Armed Polite Society

Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Chrissy on August 23, 2009, 09:54:37 PM

Title: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: Chrissy on August 23, 2009, 09:54:37 PM
Just wondered.   =)
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: TMM on August 23, 2009, 09:56:44 PM
14, maybe...

Marlin .22, scoped, 40 yards. first three shot benchrested group was about 3"...

thus it began...

TMM
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: Standing Wolf on August 23, 2009, 09:56:50 PM
Ten or eleven.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: RocketMan on August 23, 2009, 09:59:15 PM
About five.

Edited to add:  It was my Dad's Stevens 87A .22.  He actually had to hold the front of the rifle for me as I couldn't quite support it myself.  It was okay resting on a log, as I remember (faintly).
We shot it at his Aunt and Uncle's farm in Sweet Home, Oregon.
We used some old, empty medicine bottles, among other things, as targets.  Worthless then, probably worth a fortune now.

Another ETA:  It just hit me, what a priceless memory that is.  It is such a shame that it is fading as time passes.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: Boomhauer on August 23, 2009, 10:01:47 PM
4 or 5, I think. 

I pretty much started off really shooting with a BB gun, then moved up to .22s later in life. I was very, very glad to eventually move up to a .22, because my BB gun was slow to shoot (you had to pump it up, then run the bolt to load the BB.). It did teach me the value of making that shot count, though.

Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: Regolith on August 23, 2009, 10:05:07 PM
5 or 6 if you count BB guns.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: RaspberrySurprise on August 23, 2009, 10:06:06 PM
Don't remember, but I got my Marlin 60 When I was 14 and had a BB gun before that.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: Tuco on August 23, 2009, 10:28:09 PM
Too young to remember - mebbe 4 or 5.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: BridgeRunner on August 23, 2009, 10:37:25 PM
Twenty-five.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: Monkeyleg on August 23, 2009, 10:39:28 PM
Nine for BB gun, eleven or twelve for .22.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: Nick1911 on August 23, 2009, 10:48:36 PM
An actual firearm?  13, maybe.

BB gun - 8ish.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: Fjolnirsson on August 23, 2009, 10:53:16 PM
21. My daughter fired her first at 4.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: Headless Thompson Gunner on August 23, 2009, 11:10:43 PM
14 or so, I think
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: charby on August 23, 2009, 11:11:13 PM
BB gun-5 or 6

Rimfire: 6

Centerfire: 7
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: Gowen on August 23, 2009, 11:18:06 PM
About 10 for a BB gun and I was 18 when I fired my first 22. 
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: mtnbkr on August 23, 2009, 11:23:59 PM
BB Gun: 7 or 8
Shotgun: 12ish (Scouts)
22lr: 12ish (Scouts)
Handgun (centerfire and rimfire): 20
Centerfire rifle: 27

I didn't own my first firearm until I was 26

Chris
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: taurusowner on August 23, 2009, 11:25:20 PM
22, and it was a .22
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: Paragon on August 24, 2009, 12:13:42 AM
I think I fired my first BB gun around 8 or 9.  It was so cool then, it actually was a pump action that both pumped the gun and loaded the shot.  My dad owned a garbage company, and it was on their property, and I remember the world of hurt I was in when a ricochet took out the window of the Cadallic at the business next door.  My dad put the barrel in a vise and twisted it far beyond repair.

First firearm was a 20 gauge break-barrel, and I was about 12.  We shot at bottles floating in a pond near my grandparent's hunting cabin.

For my first pistol, it was a 9mm Beretta in the Marine Corps, when I was 19 or 20. 
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: jackdanson on August 24, 2009, 01:01:29 AM
10 or 11, marlin 60, still have it, still shoots great.

Had a bb gun when I was around 6.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: Viking on August 24, 2009, 01:10:22 AM
6: Old air pistol
7: Air rifle at the club
11: Single-shot .22
16: 12 gauge shotgun and 5-shot bolt action .22

That's all.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: Unisaw on August 24, 2009, 01:22:51 AM
11 yrs. old; single-shot .22 rifle with open sights; target was a tin can sitting on a fence post on my Grandfather's Iowa farm.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: Nitrogen on August 24, 2009, 01:57:53 AM
24.

Freaked out after I saw a coworkers gun in his glove compartment.  He was patient, and took me ot shooting later on, and I became hooked.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: vaskidmark on August 24, 2009, 02:55:05 AM
I was 6 1/2.  It was a genuine double-barrelled 4-bore, up on sticks.  Belonged to my uncle who lived in South Africa.  First shot sent me backwards about (mumble-grumble) feet, landing in a heap.  Gunbearers caught the rifle.  Second shot I remained standing.

I shot a bunch of other stuff but do not recall what it was.  One never forgets meeting a 4-bore! :cool:

Next time shooting was probably age 16 - high school rifle club shooting .22s at the National Guard Armory.  The only reason for the long delay was my family was constantly travelling and we were never in any place long enough to even look into shooting.  Have a feeling the parents would not have been receptive/supportive even if we were not on the road.

stay safe.

skidmark
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: cfabe on August 24, 2009, 09:55:16 AM
.22lr - about 12 I'd guess, at scout camp
.30-06 - 17 at philmot scount ranch
12ga - 18
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: HankB on August 24, 2009, 10:03:04 AM
BB gun at 4. Was so little I had to tuck the stock under my armpit (else I couldn't reach the trigger) and I still outshot my much older cousin.  =D

Dad bought me one a week or two later.

Got a .22 rifle at 7, CO2 pistol at about 9 or 10 (shot it a lot in the backyard . . . in Chicago.  :O ), a .22 revolver as an early 8th grade graduation gift, which was followed very shortly afterwards by a Colt National Match .45 . . . that's about the time I started reloading and shooting a lot.

Today's bedwetting liberals would have a fit at the "ARSENAL" I kept in my room during my youth . . . and yet, strangely enough, access to firearms never made me go on some crazy killing spree, even when things weren't going my way.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: 41magsnub on August 24, 2009, 10:15:09 AM
5'ish, my Dad's winchester model 270 .22 loaded with .22 shorts.  Like others he had to hold the front up for me.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: mtnbkr on August 24, 2009, 10:19:59 AM
When I lived in NC as a young kid, many of the neighborhood boys had  BB and pellet rifles.  When I moved to TN (8yo through 14yo), shotguns and 22lr rifles were common in my 'hood.  Nobody blinked when we walked through the hood with guns to the woods on the edge of the subdivision to do a little plinking.

Chris
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: White Horseradish on August 24, 2009, 11:56:50 AM
Pellet gun - probably 8 or so.
Firearm - 25. Location, location, location...
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: freedom lover on August 24, 2009, 12:52:26 PM
BB gun- around 7

.22 lr.- 11 or 12

I actually got my bb gun when I was 4 or 5. I had a hard time cocking it. I wasn't allowed to load it until I was older. Using it as a toy before a weapon was probably not a good idea.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: Jocassee on August 24, 2009, 01:10:48 PM
Probably around 6 or seven years old for my first BB gun. My grandpa had a Red Ryder that Dad would take me out in the backyard to shoot. Then I graduated to 22 rifles and a 22 H&R pistol that now resides in my room. I got a pellet rifle of my own on Christmas Eve when I was 8, and was allowed to shoot it unsupervised when I was 10.

Although we always had guns around the house and I was allowed to handle them with permission, we never shot much except for my Dad's 9mm pistol which he kept in practice with.

Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: El Tejon on August 24, 2009, 01:14:53 PM
5, it was a Stevens .22lr rifle.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: 280plus on August 24, 2009, 05:21:53 PM
10 maybe, dad's old Sears & Roebuck .22 rifle.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: BlueStarLizzard on August 24, 2009, 07:43:59 PM
dad got me started when i was 8 with a ar-7 .22

i was shooting his handguns by the time the month was out. first pistol: HK USP .40 S&W
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: Chuck Dye on August 24, 2009, 08:59:23 PM
I first fired my first gun was when I was 11.  Rather than allow me to buy a BB gun, Dad brought home a Winchester Model 75 Target, various accessories, and memberships in the NRA and Davey Crockett Junior Rifle Club.  The next morning I was on a formal firing line learning to shoot 50 foot indoor matches, all though of BB guns banished.  And yes, whatever the law may have said, it was my rifle.  It and all my gear and ammo stayed in my closet from day one. 

My first time shooting was six months earlier with Dad, an uncle and some cousins at a dirt and gravel quarry.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: Parker Dean on August 24, 2009, 10:40:52 PM
13

One of Dads co-workers had stopped by in the late evening and had a black powder pistol with him. Somebody got the "Let Mikey try it" type of bright idea and before I knew it I was standing in front of a target hanging from a tree limb, holding an awkwardly formed firearm. I pointed it "downrange" one handed like you saw in old movies while the co-worker cocked it. I took aim and pulled the trigger back, which in retrospect had to have positively intercontinental amounts of creep, and, almost without warning, ka-POW!!.

I managed to hold on to the dragon, just. After the smoke cleared, I was mildly pleased that I had at least blown the target down and it did have a couple of holes in it. OTOH I did decline any further shots, and retreated to my room to collect myself and let the ringing in my ears to subside.

Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: S. Williamson on August 25, 2009, 09:13:05 AM
BB pistol: 18
.30-30: 18
Pistol: Honestly can't remember.  =(  After 18, though... I think it was a Beretta 96, but... ???
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: BReilley on August 26, 2009, 12:48:42 AM
First real pistol was a Smith & Wesson 622 at the local range here in Mesa.  It was probably almost three years ago, making me about 25.
First rifle was a friend's AR-15, fired at the same range, about six months later.
The first actual firearm I purchased was a Glock 19C, which I still have.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: slugcatcher on August 26, 2009, 08:00:11 AM
BB gun at 3.  A .410 shotgun and a .22 rifle(which I still have) at age 5 on the same day.
Title: Re: What age were you when you fired your first gun?
Post by: crt360 on August 26, 2009, 08:32:39 PM
I don't remember.  I had a cap gun revolver when I was probably 3.  It used the paper roll caps and would pop stuff in your eye.  I loved it. =)  I also had a lever-action pop gun about the same time.

I'm sure I shot a .22 on a few occasions by the time I was 5, but I don't have any special memory of it.  When I was a year or two older, I got a Winchester single shot .410.