him. My single shot .22 was not a good Fox gun but I carried it anyway.

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 9:40 pm

When I was four I cut my right index finger all the way to the tendon. The surgeon had to reattach the tendon as it was cut as well. For therapy he had my dad buy me a western two gun rig. That way I would exercise both fingers at the same time. Man that was a long time ago, I'd almost forgotten all about it.

Thanks Hobie,
Rusty <><

Lobo · Post by **Lobo** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 5:17 pm

Hey Guys,

I remember the Fanner Fifty cap guns, and the matching lever rifle ..... about first or second grade....no pix.....but I do have my Boy Scout marksmanship merit badge from age 13!!

Lobo in West Virginia

AJMD429 · Post by **AJMD429** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 9:19 pm

Between 4 and 6 years old, I remember shooting a Stevens single shot .22 at soup cans stacked in a pyramid in our driveway (faced into a valley into our woods) - maybe 25 yards!

That was practice because when my brother went away to college (when I was 6) I'd be the only 'man' around to shoot the wild dogs that came and killed our sheep. My mom could shoot, but didn't want to shoot the dogs, and my brother knew someone would have to.

dr walker · Post by **dr walker** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 3:43 pm

I am the indian with chicken pox, probably 3 years old. sorry for the poor quality I have no scanner available.

Thats my older brother tackling me, he still does that.

Mohillbilly · Post by **Mohillbilly** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:07 am

I am about 2.5 yrs older than my brother.As I remember,I had no brother then but I did have a little double cork gun.After tear'n off the strings I tryed if out on the moma cat.After she left for parts unknown,I then decided to use my mothers uh backside for a target.Well she jumped right good too...I didn't find that cork gun for about ten years.................

Pete44ru · Post by **Pete44ru** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:01 am

I participated in a rodeo, in April of 1947, when I was 4 1/2 years old.

It war held in New Yawk City, at Macy's Department Store - on the 11th floor, IIRC.

Oz n bolivia · Post by **Oz n bolivia** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:43 pm

"I was 3. The gun is my Dad's original Model 1858 Remington .44. He had a string tied on the barrel and fastened to the ceiling."

Gee whizz, Jim T. I'm glad you added the part about the string. I was thinking you were one strong boy at 3.

I had a bb gun before I was 11 when I was given the Winchester 27 in 12 gauge at the death of my dad. Couple of years later I added a 22RF rifle and handgun to my collection. If I have any pictures I've no idea where. That was 56 years ago.

Oz

rimrock · Post by **rimrock** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:18 pm

I no longer have a copy as it was stolen out of my truck years ago, but in 1978-79, there's a picture of me on the front page of the The Batallion, (the newspaper published for students of Texas A & M) at the range underneath the football stadium. Boy, talk about loud--that concrete stadium had some serious reverb even for the .22s we shot! I used part of my student loan money to buy a Ruger Single Six and Security Six as well as a Ruger M-77. Oh, the wisdom of youth!

otteray · Post by **otteray** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:13 pm

See? 1954, dressed like Roy Rogers.
Me on the left and my big brother Jim Chapman in Sunland, CA.
Ray