Age of shooting first centerfire handgun?

[ligonierbill]

Dad was not a handgun guy. As a Marine Corporal he was issued a 1911, and although he was a good rifleman, he couldn't "hit a barn door from inside the barn" (his words). My first experience with a pistol was in Germany in 1962. Spent the summer with my extended family, all hunters. One day my uncle brought out a pistol (This is for the Russians.) All I remember is that it had an odd hammer.

 

[Willie Lowman]

The first rifle I shot was a Remington Target Master .22. When I was about 10

My first handgun was a Ruger Redhawk that my step dad got me for my 16th birthday.
And I would not recommend to anyone to have a .44 magnum be their first handgun!!!

 

[44caliberkid]

My Dad let us shoot his High Standard Sport King going back as far as I can remember (5 or 6 maybe) . A friend of his let me shoot his Model 29 44 Magnum when I was about 13. Another friend of his gave me a Model 10 38 Special with a two inch barrel when I was 16. A year later he asked for it back.

 

[Butzbach]

Logging road in Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan

I’m guessing I was 7 when my Dad held my hand in his and we fired his .38 Colt Detective Special off of a logging road in the lower peninsula of Michigan in the summer of ‘63. It was likely near Mio, MI the county seat of Oscoda county in or near the Huron National Forest. I do remember the ringing.

 

[RETG]

Think I was about eight (plus/minus a a year); weapon was a SW Model 10, .38 cal. My fathers service issued weapon. I too fired this weapon in MI, somewhere up in the thumb area, South of Caseville at a farm owned by a friend of the family from an old memory.
That was around 66 years ago. A lot has changed since that revolver was fired in a kid's hand.

 

[rodfac]

Raised in western New York, south of Buffalo, the only handguns I ever saw were the .38 Special Colts and Smiths on the town's police force.

I went into the Air Force at 18 and qualified on the Smith & Wesson Model 15's then in service. Four days total on the range, two with the Model 15's and the 2nd two with the M-1 Garand. This was in '64, and long before the M-16 went into the inventory, circa 1966.

The Model 15's stayed around though, and I was issued one on arriving in Vietnam, in January of '70. Mine stayed in my foot locker after the first month in country however, and I got a 1911a1 from the Special Forces guys I was flying and living with. A far better gun for close up work in the trenches and fighting positions on the camp's perimeter.

Later, a Browning Hi Power came my way and I carried that for the rest of my 1st tour in that hell hole of a country. Best Regards, Rod

 

[Mongo_Bongo]

Army 1911 age 22.

 

[bbqncigars]

It was my first handgun of any kind, a Ruger SBH when I was 16 in '72. The Browning ammo in that cartridge was a stout load with a 240gr jacketed SWC producing an impressive fireball. It took weeks of subsequent handloads to dispel my flinch.

 

[hikingman]

Age 13, while at Hodgdon Indoor Shooting Range in Kansas City.

 

[FunGramps]

Dad was a deputy sheriff and carried a .357 magnum derringer or some mouse gun in his coat pocket as backup.

Asked if my buddy and I wanted to try it out at age 13. We were told to hold it tightly. Yeah, real funny.

FREAKING OUCH!

Thanks dad.

 

[brian33x51]

I know I was shooting rimfire rifles since I was 4 or so. I just can't remember any larger caliber. My dad didn't really have that many guns, for pistols only a ruger blackhawk .357.

The first center fire pistol I distinctly remember firing was at a family reunion when I was 12 or 13 where I shot an uncle's stainless ruger super redhawk 44 mag with a 9.5" barrel using his "hot" hand loads. Yeah, I do own that exact same model now, it was the second pistol I ever bought (used).

 

[Drm50]

It is surprising but lots of guys who weren’t from rural areas never shot 22s, rifle or pistol.
I guess if main purpose of gun and training was anti personnel there was no need for 22s.
To us guys from Podunk, USA there was nothing more useful than 22s.

 

[Scorch]

I was about 6 or 7. My dad, our neighbor and my brother took me out hunting in the desert. After about 1/2 hour of walking, we stopped to pop a few cans. He was carrying a Colt single action in 38 or 357, handed it to me and told me to shoot one of the cans. I don't know if I hit the can or not, but I was wound up for the rest of the day!

 

[Seven High]

The first revolver that I shot was while I was a student at the USAF Air Police Tech school at Lackland AFB.

 

[armednfree]

On a strip mine in Grundy Virginia with my uncle. Smith and Wesson 22 revolver.

 

[kenny53]

I don't remember the first time I shot a handgun. I am pretty sure the first time I shot a rifle was in 1962 outside of Rosswell NM. It was a Mossburg semiauto 22.

 

[10-96]

For a revolver- I think I was around 9. My stepdad and his buddy took me along to the Potter C. S.O. range at the old Amarillo Air Force Base. The firearm was either a S&W 15 or 19 loaded with .38's. I was hooked!

I didn't shoot a semi auto until '87 when I was 18 and going through OSUT for MP at Ft. McClellan, AL They qualified us on 1911's, and that was the first time I heard the silly saying "Think twice about qualifying Expert- If you shoot somebody, they'll be asking you why you didn't shoot to wound if you're an Expert." Funny now- I have no idea what I qualified as.

 

[peacefulgary]

I was 11 and it was a Taurus .38 Special.

 

[Viper225]

My first handgun was a Black Powder 1851 Colt Copy in 44 that I ordered when I was probably 17 or 18. It came from Navy Arms I believe. I shot pounds of powder through it. I remember buying 3F Black Powder at Gun Shows back in the day weighed out in a paper sack. It would be nice to go back to the simpler days without so many Regulations to deal with.

The First Centerfire I remember Shooting was my brothers Ruger Single Action 357 Magnum, at about the same age.

Bob R

 

[veprdude]

Probably 6 or 7 very supervised on a single shot 22. Mostly unsupervised by 9 or 10. Unsupervised at 14 or so.

Some kids can handle it, others not so much. Some of it might be parenting but there is wide range of attentiveness in young kids that is innate. I've done volunteer range days with 5 year-olds that can follow simple directions and have been out with teens from the family that if you didn't hold their hand or hawk-eye them then someone was bound to get injured. Those kids don't get invited back.