How Did You Learn to Shoot?

[Uncle Buck]

I was wondering how you folks learned to shoot? Why did you learn to shoot?

I grew up in the country and watched my Dad and uncles shooting at targets, or come back from hunting. I do not remember when I first shot, but my Father thinks it was sometime around the age of five.

He said he remembers we started out with a rifle that fired .22 shorts. We would shoot at pop can and rats. (Remember going to the town dump and shooting? ) When we hit what we were shooting at, our uncles would cheer us on. If we missed, Dad, and only Dad, would correct us. (He said he was worried that if everyone tried to correct us, we would have never learned to shoot.)

Although I do not remember the first time, I do fondly recall looking forward to the week-end dump runs. Put the trash in the truck, grab the rifles, stop at Western Auto to pick up ammo and head to the dump.

We would dump the trash, pick out targets to shoot at and then back up to the "firing line" and shoot a few boxes of .22 LR.

 

[Spats McGee]

I grew up in a small town and mostly learned by dove hunting. I started out with a single-shot H&R 20 gauge. Learning that way will certainly teach a youngster that the first shot has to count, too. Later, I got a .22 and did my share of weekend plinking. There's something awfully therapeutic about driving a tin can across a field.

Edited to add: Oh, yeah, I forgot about the BB gun. Had a couple of those, too.

 

[Mudinyeri]

I grew up in a small town. My dad had a friend who was an avid hunter. My mom's brother was also an avid hunter. My dad was a casual hunter. We always had guns in a rack in the back hall.

I think I got my first BB gun when I was about five or six. I can remember sparrow hunting after dark on cold winter nights, with that same BB gun, when I was around seven or eight.

From there, my shooting was mostly hunting-oriented. I graduated from sparrows to upland game birds and big game and from BB guns to shotguns and ~ .30 caliber rifles and compound bows.

My family did quite a bit of "target" shooting with .22 rifles and pistols. I bought my first firearm at the age of fourteen - a Marlin 39A Golden .22 rifle. I still have that gun today.

I acquired a target pistol - a Ruger .256 Magnum single shot - when I was about sixteen. That got me started on long-distance pistol shooting for a while.

The Army introduced me to full-auto and semi-auto and tried to recruit me for sniper school once I qualified Expert with every weapon they put in my hands. I passed because they wanted me to re-up for the school and I wanted to get out and go to college. That's about the only thing I regret from my Army years. I would have really liked to go through that training and learn to be a great long-distance rifle shooter.

 

[wogpotter]

My Grandfather took me to an Army range when he thought I was "big enough & old enough", my father wasn't into guns but Gramps was & no-one (except Gramma) had the nerve to tell an RSM in the 11Th Gloucesters he shouldn't have.
First thing I fired was a .22 Lee Enfield trainer, the second was a .303 #1 Enfield & the third was a Lewis in .303.

 

[BlueTrain]

By the time I had joined the army, I had fired perhaps a grand total of less than 50 rounds of .22 rimfire. In the army I learned to operate a 105-mm howitizer, plus those little guns they called M-14s.

 

[aarondhgraham]

I shot a lot as a kid,,,

But I didn't get any formal training until I joined the USAF in 1970.

I found out that each Airman could shoot an allotment of 100 rounds a month,,,
You simply had to contact the Range Master and sign up for training.

Then if you and he hit it off,,,
You could shoot a heck of a lot more than that.

I always tried to befriend the range master at any base I went to,,,
They were usually bored and welcomed anyone who truly wished to learn,,,
I fit the category of wanting to shoot a lot for free and I was more than willing to follow their instruction.

I never liked the M-16 but loved shooting handguns,,,
And for several years I was actually carrying a duty Model 15,,,
So I usually went to shoot twice a week and fired 100 rounds or more each day.

Free ammunition and a willing instructor,,,
I was in Heaven for several years.

Aarond

 

[Rifleman1776]

Never was taught or had any training. I was given a .410 SxS shotgun that belonged to my grandfather and tried hunting with that. Quickly decided a .410 is a pretty wuthluss shotgun, still feel that way. Also had use of a Remington bolt action .22 and spent a lot of time in the woods shooting stumps. At a local dump I shot cans and bottles and the occasional rat. Later saved some money and bought a Ted Williams (Sears Roebuck) 12 ga. SxS shotgun and used that for many years. It never fit me right. But I did a lot of pheasant hunting with it. Hunted with friends. We had a rule, if we ever took anyone else hunting with us and we ever saw the front of their muzzle they never came back. I guess all that means I learned by common sense and doing it myself. That was wrong. I have given my grandsons lesson in safety, sighting, handling and shooting.

 

[Onward Allusion]

Daisy 880 back in the 70's then moved to a Crosman 1377. I didn't start shooting real guns until I was old enough to buy my own.

 

[Skans]

Rifle - camp when I was 8. We shot 22 shorts out of single shot bolt action rifles.

Pistol - Uncle used to take me to the range with my cousin when I'd come to visit.

 

[mavracer]

Dad tought the basics. lots of shooting dixie cups with a red ryder honed my skills some too. For the record nearly 40 years later I'm still working on getting good

 

[jimbob86]

Farm Kid with a Red Ryder. Then a .22 ..... and a .410, a 16 guage, etc....

 

[Poodleshooter]

My dad taught me with an old Anschutz in a remote gully in the woods behind our house in central MD. It was a great safe backstop for learning how to shoot.
Oddly, my first "shooting range" is now completely exposed to view from the traffic flow of a huge divided highway near a gigantic mall. It's sort of odd to drive "through" the woods I used to play and shoot and squirrel hunt in as a kid.

 

[Eagle0711]

At age 5 my foster Dad showed me how to shoot with a Rem. slide action 22.

He was a vet. from World War 1 and 11. I wasn't very good and had a hard time catching on. We shot cans at a dump.

 

[ChrisJ715]

Boy Scouts

 

[NWPilgrim]

Initially from my Dad for hunting. He was an avid deer and elk hunter and former WWII Marine. Mainly a Winchester 94 .30WCF and old Savage .30-06.

Dad also got us boys signed up for NRA marksmanship training and matches which were held across from our Junior High in the local National Guard armory basement (.22LR single shots with aperture sights). Learned more about prone position, trigger pull, and breathing.

 

[Ronbert]

Dad taught me to shoot .22 rifle in Granddad's back pasture when we visited the g'rents. That amounted to maybe 3 boxes of .22shorts when I was around 7 yrs old.

Navy "qualified" me to shoot .45 pistol with 50 rounds of bullseye format shot one time. 2 years later the same qual drill for ship's quals.
Navy "qualified" me to shoot shotgun with 3 rounds into a dirt bank on Diego Garcia several years later.

I REALLY learned to shoot by taking an NRA Basic Pistol class with my wife at a local range. Then got hooked into IPSC shooting and became a rangemaster for the indoor range. Makes the Navy training look really, really lame.

 

[Old Grump]

Savage single shot bolt action 22 and a lot of time in the woods. You learn to take more care with your shots when you have to put them in one at a time.

 

[9mm1033]

A city kid here. Just the usual BB gun as a kid; then my Uncle Sam put a M-16 in my hand.

 

[Kestrel4k]

Boy Scouts

BTW, do they do much of this anymore? Just curious.

 

[B. Lahey]

A wide variety of cheap BB and pellet guns along with truckloads of BBs and pellets got me started, and taught me to hit acceptably even if the gun has an awful trigger or other undesirable aspects.

Then I joined a rife team; they handed me an Anschütz and spoiled me for life.