How did you get started?

[bnkrtstk]

What got you started with firearms? It was Boy Scout camp for me, more accurately Cub camp at Hart Scout Reservation in Green Lane. After the first shot of that .22 I was hooked. I think I went to the range four times that week. Growing up there were no guns in the house, and my dad didn't hunt so until I was 18, the only exposure to firearms was Boy Scouts. I couldn't wait for summer camp to get here so I could shoot. The three summers I worked on camp staff here heaven.

[Tomcat088]

I got started from my father. I think that I was 3 the first time that he took me out to shoot. He first started me out on a bb gun that I had to put under arm to be able to get proper sight picture, and that he helped hold up for me. Then he had me shooting .22 LR, and one time he decided I was gonna shoot his Mini 14. I caught the receiver in the eye and cried, lol. He felt really bad and thought that he had ruined me forever, but I never developed a flinch and as you can tell, I'm still all about firearms.

[michaelchica]

I was about 19 or 20 and I started getting into bb guns and shotguns cause I knew I couldn't get a handgun yet. I actually got my dad into guns which is cool cause we go shooting all the time together.

[bnkrtstk]

I was about 19 or 20 and I started getting into bb guns and shotguns cause I knew I couldn't get a handgun yet. I actually got my dad into guns which is cool cause we go shooting all the time together.

I took my dad shooting a few years for he died. He hadn't shot since he was in the Marines(40years) where he qualified expert. He as a tad rusty with a .45 so he tried my rifle(AK). He had never shot an AK in his life, but when I looked at the target after three shots there were three holes that could be covered up with a quarter. Needless to say I was impressed.

[CoyoteJack]

Yard patrol as a preteen. My father and older brother taught me to hunt and shoot at a young age and my mother was always wanting me to keep squirrels out of the feeders, rabbits out of the garden and crows off the property altogether. I still have the old Marlin .22 single shot bolt. Many a critter fell to a .22 short during my formative years.

[ALS]

Parents shipped me off to Military School. I really liked my M-14 they made me march with. That was when I really got into guns.
The school had a rifle range and we had to qualify. Number one in the school four years running. Of course I was also number one for detention. If I wasn't on report two to three times a week they thought something was wrong. I had an issue with authority. If my parents hadn't pulled me out after four years I probably would have been thrown out. I was there between 11-14 years of age.

[thanker92]

Family tradition. When we traced back we found relatives on both sides in every major and most minor wars for the last thousand years and a tradition of hunting whenever there wasn't a war available.

[wizzegun]

I hunted with my Dad as a kid but it didn't stick(guess I'm not much of a hunter.) 20 years later I started collecting milsurps and have been feverishly making up for lost time ever since. I even got my Dad hooked and now we have good quality time at the range.

[1861]

in my earliest memory I was already into guns

[SuperMoose]

Scout Camp at Camp Horseshoe in Rising Sun, MD. Shot a .22 in a troop shoot event and never looked back. Took rifle and shotgun merit badges in subsequent years. I will say the first time I shot the shotgun I was terrified of the recoil, I screamed pull and then pulled the trigger not even aiming the thing. After realizing it didn't hurt nearly as bad as I thought it would I started blasting clays out of the sky left and right. Now I own 4 guns with plans to enlarge that collection over time. Not bad for being 22 and acquiring them when I was 18.