Who was responsible for your ongoing interest in Firearms?

Who was responsible for your ongoing interest in Firearms?

  • Your Mother

    Votes: 10 2.3%

  • Your Father

    Votes: 176 40.9%

  • Both your Parents

    Votes: 27 6.3%

  • A Friend

    Votes: 44 10.2%

  • A Government Entity

    Votes: 31 7.2%

  • Other

    Votes: 142 33.0%
  • Total voters
    430
Got to carry my Daisy pump BB gun pheasant hunting when I was 10. Graduated to carrying a Mossberg 16 ga. bolt action with one shell in the chamber when I was 12. At 13 got to carry the Mossberg with one in the chamber and two in the mag. My dad was a great teacher and my best friend. I miss him alot.
 
Neither really. Around my house growing up firearms were just tools. By the time I came along Dad had a Winchester 97 and a Winchester 67. The 97 had belonged to my Grandfather and the 67 to my Great Grandfather. At my uncles farms there was always a shotgun behind a door somewhere and a box of shells on top of the refrigerator.

When I bought my second shotgun, a Pre WW1 British sidelock sxs, dad asked my why in the world I thought I needed a second shotgun. After all, I had a good 20 ga SXS I bought with hay bailing money when I was 13.
 
Mostly Mom, but I don't think it was intentional. ;) According to the Oklahoma National Guard, Dad was "Expert", but he had little interest in guns. Not sure why, as his father, who is still living, hunted and has several guns. I bought several BB guns when I was young, but what I really wanted was the Colt Lightning that was in Mom's closet. It had been her Grandfather's, brought to the Oklahoma Territory from Arkansas in 1901. Dad came home one day with a bolt action Mossberg .410 and gave it to Mom. He said it was for protection, as we lived in the middle of nowhere and he was gone Monday through Friday. As with the Colt, I was shown how it worked, and how to safely handle it, but wasn't allowed to shoot it. Finally I joined Explorer Scouts and got to shoot some real guns! At age 17 Mom went with me to K-Mart, where I paid for a Remington Apache 77 and she filled out the paperwork. A few months later, she gave me a used, but very nice, Remington 870 12 gauge, which was exactly what I asked for. Years later, she gave me the Colt Lightning, and her cousin gave me the Colt SAA and SxS 12 gauge that also came to Oklahoma with my Great Grandfather.
 
I learned to shoot from my Dad who was a WWII vet ( Navy Armed Guard on Merchant Marine ships...they ran the guns ) and my Uncle Sam ( really ) who was in the Army Air Service in WWI. They taught me to respect and love shooting. After my folks died my brothers found a box of letters my parents wrote each other during the war. It was highly censored and was reduced in size. It was called V mail. There was one letter that my Dad wrote from the Great Lakes Naval Training Station where he finally finished part of his training that did not involve shooting and then moved on to more gunnery training. His letter said " It really felt good to have a gun in my hands again ". I come by this honestly. When I read his letters the things he missed most about being away were my mother , his horse, and missing another hunting season. Not sure I got those in the right order.
 
My first gun experience was shooting a crossman bb gun in the backyard with dad and learning how to safely handle a firearm I promptly took it out of the closet without permission and shot out a window on our old station wagon by accident. After a pretty decent whooping I got the hint that Safety was number 1. My parents also owned a pizzeria in a bad part of milwaukee so guns were an everyday thing. My dad carried a S&W 4506 and kept a model 29 under the counter, mom had a PPK in .380 and a .45lc derringer in the deposit bag. Now my grandfather on moms side came to this country from Italy with $20, a rigging knife and a colt 38, which I called the "cowboy" gun when I was 8. The look on my moms face when she walked in and saw me and Gpa playing cops and robbers and her 8yo running around with an unloaded colt was priceless. First handgun I ever shot was dads M-29 knocked me clean on my behind but blew the heck out of the milk jug I was aiming at.
 
DAD...

...owned a Colt 1903 which he kept strapped to the steering column of his Buick back in the 1930's when he traveled out in the Wild West. He told two stories that I remember. He and a buddy were camping out in No. CA. Dad woke up and looked over at his pal who was in a sleeping bag. Coiled next to his head was a rattlesnake. Dad said it was a cool morning, so the snake wasn't so lively. Dad slowly got out of his bag, and stalked over to his pal...carefully aimed his Colt and shot the snake. Needless to say, his buddy bolted out of the bag, thinking Dad was trying to kill him. The dead rattler told the real story.
Another time, in Nevada, Dad drove over a hill in the middle of nowhere and saw two cars below blocking the roadway. With highway robbery still a big thing, he drew his Colt, accelerated off the road into the sand, fired two shots into the air and drove around the cars and onto the roadway again. He was convinced they were indeed highwaymen.

In the '60's, Dad gave me the Colt, bought me a Mossberg 185K and later a Remington 11-48. My sister now has the Colt and my nephew the 11-48. I've gotten my son-in-law, brother-in-law and wife into gun ownership and shooting.
 
Television was the first influence. Watching all the TV westerns and cop shows in the late 50s and early 60s. Dad wasn't a hunter, but in 1960 he joined NRA to get a 1903A3. He worked at Red River Arsenal, and was able to pick the one he wanted. He trained with one in WWII, and had a lot of respect for the old Springfield. Mom didn't like guns, since a friend of theirs accidently killed himself. I finally got a Daisy BB gun when I was 11. Then a single shot H&R 20ga. when I was 13. Then, when I was 21, I worked with a fella, who was really into guns. He taught me about pistols and the politics of firearms. It was his influence that made me join NRA, and subscribe to G&A, and Shooting Times. He moved away, after little more than a year later. Mack (Butch) Standridge, if you're out there somewhere, thanks. I sure would like to hear from you.
 
It were my brothers who introduced me to guns.
They were quite keen on 10 meter shooting with targetrifles in the nineteen-sixties at the local club. They took me along and let me shoot at an age of 7-8. That was not really allowed here, but it gave me the bug! The local club had to stop because the permit for the range was not prolonged, sad to tell you, so I could not shoot there when I was at the legal age (16)....
Later on, my brother-in-law took up hunting and when I went to the range with him, I got introduced to black-powder shooting. From then on, I spend lots of time at the range!

My father never was into guns, shooting-wise, but he loved to take part in hunting as a 'driver'. Excuse me please, that I don't know the right term in English; ie he walked the fields with a stick to disturb the animals for the hunters.
My grandfather from mother's side was a farmer and had a Belgian 9MM Flobert "rifle".
He had shotshells and those little 'acorns'.
One of the shotshells ruined an antique 'cabinet'door (a fancy walnut cupboard) when my grandfather wanted to release the hammer and it slipped, in the late nineteen-thirties.
According to my mother all pigeons he shot at with that gun stayed put where they were and only frowned a bit ;)
 
Again I want to thank everyone for their input. Have a Great Day :)

Anton Dee said:
My father never was into guns, shooting-wise, but he loved to take part in hunting as a 'driver'. Excuse me please, that I don't know the right term in English; ie he walked the fields with a stick to disturb the animals for the hunters.
My grandfather from mother's side was a farmer and had a Belgian 9MM Flobert "rifle".
Click to expand...

When I about 7yrs old we used the term "driver" when we hunted in large groups. The "drivers" lined up and spread out then all walked in the same direction pushing the deer to "standers" positioned all around in strategic areas where deer were known to try to escape. They would yell out things to put up deer like "YOOOOOO BUCK!" or WHHOOOOOP!".

Anton Dee said:
According to my mother all pigeons he shot at with that gun stayed put where they were and only frowned a bit
Click to expand...

This is just funny. :)
 
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We hunted...simple as that. Didn't use spears, bow and arrows, sling propelled rock, or anything like that. We used firearms.

Father liked to hunt, father liked to reload. We had hunting magazines and gun rags around. Maintained a fair sized library of shooting/hunting literature.

A farmer/rancher....guns were and are a fact of life. I've seen my dad turn the truck around in the middle of the road if we left the house to go to another farm, and had forgotten to bring a rifle!

When your 14/15 years old, works done, and pops asks you if you want to go up to Kansas to hunt pheasant, what do you say?

You say "Hell yea" that's what you say!
 
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People of baby boomer age grew up watching cowboy shows, Army shows, Davy Crockett, everyone had guns. We then graduated to BB guns because all our friends had them. From BB guns, we went to 22 rifles. All our relatives had rifles and shotguns, and they kept them loaded, sitting by the door. Ah, the good ole days.
 
My parents had nothing to do with it.My mom made my dad get rid of the type 99 Arisaka he had:( . She was afraid to have it in the house with me around. They did let me get a BB gun at abought 15 years old the first real gun I got at 18 was a .12 ga.Remington 870 next was a Marlin Glenfield model 60 .22lr .My first hand gun was a Browning H.P.that I had a friend buy for me and had to wait 2 more years for him to transfer it to me. My parents never could understand my need to have so many guns.:eek:I grew up with a sand pit in my back yard it was a perfect place to shoot.:D
 
My dad, a Korean war vet, never wanted me around firearms at all. Imagine the shock on his face when I came home from boot camp with my marksman ribbon, and proceeded to do the same later overseas with pistols!
 
My father grew up on a farm/ranch in Northern Alabama and was a Combat Veteran of WWII in Europe and the Pacific.
He didn't start teaching me to hunt and shoot until I was four years old. We hunted and shot together until he was in his early 70s.

Some of my best memories are of my father teaching me about guns and hunting.

Rule 303
 
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