Your age is what??

[Iggy]

I'm 66. Grew up on a ranch. My Dad was a WWII vet and a dedicated hunter. He died in Jan at 92. I got my first firearm, a Stevens Favorite .22 when I was eight.
Was allowed to hunt bunnies by myself when I was twelve.
He told me not to kill for the fun of it. Much to my Mother's displeasure, we ate a lot of rabbits on Sunday nights.
First handgun was a 9 shot H&R. Paid $10.00 for it.
Rode a horse to school for the 1st 4 years.
Shot a 5 point bull elk when I was 14.
Have lived in a Tipi and driven an 8 horse hitch on the Deadwood Stage coach.

http://home.bresnan.net/~buflerchip/


The older I get, the more I am like my Dad. He use to say, "I've seen a lot of changes in my life, and I fought every dammed one of them."

My Son and Grandson fired their first shots from that old Stevens Favorite.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Turned 60 last September. Grew up in urban/suburban environments, no father due to divorce, first exposure to firearms in Boy Scouts age 13, but always had guns in my blood. Never hunted, strictly a paper puncher.

 

[claybird]

Geez! What a bunch of youngsters. I turned 80 this past January and still shooting some skeet and paper punching with rifle and handguns. I started shooting at age 5 with my gr-fathers little 22 . Got my own
gun,a 20ga.single shot at age 10 and a 22 rifle at age 12. I think my first pistol was an H&R 22 at around age 19.
Due to knee and lung problems I stay out of the boonies. Love to reload and shoot my own ammo.

 

[Joe Kent]

Let's just say that I have celebrated{tho not in the same way} my 21rst birthday 39 more times. Started shooting at about 9 , bought my first S&W Model19 at 20 when I started as a young patrolman with a Mid-western PD while I was in College. I have never stopped loving revolvers since that first one which now holds a place of honor on my gunroom wall. The best part of the last 50 plus years are all the great gunners that I now call friends much like the great members of this very forum.

 

[Muddyboot]

I'm 49, pulled my first trigger in 1968, my dads Mossberg Model 152. I've been crazy about guns from the first shot. Old mossberg.22's, Flintlocks, S&W and Colt revolvers are my passion.

From the OP What changes have you noticed?

I think we can thank the internet for the progress made in the cause of gun rights over the last decade or so. It has allowed us to form into a unified block of like minded people like nothing else in my lifetime. Selling and buying firearms can now done from your own home. Forums like this one let us pass and collect information at light speed. It gives people new to our sport a chance to ask questions and get to know us in a way they can control and feel comfortable. It is not (at least for now) in the control of an unfriendly media. Wonder why guns have become so big in the last 10 years, it's right in front of you.

 

[oldman45]

From the OP What changes have you noticed?

Changes??

So many it is unreal. Less open lands on which one can shoot. More restrictions on buying, owning and possession of guns. The price of guns (I bought a new S&W mod 36 in 1972 for $135). The increase in criminal juvenile shootings (more kids ready to shoot to settle a disagreement). A substantial increase in juveniles carrying guns. The lack of adult supervision and training kids to shoot properly & safely ( I seldom see an adult bringing a youngster to a range). A large decrease in stores selling guns ( I have bought guns from drug stores in the 1950s). The lack of appreciation for a quality gun and the increase in ownership of cheap guns.

There are others too numerous to mention.

 

[GJH77]

Just turned 55, and got my first senior discount at a golf course the other day.
Started hunting early teens with my grandfather and brother. Watched the duck population around here go to almost 0, then start to come back. Got my first handgun a year out of college, a Colt Trooper, while in the National Guard thru a retired LEO, but did not do a lot of shooting with it for years. Due to not having the time to hunt as much the last couple of years, I got the urge to add some more handguns and start going to the ranges around here. Picked up an M&P 9 first, then found this forum and got interested in the metal autos. From there went to a 469, 39-2, and in Feburary found a 4566, all NIB or LNIB and for great prices. Guns shows have become as much fun to look forward to as hunting season trying to find something new and different.

 

[Evil One]

The increase in criminal juvenile shootings (more kids ready to shoot to settle a disagreement). A substantial increase in juveniles carrying guns. The lack of adult supervision and training kids to shoot properly & safely ( I seldom see an adult bringing a youngster to a range).

This is something I rarely mention. I will get to it in a moment.
First... to answer the topic...
Im 38, legal CCW for the past 2 years or so.

I have carried concealed since I was 15, that would be 1986.
I went to a school in georgia with some serious racial issues, and got jumped and beat down by 8 people at once for being the wrong color at the wrong place and time.
There were 3 ambulances called, I walked home.
After that I did the only thing I could think of, I got a gun.
At the age of 15 I bought an old military surplus gun under the table and carried it with me until I moved out of state and out into the country.
At 21 I bought my first legal handgun, and carried it everywhere I could... no permit. At the time my state was not shall issue.
To make a living I worked in some very sketchy areas, I had to provide for my family and was not willing to be an easy target.
NOT to make an excuse, but you carry for long enough with no permit... and you dont even think about them anymore.
I moved to Va, which is an open carry state, and started to OC my weapons. I applied for my CCH permit as soon as I moved there however.
I was tired of not being "legal", even tho I see the argument of the Constitution being every mans License.

I was outside of the law, but still to this day dont consider what I did as "wrong". I did what I could to protect myself and my family.
I know the evil that people can do, I have had to draw my sidearm in defense. I have had to defend myself with a pocket knife and with my hands and feet.
You cant strip criminals of their weapons, only law abiding Citizens... who then become Subjects.

Sorry about the long post, I just have some deep seated feelings for people to be able to put up a defense.


Jim

 

[sigp220.45]

I'm 50. I've been fascinated with guns as long as I can remember. I got my first gun (Ruger 10/22, still have it) when I was 12, my first handgun ( four inch Model 28 - wish I still had it) when I was 15. I've been a LEO of some kind since I was 24.

I have three kids, and all fired their first shot by the age of three (Chipmunk rifle). My two boys love their guns, my daughter a little less so but her prized possession is my Dad's Winchester Model 67.

I'm generally an optimist, and things look pretty good to me. I live in a state where you can drive five miles in almost any direction and be at a place to shoot without restriction. The gun stores are full of guns, and people are buying them like crazy. More people than ever can legally carry concealed, and the AWB has gone away for most of us.

 

[P&R Fan]

Interesting post. I'll be 45 in a couple days and still feel like I'm 16, at least mentally. I had the same thought as Caj (what does THAT say about me?) that we haven't heard much from the ladies here, I hope they'll chime in.
I got my first single-shot .22 rifle when I was 4. Collected shotguns only until I was about 30, then I bought some Glocks and really got into S@W revolvers. Have had a carry permit since I was 20 and take it VERY seriously.
The changes I've seen is to the "tactical" stuff. Paint anything black and it's "tactical". I know tactics are important, but the most important weapon is between your ears.
I've seen too many people with atrocious gun handling. I was taught gun safety from the time I was a toddler, and have likewise taught my kids the proper way to handle firearms. A properly trained kid becomes a responsible adult, the kind a lot of politicians see as a threat to their way of thinking, because we are self reliant, and that is anathema to them.
Sorry, I'll climb down from my sop box now.

 

[badam0112]

I'll be 44 in 4 days. I've noticed that people are much more inclined to try and impose their beliefs on others instead of respecting their right to believe something different. I am sick to death of political correctness.

 

[Dashriprock]

I'm 44.

I began shooting and reloading alongside my father at about age 7. The big changes? Seems like every kid I knew when I was a boy was a shooter. Seems like every kid today, except the ones I see being brought up proper next to dads and grandpas at my gun club, don't have a clue about guns and the American historical imperative of them. Sad.

When I was 7 or 8, my dad took me to see Bob Munden's quickdraw and trickshooting demonstration. At the time, both parents were working under govt contract at Mare Island naval shipyard in Vallejo, California. Munden's show, all performed with wax loads, was presented on a flatbed trailer bed on a closed off street in front of the San Francisco Gun Exchange.

Think that could happen in that city today? Think the SFGE is still there? Talk about change.

 

[Igiveup]

I reached 62 this last fall. First shotgun (gun) was when I was three. My dad, a WWII vet, was an avid duck hunter, so you know how I was raised. I've owned at least one S&W for fifty years, got somewhat serious about them five years ago, and have accumulated more than I can shoot. It's a disease.

 

[Wayne02]

47 here. First exposure was when I was 13 or so and dad says get in the truck we are going up to the mountains to break some clays with the shotgun (model 12).

We get up there and he pulls out two cases of clays and a home made hand thrower, which he hands to me. He takes his boot and scratches a line in the dirt then tells me that is the firing line and I am not to go beyond it unless he has stopped shooting he tells me it is ok to go beyond the line. He tells me to stay to the left and slightly behind him and throw the clay when he says pull.

I had thrown a case and a three quarters of clays and my arm was about to fall off when I finally got the courage to ask if I could shoot the gun before we ran out of clays.

As far as changes go most of them have already been mentioned. I guess the key thing for me is there was just not much drama surrounding guns back then like there seems to be now. Guns were just another tool around the place for dispatching critters, hunting, target practice etc. They were no different then the kitchen knives in the kitchen or the hand tools in grandpas shop.

I had friends who did not have interest in guns just like I may not have interest in whatever sport they were interested in, yet there was no drama, do division because they thought guns were evil etc. Maybe I was just not paying attention but I just don't remember firearms being such a divisive issue back then. Back then firearms were not worshiped, and they were not demeaned, they were just there.

 

[Knightrider03m]

I guess I'm the youngest at the age of 22

 

[straightshooter1]

I'm 62 and looking forward to my third Social Secuity check. I hope to live 60 more months so I can get back all the money I have paid in. Any longer is a bonus since I will be receiving YOUR money (if you're working and paying in).

Got my first BB gun at 6 and started shooting a single shot 22 not long after that. My dad was the best shot I have ever seen with that 22 (it had been his) and he could do some pretty impressive tricks with it.

He despised shotguns and those who hunted with them so, naturally, I did too. Rifles and handguns ONLY!

He's gone now, so I don't feel so bad about being a pretty good Trap shooter and shooting my shotgun about 7 days a week.

Had a 1911A1 in VietNam, a Remington IIRC, and obtained a S&W M&P, too.

Carried a Smith Model 28 6" as a 21 year old police officer and, as a prosecutor, carried either a J-Frame in an ankle holster or, towards the end of my career, a Kahr PM9 the same way.

Bob

 

[winchester1]

48 Next month. Been shooting the best part of 40 years and have been reloading for almost as long. Biggest changes i notice are the polymer guns and the tactical movement. Seems like there are a lot more of us in the over 40 group than the under 40 group.

 

[Texas1941]

I'm sixty. I've been shooting since I was seven.

The world is a different place altogether. Many things today I don't like, but can do little about.

On the plus side, there are more flavors of guns than ever before. If you can't find some smoke pole to your taste today, you are indeed hard to please!

 

[ancient-one]

85 here. Started shooting early. Got my own .22 at 8. Biggest change is no one thought anything about a kid or kids with a rifle or shotgun heading for the outskirts of town. Now a SWAT Team would be dispatched. For the record my daughter, grandson and great grandson all learned to shoot with my little Remington Improved Model 6 and it is still very accurate

 

[kcode]

I will be 60 in July, and I blame Mattel. As a kid I was facinated will all of Mattels toy guns, I had them all. Fanner Fifty, Leve Action Rifle, then the Shooting shell ones, the rolling block rifle, Derringer in the belt buckle, Snub nose .38. Got my first Daisy mdl 36 at 10, still have it today and it still shoots. Both the wife and I are CCDW. The biggest changes are what I am seeing in our current year. I'm just glad that I am not 30 years younger.