This thread is mainly for those born in the 70s or earlier, but everyone is welcome to join.

[Johnny Ringo]

This thread is mainly for those born in the 70s or earlier, but everyone is welcome to join.

• How did you get into shooting?
• Were guns always around in your home?
• Did your fathers or grandfathers own or carry?
• What was your first gun, and what was the first you really wanted (even if you never got it)?

For me:
No family background with firearms, but I was always drawn to anything that made noise. In the 80s I read gun magazines regularly, and I was heavily influenced by Punisher comics (especially the Weapon Specials). Sledge Hammer and Dirty Harry made me want a .44 Magnum. Later, a 10mm S&W 1076 (Sonny Bonds, Police Quest II), and then a Glock.

My first gun was a S&W PC .45 ACP – like the black one in the picture, but mine has a satin finish. Next came a 629 Classic .44 Mag with a 6" barrel. My third handgun was a Glock 17, though I've always preferred the 19.

Even my Winchester was a compromise: I wanted an 1873 in pistol caliber, but ended up with an 1894 in .30-30.

 

[jaydoc]

Born in 1966. My dad was not a shooter. My stepdad, who mostly raised me, had a .22 Colt woodsman that he rarely shot. He didn't ever teach me to shoot as it just wasn't a big deal to my family. It wasn't until a friend of mine became a state trooper and started showing me his cool guns that the beast began to awaken. He had an affinity for H&K pistols. I started perusing the internet, looking at these guns when I came across the p7 variants and bought a nice p7m8. I was about 43. I eventually ended up with a p7m13 and two p7m10.about that time I also became aware of the 1911 world. That bug bit hard. I always have about a baker's dozen in the safe. Also picked up a few odd AR an AK style rifles. Got interested in anything John Moses Browning so added some Hipowers. Revolvers were late to the game for me. Guys on the 1911 forum I was on would post them. My first was a Colt Python from my birth year. Although I love that gun, I didn't really care for the rest of Colt's lineup. The old S&W's just looked more sexy so down that wormhole I went. I sold the earliest guns to fund the current stock. I decided I needed to focus or I'd go broke, get divorced or both. New purchases now are either 1911's or S&W revolvers. Mostly N frames. Now, at almost 59, I'm truly addicted.

 

[sparkyvega]

I was raised around firearms and learned to shoot on S&W revolvers and 22LR rifles. Firearms are naturally just a part of my day, and I've passed that culture onto my children who accept/tolerate them and own a few firearms, but sadly do not embrace them as a lifestyle.

 

[CajunBass]

Harry Truman was president when I was born. My father bought one of the first TV's in our area. I grew up on Western's, combat, and cop shows.

My father may or may not have been a bootlegger. I've seen at least one picture of him standing by a 40 Ford coup, with a Smith and Wesson 38 in each hand (looked like S&W 38's anyway). My mother informed me they were "toys." I always wondered about that picture and that "story." Later, I learned my grandmother had told her to "Stay away from him. He's a Bootlegger!" Obviously, that didn't work. A family mystery that will never be solved I suppose, as they've all gone to Glory now. Still colorful though.

There were no guns in our house. Certainly no handguns. My mother said only two types of people had handguns. Crooks and cops. I was going to be neither. Hunting guns she didn't mind. Her father and brothers all hunted, and she was used to shotguns and such.

I grew up thinking I'd never hunt. Bambi and such were cute and so on. Then my grandfather, my mothers father, started sending over his Outdoor Life and Field and Stream magazines. At first only the fishing stories interested me. Then out of boredom I read a hunting story. WOW.. Now I wanted to hunt. Santa bought me a 20 Ga Ithaca M-66 for Christmas one year. I bought a Sears Roebuck 12 ga double (Stevens 311 rebranded) myself about a year later. My mother called it in, the Sears delivery truck dropped it off a few days later. This was before GCA-68. I guess I was 15? or so. I'd worked all summer on a local farm to get the money and she paid for it while I was at work.

I was 30 or so before I got my first handgun. At least the first one that didn't shoot caps and plastic bullets. I had read Skeeter Skelton and Bill Jordan and knew I wanted either a Model 19 S&W or a Colt Python. The Model 19 was about half the price of a Python, so it won out. It would be a long time before I scratched the Python itch.

I never knew anyone who carried, or if they did they kept it a secret. I didn't even know but a few people who owned handguns, mostly some type of 22 SA revolver or other. My uncle had one with plastic stag grips that he carried on his trap line, but I got no idea what brand it was.

 

[jakerudy]

Grew up on a farm with a few guns around but my Dad wasn't a hunter. When I was maybe 10 he helped me finish a .36 cal black powder revolver kit. A couple of shots and I was hooked.

Later on I lusted a .357 Mag and studied every magazine article I could find and a G&A comparison declared a 4" SS to be the ultimate do all pistol. A GP100 was highly rated and cheaper than a 686 or Python so I had to have one. A summer job during college provided enough savings to buy a new one.

Nobody really worried about concealed carry as pretty much everybody had a shotgun or rifle in their truck and we left the keys in them. Back then if your vehicle had been moved it was either a prank or somebody needed to get somewhere and would be back soon.

 

[stu1ritter]

I was born when FDR was president and 3 weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Being born in the Bronx, NYC, there was no such thing as a gun culture around my apartment. Or my block, or my neighborhood, or the city for that matter.

My first experience handling any guns was when my father took me with him when he went to do some on site picture framing work for Robert Ripley (Ripley's Believe It Or Not) who was a great collector. Robert let me handle many of his current guns and I was enthralled at age 7.

In 1955 I joined my high school rifle team (Stuyvesant HS in Manhattan) and used to practice at the Manhattan Rifle and Revolver Association at 24 Murray St.. The rifle team would ride the subways with our rifles for away matches and it never bothered anyone. Try that today! We shot at the old 33rd St. Armory (no longer there) where the Police detectives practiced. I would always arrive early and the detective instructors would let me shoot their snubs and I was just hooked on handguns. When in high school, NYC had a summer program for high school kids that sent them to working farms in upstate NY for 8 weeks. I saved and saved and bought my first gun, a rifle, and had it sent up to the farm I had worked on the previous summer as I was going back. The rifle was a BSA in 222 Remington and the farmer taught me how to hunt varmints around the farm from a good distance.

In the Army I shot on the 1st Cav Division Pistol Team, the 2nd Army Pistol Team and started collecting. When I was at Army secondary schooling at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland I bought my first handgun, at age 17, a new Colt Python ser # 6306. I later sold it to a German friend, in Germany, and he kept it the rest of his life. I would shoot it on visits there. Shot competitive bullseye for years and years (Expert Indoors/Outdoors). Still enjoy going to my club and shooting a few National Matches by myself. I now shoot a Nelson conversion and either a Curtis or a Giles .45 for targets and an assortment of S&W's for fun.

Stu

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Another self-starter here, had guns in my blood. First real firearm I handled was the M-1 Carbine my old man brought back from WWII. Never fired it, it-and he-disappeared with the divorce. No hunters of shooters in my family, first time I shot a real firearm, Boy Scout Camp, Summer of 1963. Recall poring over the firearms pages in the 1960s Sears catalogs. First firearms I bought, a 1966 Browning High Power, M1917 Enfield-still have them.
Have my battered copy of the 1966 Edition of Small Arms of the World, read it so much I memorized parts of it.

 

[Grayfox]

I'm a child of the 50s. My parents were the first members of either family to leave the farm and move to the big city. (suburbs actually). I grew up around farms and farmers. Guns were just another tool used for pest control or hunting to add food to the table. My Dad was a big quail and squirrel hunter. Everybody had at least one gun in the home. Usually a shotgun or .22 rifle. Some had a centerfire rifle. It was just part of life to learn how to use it and take care of it just like any other tool. But not many owned a handgun or never mentioned if they did.
First handgun I ever fired was an Army issue 1911A1.
My first gun was a Crescent Arms single shot .410. A neighbor had owned it and broke the stock. He gave it to my Father. Dad knew an old man who made a new stock for it and then gave it to me. I was about 9-10 at the time. For Christmas when I was 12, I got a Marlin 99M1 .22 rifle. In those days it was normal to start kids shooting early. I still have the .410 and currently own my second 99M1.

 

[chief38]

My Dad was a Federal Agent, a gun enthusiast, competition shooter, hunter, etc. In the 1950's and early 1960's we watched Westerns, Roy Rodgers, The Lone Ranger, Gun Smoke, Have Gun Will Travel, WW2 shows like Combat, Detective shows, and of course we all played Cops & Robbers, Cowboys and Indians etc. I'd sit in his chair before my feet could reach the ground and pour over his gun magazines and books.

My dad had many guns but usually carried a Revolver as a daily SD gun - mostly S&W (M15, M10, M19, M66, M36) but sometimes a Colt of some sort and sometimes even an auto loader. When he would do undercover work, he carried so called "non - LEO guns" so that if he was discovered carrying they would not automatically think he was a Fed. He had Ortgies, Brownings, Walther's etc. for that purpose.

My first gun was a Christmas present from my Dad and I still have it today! It is a Marlin/Glenfield model 25 bolt action, magazine fed .22 RF rifle with a Beech wood stock and a 1/2" Marlin marked scope that came with it. I even still have the original scope box. While certainly not a high end gun, when I was 11 and used to shoot almost every Saturday, it was the best rifle in the world - lol! I still shoot it on occasion but at least I have upgraded the scope a little. Although this Marlin/Glenfield was probably no more than $30 - $35 bucks at the time, it is deadly accurate! My most accurate , tack driving rifle today is my CZ 453 American 22 RF, but this M/G M25 is the second most accurate rifle I own! See pictures below.

 

[Hawg Rider]

I'm a baby boomer, born in 1954. My dad was a WWII veteran and brought back a few rifles, pistols, and swords so I grew up with firearms in our suburban home. I also learned safe handling at an early age. We lived near the Crosman factory so I had a pellet pistol by age 10, and my single shot .22 LR rifle at 12. My dad wasn't a hunter or shooter so I basically learned my shooting skills in the backyard and in the woods with my buddies. It wasn't until I was away in college that I began to buy a few firearms (mostly vintage shotguns), and I also began some "shade tree gunsmithing". I was also exposed to shooting AR-15s and Colt Troopers that my roommate owned. After college I bought my first S&W revolver (brand new 4" Model 57; couldn't find a Dirty Harry Model 29 in 1977!). About 8 years later I was working in the North Sea oilfields offshore Scotland and joined a clay pigeon shooting club, as well as hunted birds in the Highlands. I got back into firearm acquisitions (vintage Winchester rifles and S&W revolvers) a few years after I returned to the States. The rest is history. LOL!

 

[Ματθιας]

I'm GenX. My dad was a Vet and he taught me how to shot before I learned how to ride a bike. I had a pellet gun when I was about 5 or 6 and I was shooting army men in the backyard.

My dad had a modest collection of firearms, but, nothing really exotic mostly store brand western field, sears ect. He had a glenfield 60 that I loved to shoot and a charter arms 38 that he took every time we went out of town. I remember there was a beautiful blued 1911, but I don't remember what happened to it.

The first firearm I got with my own money was an AK, an SA-85M - Hungarian AK under folder. I got that when I was still in high school working a McDonalds. I put it on layaway and got it the day I turned 18.

I later picked up a Colt HBAR. One of my dad's friends from work, an old school USMC shooting team guy taught me how to properly shoot when he found out I was in the DEP. I still have the expert badge he gave me.

After watching Lethal Weapon and Die Hard, I got a Beretta 92 FS the day I turned 21. Well, I had to do the Brady waiting period nonsense - so a week later. Later that year, I picked up a stainless Colt Gold Cup thanks to watching the Getaway remake on cable. At that time I was putting everything on layaway and luckily the gun shop guys would work with me. I was still living at home so it wasn't too bad!

Then, I got into the milsurps as everything was cheap, plentiful and ammo was everywhere! I picked up a Remington 11 trainer with the Cutts and tried my hand at clays. I went down the rabbit hole of shotguns. I do love shotguns!

Now, since the surplus has mostly dried up, I get police trades.

Anymore, very very rarely do I buy anything new and there's nothing that are must haves. I have too much stuff as it is.

 

[KSDrifter]

My dad hated guns. A Dutchman, he survived WWII and even refused armed guards when we moved to Jamaica in the 80's when I was a kid. I was terrified and wanted a gun bad, but ya, no guns in the house.

As a young adult, I lived in Ontario, Canada. I competed in high school with a .22. Then I got my license to own long guns relatively early after leaving dads, but affording ammo and finding places to shoot in Toronto was a challenge.

Kansas was where I was really able to hone my shooting skills. Still live here. Carry every day.