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First time shooting experiences

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  • First time shooting experiences

    I figured I would start a thread where we could share our first-time experiences with firearms. It could be first time ever, first time per weapon type, or just good stories of your first time firing a new weapon if the story is good.

    For me, my first time firing anything was a S&W .40 at a range when I was 20. I had decent grouping, but because the crappy range had poor lighting and the color of the target was not great, I couldn't see where I was hitting as I fired, only afterwards. So for all I know my lower group was achieved while firing at the top of the target :)

    My first long-gun experience, and first shotgun, was a Stoeger Condor o/u 12ga at a range, sitting down at a bench. Unfortunately, my friend decided my very first shot should be a 2.75" slug. My second shot was a 3" slug. By that time, we moved on to target loads but my shoulder was DONE

    I still have yet to fire a rifle. My friend just brought his Merlin .22 down from his dad's house, so we should be firing that soon. His dad also gave him an old, broken 16-gauge from the 1930s manufactured for Montgomery Ward dept. store sale. It needs parts though, which probably cost as much as the gun did back then.

  • #2
    Great Idea for a thread..

    At 8 I started off with a G10 air pistol that belonged to my neighbour, and to say that the broad side of a barn would have been safe from my efforts would be the understatement of the day. I eventually got an SP50 and improved my skills. My first air rifle was salvaged from a rubbish tip and had no sights, nothing that my dads mate who was a welder couldn't repair, in no time at all I was shooting like I meant it.

    Things just went on from there really.....

    Tony
    Yet another ex-tankie of 1 RTR origin.

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    • #3
      Mine was a BSA Airsporter .22 , a great rifle in its day , i shot loads of crows , starlings , rabbits etc etc , then progressed to 7.62 and 105mm ;)

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      • #4
        lol, 105mm...Centurion?

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        • #5
          First was a Diana .177 pellet gun with a hefty spring. Same as tankie - good for crows, rats, squirrels etc.

          Later a Lee Enfield 303 ( bored down to .22 for training). Heavy rifle - could not imagine my old man lugging that all day long in battle (WWII).

          Then - the real McCoy - the same rifle but .303 this time. I remember my dad warning me about the recoil, did not pay attention.

          Recoil left a buise on my cheekbone and shoulder. I learned then!!:))

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          • #6
            Some 8mm Italian pistol at boot camp (that's what the rumor was, anyway). Apparently I shot well enough to get a marksman ribbon.
            USS Toledo, SSN 769

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            • #7
              My first, @ 8yo in '55 was a little 2.5" Winchester .410 single shot my old man gave me. Before even a BB gun. Down on my great uncle's farm in (no kidding) Farmersville, AL. A suburb of Lowndesborough (Lowndesboro?), a town of about 8 1/2 people in Lowndes County. T.O.O. hunting. My great uncle, Gideon Davis, the family ne'er-do-well, was wearing one of his customary thrift store Amoco uniforms, thermal underwear & Navy boondockers. My grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Davis, was wearing his customary 3-piece Navy pinstripe suit & straw fedora with heavy shoes as a concession to hunting. My Father was wearing slacks, an Hawaian shirt & a little straw snapbrim fedora with a colorful band. I was wearing my normal jeans & T-bops but also a web belt, belt axe & 6" blade "original Bowie knife (so said the blade)" & an army helmet liner. Sartorial something-or-other.

              We were approaching a small rise on the little field road we were on when a pair of cottontails hopped in a leisurely fashion out of the sawbriars on the left & hunkered down in the middle of the road @ the top of the rise. My Father punched me in the arm & whispered "Shoot!" I sort of pointed @ both of them & shot. One rolled over & then both took off into the sawbriars on the right. We all went running up to the barbed wire fence the bunnies had gone under, & there, about 20 feet away, was one of them crouched in a little clearing & staring back at me. I reversed the empty gun & tried to throw it butt first @ the critter like a spear, but the gun wouldn't throw. It was caught on something. I turned around to find my old man on his knees holding the barrel near the muzzle & laughing his ass off. I kept trying to get the gun back so I could throw it while he started to roll around on the road. At about that time the rabbit gave up & sort of keeled over sideways. Plop. That sent my old man into further gales of laughter.

              When he finally calmed down we retrieved the bunny & brought it back to the house, where my Aunt Winnie showed me how to clean it & cooked me my first wild game.

              Prof

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              • #8
                10 years old, learned me to shoot and drive the tractor. Here's the gun, a Remington .22 pump.
                Attached Files
                Reddite igitur quae sunt Caesaris Caesari et quae sunt Dei Deo
                (Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's)

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by sappersgt View Post
                  10 years old, learned me to shoot and drive the tractor. Here's the gun, a Remington .22 pump.
                  THAT is perhaps the best pump .22 ever made. I still have my grandmother's rifle (exact same one as in the picture). Only difference is there is engraving on the left side of the receiver.

                  The scans make it hard to read, but it says, "Vern to Agnes 5-22-14". It was my grandfather's wedding present to my grandmother.

                  And WOW, could she shoot it. She was known as the "Annie Oakley of Southwest Wisconsin".
                  Attached Files
                  Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

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                  • #10
                    In college I went to a shooting range with one of my friends. He tried a 12 gauge shotgun for the first time and decided, unwisely, to hold it braced it against his sternum (yes his sternum). The recoil hit him straight in the solar plexus.....

                    It took him a good 10 seconds to get up off the floor. The girl who went with him, wasn't impressed. :))

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                    • #11
                      Didn't feel like getting my camera out of the truck. So I scanned the receiver of the first rifle I ever shot.

                      It was a Stevens Crack Shot. Single shot rolling block using .22 rimfire ammo. It was a take down rifle (note the ringed thumbscrew) but with a side lever for the rolling block. Most Crack Shots used a trigger guard lever. I have only seen 2 of the side levers in museums and are considered somewhat rare.

                      Actually, it was my grandfather's first rifle and he killed a Prairie Wolf with it near his famaly farm in Riceville, Iowa. A Prarie Wolf is actually a Coyote but larger than the Southwestern Coyotes. Though not as large as a Timber Wolf, it was still big enough to be fearful looking.

                      I was about 4 years old when I first fired it. My grandfather set up a round cardboard ice cream cannister top (about pint size) in the garage. I missed the first shot but grazed it with the second.

                      Years later I would use it to shoot mice in the garage with "mustard shot" (sort of like a shotgun but the rifling sure made it spread out a lot).
                      Attached Files
                      Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

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                      • #12
                        P.S. My grandfather's father bought it for him by trading a sack of flower. This would have been in the late 1890s.

                        And obviously, I still have it.
                        Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

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                        • #13
                          Somehow, this thread reminds me of another thread ...

                          http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/spo...er-3-fact.html

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                          • #14
                            At 16 or 17 with 9mm Makarov pistol.Its piece of **** weapon,but it was fun. :)

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by ErrantVenture11 View Post
                              lol, 105mm...Centurion?
                              Heh , i must add that i also had a 20 gauge a 16 , then a 12 , followed by 2 .22 rifles , a semi auto Anschuts and BSA bolt , a Browning 5 shot 12 gauge auto and a Stevens pump 3 shot single Barrell magnum a Falcon air and an Air arms 10 shot bolt action air rifle , bloody good it was .Just remembered a 177 Diana break barrel , and a Walther 177 pistol ;)
                              Last edited by tankie; 06 Dec 09,, 17:22.

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